Isabella of Angoulême: The Vanished Queen?

Abstract

As a consort active at the turn of the thirteenth century, Isabella of Angoulême occupies a position in a period of history in which academic argument has focussed on the changing nature of queenship. Used by both medieval chroniclers and modern historians as a means to evidence John’s inadequacies as a ruler, assumptions have been made about Isabella as a Queen, positing that she was prevented from accessing the revenues available to English queens and was therefore inhibited from pursuing activities which would have enabled her to create networks of political and religious patronage. It has been suggested that she took no part in the politics and government of John’s rule, and was effectively excluded from the minority government of their son, Henry III. This chapter shows that Isabella was far from being a passive Queen. She was not denied money and land, and was treated as expected in contemporary medieval law. Further, as heir to the county of Angoulême, she was a highly important figure in Poitou and Aquitaine, where her role as Queen-mother was one which was politically valued and valuable.

On the few occasions she was mentioned by the chroniclers of the thirteenth century, Isabella of Angoulême, the second wife of King John, was not described favourably. According to these texts, the Queen was possessed of a sharp tongue, a biting wit, was a sorcerer, and an adulterer. Unlike other medieval queens to whom such words have been applied, there has been little academic study to challenge their veracity and examine Isabella’s queenship away from the misogynistic tropes attached to her name.¹

During the last thirty years, as queenship studies has nuanced and expanded ideas of what constitutes “power,” the ways that historians should assess, attribute, and describe power has been a constantly evolving discussion.² Historians have argued that John prevented Isabella from exercising power as queen consort and that he stopped her from accessing the fiscal resources to which she was entitled. It has been suggested that John’s purpose was a deliberate act to stop her being able wield patronage, and develop her own faction at court.³ But to what extent is this explanation true? Like kingship, queenship was an active exercise, and whilst ideas of patronage, intercession, motherhood, and peace-making may be themes which ran through each queen’s life, Isabella nevertheless existed in a temporal and political moment entirely unlike that of her predecessor and successor. Her relationship with her husband defined her queenship, but it did not define her, and even within these confines Isabella was not powerless.⁴

In modern scholarship Isabella tends to appear in England as a bride and then vanish, only to re-emerge in her widowhood. Historians have either glossed over her existence, or followed the narrative established by the chroniclers that Isabella was a medieval femme fatale, or labelled her the mother who abandoned her young children after John’s death in order to return to France to pursue her own aims.⁵ In this chapter, I explore Isabella’s seeming absence from the medieval sources that led historians to assume she was excluded from John’s court, restricted in her activities and unable to exercise power during his reign. Beginning by commenting on the way Isabella was perceived by the medieval chroniclers, I shall examine the evidence that can be mined from other sources to draw a more nuanced portrayal of Isabella’s experience as queen consort.

The Vanished Queen?

In his recent study of the chroniclers of the Angevin reigns, Michael Staunton neatly summed up the problem for modern historians hoping to glean information about women from the work of the medieval writers. He noted that, although Eleanor of Aquitaine appears more frequently than any other woman during the period of Angevin power, “the words devoted to her probably amount to less in total than those devoted to imaginary, supernatural women” (see Martin Aurell’s chapter).⁶ Details of the births, deeds, and lives of women were routinely omitted, and women were usually only mentioned in passing as someone’s wife, mother, sister, or daughter. But on the occasions a woman merited more than a few words, the usually male, usually clerical writers resorted to a series of tropes that reflected their own attitude to elite women: perceived sexual misconduct, inappropriate behaviour, and the potential to draw men away from their true purpose. Misogyny and prejudice was rife amongst the medieval historians, and like many other powerful women, Isabella of Angoulême fell victim to their judgemental attitudes.

