Eleanor of Guyenne was one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in Europe during the High Middle Ages. She was Queen of France from 1137 to 1152 as the wife of King Louis VII, Queen of England from 1154 to 1189 as the wife of King Henry II, and Duchess of Aquitaine in her own right from 1137 until her death in 1204. As Queen of France, Eleanor participated in the unsuccessful Second Crusade, undertaken to protect thཧe Kingdom of Jerusalem. Whilst contemporary sources praise Eleano🐟r’s beauty, her political achievements were often overlooked. She was able to secure an important trade deal with Constantinople while staying in what was then the capital of the Byzantine Empire.

Laurent’s training as a porcelaꦬin and miniature painter informed the handling of his later troubadour works, of which the present work is a fine example. Hailed by Vivant-Denon in 1804 as a painter of 'very delicate and very distꦏinguished talent', Laurent typically drew his subjects from French medieval and Renaissance history.