#Isabel de Valois

[andiatas]

Royal Reads: Jan-Mar 2024

Note: Some of the following links are affiliate links, which means I earn a commission on every purchase. This does not affect the price you pay.

Kateryn Parr: Henry VIII's Sixth Queen by Laura Adkins (Mar. 15, 2024) // Anne Boleyn & Elizabeth I: The Mother and Daughter Who Changed History by Tracy Borman (new paperback version published Mar. 7, 2024) // Messalina: The Life and Times of Rome’s Most Scandalous Empress by Honor Cargill-Martin (Mar. 14, 2024)

House of Lilies: The Dynasty that Made Medieval France by Justine Firnhaber-Baker (Mar. 28, 2024) // Charles III: New King. New Court. The Inside Story. by Robert Hardman (Jan. 18, 2024) // Sisters of Richard III: The Plantagenet Daughters of York by Sarah J Hodder (Mar. 15, 2024)

Power and Glory: Elizabeth II and the Rebirth of Royalty by Alexander Larman (Mar. 28, 2024) // The House of Dudley: A New History of Tudor England by Joanne Paul (new paperback version published Jan. 9, 2024)

Young Queens: The Intertwined Lives of Catherine De' Medici, Elisabeth de Valois, and Mary, Queen of Scots by Leah Redmond Chang (new paperback version published Feb. 29, 2024) // Marcus Aurelius: The Stoic Emperor by Donald J. Robertson (Mar. 26, 2024) // My Mother and I by Ingrid Seward (Feb. 15, 2024)

Queen Victoria and her Prime Ministers: A Personal History by Anne Somerset (Mar. 28, 2024) // Young Elizabeth: Princess. Prisoner. Queen. by Nicola Tallis (Feb. 29, 2024) // Edward II: His Sexuality and Relationships by Kathryn Warner (Mar. 15, 2024)

[isadomna]

Isabel de Portugal

Isabel de Valois

Isabel Clara Eugenia de Austria

[lonelyqueenofhearts]

𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓯𝓸𝓾𝓻 𝔀𝓲𝓿𝓮𝓼 𝓸𝓯 𝓟𝓱𝓲𝓵𝓲𝓹 𝓘𝓘

[carloskaplan]

Isabel de Valois, raíña de España

[armatofu]

[barbararosillo]

La exequias de Isabel de Valois, tercera mujer de Felipe II

Estimados lectores: En este enlace podréis escuchar mi sección “La vida te da sorpresas” en el programa de Radio Andalucía Información, «Patrimonio andaluz» del día 10/03/2024. https://barbararosillo.files.wordpress.com/2024/03/las-exquias-de-isabel-de-valois-tercera-mujer-de-felipe-ii.mp3

[elcomunero]

La exequias de Isabel de Valois, tercera mujer de Felipe II

Estimados lectores: En este enlace podréis escuchar mi sección “La vida te da sorpresas” en el programa de Radio Andalucía Información, «Patrimonio andaluz» del día 10/03/2024. https://barbararosillo.files.wordpress.com/2024/03/las-exquias-de-isabel-de-valois-tercera-mujer-de-felipe-ii.mp3

[skeleton-richard]

The triptych is complete!

Aumerle, Richard II, and Isabelle

Up next: painted versions of Aumerle and Isabelle

[nothing-new-under-the-sun124]

If I can give a late response.

You’re kind of right about Mary of Scots not being Philips type.

There’s an anecdote that shortly after Elisabeth of Valois recovery from her miscarriage in 1564 she asked Philip if he would have married again if she had died and if it would be Mary.

This was his reply

I'm curious since you're so supportive of an Elizabeth/Philip match on your blog how did Philip II feel about Mary Queen of Scots?

It's often assumed in novels and movies that he invaded England in 1588 to try to avenge MQOTS death because she was a Catholic but was this really the case?

Mary made Philip her heir when she was imprisoned I believe she disowned James I and VI because he refused to help her. I wonder how Philip responded when he heard that news? The man did not like the French and regarded them as his primary opponent. Wasn't he opposed to Mary politically because she married Francis II? I don't think he would have tried to help her get the English Throne or Scottish Throne back like some people think. Correct me if I'm wrong but it sounds like he and Elizabeth had a pretty good friendship/partnership going on for the first couple decades of their reigns right? It was religious differences that ultimately pushed them apart.

Forgive me, I think I hardly can give you an elaborate response to all this right now because my mind is currently absorbed with other things like the war in Ukraine and I don't remember all the details anymore. In order to refresh my memory I need to go through my sources but I don't have energy for that right now.

In short from what I remember.

