Duchess of Aquitaine: A Novel of Eleanor - Hardcover

Margaret Ball

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312205333 ISBN 13: 9780312205331

Publisher: St. Martin's Press, 2006

Synopsis

 "Love is for peasants," Eleanor said. "We make alliances. And I intend to make a very good one."
 
Beautiful and brilliant, Eleanor is the daughter of the duke of Aquitaine, whose glittering court is the twelfth-century birthplace of courtly love. For all of the duke's boasts that Eleanor has the brains of a man and the soul of a warrior, everyone knows that a girl of fifteen cannot possibly hold the richest dukedom in France. Everyone, that is, except for her dying father, who insists on leaving Eleanor his most valuable provinces--and making her prey to the first baron who rides in to kidnap her.
            In order to safeguard her lands and her life, Eleanor devises a scheme to marry the heir to the throne of France. But she must learn to be careful what she wishes for. Eleanor's alliance to Louis VII may be a dazzling one, but her husband is a cautious man, originally intended for the priesthood, whose wit and courage do not  always match Eleanor's own; and she ultimately finds herself seeking an even greater match with Henry II of England.
            Sweeping from the courts of Paris to the perils of the Crusades, Duchess of Aquitaine gloriously illuminates the life of one of the most powerful, resourceful, and fascinating women in all of history.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

A slim young girl with leaves in her tangled hair came boldly into the room without asking permission.
            "No, no."  The girl waved away Archbishop Geoffrey's proffered list of names as if they were a tray of honey cakes. "I have had an excellent idea, my lord archbishop."
            "If it's about the May Day pageant," said Geoffrey du Lauroux, "I fear it would not be wise for you to go out into the town at this time, my dear--"
            "No."  Somehow the girl stood a few inches taller, and the reverend archbishop stopped in mid-sentence. Instead of being turned politely around and told to go finish her needlework, she was commanding them all.
            "No man in my realm is strong enough to hold Aquitaine without the agreement of my other vassals," Eleanor pronounced. "And if I marry outside Aquitaine--if we ally with Normandy or Toulouse, or even Geoffrey of Anjou--Louis of France will perceive the joining of our lands as a threat and may make war on us....
            "Then," said Eleanor with a dazzling smile that suggested, somehow, how dull must be anybody who failed to appreciate her conclusion, "there is but one marriage possible, is there not? The king of France has a son...."
---from Duchess of Aquitaine

About the Author:

Margaret Ball, whose previous works include bestselling novels written with Anne McCaffrey, as well as Embeadery, a guide to using classic embroidery stitches in beadwork, lives in Austin, Texas.

About this edition

• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0312205333
• ISBN 13: 9780312205331
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 384
• Illustrator: Kinuko Y. Craft