Isabella of Valois

Isabella of France (9 November 1389 – 13 September 1409) was Queen of England as the second spouse of Richard II. She married the king at the age of six but the marriage was never consummated as she was widowed four years later and consummation of marriage could not take place until the female was 12 years old.[1] She later married Charles, Duke of Orléans, dying in childbirth at the age of nineteen.

For other people named Isabella of Valois, see Isabella of Valois (disambiguation).

Isabella of Valois
Duchess of Orléans
Queen consort of England
Tenure31 October 1396 – 30 September 1399
Coronation8 January 1397
Born9 November 1389
Paris, France
Died13 September 1409 (aged 19)
Blois, Loir-et-Cher, France
Spouse
IssueJoan of Valois, Duchess of Alençon
HouseValois
FatherCharles VI of France
MotherIsabella of Bavaria

Life
Richard and Isabella on their wedding day in 1396. He was twenty-nine years old; she was six.

Isabella was the daughter of Charles VI of France and Isabeau of Bavaria.[2] On 31 October 1396, at the age of six, Isabella married the widower King Richard II of England in a move for peace with France.[3] The fact that she was a child was discussed during the negotiations, but Richard replied that each day would rectify that problem, that it was an advantage as he would then be able to shape her in accordance with his ideal, and that he was young enough to wait.

A tearful Princess Isabelle, dressed in a blue velvet dress sewn with golden fleurs de lys and wearing a diadem of gold and pearls, was carried by the Dukes of Berry and Burgundy to Richard’s pavilion. She was taken away by a delegation of English ladies led by the Duchesses of Lancaster and Gloucester. Four days later, on 4 November 1396, she was brought to the church of St. Nicholas in Calais where Richard married her. She was five days short of her seventh birthday. Her dolls were included in her trousseau.[4]

Isabella herself told the English envoys that she was happy to be Queen of England, because she had been told that this would make her a great lady.[5] She is described as pretty, and reportedly practised in order to be able to perform her role as queen. King Richard travelled to Paris to fetch her, where the wedding was celebrated with grand festivities at the French royal court, before they continued to the English enclave of Calais, where the formal wedding ceremony was performed on 31 October.

Late 15th century manuscript of Jean Froissart’s Chroniques depicts the marriage as a means to end the war between France and England in the late 14th century. The fact of what would happen to the dowry was discussed if Richard should die before Isabella reached the age of 12, girls’ official age for consummation.[6]


Queen of England

After the wedding, Queen Isabella followed Richard to England, where she moved into Windsor Castle with her own court under the supervision of her appointed governess and chief lady-in-waiting Lady de Coucy (later replaced by Lady Mortimer). She was formally crowned Queen of England in Westminster Abbey in 1397.

Although their union was an arranged political marriage, Richard II and Isabella developed a mutually respectful relationship. Richard regularly visited her in Windsor, where he treated her with respect and entertained her and her ladies-in-waiting with humorous conversation, and Isabella reportedly enjoyed and looked forward to his visits.

By May 1399, the Queen had been moved to Portchester Castle for protection while Richard went on a military campaign in Ireland. During the following rebellion against Richard, Isabella was moved by the Duke of York first to Wallingford Castle and then to Leeds Castle. When on his return to England Richard II was imprisoned and died in custody, Queen Isabella was ordered by the new King Henry IV to move out of Windsor Castle and to settle in the Bishop of Salisbury's Thames-side Sonning Palace in formal house arrest.

Later life

In 1400, Richard was killed, and the French court requested that Isabella return to France. King Henry IV initially refused, deciding Queen Isabella should marry his son, the future Henry V of England, but she refused. Knowing her spouse was dead, she went into mourning, ignoring Henry IV's demands. In August 1401, he let her go back to France, but kept her dowry.[7]

In 1406, Henry IV repeated his suggestion that Isabella marry his son, but it was refused by the French court. Henry V went on to marry her sister, Catherine of Valois.[8]

On 29 June 1406, Queen Isabella, aged 16, married her cousin, Charles, Duke of Orléans, aged 11.[9] She died in childbirth at the age of 19. Her surviving daughter, Joan, married John II of Alençon in 1424.[10] Isabella's body was interred in Blois, in the abbey of St Laumer,[11] where it was later discovered in 1624, curiously wrapped in bands of linen plated over with quicksilver. It was then transferred to the church of the Celestines in Paris, France.

Ancestry

References
  1. "Isabelle of France". Richard II's Treasures.
  2. Williams 2016, p. 28.
  3. Hamilton 2010, p. 205.
  4. Sumption 2011, p. 831.
  5. Williams 2016, pp. 32–33.
  6. Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index https://inpress.lib.uiowa.edu/feminae/DetailsPage.aspx?Feminae_ID=41702. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  7. Stratford 2012, pp. 14, 118.
  8. Allmand, Christopher Thomas (1992). Henry V. London: Methuen London. pp. 68–69. ISBN 0413532801.
  9. Knecht 2007, p. 51.
  10. Goodrich 1967, p. 112.
  11. Goodrich 1967, p. 107.
  12. Anselm 1726, pp. 105–106.
  13. Anselm 1726, pp. 109–110.
  14. Riezler, Sigmund Ritter von (1893), "Stephan III.", Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB) (in German), vol. 36, Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 68–71
  15. Anselm 1726, pp. 111–114.
  16. Tuchman, Barbara W. (1978). A Distant Mirror. New York: Alfred A. Knopf Inc. p. 145. ISBN 9780394400266.

Sources
  • Anselm de Gibours (1726). Histoire généalogique et chronologique de la maison royale de France [Genealogical and chronological history of the royal house of France] (in French). Vol. 1 (3rd ed.). Paris: La compagnie des libraires.
  • Boutell, Charles (1863), A Manual of Heraldry, Historical and Popular, London: Winsor & Newton
  • Goodrich, Norma Lorre (1967). Charles of Orléans: A Study of Themes in his French and in his English Poetry. Librairie Droz.
  • Hamilton, Jeffrey (2010). The Plantagenets: History of a Dynasty. Continuum.
  • Knecht, Robert (2007). The Valois: Kings of France 1328–1589. Hambledon Continuum.
  • Stratford, Jenny (2012). Richard II and the English Royal Treasure. The Boydell Press.
  • Sumption, Jonathan (2011). The Hundred Years War, Volume 3: Divided Houses. Faber & Faber.
  • Williams, Deanne (2016). "Isabelle de France, Child Bride". In Martin, Catherine Gimelli; Melehy, Hassan (eds.). French Connections in the English Renaissance. Routledge.


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