Chroniclers from both England and France wrote extensively about the reigns of King John and his cross-Channel counterparts Philip Augustus and his son Louis VIII, and by the 1240s, Roger of Wendover, and his successor at St. Alban’s Abbey, Matthew Paris, had already fixed John’s reputation in England as a womanising lecher whose temper and controlling behaviour had made him unfit to rule. In so doing, they constructed a portrait of Isabella to support their stance. Wendover stated that the King was so seduced by his wife that he neglected his defence of Normandy, while Paris accused Isabella of incest, sorcery, and adultery, writing of the Queen on her death as having been “more Jezebel than Isabel.”⁷ The notion that the ability to govern one’s wife and one’s country was synonymous, was well established in medieval kingship. If a Queen did not behave in the manner expected of her dignity, if she was believed to have disproportionate influence over her husband the King and seemed uncontrollable, how was a King able to govern his kingdom successfully?⁸ The English chroniclers, interested in shaping John’s reputation, imagined a Queen that matched his nature, reducing Isabella to an example of Christian vice and a cipher for her husband’s ill-judgement and behaviour.

While the French sources are no less problematic, they do, however, allow Isabella a character of her own: intelligent, provocative, demanding, and proud.⁹ The most important of these is the Histoire des ducs de Normandie et des rois d’Angleterre composed c.1220 by an author traditionally referred to as the Anonymous of Béthune. This text contains the most references to Isabella, and although these are still limited, far more can be gleaned from this work than any other.¹⁰ According to the Histoire, John dearly loved Isabella, “although she often used to say reproachful and bitter things to him.” The author then gives examples of the Queen’s whip-smart ripostes to her husband’s comments. “At some other news he [John] said, ‘Lady this is no business of yours, for by the faith I owe you, I know a corner where you will pay no attention to the King of France these ten years, nor to all his power.’ ‘Yes, indeed, lord,’ she said. ‘I’m sure you’re longing to be a King in check, mated in a corner!’ She often said things of this kind and later suffered for it.”¹¹ The author sets this exchange in the context of John’s conflict of 1202–1204 with Philip Augustus, that ultimately resulted in John losing control of the duchy of Normandy. The words have been previously read as authentically interpreting the style and nature of the couple’s conversations, but more important is the Histoire’s placement of Isabella at John’s side during the dramatic events of this period. To Anonymous, a source traditionally viewed as reliable, Isabella was involved with her husband’s court, active in political discussions, and willing to voice her own opinion; she was not mute, absent, or sidelined.

Isabella’s presence in the chronicles may be limited, but these are only one type of record. King John’s administration created a substantial amount of documents. The records kept by his Chancery, alongside details to be found in the Pipe Rolls—financial records for each English county presented twice yearly at the Exchequer—provide an incredible resource for historians and a more complete picture of Isabella’s queenship. Editions of many documents were printed for the first time in the nineteenth century, and reflect the prejudices of those who edited them. The Chancery Rolls are well transcribed, but in some volumes women appear more frequently in the entries than the indices record, while in others the indices omit them altogether.¹² The various Rolls cover all seventeen years of John’s reign, but reading them in their entirety is not an option for most researchers. Most scholarship therefore, has relied upon the nineteenth-century editions and taken the accuracy of their indices at face value.¹³ The first volume of the edition of the Close Rolls for King John and his successor Henry III, spans the years 1204–1224. The index records thirty-four entries for Isabella of Angoulême, of which twelve entries relate to John’s reign. In fact, from the first entry mentioning the Queen in December 1204 to the final entry just before John’s death in October 1216, there are over seventy references to Isabella. These missed entries have served to entrench Isabella’s absence in the mind of modern historians.

Beginnings: Family, Inheritance, and Poitevin Politics

Born c.1186, Isabella was the only surviving child of Ademar Taillefer, Count of Angoulême and his wife Alix de Courtenay. Ademar’s family had held the county since the mid-ninth century, but when he married Alix in c.1184–1186, he was not yet its lord.¹⁴ Prior to her union with Ademar, Alix was married first to Andrew, Lord of La Ferté-Gaucher, and then to Guillaume, Comte de Joigny. From this second marriage she had one surviving son, Peter, with whom Isabella would seemingly form a close relationship.¹⁵ Alix was the granddaughter of Louis VI of France, and his wife Adelaide of Maurienne. Isabella was thus herself directly related to the Capetian monarchs.¹⁶ Isabella’s father, Ademar, was one of the six surviving children of William VI, Count of Angoulême, and his second wife Marguerite of Turenne.¹⁷ On the death of their father in 1179, Ademar’s eldest brother Vulgrin inherited the title.

