Did king john marry a 12 year-old
Isabella of Angoulême
Circa - 31 May
Isabella of Angoulême was the daughter and heiress of Aymer Taillefer, Count of Angoulême and Alice of Courtenay, who was the sister of Peter II of Courtenay, Emperor of Constantinople and granddaughter of King Louis VI of France. Through her connections with the Courtenay family, Isabella was related to the kings of Jerusalem, and was a half-sister of Peter, count of Joigny, the child of her mother's earlier marriage.
Isabella of Angoulême effigy at FontevraudIsabella had been betrothed to Hugh de Lusignan, Count of La Marche, although the marriage had been delayed because of her extreme youth. A renowned beauty, reputed to have had blonde hair and blue eyes, it is said that King John of England became infatuated with Isabella, then twelve years old.
The unprincipled John stole the enchanting Isabella from under Hugh's very nose, which resulted in King Philip II of France confiscating John's French lands, and the entire de Lusignan family rebelling against him.
His first marriage to Isabella of Gloucester had been declared invalid since they were related within the prohibited degrees.
Isabella's marriage to King John took place on 24th August , at Bordeaux. She was crowned Queen of England on 9th October at Westminster Abbey. It was said that John was so besotted with his young bride that he refused to rise from bed until the afternoon. Isabella was far younger than her husband but was possessed a volatile temper to match his own, resulting in a tempestuous marriage.
Both took lovers and Matthew Paris referred to Isabella as 'more Jezebel than Isabel'.
Hugh de Lusignan, Isabella's slighted fiancee, had sought redress from his overlord Phillip Augustus, who promptly summoned John to the French court to answer for his actions.
Queen isabella of france Eleanor of Aquitaine's Children and Grandchildren. In other projects. Isabella had married Hugh without the consent of her son the King's council in England, which was then required procedure for a former Queen of England. House of Plantagenet.John refused to comply and accordingly, Phillip, acting under feudal law, claimed those territories ruled by John as Count of Poitou and declaring all John's French territories except Gascony forfeit, he invaded Normandy. Chateau Gaillard, Richard the Lionheart's impregnable castle, fell to the French after a long siege in , it was followed by the rest of Normandy.
John, his resources exhausted, was forced to flee the smoking rubble of his father's once-great French Empire.
Isabella became Countess of Angoulême in her own right on 16 June She gave birth to a son and heir, Henry, seven years after her marriage to John, on 1st October at Winchester Castle. Another son, Richard, later Earl of Cornwall and King of the Romans was born on 5th January Three daughters were to follow, Joan, later Queen of Scots, was born on 22 July , Isabel, later Holy Roman Empress in and Eleanor, later Countess of Pembroke in
John died at Newark on the wild stormy night of 18th October , leaving England in a state of anarchy and civil war.
Isabella and John's nine-year-old son Henry, described as being a "pretty little knight" was crowned King Henry III at the Abbey Church of Gloucester with a circlet belonging to his mother since his father had previously lost the royal treasure in the Wash.
Queen isabella of england and king john ii Authority control databases. After the death of King John in , Isabella remained in the full care of her mother and was with her until , when Isabella of Angouleme remarried and left the English court. Empress [ edit ]. In June [ 7 ] or Isabella's older sister, Joan , was betrothed to King Alexander II of Scotland , and according to the marriage contract, if Joan did not have time to return to England by Michael's Day 29 September , [ a ] within two weeks after that, the Scottish King was to marry Isabella.The highly capable William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, was appointed Regent along with Hubert de Burgh. At the time of King John's death, London and most of the channel ports were held by the French. In a popular move, Marshall announced his intention to rule by the terms of the Magna Carta, the French invaders were driven out and peace restored in England.
Less than a year after his coronation, still a young woman, Isabella left her son in the care of William Marshal and returned to France to assume control of her inheritance of Angoulême.
Joan i of navarre: ISBN Shortly after John acceded to the throne in , and before the end of August, he obtained an annulment of the marriage, so she was briefly queen of England. John had put aside his first wife, Isabella of Gloucester , in Lineage and family [ edit ].
