WI Eleanor of Aquitaine doesn't marry Henry II

I was reading Wikipedia's article about Eleanor of Aquitaine and found this interesting text about her marriage to Henry II:

"...At that moment, Eleanor became Duchess of the Normans and Countess of the Angevins, while Henry became Duke of Aquitaine and Count of Poitiers. She was about 12 years older than he, and related to him more closely than she had been to Louis. Eleanor and Henry were third cousins through their common ancestor Ermengarde of Anjou (wife to Robert I, Duke of Burgundy and Geoffrey, Count of Gâtinais); they were also both descendants of Robert II of Normandy. A marriage between Henry and Eleanor's daughter, Marie, had indeed been declared impossible for this very reason. One of Eleanor's rumoured lovers had been Henry's own father, Geoffrey V, Count of Anjou, who had advised his son to avoid any involvement with her..."

So, was there any possibility that Henry had followed this advice and decided not to marry her? If not Henry of Anjou, who would probably be Eleanor's second husband? Also, inspired by Fringe's map on the Map Thread (https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showpost.php?p=3048346&postcount=3273) is it possible to make Eleanor marry the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa? And what could be the effects of such marriage?
 
Thing is, age or looks or whatever didn't matter; she was one of the richest women in Europe and was also one of the largest landowners. Duchess of Aquitaine, Countess of Poitou, etc. That automatically made her a prime catch, slut or not. I think Henry's brother even tried to abduct her after her divorce from Louis.
 

Philip

Donor
How about Sancho III of Castile. You could end up with an interesting situation if some unfortunate happens to his brother Ferdinand at the same time.
 
who had advised his son to avoid any involvement with her
I've also read the opposite, that he recommended her, so this may be in dispute. The fat, decadent father telling the pious son to avoid someone could be counter-productive, and though she was older she was famously beautiful.

Concerning Sancho III of Castile, or rather, I guess, he would be the Infante Sancho then, it surprised me that he was single around then too, though quite young. OTL Frederick's marriage with Adelheid of Vohburg was annulled in 1153, which was a year after Eleanor and Louis's was. I also read Henry the Lion annulled his marriage in 1156.

As for Eleanor and Frederick I was going to have them meet on the crusade, Barbarossa was meant to be handsome and I think they could have some good chemistry. That creates a personal motive for the union. As my PoD was a weather one I thought I might mess with the Siege of Lisbon by not having the crusaders forced to land in Portugal by the storm, which butterflies the crusade a bit less naturally like OTL, though it doesn't specifically make a meeting more likely.

In my nacent TL Geoffrey's rumoured fling could be butterflied away, it's probably after 1120, and Henry Plantagenet is never even born due to Matilda not being the official heir or heir-maker of England and not such a desirable bride. Poor her, I'll have to find her someone nice.

And you up there, don't call Eleanor a slut, she never did anything to you :p
 
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though she was older she was famously beautiful.

Damn straight! She had vast... tracts of land.

I'm almost wondering if this could be worse for the French monarchy in the medium run - at least with it in English hands, they had incentive to fight them for it. If it's just a matter of a single major landowner owning a third of the country, they may run into some centralization issues.
 
Is that right? Kind of expecting the offspring of Eleanor and Frederick to be an Emperor, and not particularly wanting to be (technically) the vassal of the King of France.
 
Is that right? Kind of expecting the offspring of Eleanor and Frederick to be an Emperor, and not particularly wanting to be (technically) the vassal of the King of France.

:rolleyes:

That is not how Feudalism works. He could be Emperor and a vassal to the king of France, depending on which title he was using. The Normans and Angevins were kings of England and vassals of the French king in their French lands...
 
:rolleyes:

That is not how Feudalism works. He could be Emperor and a vassal to the king of France, depending on which title he was using. The Normans and Angevins were kings of England and vassals of the French king in their French lands...

Still a good point, though. Assuming that he is elevated to HRE, it might rankle Eleanor and Frederick's offspring a bit to be nominally a vassal of the Capetians, at least for some of his lands. Somewhat similar to the conflicts the Angevins as kings of england had with their overlords in Paris.
 
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