By the end of the twelfth century, Poitou had largely embraced the practice of inheritance by primogeniture, but some families continued the custom known as droit de viage.¹⁸ This custom meant that the children of the lord inherited the title in turn, passing it successively from eldest to youngest son. Any children of the eldest son only stood to inherit once all his father’s younger siblings had died.¹⁹ Two years after he inherited his title, Vulgrin died. At the time of his death he had been in rebellion against Richard, Duke of Aquitaine, and the Duke saw the Count’s demise as an opportunity to impose his authority on the county. Under the practice of primogeniture, Vulgrin’s only surviving child Matilda stood to inherit Angoulême. Her uncles however, had other ideas, and so Richard moved against them to take her into his wardship.²⁰ In doing so he was in a position to control her marriage, and could therefore determine who would become count by right of Matilda’s inheritance.²¹ In spite of Richard’s actions, her uncles were ultimately able to exclude Matilda from inheriting, and Vulgrin’s brother William went on to become count.²² William himself died childless, and by 1187 Ademar finally acceded to the title. With Ademar’s two younger male siblings having died before 1192, it now looked far more likely that his children would inherit. Matilda had been thwarted for the present, but she did not give up her claim.²³

The Lusignans, Betrothal, and Marriage

The complex inheritance of lands and holdings that comprised the Plantagenet realms added to this mix. They were a patchwork over which the family exercised varying degrees of control, and though Poitou was both rich in resources and physically central to Plantagenet control over the wider area, it was also notorious for its independently minded barons whose flexibility of loyalty and almost continual rebellion against their overlords made governance difficult.

In addition to the Plantagenets, the Taillefers were also at odds with another powerful Poitevin family, the Lusignans.²⁴ The “most troublesome of the Poitevin vassals,” the Lusignans were power-hungry, acquisitive, and pragmatic with their loyalty to the counts of Poitou.²⁵ By early 1200, they had finally managed to secure something both they and the counts of Angoulême had long sought: the right of lordship over the county of La Marche.²⁶ La Marche brought the Lusignans an extensive swathe of strategically important land on the border between the Plantagenet realms and that of the King of France. Whoever held the county would be in a powerful position to negotiate with each overlord for the best political deal for themselves, and to seek opportunities for fiscal and territorial gain. Not one to miss a political advantage, by early 1200 Ademar had agreed to a betrothal between Isabella, and the new lord, Hugh IX de Lusignan. A marriage to Hugh would provide Isabella with a husband who could support her claim by force if necessary, and would—hopefully—result in heirs. Through those potential heirs, Ademar could ensure his family maintained a claim over La Marche, and for the Lusignans, a union promised the acquisition of the lordship of Angoulême, a prize very well-worth having.

The county of Angoulême lay directly in the line of communication between Normandy and the Plantagenet’s southern domains. The fortified city of Angoulême sitting high above the river Charente was also the gateway to the Atlantic port of La Rochelle, a city crucial to Plantagenet revenues. The county sat in the centre of Aquitaine, and was also the meeting point for several major roads, including the lucrative pilgrimage routes from northern France to Santiago de Compostela. A union between the Lusignans and the Taillefers would form a formidable political and physical alliance, with the combined territories of Lusignan, La Marche, and Angoulême making Hugh into a force that would constitute a considerable threat to King John’s authority as Count of Poitou, and his overall control of the duchy.²⁷ John had to act, and secured Ademar’s agreement to break Isabella’s betrothal.²⁸ An alliance with John and the potential for greater territorial expansion and influence was in prospect for the Count.²⁹ But aside from being the marital pawn in her father and John’s strategies, how did this situation ultimately impact Isabella? If we reflect upon her actions and attitudes in later life, these early experiences seem to have sharpened her sense of her inheritance and dynastic importance, and influenced her political sensibilities.

A Public Queen: 1200–1207

On 12 August, 1200, Isabella married John in Angoulême cathedral, and became Countess of Anjou, and of Poitou, Lady of Ireland, and Duchess of Normandy.³⁰ Following their marriage, she and John journeyed northward, finally arriving in England on 6 October. Two days later Isabella was anointed, and crowned queen at Westminster Abbey.³¹ Following her coronation, Isabella travelled with her household to the Plantagenet heartland of the west of England. Once there, she stayed at Malborough for the remainder of the year.

