This trimester I read A Proud Taste For Scarlet and Miniver by E.L. Konigsburg. The story is about King Henry II wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, the wife of two Kings, and the mother to two others. She is the most colorful and powerful queen of her time.The story life was told from the point of view of three prominent figures in her life as they waited for her dear Henry up in heaven.
“Henry had died even before she had. He had died in the year 1189, in July of that year.” (pg.1) In said passage Eleanor was reminiscing over her second husband, King Henry II, untimely demise. Henry actually died that year on July 6th. King Henry was the son of Empress Matilda and Geoffrey Plantagenet. Henry restored the royal administration of England, re-established hegemony over Wales and gained full control over his lands. He and his sons had a strenuous relationship because of their desire for land and power. He eventually was killed by his second eldest son, Richard the “Lionheart”, with the help of King…show more content… It was the wife or child's duty to charm the people and keep them in line during their stay in those areas, which didn't always turn out well and sometimes resulted in the demise or kidnapping of the wife and/or child.
“King Louis had married the sister of Henry Champagne, which made him not only his father-in-law but his brother in law as well”(pg.133) It was common for family trees to criss cross like King Louis’ does. In fact all of the inbreeding was thought to keep the family bloodline pure in many cases and it also helped that if you were rich and married you 5th cousin twice removed they were likely to be of the same or greater wealth and/or status. However, now we know that inbreeding caused many genetic mutations and issues with the children who were the product of such affairs. “War followed. Father against son. Father won.”