- [Matthew] 1152. Outside Paris.
Newly divorced from her ex-husband Louis VII king of France,
Eleanor is going back home to Aquitaine.
Though she has to be cautious because, as it turns out,
as duchess of her Homeland, she's a prime target
for a very specific type of kidnapping.
It is not unknown for nobles to kidnap heiresses
and forcibly marry them to gain their land,
knowing that the church almost never grants a divorce
once a marriage is joined.
In fact, this was such a concern
that the last time she was single, Louis's father
had sent 500 armed men to escort her to her wedding.
And now she's heard
that there are two nobles already lying in wait
to ambush her on the road.
But Eleanor will slip the net, arrive safely home,
and dispatch a messenger to a man she's only met once.
That man is Henry, Duke of Normandy
and the letter asks him to come marry her immediately.
(bright cheerful music)
Thanks so much to Factor for keeping us fed
on a busy schedule.
Last episode, we discussed how king Louis VII
and Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine
successfully annulled their marriage
on the grounds of consanguinity.
But it does bear asking why,
like why would Louis let Eleanor go?
I mean, she owned much more territory
than his piddly holdings around Paris.
Well, from Louis's perspective, he needed a son.
Unlike in Aquitaine,
women in Northern France could not inherit.
And Eleanor, now around 30 and only having produced
two daughters in 15 years of marriage,
didn't seem to be able to bear more children.
So he let Eleanor go.
And his court said about finding Louis a new wife
while also crafting vicious rumors
that pinned the marriage's failures on her.
And sure, while Aquitaine remained Eleanor's for now,
when she died, it would go to their eldest daughter, Marie.
Unless of course, Eleanor remarried and produced a male air.
But come on, I mean, who would dare displease their overlord
by marrying an ex-queen of France?
Am I right?
Oh, Hey there, Henry.
Didn't see you right away.
Also at the end of the last episode, we did cheat a bit
by saying Henry was the heir to the English throne,
but that was advancing the timeline a little bit,
because you see, England was going
through a civil war at the time known as the anarchy,
a term which pretty much sums things up.
But to put it very, very simply,
Henry's grandfather had been the king of England,
but when he tried to designate his daughter Matilda,
Henry's mother, his heir, a succession crisis broke out
and a noble named Stephen seized the throne.
So while Henry did have claim to the throne,
he wasn't exactly next in line.
Heck, he and Stephen weren't even on good terms.
They were fighting a low intensity war.
However, Henry was on good terms with Louis
who Henry had finally declared fealty to
in exchange for formal recognition as Duke of Normandy.
But as you can imagine,
that relationship turned pretty frosty
once Henry slipped off to Aquitaine
to marry Eleanor in a hasty ceremony
less than eight weeks after the divorce.
Yeah, those two worked fast.
So fast in fact, there's been speculation
that they set this whole marriage plan up in advance.
Adding insult to injury, Henry and Eleanor
were actually more closely related
than she and Louis had been,
and four months later Eleanor was pregnant.
Yep. That's right.
Two girls in a decade and a half of marriage with Louis,
but Eleanor gets pregnant almost instantly
after marrying Henry.
Now that might have been for a couple of reasons.
First off, Henry was 19, a decade younger than Eleanor,
and well, let's put it this way,
both of Louis's daughters with Eleanor
were born after a Bishop and a Pope blessed the wedding bed
and encouraged them to have kids,
but Henry didn't really need any godly encouragement.
In fact, their marriage appears to have been
a genuine love match and extremely passionate.
Henry was considered handsome with red gold hair
and an athletic frame
and he loved to hunt, to read books,
and of course, to beat the living snot
out of his enemies on the battlefield.
And Henry kept tracking up the wins.
The same day, Eleanor gave birth to their son William,
securing Aquitaine for their family, king Stephen's son,
the heir apparent to the English throne died suddenly,
supposedly struck down by God while sacking a church.
Clearing the way for Henry to invade England, battle Stephen
and force the king to sign a treaty
confirming Henry as the legitimate heir
to the English throne.
11 months later, Stephen died, and Henry and Eleanor
were crowned king and queen of England.
And just to hammer home how nuts this timeline is,
Eleanor had gone from a royal divorce in France
to the throne of England in two and a half years.
