Eleanor of Aquitaine

Eleanor of Aquitaine was one of the most powerful women of the Dark Ages. She was married to one the best kings of the Dark Ages, Henry II. Growing up, she was well educated and was raised in one of Europe’s most cultured courts. She gained a vast inheritance when her only brother and father died. Being the eldest of the siblings, at fifteen-years-old, Eleanor had become the most eligible heiress in Europe.
To help grasp how powerful Eleanor was, the characteristics of a powerful entity need to be defined. Some say fear and money can make a person powerful, which is true in some cases, such as Hitler during the Holocaust. He made people fear the Nazi party, which accelerated them to power. Throughout the Dark Ages, there are countless examples of how people gained power through money. The Church used the ideas of Heaven and Hell to get people to “buy” their way into Heaven or out of Hell. However, there is much more than money and fear that made Eleanor of Aquitaine so powerful.
For a person to be able to persuade and coax a majority of the proletariat popularity, that person will have a vast amount of power. To have the ability to make hundreds, to thousands, to millions of people believe that a single person/entity has power of any kind is power in itself. Persuading a large group takes belief in oneself, knowledge of the people, and empathy. A person needs to believe that they are powerful; otherwise, if they could not convince themselves of their own power, it would be impossible to convince others. To have power over such a large group of the population, it is important to understand and know that group; to know its weaknesses and strengths.
Another important role of power is having connections. A person mus...

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...he revolt failed. Eleanor was then captured in France and brought back to England.
Henry died and Richard took his place as King of England. One of the first things he did as king was remove his mother from exile. However, even during exile, Eleanor continued to be active in politics. Richard then decided to participate in the Crusades and left his mother in charge of ruling England. During his journey in the Crusades, Richard was captured and held for ransom. Eleanor raised the money for his ransom through taxation.
Richard died which raised a question: who should be the next king, John or Eleanor’s grandson, Arthur of Brittany. This was another chance for Eleanor to show how powerful she was. She wanted her son, John to become King and so she defeated Arthur. Soon after, Eleanor decided to retire to Fontevrault Abbey and died at the age of eighty-two.