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DaughtersHenry and Eleanor had three daughters, all of whom were considered beautiful and intelligent. Their attributes made them highly eligible for marriage, and Henry II ensured that they married well and assumed titles of high nobility. Matilda, Duchess of SaxonyMatilda, the eldest daughter of Henry II’s marriage with Eleanor of Aquitaine, was born in June 1156 and christened with the name of her empress grandmother. Henry levied an aid to have her married to Henry, the Lion, duke of Saxony in 1156. When the duke was exhiled for seven years and had his four duchies redistributed by the Emperor Frederick of Barbossa, Henry II gave the couple refuge in the castle of Argentan. Matilda and Henry’s marriage produced two children, the youngest of which, Otto of Brunswick, was declared Holy Roman Emperor in 1198. Matilda died on 28 June 1198. Eleanor, Queen of CastileThe eventual Queen of Castile and the second daughter of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine was born in Domfront, Normandy in September 1161 and given her mother’s illustrious name. She was taken from her family and land of origin at a young age and married to King Alphonso of Castile in 1170. They had five children, but their marriage did little more than “preserve Castile’s neutrality” (Warren, 222) and place her in an elevated social and financial position. Eleanor died on the 31 October 1215, one of two children to outlive her mother. Her tomb lays in the Abbey of Las Huelgas, Burgos, Castile. Joan, Queen of Sicily, Countess of ToulouseThe youngest daughter of Eleanor of Aquitaine, Joan was born in Angers in October 1165. She was betrothed to King William of Sicily as an infant, and there are conflicting accounts of why Henry II decided to do this. W.L. Warren ultimately concludes that Henry was ensuring that he secured his daughter in a marriage befitting her status. Another account, promoted by Amy Kelly, raises the possibility that Henry II was attempting to have Thomas Becket transferred to Sicily and agreed to the marriage as a way to accomplish this. At any rate, Joan was married to the king in 1174, and enjoyed extreme wealth and access to a stimulating culture until his death, when she became a widow at twenty-five. Her brother, Richard, had to travel to Sicily to bring her back to her now unfamiliar family, because she was being detained by the usurper of her husband's throne. Richard was unable to recover all of the property that King William had left her, but he did manage to regain enough to maintain her wealthy status. After her return to her family's lands, Joan was persuaded to accompany her brother on Crusade, and Richard endeavored to involve her in a marriage to the Moslem Saphadine, heir to the throne of Jerusalem. Joan strongly objected on the grounds of religion and was able to get Richard's bishops to support her dissent. The plan was abandoned, but by the time Joan was finished with the Crusade, her financial settlement from King William was depleted. At this point in her life, Joan was considered "spirited, accomplished, [and] beautiful" (Kelly, 261) and she was an eligible widow with many attributes. For her second marriage, Joan was joined to Count Raymond of Toulouse in 1195, and gave him an heir. It was while she was suppressing a revolt in his lands that her own men rebelled against her and set her encampment on fire. Joan barely escaped, and was convinced she was dying even after a recovery period at the Abbey of Fontevrault, so went to Rouen to put her affairs in order. It was here, at her deathbed, that she demanded to be made a nun of Fontevrault. The request was extremely irregular, because her spouse was still alive and she was pregnant, but her insistence convinced the nuns and clerks that her wish was divinely inspired. Joan was made a nun before she died on 4 September 1199, her child was delivered shortly after and passed on moments later. Joan lies in a tomb in Fontevrault Abbey near her parents and her beloved brother Richard. Back to Individual Biographies
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