Posts Tagged ‘eleanor of aquitaine’

It is a truth universally acknowledged that an heiress in possession of enormous tracts of land must be in want of a husband. Or at least that was the universal truth during the high middle ages—to the point where such an heiress risked being abducted and forced to marry her captor so he could gain control of her property.

At the age of fifteen, Eleanor of Aquitaine became just such an heiress when her father died suddenly, leaving her in possession of a territory nearly 1/3 the size of modern France. But like his daughter, William X Duke of Aquitaine was  intelligent and left a provision in his will to ensure Eleanor wouldn’t fall prey to the first kidnapper who came along.

Read the rest of this entry »