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Eleanor of Aquitaine
Effigy of Eleanor of Aquitaine, Fontevraud Abbey, France.
Eleanor of Aquitaine (l. c. 1122-1204) was one of the most powerful political figures – male or female – in the Middle Ages as a whole. She was the wife of Louis VII of France (r. 1137-1180) from 1137 until the marriage's annulment in 1152 when she married Henry II of England (r. 1154-1189). Eleanor took part in the Second Crusade along with her ladies-in-waiting, managed her own estates and finances, and was an important patron of the arts, especially of romantic literature.