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, Duke of Lower Lorraine His second wife (1055) was Ida (died 1102), daughter of Bernard II, Duke of Saxony, who remarried with Albert III, Count of Namur, on Frederick's death. Frederick, Duke of Lower Lorraine Frederick, Duke of Lower Lorraine, also known as "Frederick of Luxembourg" ( – 18 May 1065) was the count of Malmedy from 1035 and Duke of Lower Lorraine from 1046. He was a younger son of Frederick, Lord of Gleiberg. In 1044, Gothelo I, duke of both Lorraines, died and his eldest son, Godfrey, succeeded in only the upper duchy while the Emperor Henry III first threatened to give