And in doing so, they joined Aquitaine, Normandy,
and England founding a continuous territory
stretching from the Scottish border in the north
to the Spanish border in the south.
It's what would become known as the Angevin Empire,
covering all of England and half of France.
Eleanor had reshaped European politics, founded an empire,
and she did it while pregnant most of the time.
In fact, she was already pregnant with another son
when she was crowned.
Those two sons would be the first of eight children
born within 14 years, five sons and three daughters,
seven of which lived to adulthood.
In other words, between age 30 and age 44,
Eleanor was pretty much either constantly pregnant
or in recovery.
Meanwhile, she was also serving as Regent,
while Henry was off trying to repair the damage
wrought by the civil war.
Now, exactly how much power Eleanor wielded
during this time is a matter of debate among historians.
Some think she was quite influential as Regent of England
and was governing Aquitaine directly,
while others suggests that Henry's counselors boxed her in
and she mostly served as a rubber stamp
even in her own territory.
But either way, it's interesting that Eleanor was on and off
governing the kingdom
during one of its most turbulent periods
as Henry crushed rebellions, reformed the English state,
campaigned in Ireland, feud with Louis
and had a tragic standoff with his friend, Thomas Beckett,
Archbishop of Canterbury,
whose murder he accidentally ordered
when two knights overheard him ranting about the man.
On all of these consequential issues
Eleanor's voice and opinions are missing.
Though we do get brief glimpses
of her and Henry's personal life,
because not all was well in this union.
First of all, some sources claim Eleanor clashed
with Henry's power broker mother, Empress Matilda,
and second, well, unlike the dull but faithful Louis,
Henry was extremely active as a lover
including with other women, which he didn't hide.
Again, sources and interpretations disagree.
Some historians claim that she reacted
with a detached worldliness
and point out that she attended court events
with Henry's mistresses.
Others point to stories of epic screaming matches,
which would not be out of character for Henry,
who was known for extreme rages.
Tantrums he may have exaggerated
for the purpose of political intimidation.
Actually, in one famous episode, he became so furious
he threw himself on the floor
and started chewing the carpet.
Then in 1168, for reasons unknown,
Eleanor left Henry's court
and transferred to Poitiers in Aquitaine
where she ran her duchy and set up an independent court.
While some sources claim she was an innovator
in the arts of courtly love,
particularly her famous courts of love,
that ruled like a legal court
on cases concerning matters of romance.
That's likely a myth.
However, her court was well known
for its patronage of art and poetry
and may have inspired the broad strokes of later tales.
We do know however that Eleanor was also spending
a lot of time in Aquitaine with her favorite son, Richard,
because, you see, Henry had a really bad habit.
No, not the philandering or the anger issues
or the semi accidentally murdering
the Archbishop of Canterbury.
No, what I'm talking about is how controlling Henry was.
He would never give up even the littlest bit of power.
While Henry elevated his eldest living son also named Henry
to a position of co-monarch,
the young king had no real power.
And this wasn't even a Royal apprenticeship, mind you.
He just watched as his father did everything.
The same was true with Richard,
who he made duke of Aquitaine, and Jeffrey who got Brittany.
His youngest son John basically got nothing
and had to live for years
under the humiliating nickname, John Lackland.
But even if they had lands,
their father still ran those estates as if they were his
and kept them on a tight financial leash.
Also to Eleanor's likely dismay, he consistently meddled
in the affairs of Aquitaine.
And in 1173, he finally pushed it too far.
Hoping to give John something,
the elder Henry took three castles
from young Henry's territory
and gave them to his youngest brother.
The headstrong young Henry, only 18 years old,
finally reached a breaking point.
He fled to Paris and raised a rebellion,
sheltering in the court of Eleanor's ex, Louis.
And there he gathered allies,
including brothers Richard, then 16,
and Jeffrey, then 15, supposedly encouraged by their mother.
And when Henry called for Eleanor to send him troops,
she did not.
Her teenage sons were at war with her husband
and Eleanor had chosen sides.
Whereas the only sides I'm comfortable with choosing
are what goes with my dinner!
Hey yeah! Thank you.
Thank you. I'll be here all week.
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(tense music)