Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index


  • Record Number: 6781
  • Author(s)/Creator(s): Bouchard , Constance Brittain.
  • Contributor(s):
  • Title: Eleanor's Divorce from Louis VII: The Uses of Consanguinity
  • Source: Eleanor of Aquitaine: Lord and Lady.  Edited by Bonnie Wheeler and John Carmi ParsonsThe New Middle Ages.  Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.  Pages 223 - 235.
  • Description:
  • Article Type: Essay
  • Subject (See Also): Canon Law Consanguinity Divorce Eleanor of Aquitaine, Wife of Louis VII of France and Henry II of England Louis VII, King of France Politics Queens
  • Award Note:
  • Geographic Area: France
  • Century: 12
  • Primary Evidence:
  • Illustrations:
  • Table: Five genealogical charts. Figure One The Relationship between Louis VII and Eleanor of Aquitaine from their common ancestor Robert II, King of France. Figure Two The relationship between Robert II and his wife and cousin Bertha. Figure Three The Relationship between Robert of Burgundy and his wife Ermengard of Anjou. Figure Four The Relationship between Louis VII and his wife Constance of Castile. Figure Five The Relationship between Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry II.
  • Abstract: The divorce of Eleanor and Louis VII was the culmination of one hundred and fifty years during which the Capetians had tried to balance the personal and political choice of marriage partners with the church's definition of incest. [Reprinted with permission of Palgrave Macmillan.]
  • Related Resources: Bouchard in Chapter 10, "Eleanor's Divorce from Louis VII: The Uses of Consanguinity," follows the church's decrees concerning degrees of relation. Initially figured to seven degrees in the tenth century, by the eleventh the upper classes were joining wit
  • Author's Affiliation: University of Akron
  • Conference Info: - , -
  • Year of Publication: 2003.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN/ISBN: 0312295820