A Female Network of Power in the Middle Ages

The lives of the sons of Eleanor of Aquitaine are the stuff of legend. Her daughters, however, are less well known, and the fascinating personalities of her daughters-in-law have been almost entirely overlooked, as have those of the daughters she bore Louis VII of France. The Families of Eleanor of Aquitaine redresses this balance and showcases the lives, travels and careers of these ten very different women, who formed a great international network of political alliances that linked their parents, their siblings, their husbands and their children all across Europe and the Holy Land.

Some of these women found happiness; others endured lives of turmoil and conflict. Some of them were close; others never met. But two things linked them all: their connection to Eleanor and to the kingdoms over which she reigned; and their determination to exert authority on their own terms in a male-dominated world.