It's important to understand that we talk about a long time period here, from the 1560s to 1580s. Philip's attitude towards Mary Queen of Scots changed over time. During the 1560s Phillip showed little interest in her and advancing her rights to the English throne, not least because a Frenchwoman on the English throne would not be in his interests. However, after the events of 1568-69 (which were a turning point in Philip and Elizabeth's relations) the situation gradually changed. The hopes that Elizabeth might convert to Catholicism slowly died and Philip increasingly came to see the deposed Mary Queen of Scots as an convenient alternative to Elizabeth. But only under the condition that Mary Queen of Scots was backed by the Spanish, the Spanish needed a weak Mary dependant on Spain. If she was backed by the French, that is, if the French had influence on her, if it were her French relatives or connections that secured her, say, release, there was a risk for the Spanish. Because of this duality surrounding Mary Queen of Scots Philip was often swaying whether to help her, how much to help her, how far to go in this help etc.

During Mary's confinement in England Philip often praised her for her Catholicism and, of course, he welcomed her designs to make him her heir instead of James, but it's difficult to say how he really felt about her persona. Interestingly, if I remember correctly, one of the popes after the death of Philip's fourth wife Ana offered Philip to marry Mary Queen of Scots but Philip rejected this idea.

Lastly, Philip didn't invade England to avenge Mary's death, it was only a pretext, the invasion plans were made earlier.

You may check my other posts on Philip and Elizabeth's relations.

[editfandom]

Marguerite de Valois - Queen Margot, 1994

[rmelster]

Isabelle de Bourbon, countess consort of Charolais, circa 1460.

[une-sanz-pluis]

hello! i wanted to ask whether there is any record of what isabella of valois’s reasons were for refusing to marry into the english royal family again after the death of richard ii. obviously it’s easy to speculate a variety of possible reasons, given the circumstances, but do we have evidence of what was actually primarily motivating that decision? or at least what reasons she gave publicly for it?

Hi, sorry for taking so long to get to your ask. The last few months have been hectic and I had to take some time to research this. The research took awhile because the image of Isabelle of Valois making a furious stand against Henry IV and refusing to marry his son is very common but actual contemporary sources for it... are not. At least, I haven't been able to find any.

I'm not saying that we definitely have no contemporary source for it - I'm aware that, since I can't read French or Latin and don't have access to an academic library, I can only check things that have been published or translated into English and are easily accessible. However, I'm reasonably certain that I've not missed anything obvious since none of the academic work I've read ever cite anything like the story. The most sources say is that Henry IV wanted Isabelle to marry into the royal family (e.g. Jean Creton claims that Henry wanted to marry a woman in the French royal family himself and marry his son, the future Henry V, to Isabelle) and that Charles VI* was steadfast in his refusal to even countenance the offer and instead wanted Isabelle to be returned.

The best source I could find for Isabelle's feelings on her potential remarriage is in Jean Froissart's Oeurves, which is available online for free but in French. Working off an ill-advised Google Translation and other historians' discussion of the passage, Jean de Hangest, lord of Hugueville was able to have a private audience with Isabelle, during which he informed her that her parents absolutely forbade her from marrying into the English royal family again and that she should refuse any efforts even if she incurred the wrath of the English. Isabelle confirmed that the English had spoken to her about marriage on several occasions (there are no other details were given) and then she asked Hugueville to assure her father of her obedience to his will and said, on fear of death, she wouldn't disobey him and marry without his permission. Then she began to weep and Hugueville ended their meeting.

Her anger at Henry IV does have some support in contemporary sources, however, but these relate to reports of her behaviour during the ceremonies for her return to France in Mary 1401.

The sources almost universally agree that Isabelle was agitated during the ceremonies, both in England and in France. Adam of Usk reports that she said little but scowled with "deep hatred" at Henry and that some feared "her burning desire for revenge". Other writers report her weeping during the ceremonies. Juvenal des Ursins, for instance, writes that she wept and continued to weep loudly, despite her parents' joyful greeting of her.

It's important to stress that Isabelle is given little to no direct speech in these reports (the exception is John Hayward who wrote Isabelle openly reproving Henry, but given he wrote during the Tudor era, his version should be considered suspect) and that all reports interpret her body language in order to fit their own narratives. For instance, Usk depicts her unconcealed anger as a sign of her childishness which, in turn, feeds his overall aim in discrediting Richard II's kingship. For Richard to choose such a young and childish girl for his queen speaks to a serious error in judgement and further adds to Lancastrian narrative of Richard being unable to mature into adulthood and rule properly.

This is not to say that Isabelle's agitation was a wholesale invention by the chroniclers but, rather, it is they who have assigned the meaning to her behaviour.

