Eleanor of Aquitaine was the heir of one of the greatest principalities of France,

wife of two kings, and mother of two more. Polychrome figure reclines peacefully
between two most important men: Henry II of England and Richard the LionHearted. This all took place in Angevin Empire. Eleanors father was Duke
William X of Aquitaine. Eleanor failed to provide a male heir, so Louis divorced
her. She married Duke Henry of Normandy, uniting the west of France. Her court
became a center of literary production, and her patronage was responsible for the
flourishing of French romances and Provencal love lyrics. Henry ruled with an iron
fist and put her in prison. Richard the Lion-Hearted freed her after Henrys death.
Philip IV Augustus was the son of her former husband. He relied on a growing
world of merchants, bankers, professional soldiers, and bureaucrats.
The most significant changes concerned the peasantry but they are difficult to
chronicle since they left no written record. Most medieval peasants were forced to
testify before the court of a secular lord or an ecclesiastical inquisitor. Improving
techniques and equipment lessened the constant danger of famine. Forests were
cleared though.
The peasants who engaged in the opening of the internal frontier were the
descendants of the slaves, unfree farmers, and petty free persons of the early
Middle Ages. However in some places, they had status.

Serfs were not slaves in a legal sense, but their degraded status made them so.
Including others, peasants were obligated to work a certain number of days the
demesne, or reserve of the lord.
Villagers had to contribute a tenth of their revenues to the church and to make
donations in order to receive the sacraments.
Traditionally, farmers divided their land into two parts, one planted, the other
plowed. Some began to introduce a three-field system planted in autumn, plowed,
and in spring. Meat was a rarity.
Expansion of arable land offered new hope. Negotiations were made, and it
happened until it could not last. Serfs started to pay for their freedom. Beggars
and unsuccessful people became the source of political and social turmoil. But in
eastern Europe and Spain however, aristocracy rose on the backs of the peasantry,
limiting this process.
Miles, also soldier and knight, was a mounted warrior which said nothing
about his social status. But in France, northern Italy, England, and much of Spain,
the term knight worked its way up the social ladder. From there, the chivalric world
formed. Essence was fighting.

For sons of nobles, preparation for a life of warfare was mandatory and began early.
A youth was a noble who had been knighted but who had not married or acquired
land.
Women were expected to be gentle, and men were fighters.

Individual knights became vassals for land and loyalty. Usually, the grant, a fief,
was a parcel of productive land with serfs and privileges attached to it. This
structure of lords and vassals constituted systems of hierarchical government.
Religious appeals remained those that their pre-Christian ancestors had made.
Essential qualifications were that priests could perform the rites of the church. The
most important of the supernatural powers were the saints. They are the link
between the divine and earthly spheres.