Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life (Ballantine Readers Circle)
by By Weir, Alison
Category: History , Europe , Great Britain , General

In this beautifully written biography, Alison Weir paints a vibrant portrait of a truly exceptional woman and provides new insights into her intimate world. Renowned in her time for being the most beautiful woman in Europe, the wife of two  kings and mother of three, Eleanor of Aquitaine was one of the great heroines of  the Middle Ages. At a time when women were regarded as little more than chattel,  Eleanor managed to defy convention as she exercised power in the political sphere  and crucial influence over her husbands and sons. Eleanor of Aquitaine lived a long life of many  contrasts, of splendor and desolation, power and peril, and in this stunning narrative,  Weir captures the woman—and the queen—in all her glory. With astonishing historic  detail, mesmerizing pageantry, and irresistible accounts of royal scandal and intrigue,  she recreates not only a remarkable personality but a magnificent past era.