Early life Eleanor was born in the castle at Domfront, Normandy, and was baptised by Henry of Marcy. She was the sixth child and second daughter of King Henry II and Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine. When she was 14 years old, before 17 September 1177, she was married to King Alfonso VIII of Castile in Burgos. The marriage was arranged to secure the Pyreneean border, with Gascony offered as her dowry. Fraser, Antonia. The Middle Ages, A Royal History of England. University of California Press, 2000.
Gillingham, John. "Events and Opinions: Norman and English Views of Aquitaine, c.1152–c.1204." The World of Eleanor of Aquitaine: Literature and Society in Southern France between the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries, edd. Marcus Bull and Catherine Léglu. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2005.