Presses Universitaires de France and Fr�meaux & Associ�s offer this biography of Ali�nor d'Aquitaine, analyzed and explained by Martin Aurell, professor of history of the Middle Ages at the University of Poitiers, Director of the Center of Higher Studies of Medieval Civilization and director of Cahiers de civilization m�di�vale. Martin Aurell portrays an exceptional woman with many facets. Ali�nor d'Aquitaine (1124-1204), Queen of France and Queen of England, a formidable political woman, mother of eleven children, patron of arts and letters, remains one of the greatest female figures in Western history. Separating the myth from the real, Martin Aurell allows us to see this complex personality that went through the twelfth century and whose death marked the end of the Plantagenet Empire.