Eleanor of Aquitaine was born into the powerful House of Poitiers, inheriting the Duchy of Aquitaine, one of the largest and wealthiest regions in France. She would become Queen of France through marriage to Louis VII, then Queen of England through marriage to Henry II, making her one of the most powerful and influential women of the Middle Ages.

Eleanor's court became a major center of troubadour poetry and courtly love literature, patronizing poets like Bernart de Ventadorn and Chrétien de Troyes. Her influence helped spread the ideals of fin'amor (refined love) throughout European aristocratic culture, shaping the thematic content of medieval romance and lyric poetry. The Arthurian romances composed under her patronage established narrative conventions that would influence European literature for centuries.