spect, any more than Eleanor, for the character and capacity of Lewis. He persuaded her to demand the cassation of the marriage.
Eleanor entered but too readily into his views; and the king did not oppose them. It is certain that her scorn towards him augmented every day; that she had a free carriage and a haughty soul; and that she was perfectly the opposite to her husband; who, on his side, had all the aversion such a contrariety of mind must inspire. She said, she expected to have married a king, but he was only a monk.
Lewis had cut off his hair from a principle of devotion, then in fashion; an act which made him ridiculous in her eyes. Lewis told her gravely, "she ought not to be witty on such matters." She answered by fresh railleries. In fine, he was as anxious for the divorce as herself,—which took place on the 18th of March, 1152. On the 8th of May, the same year, Eleanor elected, from her numerous suitors, for her second husband, Henry, duke of Normandy, and carried with her all her large possessions, though she had two daughters by Lewis.
The breaking this unhappy marriage, destroyed what the policy of Louis le Gros had contrived, and all the grandeur that the prime minister had promised to France. Eleanor made choice of a husband, who, by his ardour for pleasure and business, by the proud dignity of his soul and his brilliant talents, appeared the most different to her former one. "Who would not have regarded this marriage as a happy one," says Gaillard; "they were almost chosen the one by the other; an advantage princes rarely possess; and, as to political reasons, Eleanor had given to the most potent king in Europe, a third of France. Five sons and three
