[592] William of Tyre; Vertot.
[593] Gest. Ludovic. regis; William of Tyre; Vertot.
[594] Vertot, a learned man and a diligent investigator, speaks of Eleonor in the following curious terms: “On pretend que cette princesse, peu scrupuleuse sur ses devoirs, et devenue éprise d’un jeune Turc baptisé, appellé Saladin, ne pouvait résoudre à s’en séparer, &c.” These reports of course gave rise to many curious suppositions, especially when Richard Cœur de Leon, Eleonor’s son by her second marriage, went to war in the Holy Land. On his return to France, Louis VII. instantly sought a plausible pretext for delivering himself from his unfaithful wife without causing the scandal of a public exposure of her conduct. A pretence of consanguinity within the forbidden degrees was soon established, and the marriage was annulled. After this Eleonor, who, in addition to beauty and wit, possessed in her own right the whole of Aquitain, speedily gave her hand to Henry II. of England, and in the end figured in the tragedy of Rosamond of Woodstock.
[595] William of Tyre; Vertot.
[596] Gest. regis Ludov. VII.
[597] Vertot.
[598] William of Tyre; Col. script. Arab.; Vertot.
[599] William of Tyre; Freysinghen, reb. gest. Fred.; Gest. reg. Lud. VII.
[600] Guil. Monach. in vit. Suger. Ab. Sanct. Dion.; Gest. reg. Lud. VII.
[601] Guil. Monach. in vit. Sug.