Louis VII
Louis VII le Jeune
King of France · Duke of Aquitaine (1137–1152)
1120 – 1180
Biography
His marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine, contracted in his father's lifetime, made him the wealthiest king in Europe; his annulment of that marriage in 1152, after she failed to bear a son, was perhaps the costliest political mistake in medieval French history. Eleanor promptly married the future Henry II of England, transferring her vast duchy and inaugurating the Anglo-French rivalry that would last three centuries. His one consolation was the late birth of a son by his third wife — the future Philip Augustus.
Events
Two months after Eleanor's annulment from Louis VII of France, she married Henry, Duke of Normandy and Count of Anjou, in Poitiers on 18 May 1152. The match brought her vast duchy under Henry's control and, when he became king of England two years later, created the Angevin Empire — a French king's vassal who now controlled more of France than the king himself.
Also there: Henry II, Eleanor of Aquitaine
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