by
Damien F. Mackey
“John saw Isabella for the first time there and, according to reports, immediately lusted after her, desiring her as his wife. Isabella was, at most, twelve years old at this visit but she is depicted by contemporaries as a young temptress, fuelling the king’s lust with her beauty and betraying her fiancé, Hugh de Lusignan”.
Text book history will tell us that Isabella was the Queen consort of King John I of England (1200 - 1216 AD, conventional dating), who is portrayed as a villain in the Robin Hood tales. She, whose maternal great-grandfather (it is said) was King Louis XI of France, became Countess of Angoulême in 1202, by which time she was already queen of England.
Her marriage to King John is said to have taken place in 1200, at Bordeaux.
Some of her contemporaries portrayed the Queen as a witch, a sorcerer, a murderess, in short, a Jezebel (Virtuous or Villainess? The Image of the Royal Mother from the Early …, p. 103 ...):
The St Albans chronicler Roger of Wendover [d.
1236], who wrote in the early years of King Henry III's reign, portrayed
Isabella as a fitting consort for King John, whom he
characterized as one of England's most cruel and unpleasant kings. Wendover painted Isabella as a bewitching seductress in whose company John delighted
when he should, instead, have been defending Normandy from the conquering forces of the French king Philip
Augustus in 1203. …. Matthew Paris, Wendover's successor at St Albans, famously blackened Isabella's reputation
further. In one apocryphal story that Paris included
within his narrative, John sent emissaries to the emir of North Africa in the
hope of
According to the following article: https://erenow.com/biographies/she-wolves-the-notorious-queens-of-medieval-england/9.html
Isabella of Angouleme has one of the most grim reputations of any queen
of England. She led a tumultuous life that was filled with high drama and
intrigue and she was infamous across Europe even during her lifetime. Isabella
is remembered today as an adulteress, a disloyal mother and a poisoner. One
contemporary writer even went so far as to describe her as ‘more Jezebel than
Isabel’. Today, Isabella is considered dishonourable like her mother-in-law,
Eleanor of Aquitaine, but with none of the older woman’s admirable qualities.
In short, she is seen as the sort of consort that her husband, King John,
deserved. There is no doubt that Isabella was hated and feared but how much she
deserved this amoral characterisation is debatable. Isabella was the wife of
the disastrous and highly unpopular King John and it is not surprising that
much of his bad reputation infected hers. She lived in turbulent times and, as
a prominent landowner in her own right, Isabella often found herself at the
mercy of the changing fortunes of the English and the French on the continent.
Therefore it is not entirely surprising that she sometimes sought to play the
two off against each other in an attempt to preserve her lands. ….
… it is likely that Isabella was very young at the time of her marriage
to John in 1200.1 She is often described as being twelve years old
in 1200 but since this was the legal earliest age for marriage, this may have
been an official age. It has been suggested that Isabella was as young as eight
or nine in 1200.2
….
It is often claimed that John’s marriage to Isabella was driven by lust
with all the criticism of Isabella that this implies.8 In the summer
of 1200 John set out on a progress through Poitou. During his progress he
visited the Lusignans at Le Marche.9 John saw Isabella for the first
time there and, according to reports, immediately lusted after her, desiring
her as his wife. Isabella was, at most, twelve years old at this visit but she
is depicted by contemporaries as a young temptress, fuelling the king’s lust
with her beauty and betraying her fiancé, Hugh de Lusignan. ….
….
On 23 August 1200, Isabella was informed by her parents that she was to
marry John the next day. Her feelings concerning this are not clear and she
must have been bewildered at the sudden change in her fortunes. Both Hugh and
John were considerably older than her and she is unlikely to have been
emotionally attached to either man. It has been claimed that she wept and
protested12; equally, it has been suggested that she greatly desired
to be a queen.13 ….
….
In 1201, trouble broke out in Poitou and John charged the Lusignans with
treason. The Lusignans turned to Philip Augustus for support and, in 1202,
Philip declared that John had forfeited Aquitaine, Poitou and Anjou and gave
them to John’s rival, Arthur of Brittany.16 John seems to have
blamed Isabella for the loss of his French possessions and apparently told her
this in 1205.17 Sources also blame Isabella, claiming that following
their marriage John and Isabella would lie in bed together rather than attend
to business, again suggesting that Isabella’s precocious charms kept the king
from his proper duties.18 ….
….
