Territorial evolution of France face up to the formidable challenge with which they were presented. The Duke of Normandy William the Conqueror became King of England in 1066 through his victory at Hastings over the Saxons. On the extinction of his male line of descent, his heir was the Duke of Anjou, Henry Plantagenet, grandson by his mother of Henry I of England. Two months before he ascended to the English throne, as Henry II, he married Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine, the richest heiress in the French kingdom and ex-wife of the King of France. The kings of France nevertheless, held some trump cards:
Frederick William, Duke of Courland Frederick William, Duke of Courland Frederick William (; 19 July 1692 – 21 January 1711) was Duke of Courland and Semigallia from 1698 to 1711. Frederick Wilhelm was the son of Frederick Casimir Kettler and Elisabeth Sophie of Brandenburg. During his reign the duchy was occupied by Swedish and later by Russian troops. Friedrich Wilhelm Kettler was born in 1692 in Jelgava in the family of Friedrich Casimir and his second wife Elizabeth Sophia. At the age of seven, after his father's death, in the 22 January 1698 he was appointed as the Duke of Courland and Semigallia, however, until