Countess Petronilla
			Sister of the Devil's Counsel
	Petronilla, sometimes called Aelith, was born around 1125, the second daughter to the Duke of Aquitaine, William X. Her sister was Eleanor of Aquitaine. If it seemed unusual that Eleanor's name means "the other Aenor," after their mother Aenor, the name Petronilla means "little sister" or "little stone," proof of how unimportant the birth of a girl was, even one of highborn descent. The sisters were said to have been very close, and on Eleanor's marriage to the King of France, Petronilla accompanied her to the French court. But the loyalty between the sisters would have a drastic effect on Eleanor's husband, Louis VII. It was in the summer of 1141 that the sixteen-year old Petronilla became involved in an adulterous affair with Count Raoul of Vermandois, a cousin of King Louis and seneschal of France. The problem was that he already had a wife, Eleanor who was sister to the Count of Champagne. He was also 35 years older than Petronilla, but, according to John of Salisbury, Raoul "was always dominated by lust" and Petronilla was not only beautiful, but she held grand estates in Normandy and Burgundy for her dower. Eleanor, who had encouraged the lovers from the beginning, began pressing for Raoul to have his current marriage annulled. Neither she nor Raoul had any liking for the Count of Champagne, and by this time, Raoul had already deserted his wife, lying in wait for the King to return from settling other matters. Towards the end of 1141, Louis, most definitely at the urging of his wife, who was known to exhibit quite a lot of influence with king, arranged to have 3 bishops declare an annulment from Raoul's wife, and in early 1142, he was officially remarried to Petronilla. The situation however, was far from being over. The Count of Champagne, enraged at his sister’s being cast off, immediately sent a protest to the Church, and Pope Innocent II responded by suspending the bishops who had performed the annulment and excommunicated Raoul when he refuse to return to his wife. It was then that Louis, still holding a grudge against the Count of Champagne for other reasons, came to his cousin’s defence. After laying waste to Champagne, part of the peace agreement between the Count and Louis was to have the excommunication lifted from Vermandois. When the promise was not fulfilled, and Vermandois was again excommunicated, Louis returned to Champagne, against the wishes of many of his advisors. After an accidental massacre of innocents on Louis's part, he returned in a terrible state of guilt. Ironically, Eleanor rewarded him with a beautiful vase, the only surving relic from Eleanor's time. The current pope had passed away, another peace agreement was conducted between France and Champagne, Louis and the Church, and Raoul and Petronilla were publically pronounced a married couple. Petronilla had done something few women of her time had ever even heard of: she had married entirely for love alone.