Episode 6: The Terrible Women of the South!
The young couple we met in the last episode, the Aquitanian heiress Alienor, newly married to Prince Louis Capet, both elevated to the French throne upon Louis’ father’s death, would be husband and wife for fifteen years. They would have two daughters and no sons. Given the fixation of powerful men, especially Frankish kings, on having a male heir, very few wives unable to produce little boys were likely to last. Alienor undoubtedly remained Queen of France as long as she did because the marriage contracts had provided that unless she had a son to sit on the French throne, the crown would not gain full possession of The Aquitaine and, very possibly, because her husband truly did love her beauty, her wit, her exotic ways so enticingly different from the austere habits of the chilly north.
