Today's show is sponsored by Audible, the home of over 150,000 audiobooks.

To get a free, yes, free, audiobook, go to Audibletrial.com forward slash queens

and go find yourself something awesome to listen to today.

This week's book is The Captive Queen by Alison Ware, another historical fiction book about the life of Eleanor of Akitaine.

Ware is one of my favourite historical fiction writers, and this book is one of her best works.

And it's free when you sign up for a trial membership at audible trial.com forward slash queens.

And better yet, by doing so, you'll be showing your support for the Queens of England

podcast.

Hello and welcome to the Queens of England podcast.

Episode 10, Anna of Akitaine, a captive mother of a captive son.

Yeah. son. In 1173,

Eleanor was captured by forces loyal to her husband

and was now his captive.

Henry was not going to execute his wife.

Capital punishment was incredibly rare for nobles and almost unheard of for noble women in this period. What Henry

wanted to do was completely isolate his wife, and he managed to do so extremely effectively.

We don't have any kind of reliable information as to where she was held, but we do know that it was somewhere in

rural England, far away from the continent, which is where all the action was taking place.

For a woman who demanded the use of her own agency and a fierce protector of the rights

of her children, her absence from the political stage must have been maddening.

Her incarceration, though, was not just a means of taking her out

to the action. It was also designed to keep their children in line. It is always dangerous to attempt

...