Louis VII of France

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.

Louis appears in Sharon Kay Penman’s When Christ and His Saints Slept and later Plantagenet novels dealing with Eleanor and Henry II. Historical fiction often portrays him as pious, indecisive and sexually mismatched with Eleanor. That image can obscure his persistence in preserving the Capetian dynasty and exploiting the rebellions within Henry’s family.

In David Field’s The Lion of Anjou, Louis VII of France contests Henry’s power, while his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine joins two formidable rulers whose political interests do not always coincide. In Anne O’Brien’s Devil’s Consort, Eleanor of Aquitaine inherits one of the richest territories in Europe and becomes queen of France through her marriage to Louis VII. Other novels featuring Louis VII of France include Elizabeth Chadwick’s The Summer Queen.