Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview: #1 Feudal Europe was a military society dominated by men. Christianity governed the lives of everyone in feudal Europe, and the Pope's decrees were ultimate authority for all spiritual and moral matters. Women had little place in this society. #2 Eleanor of Aquitaine was heiress to one of the richest domains in mediaeval Europe. In the twelfth century, the county of Poitou and the duchies of Aquitaine and Gascony covered a vast region in the southwest of what is now France, encompassing all the land between the River Loire in the north and the Pyrenees in the south. #3 The region of Aquitaine was rich in resources, and its people were diverse and rich. It was a land of small walled cities, fortified keeps, moated castles, and wealthy monasteries. However, its rulers could not extend their power into the feudal wilderness beyond Poitiers. #4 Eleanor was the daughter of a noble race. She was the first of a number of strong-minded women in the Ducal family tree

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