Isabella became queen at approximately the age of 12 and historians have assumed that because of her youth she was excluded from John’s court. Evidence shows otherwise: the Chancery and Pipe Rolls enable parts of her itinerary to be constructed, and these demonstrate that Isabella was frequently with the King. In addition, the Rolls reveal details relating to Isabella’s expenditure, such as payment to the Queen’s master of hounds, and show gifts procured for her by the King.

Early in 1201, the Queen joined John on a journey north; far from being left behind and away from the centre of the royal politics, Isabella was at its heart. With the King, she was received in York by the Archbishop, Geoffrey, and from there travelled with her husband to Scarborough. Isabella spent some time at John’s castle at Tickhill, and then journeyed to Canterbury. On Easter Day, she and John undertook a second coronation in the cathedral conducted by the archbishop, Hubert Walter.³² By May, the couple were in Portsmouth, where John’s barons were summoned to a council in response to the worsening political situation in France. Here, at Pentecost, John and Isabella held a public crown-wearing ceremony before crossing the Channel.³³

From May 1201 to December 1203, the couple remained in France. Aged approximately 13 on their arrival, Isabella was plunged directly into the political maelstrom of John’s Continental dominions, with ongoing skirmishes, revolts, and changes of loyalty. The events of the period are well known, but precisely dated locations for the protagonists are more difficult to pinpoint. We do not know whether Isabella remained in proximity to John, but in February 1202, it is fairly certain the couple were in Angoulême, where John met with Sancho, King of Navarre.³⁴ It seems likely that Isabella spent further time there, but amidst more turmoil in northern France it is possible she was with her husband for the Christmas festivities at Caen later that year.³⁵ In mid-January 1203, the Queen was besieged by rebel forces at Chinon. Rescued, she was reunited with her husband at Le Mans where she witnessed the aftermath of the revolt John would later bitterly describe as an act of betrayal: the handing of Alençon to the French king, Philip Augustus by John’s supposed ally, Count Robert of Sées.³⁶ Later in the year, Isabella was with John at the ducal capital Rouen, and from there they travelled to Caen, returning to England at the beginning of December.³⁷

At the end of January 1204, the King and Queen travelled to the north of England. As they entered the city of York civic recognition would have been customary, and the Pipe Rolls record that the citizens owed Isabella a gift of 20 marks. Their return journey began at the start of March, after which Isabella spent some time in Hampshire. After Easter, the Queen was once again in Malborough, and the Pipe Rolls reveal she was with the King in Tewkesbury for Christmas.³⁸ In 1205, the records show her in Southampton, Windsor, Winchester twice, Dorchester, Ludgershall, and Farnham.³⁹ It is likely that she spent Christmas at Oxford with John, and in mid-January the King and Queen travelled again to the north of England, where, in February 1206, the pair can be found at York, Knaresborough, and Scarborough.⁴⁰ Isabella spent time in the south of England, before returning to France with her husband in June. After arriving at La Rochelle her whereabouts are unknown, but it seems probable that she again went to Angoulême to stay with her mother.⁴¹ We can be certain she was there in November, as it was then that John, who was in La Rochelle, ordered all of Angoulême to swear fealty to Isabella, who was now of age to take on the mantle of her inheritance.⁴² The couple landed in England on 13 December, and, although Isabella visited Malborough on her return we can be certain that the King and Queen spent at least some of Christmas and the New Year together, as the future Henry III was conceived at this time. In Spring 1207, Isabella travelled to Malborough where she appears to have remained for some time. She visited Ludgershall, Gloucester, and Winchester, and it was at Winchester that she spent her confinement, giving birth to Henry on 1 October.⁴³

Between her marriage and the birth of her first child, Isabella was far more visible in England and France than previously acknowledged. Young though she was, the Queen traversed north and western France for two years. She witnessed the continual skirmishes and constantly shifting allegiances of the local lords, and was made a captive; not the actions of a woman withdrawn from either the centre of court or the events surrounding the collapse of John’s hold on Normandy. In her coronation and crown-wearing ceremonies, at Christmas, at civic processions, as she made her oblations on Palm Sunday and Easter, and presented a gift to the shrine of Thomas Becket at Canterbury, Isabella was a public presence.⁴⁴ The oaths of fealty she took in Angoulême not only were meant to assure her position as rightful Countess, but also demonstrated to those swearing fidelity that this was a woman who had now reached maturity; Isabella held the title and her person was the future of the dynasty.⁴⁵

