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Right Answers Mostly

Eleanor of Aquitaine: The Queen Who Built Empires for Loser Kings

19 Jan 2026

Transcription

Chapter 1: Who was Eleanor of Aquitaine and why is she significant?

1.415 - 23.136 Unknown

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86.414 - 105.216 Tess Palomo

Welcome back to Write Answers Mostly, a podcast on what you didn't learn in history class, but you really wanted to. I am one of your hosts, Tess Palomo. And I am your other host, Claire Donald. And we are so excited to be back with Katie from Queens, friend of the pod. You guys know her. You love her.

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105.196 - 113.144 Katy

Hello, Katie. Hello. Thank you so much for having me back. I am, I'm so excited to be talking to you all today.

Chapter 2: What were the circumstances surrounding Eleanor's marriages?

113.184 - 124.074 Tess Palomo

We're so excited because a lot of, you know, a lot of our rammies are like, we got to talk more about the royal girlies. Yes. Yeah. And I'm assuming this is a royal girly.

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124.114 - 156.077 Katy

This is a royal girly. Okay, good. Yes, definitely. I polled our Queens podcast community, like, Hey, I'm going back on right answers mostly. So I asked our community, who should we do? Did a quick poll, and it was pretty overwhelmingly people wanted me to come on here and talk about one of my historical crushes, Eleanor of Aquitaine, who is an oldie but a goodie.

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156.057 - 177.599 Claire Donald

So what a chic name. No, truly. We're so excited because I think you developed one of my first historical crushes, which was Cleopatra. Like that was truly one of my favorite episodes. And I know that our Rammys are excited because we have so much crossover with your podcast queens. We are so excited, Katie, to get into Eleanor. That's her name, right?

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177.619 - 180.083 Claire Donald

I truly have never heard of this woman before. I'm sorry to say.

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Chapter 3: How did Eleanor's political strategies influence her time?

180.103 - 203.603 Katy

Oh, my God. Well... I also haven't. Get ready. I'm going to tell you all about her, and you're going to love her by the end of this hour. We are ready. So the first thing I want to start off with, like I said, over on Queens, we... She is a three-parter. So we have three, like, 45-minute episodes on her. So I wanted to keep this episode to about an hour.

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203.643 - 235.381 Katy

So just keep in mind that I'm skimming over a lot in this woman's life. But, yeah, this story is intense. This story is crazy. This story is old. But it also shows you women have been fierce and interesting and weird and in-your-face women. Since the olden days. The beginning of time, honey. Since the beginning of time. So Eleanor of Aquitaine was born sometime in 1124.

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235.421 - 245.652 Katy

That's how far back we're going here. So it's really annoying, like that far back in history, they didn't really always write people's birthdays down.

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Chapter 4: What challenges did Eleanor face during her imprisonment?

246.412 - 249.736 Katy

So unfortunately, I can't come up here with like a chart.

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249.996 - 252.619 Claire Donald

I can't say like...

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252.599 - 287.966 Katy

I mean, if I I feel like I'm always guessing fire signs because these women are so I mean, I spicy, spicy. Yeah. So, OK, so we do have like a running list in a spreadsheet of the women whose birthdays we do know. And it's a lot of fire signs. There are a lot of Leos and Sagittariuses out there causing a ruckus in history. It makes sense. So have y'all ever heard of Aquitaine?

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287.986 - 291.612 Katy

Do y'all have any idea where that is? No, I'm just thinking about Aquaphor.

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291.873 - 295.859 Tess Palomo

We're literally just about to say that. I was like, my lips feel a little chapped.

295.999 - 297.822 Claire Donald

We love, but no.

298.183 - 298.283

Yeah.

298.263 - 308.22 Katy

Modern day geography, it's like it kind of sits on the border of France and Spain. So southern France. Oh, chic. Yeah. Yes.

Chapter 5: How did Eleanor's relationship with her children evolve?

308.46 - 338.711 Katy

And in Eleanor's time, this was really a strategic place to live because of like wine routes. And so it's like a really nice and warm and sunny place. Lots of really good wine, lots of really good food. Lots of people want to live there. So what I also want you to picture in your head is whoever owns this land, cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching, because it's a really good route to live on.