I suspect that the narrative of her furious refusal to the proposal that she marry Henry's son conflates the reports of Usk and Hayward (the latter of whom is probably given too much weight) with the fact of the marriage negotiations. It's a perfectly logical leap to make. We know from Hugueville that the English did speak to her about marriage but we know nothing about what was said or how she felt about it, so we borrow from the accounts of her open anger at Henry IV when she was returned to her parents. But in terms of actual evidence, all we know is that her parents had prohibited it and that Isabelle wished to be obedient to their will. It's also important to recognise that Isabelle was still under the age of consent so she, personally, could not agree to a marriage and permission had to be given by her parents as long she remained underage.

As you say, it's very easy to speculate. I came away from my research feeling incredibly sorry for Isabelle. It's very, very easy imagine that Richard's deposition and the prolonged negotiations between England and France over her future were incredibly distressing, especially when we read of the pressure she was under from both sides. It would be entirely natural if she did resent Henry for what he had done to her and to Richard and I do think there was at least some truth to Usk's reports of her anger. In terms of what she felt about her potential husband - who was very probably the future Henry V, though the official records are somewhat vague on this point - we have no evidence.

* I use "Charles VI" here as it was in his name that these actions were carried out. It should be read as a shorthand for his government as due to his severe mental illness it is not always clear who was directing French policy. As far as I can make out, however, Charles was in one of his lucid periods during these negotiations.

References

Stephanie Downes and Stephanie Trigg, "���she shal bryngen us the pees on every syde”: The Ceremonial Restoration of Women in Late Medieval Culture", Literature, Emotions and Pre-Modern War: Conflict In Medieval and Early Modern Europe (ARC Humanities Press 2021)

Nancy McLoughlin, Jean Gerson and Gender: Rhetoric and Politics in Fifteenth-Century France (Palgrave 2015)

Christopher Phillpotts, “The Fate of the Truce of Paris, 1396–1415,” Journal of Medieval History, vol. 24, no. 1 (1998)

S.P. Pistono, “Henry IV and Charles VI: The Confirmation of the Twenty-Eight-Year Truce,” Journal of Medieval History, vol. 3, no. 4 (1977)

S. P. Pistono, “The Diplomatic Mission of Jean De Hangest, Lord of Hugueville (October, 1400),” Canadian Journal of History, vol. 13, no. 2 (1978)

Louise Tingle, "Isabella of Valois: Child Queen", Later Plantagenet and the Wars of the Roses Consorts: Power, Influence, and Dynasty (Palgrave 2023)  

Deanne Williams, "Isabelle de France: Child Bride", Shakespeare and the Performance of Girlhood (Palgrave 2014)

[isadomna]

"Catherine wept for her granddaughters the infantas and implored Princess Juana to tend to them. During the coming weeks, the children were committed to the care of Sofonisba Anguissola, their mother’s favourite artist and lady-in-waiting. Devastated by Elisabeth’s death, Sofonisba said ‘she did not want to continue living’, according to the envoy from the court of Urbino. She agreed to stay in Spain for the infantas however, and became their first teacher. The little princesses would remain in her care for the next five years, until Sofonisba returned to Italy to marry."

Leah Redmond Chang, Young Queens

[vietgiorgio]

"I thought, she's even lonelier than me. She loves as though she is seeking revenge."

Queen Margot (1994)

Director: Patrice Chéreau

Cinematography: Philippe Rousselot

[ginger-grimm]

HAPPINESS EXCHANGE

Isabelle De Valois-Angoulême & Charles Brandon for @malice1329

COLORING

I hope you like it!

[skeleton-richard]

YES TO ALL OF THIS.

Obviously you'd have to change some of the dialog regarding pregnancy imagery but that's not a huge ask.

Isabelle is a kid-- she's innocent and scared and doesn't deserve Richard to be taken from her, and to Bolingbroke's faction she's just collateral damage-- Richard was their main issue, who cares about the nine-year-old French brat. And Richard himself knows what it's like to undergo massive royal trauma at that age. Isabelle is like a daughter to him and he physically fights to try to get to her in 5.1 when they're parted.

Also Bushy, Bagot, and Green babysitting her.

I know this sounds ridiculous but. a production of Richard II where Isabel is her historical age. This little kid obviously out of her depth and barely understanding what’s going on around her. The lady in 3.4. acting as a nursemaid rather than a friend. A nine year old screaming and crying to stay with Richard. Richard kissing her on the forehead. Northumberland dropkicking a child off the stage. also: young Isabel could almost work as a foil to Richard, who was crowned at ~10.