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Historical person
1120–1180
Louis VII ruled France from 1137 to 1180 and was the first husband of Eleanor of Aquitaine. He participated in the unsuccessful Second Crusade, during which tensions in the marriage became public.
Their union was annulled in 1152 for consanguinity after producing two daughters, and Eleanor soon married Henry of Anjou. Louis spent much of his later reign containing the far larger Angevin territories while gradually strengthening the Capetian monarchy around Paris.
In Christopher Nicole’s Eleanor of Aquitaine, Eleanor, the beautiful thirteen-year-old heiress to the Duchy of Aquitaine is informed that negotiations are in progress for her marriage to the Dauphin, Louis of France. In Sharon Kay Penman’s Devil’s Brood, Henry the Young King, Richard and Geoffrey seek aid from Louis VII of France and other enemies of the Angevin realm, turning a family dispute into international war. Further fictional perspectives on Louis VII of France can be found in David Field’s The Lion of Anjou, Anne O’Brien’s Devil’s Consort, and Elizabeth Chadwick’s The Summer Queen.
Series
The five Angevin novels trace the Plantagenet dynasty from the succession crisis after Henry I through Henry II and Eleanor’s turbulent marriage, their sons’ rebellions, Richard I’s crusade, captivity and final campaigns. The sequence combines royal family drama with the Anarchy, Angevin state-building, church–crown conflict and the Third…
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The Medieval Saga follows interlinked fictional families through two centuries of English dynastic conflict, beginning with the invasions of 1066 and ending with Simon de Montfort’s challenge to Henry III. The sequence places ordinary soldiers, household officers and landed families beside the rulers whose wars repeatedly reshape their…
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Elizabeth Chadwick’s Eleanor of Aquitaine trilogy follows one of medieval Europe’s most formidable rulers from her inheritance of Aquitaine and first marriage to Louis VII of France through her turbulent partnership with Henry II of England. The novels place Eleanor’s marriages, motherhood and political ambitions within crusade, dynastic…
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Published under the Alan Savage name, the Eleanor of Aquitaine Saga presents Eleanor’s life as a two-volume dynastic narrative. The first book follows her inheritance of Aquitaine, marriage to Louis VII, queenship in France and participation in the Second Crusade. The second begins after annulment and follows her…
All books in this series
Standalone books
Non Fiction
Biographies, histories and other non-fiction are listed separately from the historical novels above.
