A totally engrossing book, one which covers the Plantagenet years under Eleanor of Acquitaine and her husband, King Louis of France. Eleanor was a strong, forceful character, as different from her husband as oil and water. She created the courts of love, reviving the code of chivalry in the French nobility. Through her marriage to Louis, she virtually redrew the map of France. Eleanor was the epitome of the saying, "Behind every successful man is a strong woman." Here Jean Plaidy brings these characters and more to life with a sumptuous look at the way royalty lived in the 11th and 12th centuries.