Isabella d’Angoulême – Queen of England

Isabella d’Angoulême – Queen of England

Isabella was born in south-west France sometime between 1188 and 1191.

Isabella was the only child of Audemar, Count of Angoulême and Alice de Courtenay.
From her mother, she inherited beauty – and a dash of royal blood.

Isabella was related to the royal houses of Jerusalem, Hungary, Aragon and Castile.

Every medieval heiress needs a husband.
Isabella’s father did not need to look far.
Hugh of Lusignan was a widower and happy to take the girl – and her inheritance – under his wing.

Because of Isabelle’s youth, the marriage was put on hold, and the delay allowed King John to step in.

John could offer Isabella what Hugh could not – a crown.
Isabella’s marriage to King John, took place on 24th August 1200, at Bordeaux.

At the time of her marriage to John, the blonde-haired blue-eyed Isabella was just 12 years old.

She was already renowned for her striking beauty.

Isabella and John lived separate lives for a few years, because of Isabella’s young age.

Although Isabella was very much younger than her husband, she already possessed a volatile temper, much similar to his own.

However, King John was infatuated with his young, beautiful wife.
He would often neglect state affairs to spend time with Isabella, often remaining in bed with her until noon.

There were even rumours Isabella used witchcraft to keep an infatuated John in her bed, while his empire collapsed about him.

Isabella was crowned Queen of England on 9th October 1200, at Westminster Abbey.

Seven years later on 1st October 1207, Isabella gave birth to a son and heir, the future King Henry III.

He was quickly followed by another son Richard, and three daughters ~ Joan, Isabella, and Eleanor.

All five children survived into adulthood, and made illustrious marriages, all but Joan produced offspring of their own.

Over time, the marriage of Isabella and John became fractious.
They both were reported to have engaged in adultery.
When John suspected Isabella of having had an affair, he had her suspected lover hanged and then dangled above her bed.

Both were known for their fiery, strong tempers which they used on each other.

When King John died in October 1216, Isabella’s first act was to arrange the speedy coronation of her nine-year-old son.

As the royal crown had recently been lost ~ along with the rest of King John’s treasure, Isabella supplied her own golden circlet to be used instead of a crown.

The following July, less than a year after her son was crowned King Henry III of England, Isabella left her son in the care of his regent, and returned to France with her daughter Joan.

Officially, Isabella was going to deliver Joan to her betrothed, Hugh of Lusignan, Count of La Marche.

In the spring of 1220, Isabella caused a scandal when she married her daughter’s betrothed instead.

Isabella had married Hugh without the consent of the king’s council in England – as was required of a queen dowager.

The council stopped her pension and confiscated her dower lands.
Isabella had nine more children by Hugh.

Isabella’s children from her royal marriage to King John did not join her in Angoulême, remaining instead in England with their eldest brother Henry III.

For the next twenty years, Isabella and Hugh were the power couple of south-west France.

When the French king came south, bringing not one but two queens with him – his wife and mother. Isabella, herself the widow of a king, naturally expected to be treated as their social equal.

Instead, the French queens spent three days pretending not to notice her.

The French Queen Dowager Blanche, openly snubbed Isabella.

Described by some contemporaries as “vain, capricious and troublesome,” Isabella could not reconcile herself with her less prominent position in France.

Though she was a former queen of England, Isabella was now mostly regarded as a mere countess, and had to give precedence to other women.

This so infuriated Isabella, who also had a deep-seated hatred of the Dowager Queen Blanche.

Blanche had previously supported the French invasion of England, which angered Isabella.

Incandescent with rage, Isabella vowed to make them pay for the insult.
As soon as the royal visitors moved on, she hurled anything they’d left behind, out the window.

In 1244, two royal cooks were arrested for attempting to poison Blanche’s son, King Louis of France.

Upon questioning, they confessed to having been in Isabella’s pay.
Before Isabella could be taken into custody, she fled to Fontevraud Abbey, and remained hidden there for two years.

She died there in 1246, still hiding in her secret chamber.

By Isabella’s own wishes, she was buried in the abbey’s churchyard, as an act of repentance for her many misdeeds.

On a visit to Fontevraud, her son King Henry III, was shocked to find her buried outside the abbey, and ordered her immediately moved inside.

Henry had his mother re-interred, beside her mother-in-law Eleanor of Aquitaine and father-in-law Henry II, inside the abbey.

Henry also paid for a wooden effigy of Isabella ~ where she was beautifully dressed and crowned as a queen.
Isabella’s tomb and effigy still survives.
The tombs of the two French queens who insulted her, have not…..

Afterwards, most of her children from Hugh, set sail for England, to the court of King Henry III.

Their half-brother the King, welcomed them with open arms.

? Isabella d’Angoulême by Ken Welsh for the book “Our Queen Mothers” by Elizabeth Villiers.