ELEAflORA OP AQUITAINE, (ûitrat nf Irarij tjiï emù. CHAPTEE I. Birth ofFleanora—Her beauty—Inheritance—Parentage—Her father, St. William, goes to the Holy land—Hies there—Her marriage to Louis, heir to the French throne—Her guardian dowers her with his titles and territories, and becomes a religious recluse—She becomes Queen of France—Sedateness of her husband Louis the Seventh—Her Kght-heartedness—Accomplishments—Quarrels between her husband and the Tope—Horrible conflagration at Vitry—Eleanora and Louis the Seventh take the cross—Her disastrousjourney to tlie Holy Land—Her levity enrages Louis —Her indignation on reaching Jerusalem—The indignity she suffered there—The failure of the expedition—Tfie return liome—Her husband's conduct disgusts her— Her intrigue with Henry Plantagenet—Her divorce—Her children by King Louis. LEANORA OF A-of his latter dap, and his death in the GJ7ITAINE, the Holy Land, St. William. first of those proTo wipe away the sins of his youth, vincial princesses St. William undertook a journey to Pawho, for about a cenlestine, whither he proceeded in 1132, tury, shared the accompanied by his younger brother, throne of England Raymond of Poitou, after having first with the royal line bequeathed his extensive territory to hia of Plantagenet, "was born about the year beautiful daughter, the gay Eleanora, 1123, and wore successively the crowns upon condition that she became the conmatrimonial of France and England. sort of the heir to the French throne. No loss accomplished than beautiful, she St. William fell, but Raymond, after introduced to the English court the arts bravely supporting the cause of the Cruand the polished refinements of the saders, married the inheritress of Conrad, south of France, and what was of still Prince of Antioch, and ultimately suchigher value to the nation, added those ceeded to the CTown of that principality. seven sweet southern French provinces of St. William left Eleanora and his sister Guiennc, Poitou, Saintognc, Auvergne, Petronilla, his only children, under the Perigoni, Anjoumois, and Limousin to guardianship of his sire Duke William the already extensive continental possesthe Fourth of Aquitaine, who, being in sions of the English crown. She was the sixty-ninth year of his age, resolved the eldest daughter of "William, Count of to atone for the errors of his youth by foitou, named, on account of the piety devoting the closing years of his exist