Eleanor of Aquitaine & Louis VII
Eleanor of Aquitaine Gallery
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Eleanor of Aquitaine's first husband was Louis VII, already crowned king of France in 1131. They were married in July, 1137 and after Louis VI died the next month, Louis VII and Eleanor were crowned joint rulers of France. Until 1152 Eleanor of Aquitaine was Queen of France while Louis was also Duke of Aquitaine.
The marriage between Eleanor of Aquitaine and Louis of France ultimately ended (in part) because Eleanor only bore Louis two daughters. The importance of royal women at this time was in their ability to produce heirs and thus continue dynastic lines. The seriousness of her failure to do this is demonstrated by the fact that Louis considered losing the large and wealthy lands she controlled to be worth the chance of marrying another woman who would bring him sons.
A more commonly cited reason for the divorce has to do with Eleanor's involvement with the Second Crusade. Eleanor and a large contingent of court ladies insisted upon joining the failed expedition, ostensibly in order to minister to the wounded, but they and their baggage train were an incredible drain on the Crusade's already shaky resources.
Eleanor of Aquitaine also apparently refused to follow Louis' wishes. Whereas he wanted to recapture Jerusalem, Eleanor sided with her uncle Raymond of Toulouse in his desire to recapture Edessa. Louis had Eleanor dragged before him and imprisoned for this and such disagreements broke the morale of the Crusaders. Ultimately many would blame Eleanor for the failure of the Crusade and even accuse her of having at least one affair along the way.
In 1152 Louis was able to get the marriage dissolved on account of the fact that they were third cousins. Technically such a marriage was contrary to ecclesiastical, so they shouldn't have gotten married in the first place. This, however, only mattered once the marriage became inconvenient. When the marriage had been convenient the issue was ignored - as demonstrated by the fact that Pope Eugenius III personally confirmed the validity of the marriage in 1149.
The above maps of lands under Henry II includes the lands on continental Europe which he acquired through his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine. You can see that they make up a substantial portion of what is today France and were, at the time, quite substantial in comparison to France of the time.