Arrangements were made to marry John and Isabella's eldest daughter, Joan, to Hugh X of Lusignan, "le Brun", Count of La Marche, to whom Isabella herself had been betrothed in her youth. As was the custom at the time, Joan was being brought up at the Lusignan court in preparation for her marriage. Hugh, however, upon seeing Isabella, whose beauty had not diminished, preferred the girl's mother.
In the spring of , she married Hugh X of Lusignan, Princess Joan was married instead to King Alexander II of Scotland in
Isabella had married Hugh without the consent of her son the King's council in England, which was then required procedure for a former Queen of England.
Queen isabella of england and king john of prague She died in , still hiding in the secret chamber. John was infatuated with his young and beautiful wife, but they both were reported to have engaged in adultery and to have had strong tempers which they used on each other. John Chapel of St. Succeeded by Amaury de Montfort.The Council reacted by confiscating her dower lands and stopped the payment of her pension as a Queen Dowager of England. Isabella and Hugh retaliated by threatening to retain custody of Princess Joan, now betrothed to the King of Scots. Terms were finally agreed on and Isabella received compensation for her dower lands in Normandy and payment for arrears in her pension.
Isabella had nine more children with Hugh de Lusignan. Described as "vain, capricious, and troublesome" by a contemporary, Isabella was summoned to the French court with her husband in to swear fealty to King Louis IX of France's brother, Alphonse, who had been invested as Count of Poitou. Their mother, Blanche, Queen Dowager of France and a cousin of King John, openly snubbed her.
Isabella already bore a deep-seated hatred of Blanche, due to her active support of the French invasion of England in May Isabella, seething and infuriated, began to actively conspire against King Louis. Isabella and her husband united forces with her son-in-law Raymond VII of Toulouse, who was married Margaret of Lusignan, in rebellion against the French king, which failed.
Queen isabella of england and king john John, his resources exhausted, was forced to flee the smoking rubble of his father's once-great French Empire. Learn about our Editorial Process. Earl William died in , at which point Henry II nominated Isabella as the sole heir to the earldom, and made her his ward. Read Edit View history.Two royal cooks were arrested for attempting to poison the King of France in , under questioning they confessed to having been in the pay of Isabella. She fled to Fontevrault Abbey, where she remained for two years. Isabella died on 31 May At her request, she was first buried in the churchyard of the Abbey, as an act of repentance for her sins.
Her second husband, Hugh de Lusignan died three years later on crusade.
Her son Hugh XI of Lusignan succeeded his father as Count of La Marche and Count of Angoulême in Many Lusignan children left France to find positions at the court of Henry III, their half-brother.
On a visit to Fontevrault, King Henry III of England was shocked to find his mother buried outside the Abbey and ordered her moved inside, where she was re-interred beside John's parents, Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine.
The Ancestry of Isabella of Angoulême
Isabella of Angoulême
Father: Aymer, Count of Angoulême
Paternal Grandfather: Count William IV of Angouleme
Paternal Great-grandfather: Wulgrin II of Angoulême.
Paternal Great-grandmother: Pontia de la Marche,
Mother:Alice of Courtenay
Maternal Grandfather: Peter I of Courtenay
Maternal Great-grandfather: Louis VI of France
Maternal Great-grandmother: Adélaide de Maurienne
Maternal Grandmother: Elisabeth of Courtenay
Maternal Great-grandfather: Renauld de Courtenay
Maternal Great-grandmother: Hawise du Donjon
The Children of Isabella of Angouleme
By her first marriage to King John:-
(1) Henry III, King of England (1 October - 16 November )
(2) Richard, Earl of Cornwall (5 January - 2 April )
(3) Joan, Queen of Scots (22 July - 4 March )
(4) Isabella, Holy Roman Empress ( - 1 December )
(5) Eleanor, Countess of Pembroke ( - 13 April )
By her second marraige to Hugh X of Lusignan
Hugh XI of Lusignan, Count of Angouleme ( - 6 April )
Aymer of Lusignan (c.
- 5 December
Agnes de Chauvigny ( - 3 January )
Alice, Countess of Surrey ( - 9 February )
Guy de Lusignan (d. at the Battle of Lewes)
Geoffrey de Lusignan (d. )
William of Lusignan, 1st Earl of Pembroke (d. )
Marguerite, Countess of Toulouse (c. /)
Isabella de Rancon ( - 14 January )