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Right Answers Mostly

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

Right Answers Mostly

Claire Donald & Tess Bellomo

Society & Culture, History, Tv & Film

4.6764 Ratings

🗓️ 19 January 2026

⏱️ 59 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week, we’re joined by Katy from Queens Podcast, whose deep knowledge of royal history helps us unpack how Eleanor quietly (and sometimes not-so-quietly) shaped empires, fueled crusades, and influenced generations of rulers, all while being married to two very mediocre kings who consistently failed upward. From Louis VII to Henry II, we break down how Eleanor’s intelligence, wealth, and strategy built power structures that men happily claimed as their own. We explore Eleanor’s marriages, her imprisonment, her political savvy, and why history punished her for the same ambition it rewarded in men. Plus: feminist rage, royal divorce drama, and proof that the concept of “letting him think it was his idea” is much older than we thought. If you love powerful women, messy monarchies, and reclaiming history from underwhelming men ,this episode is for you. You can follow Katy and Nathan from Queens Podcast here for all of their episodes and follow them on instagram here. Created and produced by Tess Bellomo and Claire Donald For more RAM, go here! To join our premium subscription channel for THREE bonus episodes a month where you get to know us, go here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Something unexpected has arrived in Happy Meal.

0:03.0

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Hello Kitty and friends are teaming up for the Ultimate Collab.

0:08.0

Joining your little ones on a fun-fueled adventure.

0:11.0

Some fun, some food, it's all inside this Happy Meal.

0:16.0

Until the 2nd of February from 11 AM includes one pre-selected book or toy whilst it's last.

0:20.0

Olivia Coppo here to tell you all about the launch of the new Abercrombie Spring Denom Collection, made the way denim should feel. Their denim has always been a staple in my wardrobe and has a wide range of fits, styles, and washes. Every gene is available in both their classic fit and viral curve love.

1:21.4

Shop in the app, online, and in stores. Welcome. Welcome back to Write Answers Mostly a podcast on what you didn't learn in history class, but you really wanted to.

1:23.8

I am one of your hosts, Tespelomo.

1:26.5

And I am your other host, Claire Donald.

1:44.6

And we are so excited to be back with Katie from Queens, friend of the pod. You guys know her. You love her. Hello, Katie. Hello. Thank you so much for having me back. I am. I'm so excited to be talking to you all today. We're so excited because a lot of, you know, a lot of our families are like, we got to talk more about the Royal Girlies. Yes. Yeah. And I'm assuming

1:50.6

this is a Royal Girlie. This is a Royal Girlie. Okay. Yes. Definitely. I pulled our Queen's

1:58.4

podcast community like, hey, I'm going back on right answers mostly.

2:03.3

So I was asked our community, who should we do, did a quick poll.

2:09.7

And it was pretty, pretty overwhelmingly people wanted me to come on here and talk about one of my historical crushes, Eleanor of Aquitaine,

2:20.4

who is, it's an oldie but a goodie. So what a she name? No, truly, we're so excited because I think

2:29.3

you developed one of my first historical crushes, which was Cleopatra. That was truly one of my favorite episodes.

2:36.5

And I know that our Rammies are excited because we have so much crossover with your podcast,

2:40.8

Queens. We are so excited, Katie, to get into Eleanor. That's her name, right? I truly have never

2:46.7

heard of this woman before. I'm sorry to say. Oh, my God. Well, I also haven't. Get ready. I'm going to

2:52.5

tell you all about her and you're going to love her by the end of this hour. We are ready.

2:58.1

So the first thing I want to start off with, like I said, over on Queens, we, she is a three-parter.

3:05.1

So we have three like 45-minute episodes on her. So I wanted to keep this episode to about an hour. 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 since the olden days.

...

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