Eleanor of Aquitaine marries Louis VII

July 25, 1137

A fifteen-year-old heiress to the largest duchy in France married the heir to a small Capetian kingdom at Bordeaux cathedral. A week later her father-in-law was dead and Eleanor was queen of France. The marriage would last fifteen unhappy years before she traded kingdoms, marrying Henry of Anjou and bringing Aquitaine with her to create the Plantagenet empire that would dominate western Europe.