BRAINS AND BEAUTY There are very few descriptions of the famously attractive Eleanor. Here she This shown in a 14th-century German painting
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THE WOMAN WHO COMMANDED MEDIEVAL EUROPE
When her father died in 1137, Eleanor of Aquitaine, still just a teenager, became the most eligible heiress in all of Europe. She was not only beautiful, smart and tenacious, but the 15-year-old had inherited expansive territories in the south of France and a great fortune, making her the ideal choice of wife for the powerful or ambitious young men of the continent.