9. The break-up of King Louis VII of France and Eleanor of Aquitaine changed English history forever
It’s one of the great ‘what if?’ moments in English history: What if King Louis VII of France not broken up with his first wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine? After all, it very nearly didn’t happen. The French King was married to his older wife for 15 years. She had attempted to get the union annulled but Pope Eugene II rejected her request. Only when she gave birth to a second daughter in 1152 did Louis agree to an annulment, annoyed that she had yet to produce a male heir. Though she was a divorced mother-of-two, Eleanor was still one of Europe’s most beautiful – and richest – women.
Before long, she had caught the eye of the Duke of Normandy, the future King Henry II of England. The pair wed in May 1152 and she had 8 children over the next 13 years. One of those children grew up to be Richard the Lionheart, who would assume the throne upon his father’s death. What’s more, her youngest son, John, would later be crowned King John of England and it was he who signed the Magna Carta, the document that restricted the powers of the monarch and guaranteed the rights of the people.