"My name is Eleanor of Aquitaine, I was Queen of France from 1137 to 1152 as the wife of King Louis VII, Queen of England from 1154 to 1189, as the wife of King Henry II, and Duchess of Aquitaine in my own right from 1137 until my death in 1204. As the heiress of the House of Poitiers, which controlled much of southwestern France, I was one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in western Europe during the High Middle Ages. I was a patron of poets such as Wace, Benoît de Sainte-Maure, and Bernart de Ventadorn. I was the key leading figure in the Second Crusade."