Eleanor & Richard

'Richard the Lion-Heart'
Richard I(1157 -1199), called Coeur de Lion, was born in Oxford but spent less time in England than any other king of England. He was the medieval king par excellence, inhabiting a magic realm of knights, minstrels and castle dungeons. He was a troubadour, warlord, knight-adventurer and a Crusader king. In his own lifetime Richard was a semi-legendary figure, popular hero, refined and well-educated. He had a nighmare of a father (King Henry II) and a legend of a mother (Eleanor). In 1189 be became King of England and soon set out on the Third Crusade.

'Eleanor of Aquitaine'
(1122 -1204) She was a facinating ruler, renowned for her beauty, intelligence and quiet power. In 1137 she married Louis VII of France and demonstrated a genius for cunning, interfering in royal policy to his detriment. Upon the dissolution of her marriage, by decree, she immediately married Henry of Anjou, soon to become King Henry II of England. Thus her inheritance (including the Bordeaux region of France, then called Aquitaine) passed to the English Crown. Although the marriage was stormy, she bore two sons. Eleanor instigated a revolt with her sons against her husband and spent more than twenty years locked in a tower until Henry's death. She lived out her remaining days in the court of her son, Richard the Lion-Heart.

Both barrels are owned by Yorkville Cellars in Mendocino County, California