John and Isabella’s personal relationship also does not seem to have
been a success. John is known to have had several illegitimate children with at
least two born to noblewomen.24 In 1214 John abducted the noblewoman
Matilda FitzWalter, forcing her to become his mistress.25 It is
likely that this action both aroused Isabella’s jealously and stirred up
baronial opposition to John in England. Sources also refer to John’s ‘lady
friends’, one of whom he sent roses to in June 1212.26 It seems
probable that John took mistresses throughout his marriage to Isabella, something
that a woman as strong-willed as Isabella cannot have accepted easily. For her
contemporaries of the opposite sex however male infidelity was acceptable and
Isabella would have been expected to simply ignore John’s conduct. The only
reason he was chastised for his affairs was his preference for abducting
noblewomen, the implication being that he could have relations with women of
lower status with impunity. However as is the norm for the medieval period,
there was one standard for men and quite another for women. Although John has
largely escaped censure for his affairs, a great deal of Isabella’s poor
reputation stems from her supposed infidelity. A contemporary, Matthew Paris,
described her as guilty of adultery, sorcery and incest.27 One
suggested lover is Isabella’s own half-brother, Peter de Joigny, and this would
account for the accusation of incest. Peter visited England in 1215 and
possibly 1207 so Isabella and her brother may have formed a close relationship
with each other.28 ….
….
A further story grotesquely narrates how John had one of Isabella’s
lovers strangled and his corpse suspended over her bed.29There was
probably little affection between John and Isabella. She was not mentioned in
his will and, after his death, Isabella issued three perfunctory charters for
his soul then never mentioned him again.30 She may also have taken
lovers during their marriage; if so, she was no more at fault than her husband
but because of her sex, such accusations were enough to damn her.
Isabella had little contact with her children by John. It is unclear
whether this was her choice or not but she never seems to have built a
relationship with them. ….
….
Isabella was never given the opportunity to be a mother to her children
in their formative years. These early separations and, perhaps, dislike of
their father, may have been major factors in Isabella’s subsequent conduct
towards her children.
The last few years of John’s reign were racked by civil war in England.
It has been suggested that Isabella was imprisoned by John during these years
but it is more likely that this refers to her being guarded for her own
protection.33 Isabella was one of the most unpopular figures in
John’s regime and under considerable threat from the people of England.
Isabella spent the last years of John’s reign in the relative safety of the
West Country.34 ….
In early 1216 John’s relations with his barons took a turn for the worst
when they held a council in which they decided to elect the Dauphin, Louis of
France, as king.35 Louis landed at Thanet on 20 May 1216 and quickly
took Rochester Castle. He was received with joy in London and by autumn 1216,
controlled most of southern England.36News of Louis’ progress must
have filled Isabella with dread as she waited in Bristol. In the midst of this
chaos, John died on 18 October 1216 and was buried at Worcester.37
When news reached Bristol of John’s death, Isabella immediately showed
the strength of character that would underpin her widowhood. Isabella travelled
at once to Gloucester where her nine-year-old son, Henry III, had been brought.
He was hastily crowned on 28 October, with one of Isabella’s gold collars.38
Despite this decisive action, Isabella was not given a position in the regency
and William Marshall was appointed regent at a council the following day.39
This must have been galling for her but it is, once again, a measure of her
unpopularity in England and a demonstration of her inability to build a
political party of her own during her time as Queen of England. Certainly,
Isabella’s position in England following John’s death does not appear to have
been good. Denied any political role, Isabella also seems to have had trouble
securing her property.40 This explains Isabella’s decision to return
to Angouleme in June 1217, leaving her children in England.
Isabella’s behaviour on her return to Angouleme in 1217 illustrates her
forceful and independent character. She quickly established her lordship in
Angouleme, gaining control over Cognac even, a region which had been lost to
Angouleme in the 1180s.41 The English minority council seem to have
expected Isabella to govern Angouleme for the benefit of Henry III, but, in
1220, Isabella once again demonstrated her self-direction, marrying Hugh de
Lusignan, son of her former fiancé and the man betrothed to her own daughter,
Joanna. Isabella appears to have had no qualms about robbing her daughter of
her fiancé and she may have reasoned that the same had happened to her when she
was a young girl and that, after years of a loveless marriage to John, she
deserved a little happiness. ….
….
Isabella would also have known that her marriage would not be looked
upon favourably in England and her letter to Henry III, explaining her actions,
provides a strong indication of her character:
We hereby
signify to you that when the Counts of March and Eu departed this life, the
lord Hugh de Lusignan remained alone and without heirs in Poitou, and his
friends would not permit that our daughter should be united to him in marriage,
because her age is so tender, but counselled him to take a wife from whom he
might speedily hope for an heir; and it was proposed that he should take a wife
in France, which if he had done, all your land in Poitou and Gascony would be
lost. We, therefore, seeing the great peril that might accrue if that marriage
should take place, when our counsellors could give us no advice, ourselves
married the said Hugh, count of March; and God knows we did this rather for
your benefit than our own.42
The reasons
Isabella gives to explain her marriage seem implausible. It is clear that it
was Isabella’s own desire to marry Hugh and her excuses were merely an attempt
to avert Henry’s anger and try to persuade him that she was actually acting in
his best interests. By marrying Hugh, however, Isabella created the very
political crisis that John sought to avert by marrying Isabella in 1200. It is
possible that, in her second marriage, Isabella also allowed herself to enjoy a
little revenge at John’s expense and, certainly, she had never been well
treated in England. It is therefore easy to see why she might not have proved
loyal to a country where she had been so unhappy.
