Book description
It is the year 1152, and a beautiful woman rides through France,
fleeing her crown, her two young daughters and a shattered marriage.
Her husband, Louis of France has been more monk than monarch,
and certainly not a lover. Now Eleanor of Aquitaine has one sole
purpose: to return to her duchy and marry the man she loves, Henry
Plantagenet, destined for greatness as King of England. It will be a
union founded on lust, renowned as one of the most vicious marriages
in history, and it will go on to forge a great empire and a devilish
brood.
This is a story of the making of nations, and of passionate
conflicts: between Henry II and Thomas Becket; between Eleanor and
Henry's formidable mother Matilda; between father and sons, as Henry's
children take up arms against him - and finally between Henry and
Eleanor herself.
Alison Weir lives and works in Surrey. Her books include
Britain's
Royal Families;
The Six Wives of Henry VIII;
Children of England;
Eleanor of Aquitaine;
Henry VIII: King and Court;
Mary, Queen of Scots and the Murder of Lord Darnley;
Isabella: She-Wolf of France,
Queen of England;
Katherine Swynford: The Story of John of Gaunt and His Scandalous
Duchess;
and the novels,
Innocent Traitor
and
The Lady Elizabeth.
