num_pages: 383
description: One of history's most fascinating and tempestuous women comes alive in this new triumph by a consummate historical storyteller.Told in first person by Eleanor of Aquitaine, The Courts of Love is the story of a woman exceptional in any time but who, in the twelfth century, truly stood apart. She was a bold adventurer who, while still a girl, traveled to the Holy Land on the Second Crusade. Duchess of Aquitaine in her own right, she married first the king of France and then, on his death, became the queen of Henry of England. The sons she bore him would include two kings—the mighty Richard the Lion-hearted and John, whose wickedness and neglect of his kingdom would inspire the Magna Carta.Willful and brave, Eleanor of Aquitaine clashed with the equally fiery temperament of her husband, Henry II, in a war which never ended, but which generated a family battle that would deeply affect the English throne. The Courts of Love is a powerful story of that war, of dazzling ambition, betrayal, adulterous passion, heartbreak, violence, and love, at the center of which moved one of the most intriguing women ever to be queen—the incandescent and notorious Eleanor.In this, the fifth volume of a remarkable series, Jean Plaidy has brought to life one of the most epic stories in the history not only of England, but of women in power.
language: English
title: The Courts of Love
titlecomplete: The Courts of Love (Queens of England, #5)
characters: Henry II of England, Louis VII of France, Thomas Becket, Richard I of England, Eleanor of Aquitaine
genres: Fiction, Historical, France, 12th Century, British Literature, Romance, Medieval, Adult Fiction, Historical Fiction, Plantagenet
ratings_count: 1889
places: Aquitaine
series: Queens of England
publisher: Putnam Adult