Without Eleanor of Aquitaine we may not have the freedoms the government is now trying to take away...1. She became Queen of England and the Angevin Empire/Dynasty.
2. She enabled the rise of William Marshall, probably the greatest knight of his age who served Henry II and Richard I.
3. Later as Earl of Pembroke he brought King John & the rebel barons together.
4. This resulted in Magna Carta, which William signed after the death of King John.
5. Many of the rights of Magna Carta - to property, Habeus Corpus, trial by jury etc. - we now take for granted. Yet the government seems to have many in its sights...
I think we throw away ancient freedoms at our peril.
