|
Eleanor and Henry must have met when he came to the French court in the summer of 1151, though the chroniclers are tantalisingly silent on the subject. He was nine years younger than Eleanor, a fiery and charismatic young man with boundless energy as a soldier and a leader and just seven months later, the difficulties in Eleanor's marriage erupted into the open once again. This time it was Louis who had given up the fight to keep his wife by his side. In March 1152 a committee of French bishops annulled their marriage and Eleanor left Paris immediately for Poitiers. Just eight weeks and two days after her divorce she married Henry. In doing so she changed the balance of power in Europe. Eleanor had inherited the vast Duchy of Aquitaine from her father and by adding this to Henry's lands in England, Normandy and Anjou, she helped him build an empire that stretched from the Pyrenees to the Scottish borders. |
