linguistic:translation
Marriage, wars and family (1152–1154)

Once again a single woman with possessions, Eleanor was at risk of abduction and forced marriage to acquire her domains. From Beaugency, she travelled south towards her court in Poitiers. On her route she narrowly evaded two attempts to kidnap her. The first was by Theobald V, Count of Blois and Chartres, on the night of 21 March as she passed through his lands at Blois, but she escaped by taking a boat down the Loire to Tours. Then Geoffrey of Anjou lay in wait for her at Port-de-Piles, on the border of Touraine and Poitou, but warned at Tours of the plot, she changed her route, avoiding the usual crossing of the Creuse river, she continued downstream to its confluence with the Vienne river, avoiding main roads, and arriving safely by boat at Poitiers. This rapuit et abduxit was a common practice regarding heiresses, even in her own family.

As soon as she arrived in Poitiers, just before Easter, Eleanor sent envoys to Geoffrey of Anjou's older brother, Henry, Duke of Normandy, asking him to come at once to marry her. Many authors conclude that this fulfilled a prior arrangement made at his earlier visit to the French court. While providing security for her Aquitaine lands, the choice of Henry also made political sense as Anjou lay on the northern border of Aquitaine, thus protecting it and enlarging her joint jurisdiction. She then set about revoking all acts and charters of Louis relating to Aquitaine, and replacing them with her own. The message reached Henry at Lisieux on 6 April. Henry arrived in Poitiers in mid May and on 18 May 1152 (Whit Sunday), eight weeks after her annulment, Eleanor married the much younger Henry in a quiet private ceremony at Poitiers Cathedral, thereby transferring her Aquitaine lands from Louis to Henry. The ceremony was described as being "without the pomp and ceremony that befitted their rank". They had kept the arrangements secret, for fear that Louis, who regarded the growing power of Henry and the Angevins with anxiety, would prevent it.

Eleanor was related to Henry even more closely than she had been to Louis: they were cousins to the third degree through their common ancestor Ermengarde of Anjou (wife of Robert I, Duke of Burgundy and Geoffrey, Count of Gâtinais), and they were also descended from King Robert II of France. Her remarriage to Henry provided the next chapter of the legend of her scandalous behaviour, it being implied that she had a previous illicit relationship with him.

When Louis discovered Eleanor had married his archrival, and knowing Henry was also in line for succession to the throne of England, he was furious and immediately made preparations for war. He also refused to give up the title of Duke of Aquitaine, that he had acquired through marriage to Eleanor, and was now Henry's by the same right, for if Eleanor bore a male heir, his daughters would be disinherited. His subsequent invasion of Normandy marked the beginning of an Angevin-Capetian conflict that would last more than fifty years.

Now, as Duchess of both Aquitaine and Normandy, Eleanor exercised independent power in her court and within her hereditary domains, striking new seals for her charters, both as Duchess of Aquitaine and Countess of Poitou, but also with the added titles of Duchess of the Normans and Countess of the Angevins. Within a month, Henry departed with the intention of pursuing his claim to the throne of England but now had to deal with Louis's invasion of Normandy, which he easily repelled within six weeks, signing a truce, so that by the autumn of that year he was able to return to Aquitaine. To commemorate their marriage, Henry and Eleanor had a stained glass window installed at Poitiers Cathedral, in which they are represented, kneeling as donors. By late 1152, the couple moved to Rouen in Normandy and in January 1153 Henry finally set sail for England to challenge King Stephen 's claim to the throne. He did not return till March 1154, leaving the now pregnant Eleanor with his mother, the Empress Matilda, and his youngest brother, William. On 17 August 1153, Henry and Eleanor's first child, William, was born, most likely at Angers.

In England, Henry had finally fought Stephen to a truce, and at the Treaty of Winchester in November 1153, it was agreed that Henry would be Stephen's heir and successor, and this was ratified at Westminster at Christmas. Upon Henry's return to his French domains, Eleanor again became pregnant. Meanwhile, Louis VII remarried, became reconciled with Henry and relinquished the title of Duke of Aquitaine.