Glossy board binding with white title and woman image.

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It is the year 1152, and a beautiful woman rides through France, fleeing her crown, her two young daughters and a shattered marriage.

Her husband, Louis of France has been more monk than monarch, and certainly not a lover. Now Eleanor of Aquitaine has one sole purpose: to return to her duchy and marry the man she loves, Henry Plantagenet, destined for greatness as King of England. It will be a union founded on lust, renowned as one of the most vicious marriages in history, and it will go on to forge a great empire and a devilish brood. This is a story of the making of nations, and of passionate conflicts: between Henry II and Thomas Becket; between Eleanor and Henry’s formidable mother Matilda; between father and sons, as Henry’s children take up arms against him – and finally between Henry and Eleanor herself.

Review: Well, you will need to set aside time to read this novel, that’s for sure. It requires your concentration and commitment for 2 or 3 days, if you are really to get into the swing of the narrative. I usually read Tudor novels, so this was new ground for me, but I learned a lot along the way, which, I think, is part of Weir’s motive for creating these historical tales which are based on her own meticulous research. So, from the bare bones of the biography of Eleanor of Aquitaine, the author has created a wonderful portrait of this amazing woman, and her complicated life. Married first to the King of France, after that union is annulled, Eleanor quickly becomes the wife of the charismatic Henry II, a volatile man with an insatiable appetite for women. The book covers all the rest of her life, her many pregnancies, and the decline of her marriage from a passionate, all-consuming love affair to a bitter power struggle which continues for years, with the inheritance of the royal children providing the board for the chess-like game that Henry and Eleanor play with each other.

Loads of historical detail, very convincing character portrayals, and a well-drawn picture of a marriage in tatters make this novel a rewarding read. The relationships between Eleanor and her many children are particularly well represented, also the passionate nature of the woman and her lust for life. I ended up admiring her greatly, not least because of the huge distances she travelled during her life, constantly moving from England to France, from palace to castle, either on horseback or in a litter. Remember this was the 12th Century, no high speed trains back then. The fact that she survived into her 80s, after 11 pregnancies, is also pretty mind-blowing.

A really well-crafted book, clearly a labour of love. Shocking and moving in places, you will definitely shed some tears along the way.

Finally, I enjoyed the deeper messages within this book – passionate love cannot last, people change over time, the bonds between a mother and her children may vary from one child to another, and forgiveness is always the right choice, because without it, bitterness will eat away at any happiness remaining.

Alison Weir is one of Britain’s top-selling historians. She is the author of numerous works of history and historical fiction, specialising in the medieval and Tudor periods. Her bestselling history books include The Six Wives of Henry VIII, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Elizabeth of York and The Lost Tudor Princess. Her novels include Innocent Traitor, Katherine of Aragon: The True Queen and Anne Boleyn: A King’s Obsession. She is an Honorary Life Patron of Historic Royal Palaces and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. She lives and works in Surrey.