Dan Snow's History Hit Eleanor of Aquitaine
Apr 13, 2026
Dr Elena Janega, medieval historian and host of Gone Medieval, offers sharp analysis of Eleanor of Aquitaine. She traces Eleanor’s rise as Aquitaine’s heiress and her fraught marriages to Louis VII and Henry II. The conversation covers the Second Crusade, the creation and maintenance of the Angevin realm, family rivalries, imprisonment and ransom, and Eleanor’s late-life political maneuvers.
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Why Aquitaine Made Eleanor Europe's Prize
- Eleanor of Aquitaine inherited vast, distinct lands in southwestern France that made her politically valuable.
- Aquitaine's culture, wealth and semi-independence meant the French king sought marriage to bind those territories to the crown.
Eleanor Led Troops On The Second Crusade
- Eleanor led her own Aquitanian contingent on the Second Crusade and impressed contemporaries at Constantinople.
- Chroniclers later scapegoated her for the crusade's failure with jibes about luggage and women slowing the army.
Marriage Created The Angevin Empire
- After divorcing Louis VII, Eleanor married the young Henry of England and brought Aquitaine with her into the Anglo-Norman sphere.
- That marriage created the Angevin Empire, a patchwork of lands wider than the French king's holdings.