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338.731 - 368.524 Katy

So what I'm getting at is the people that own this land, i.e. her family, are money money money like they are well-to-do people her dad is the duke of aquitaine and her dad is loaded we love to see it yeah we really do love to see it a little heiress action Yes, she is the wealthiest heiress in Europe. Oh, my God.

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368.544 - 369.305 Tess Palomo

Wow, okay.

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369.486 - 395.655 Katy

Yes. So where she is living in Aquitaine, the weather is nice, the wine is flowing, and it's a cultural hub of music and poetry and literature. It kind of sits in this interesting spot that's in between, like, Europe, where you're thinking like France and like Spain and kind of more like it's just like a really interesting place that just sits at the crossroads of different cultures.

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396.096 - 399.583 Katy

Have y'all ever heard of the phrase or the word troubadour?

400.677 - 401.318 Claire Donald

Yeah.

401.339 - 404.305 Katy

Someone's a troubadour. Yeah.

404.325 - 407.493 Claire Donald

We have a venue in LA.

Chapter 6: What role did the Crusades play in Eleanor's life?

409.457 - 435.597 Katy

Back then was somebody that would like walk around, like would walk around and like play the guitar and come up with poetry and sing. And like troubadours would kind of have like, I don't know, maybe like you might equate it to like a rap battle right now, but they weren't like so much battles, but like song, like poetry music contest. And like, did you ever see the old cartoon Robin Hood?

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436.559 - 449.79 Katy

The fox? Oh, yeah. You know, the little chicken walking around playing the... So he's a troubadour. So the Fox Robin Hood is going to come up a couple of times in this story, actually.

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449.81 - 454.098 Claire Donald

That's great because I actually know a lot of the girlies are sexually attracted to the Fox Robin Hood.

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454.8 - 463.116 Katy

So the Fox Robin Hood is going to come up a couple of times in this story. So that's a troubadour. That's a troubadour. The little chicken playing the little guitar.

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463.317 - 464.94 Claire Donald

Were troubadours just men?

465.545 - 485.764 Katy

Yeah, traditionally. But they're from Aquitaine. Her childhood, she is wealthy and her childhood is pretty happy. Her dad and her have a really good relationship and she doesn't have an older brother. So, yeah, she is the heir to all of this. Good for her.

Chapter 7: How did Eleanor's annulment from Louis VII affect her status?

485.744 - 487.448 Claire Donald

I'm like, is there anything wrong with her?

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488.07 - 493.363 Tess Palomo

Because everything's, like, perfect? There has to be something, right? One thing. What's her bad personality trait?

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493.383 - 501.563 Katy

And it's not one of those cultures where girls can't inherit. In Aquitaine, girls can... Aquatrain's like Disneyland. My God. Right.

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502.364 - 503.045 Tess Palomo

Right.

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503.065 - 503.485

But better.

504.687 - 529.995 Katy

So, but because of this story has got to go somewhere. Her dad must have known he was sick or something. So he reaches out to the King of France and he is like, Hey, if something happens to me, will you be my daughter's like guardian? Yeah. Like, will you take care of her? And the king of France is like, fuck yes.

530.455 - 552.523 Katy

Because one, the king of France, the duke of Aquitaine is richer than the king of France is. And how things worked back then, if you are the guardian, if you're like a ward of the king, the king runs your money until you as a woman are married to your husband.

Chapter 8: What legacy did Eleanor of Aquitaine leave behind?

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552.923 - 554.025 Claire Donald

It's never yours.

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554.566 - 555.327 Katy

It's never yours.

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555.347 - 556.208 Tess Palomo

Even in Aquitaine.

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556.749 - 558.112 Katy

Even in Aquitaine.

558.352 - 563.08 Tess Palomo

Even in the happiest place on earth. He's like counting down the days then until the dad gets it.

563.1 - 575.541 Katy

Yeah. And so the king of France is like, of course. He's like, I'm so sorry. Oh no, you're sick. Oh no. But of course, of course I'll be, of course I'll be godfather or whatever.

575.561 - 581.75 Claire Donald

Was he also like, she's hot and I'd like to maybe get with that? The king is super old.

582.051 - 610.746 Katy

So that might have been in before. I know. Right. I'll put a pin in that for right now. He definitely has marriage on his mind, but not for himself. Okay. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, he's got sons is what I'm saying. That's what I figured. Yeah. So then, of course, because nothing good can stay, her dad does die, and she has to then move to Paris.

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