Dr Julie Barrau discusses the life, times and influence of Eleanor of Aquitaine (c.1122-1204) who was without doubt, one of the most influential figures of the twelfth century, possibly in the entire Middle Ages.

Heiress to vast lands, from the Loire down to the Pyrenees, wife to two kings, and mother to five monarchs, she ruled with energy, even at an old age. A notable personality with a firm grip of political affairs, Eleanor worked relentlessly to support her children and grandchildren, securing for them positions of power that shaped the history of Western Europe for the next 250 years.

Speaker

Dr Julie Barrau read history at the École Normale Supérieure and at Paris-Sorbonne University. She started to work on 12th-century England for her MA dissertation and continued in this area for her PhD. After a year spent at Trinity College on a Knox scholarship, she was a Junior Research Fellow at Emmanuel College between 2006 and 2009. In 2009 she became Lecturer in Medieval History at the University of East Anglia. She came back to Cambridge in 2013 to take up a University Lectureship in Medieval British History, and is also back at Emmanuel College as a Fellow.