High Middle Ages · Europe · Politics

1152

Annulment of Louis VII and Eleanor

March 21, 1152

After fifteen years of an unhappy marriage and two daughters, the royal couple were formally separated by a council at Beaugency on grounds of consanguinity. Eleanor was back in her duchy within weeks. She would be remarried to Henry of Anjou within eight weeks more. The annulment was one of the great diplomatic blunders of the medieval era, as Louis let slip the wealthiest territory in France.