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:
Adalbero, Duke of Carinthia Adalbero, Duke of Carinthia Adalbero of Eppenstein ( – 29 November 1039) was Duke of Carinthia and Margrave of Verona from 1011 or 1012 until 1035. Adalbero was the son of the Bavarian count Markward of Eppenstein, who around 970 had married Hadmud, a daughter of Count Adalbero of Ebersberg and ruled as Margrave of Styria. About 1000 Adalbero succeeded his father as Styrian margrave. He was married to Beatrix, probably a daughter of Duke Herman II of Swabia from the Conradine dynasty and sister-in-law of the later Salian emperor Conrad II. Upon the death of the Salian duke Conrad