Return from Compostella

[kasumigenx]

On William X of Aquitaine’s return from his pilgrimage of Santiago de Compostella, he would reveal that he had already remarry to Almodis of Barcelona, such marriage would produce another son named William of Santiago de Compostella on 1138 who was conceived after their wedding, and another daughter named Agnes of Aquitaine in 1142 who would be later be the wife of Simon I of France.

On 1138 on his return with his own new wife and son, he would marry his daughter, Eleanor of Aquitaine to Louis VII of France after the birth of his son to create an alliance between France and its huge vassal of Aquitaine, the marriage was easy to arrange as Louis VI wanted the marriage alliance when he was alive in 1137 when William left in Santiago de Compostella, the birth of a son to William X of Aquitaine would mean that Aquitaine would remain a major autonomous vassal of the French crown.

William X of Aquitaine would marry his daughter, Alix of Aquitaine to Raoul of Vermandois in 1142 after seeing her in the summons of Louis VII to William X, the issue about the marriage is that the marriage was bigamous and this would cause drama between the French Crown and the Count of Champagne which would cause the devastation of the County of Champagne by Louis VII.

 

[kasumigenx]

Louis VII of France would die in the second crusade in 1151 trying to defend the territory of Antioch which would leave Eleanor as a widow with two daughter named Marie of France, Duchess of Flanders(1145) and Alix of France(1150), after the death of Louis VII, his successor Henry, not planning to marry, would decide that the third in line, Simon Dreux, the third person in line to the throne of the King of the Franks from Henry II of France would marry Agnes of Aquitaine to continue the alliance with Aquitaine, Marie of France and Alix of France were disinherited from France due to the nobles preferring the adult bishop Henry II but would be allowed to inherit Aquitaine in case their mother Eleanor does not have a son and William XII having no issue, this would cause the two girls to follow their mother which caused them to have marriages that benefited England, particularly the marriage of Philip I of Flanders to Marie of France and William the Lion and Alix of France.

Eleanor of Aquitaine would later remarry to Henry II, duke of Normandy, as William XI of Aquitaine has no issue yet by that time and, Eleanor was the presumptive heiress and her remarriage with Henry II, Duke of Normandy and Anjou would guarantee that he would have an edge over the house of Blois and William XII’s regency led by Almodis of Barcelona would send funds to Henry II of Normandy for him to be able to reclaim his own kingdom of England, which would be continued by William XI himself, Eleanor of Aquitaine’s marriage with Henry II would produce many children and which would include Henry the Young King, Richard I of England, Geoffrey II of Brittany, John I of England, Matilda, Duchess of Saxony, Eleanor, Holy Roman Empress, and Joan, Queen of Sicily.

Eleanor would have her second daughter Alix of France married to William the Lion of Scotland upon his own succession from his brother as suggested by her to Henry.

After the death of Raoul of Vermandois, the House of Blois would demand brides from the Kingdom of France for the support of the House of Blois to the House of Dreux and Henry the Bishop King and they would demand the hand of Elizabeth of Vermandois for Henry I of Champagne, although the marriage would turn out to be a mistake for him as Elizabeth of Vermandois would not give him a son and he would end up marrying her until death even if it is proven that Elizabeth of Vermandois is barren as to prove his and sister’s honor and later in 1155, Theobald V of Blois would marry Constance of France, the widow of Eustace of England which would provide him with children.

Upon loss of the possible inheritance of Aquitaine by the Angevins in 1170, Eleanor of Aquitaine would lose her political power in England.