ACEO, 2.5 x 3.5 inches, watercolor and gouache, November 2007 Eleanor was born in 1122. She had an excellent education in one of the most cultured courts in Europe (Aquitaine was a region of France). Aged 15 she was married to Louis VII and became the Queen of France as well as Duchess of Aquitaine. She and her husband led the first crusade though it ended in disaster, for which she was blamed. She and Louis had their marriage anulled in 1152 (they had had two daughters). Six weeks later she married Henry of Anjou (Henry II of England), a man 11 years her junior and with whose father she had had an affair. She bore him eight children over the next thirteen years, including Richard the Lionheart and King John. Her mariage to Henry was tumultuous and he even had her imprisoned for 15 years as she was allegedly encouraging her sons to rise up against their father. Richard succeeded as ruler of England on his fathers death in 1189 and he released Eleanor and made her Regent of England while he went on the Third Crusade. She eventually outlived all her children but two, John and Leonora and died in 1204.