Isabella’s excuses convinced no one and her marriage caused anger in
Henry’s minority council, who responded by confiscating Isabella’s dower. In
retaliation, Isabella refused to release her daughter Joanna, Hugh’s jilted
fiancée, until her rights were reinstated, essentially keeping the girl as a
hostage.43 The dispute dragged on until October 1220 when Henry III
finally agreed to reinstate Isabella’s dower. Hugh then escorted Joanna to La
Rochelle where she was taken back into English custody.44 The
negotiations following Isabella’s marriage show her to be a shrewd negotiator.
The incident was also the first indication of the troubled and manipulative
relationships Isabella would have with her English children and it is clear,
from her behaviour, that she saw Joanna as a bargaining chip in her attempts to
get what she wanted. Again, however, she had also never been allowed much
contact with her English children and she may well have reasoned that they
could fend for themselves without their mother, as they had always done. In any
event Isabella’s relationship with Henry’s minority council was tense; in 1224
she and Hugh defected to the French and Isabella was granted a pension in
return for her dower lands forfeited in England. In 1230 Isabella entered into
another agreement with France at Henry’s expense, increasing the size of her
pension.45 There is evidence that, from 1228, Henry III’s government
were petitioning the Pope to annul Isabella’s marriage to Hugh. This, however,
came to nothing.46
It is likely that Isabella’s second marriage was more satisfying than
her first. She and Hugh enjoyed a more equal relationship, issuing charters
together.47 Isabella also had a great deal of influence over Hugh.
For example in June 1241 Hugh swore fealty to the French candidate for Count of
Poitou, a title to which Henry III also laid claim.48 This enraged
Isabella, who had also been slighted by the Queen of France when she attended
court at Poitiers; she was not inclined to make any further agreements with the
French crown.49 Furious at her husband’s conduct, Isabella stripped
Lusignan Castle of its furnishings and returned to her own castle at Angouleme
with Hugh’s possessions. Hearing of his wife’s activities, Hugh followed, but
Isabella would not admit him to the castle for three days, forcing him to sleep
in a building in front of the castle.
When Hugh was finally admitted, Isabella abused him for supporting an
alternative Count of Poitou to her son Henry.50 This obviously had
an effect – at Christmas 1241, Hugh declared himself against the French and
persuaded Henry to join a military expedition to Poitou.
The English army, led by Henry III and his brother Richard, sailed on 9
May 1242. No evidence survives of Isabella’s reunion with her two English sons.
It seems likely that it was a tense meeting given the twenty-five years since
she had last seen them and her political activities during that period.
Certainly Henry and Richard are likely to have turned against their mother
during the campaign, when Hugh deserted them for the French. The English
campaign was a disaster and Henry barely escaped with his life, returning to
England defeated. Henry’s disastrous campaign opened Isabella’s eyes to the
reality of the political situation in Europe and she resigned herself to the
fact that her sons could not defeat the French for her. Isabella therefore
decided to take matters into her own hands and, in 1244, assassins were
captured in the royal kitchens trying to poison Louis IX’s food. When
questioned, the men confessed that they had been sent by Isabella and there is
no evidence that Isabella ever attempted to deny this charge.51Isabella
would have known that a military campaign against Louis was no longer a
possibility without English backing and she may have considered that the death
of Louis would enable her to hold her lands more securely. Poisoning, however,
was a grievous sin and Isabella would have realised that with the crime
discovered she would be hunted down. When Isabella was informed of the arrests
she threatened to kill herself with a dagger before being restrained.52
She then fled to Fontevrault Abbey, seeking sanctuary from her pursuers.
Isabella spent her last years safely immured in the Abbey and died there on 4
June 1246.53
In England, news of Isabella’s death was met with a brief display of
mourning. ….
….
Isabella of Angouleme is not the most ill-famed of English queens but
she is remembered as among the worst. Bad King John and Isabella of Angouleme
were described in the sources as a well-matched couple – both were portrayed as
devious and self-interested figures. Isabella of Angouleme’s legacy is so
disreputable that it is now difficult to see the real woman behind this
characterisation. There is no doubt that Isabella often acted in a
self-interested way, sometimes at the expense of her own children ….
….
There is no doubt that Isabella was hated and whatever the truth of her
life, to the chroniclers and later writers she had few of the redeeming
features of her daughter-in-law, Eleanor of Provence, who although notorious,
is noted for her devotion to her family, or her granddaughter-in-law, Eleanor
of Castile, who enjoyed a remarkably happy marriage. Although these women were
attributed with dubious morality, neither suffered the iniquitous image borne
by Isabella.
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