Eleanor of Aquitaine was one of the most vivid and remarkable figures in 12th-century Europe. As a patron of the arts, as a politician and as a mother, her influence was pervasive for more than six decades. Her forcefulness, ability, beauty and charm were such that once she had turned against her second husband, Henry II, he felt compelled to imprison her for 16 years to prevent her from tearing his dominions apart.

Born in 1122, Eleanor was the eldest child and heiress of William X, duke of Aquitaine. In 1137 she was married to the young Louis VII of France, over whom she soon exercised a profound personal and political influence. The union was barren for some years until, in 1144, Eleanor met St Bernard of Clairvaux. He regarded her as an evil influence upon the king, and promised that she would conceive only if she strove for peace. Her first child, a daughter, was born in 1145, and was named Mary, after the queen of heaven and the patron saint of Fontevrault Abbey, for which Eleanor had a particular affection. In 1147 she and Louis went on Crusade, but were almost estranged as a result of her flirtation (and perhaps worse) with her uncle, Raymond of Antioch.

After Eleanor and Louis had been reconciled by the pope in the course of their return to France, she bore a second daughter, Alice. Shortly afterwards she met Henry of Anjou, 11 years her junior, and seems immediately to have her sights on him. When she and Louis were

divorced in 1152, she returned to Poitiers and immediately sent messengers to Henry to announce that she wished to marry him. He, desiring her duchy quite as much as her person, hastened to her. To the fury of Louis VII the nuptials took place and in 1153 Henry declared himself duke of Aquitaine. In the same year Eleanor bore him a son, William, who did not survive. Henry (the young king) followed in 1156. Subsequently Eleanor produced three more sons and three daughters.

Her influence on the artistic, literary and cultural life of the 12th century was as great as her impact on its politics. Brought up in her father's court in the sophisticated ways of the Languedoc, she felt an exile among the uncouth Parisians, and surrounded herself with troubadours and ladies from the south. Her marriage to Henry allowed her to found her own literary court which, as she travelled around Henry's dominions, became a melting-pot for various cultural traditions. Under her patronage the ideals and codes of courtly love began to emerge. Her son, Richard the Lionheart, inherited her love of music, and another daughter, Eleanor, took with her to Castile the distinctive Angevin style of building.

Eleanor's legacy to the 13th century was an important one. In her old age she chose the best of her Castillian grand-daughters, Blanche, to be the bride of Louis VIII of France. Blanche shared many of her grandmother's characteristics. As queen of France she was a major patron of art and building, and an effective politician.