A Queen and Her Dynasty, 1207–1217

Isabella spent a great deal of time pregnant. After Henry, her other surviving children were Richard, born 6 January 1209; Joan, born 22 July 1210; Isabella, born c.June 1214; and Eleanor, c.May 1217.⁴⁶ A pregnant Queen was one with the potential to ensure the security of the realm and survival of the dynasty, and while Isabella may have been obscured from public life for the period of her confinement and before her churching, her personal political power was immense. As Isabella’s first pregnancy progressed, John sent his wife a variety of gifts, cloth, clothing, and wine.⁴⁷ Isabella and John were both in residence at Winchester for the Christmas celebrations immediately following Henry’s birth. Here, the large order for Isabella’s wardrobe of richly striped fur hoods, hoods of ermine, and multiple ells of finest scarlet suggests a highly visible, public celebration of her status as the mother of an heir.⁴⁸ These events occurred in the public sphere of the royal court, the political heart of the realm, where all discourse was public.⁴⁹ Both in the wholly public ceremonial events of the Christmas period and during her activities within the court, Isabella had spaces where her personal power was acknowledged.

In 1214, however, Isabella’s status as queen, royal mother, and lord were required by John in Poitou. The risks associated with the Queen travelling through France were outweighed by the necessity of Isabella’s presence in Angoulême. Queens were expected to play a role in ensuring the successful negotiations of future dynastic matches. Royal marriages were not only prestigious, but diplomatic, and Isabella was being accompanied by her daughter Joan for this purpose. In Poitou, Isabella had been acting on behalf of John: the Charter Rolls show his instruction that the Queen’s seal was as his own.⁵⁰ Now, she joined the diplomatic negotiations of an extensive peace treaty designed to shore up John’s support in the region, and capped by the betrothal of Joan to Hugh de Lusignan, eldest son Hugh IX, the man to whom Isabella herself had been betrothed.⁵¹

Politically, a pregnant Queen would have added an extra dimension to any diplomacy: a tangible reminder of the dynastic importance of successful negotiations, and it is highly likely that Isabella was pregnant with her second daughter at this time. This is supported by an order to the seneschal of Angoulême to reserve specific meats from the hunt for both John and Isabella. It has been suggested that this was a seigneurial perk, but it could represent instructions to provide appropriate delicacies for a pregnant woman, or for a post-churching celebration.⁵² Either way, Isabella’s presence at the negotiations as Countess, Queen, and mother was significant, the outcome of the diplomacy was successful, and once more, a daughter of the heir to Angoulême was betrothed to the Lusignan heir.⁵³

The following year, Isabella and her family were plunged into the maelstrom of civil war. By Easter of 1215, John’s relationship with his magnates was at crisis point, and the King began preparations to ensure the safety of Isabella and their children. On 29 April, John sent their younger son Richard to Corfe Castle—the King’s highly fortified fortress in Dorset—and at the start of May, Isabella was moved from Berkhamsted Castle to Winchester.⁵⁴ By 14 May, the Queen and her son Henry, were on their way to the recently re-fortified Malborough Castle.⁵⁵ In the midst of the turmoil however, the King found time to order the constable of Malborough to ensure Isabella was provided with roach and small pike each Saturday and Sunday.⁵⁶ Magna Carta was sealed on 15 June, and following this John wrote to Isabella instructing her to release the hostage she was holding on his behalf.⁵⁷ In August, Isabella was moved with Henry to Corfe Castle: the King had once more angered the Barons, who, seeking to oust John completely, had invited Philip Augustus’s son Louis to stake his claim to the English throne.⁵⁸ As John prepared for war, his wife and children remained in safety in the south west.⁵⁹ Louis landed in England on 21 May 1216, and in early June, John was forced to flee westward. In July, John set out again to defend his throne, but August of 1216 would be the last time Isabella saw her husband.⁶⁰

On 15 October 1216, realising he was dying, John wrote to Pope Honorius III. As rebellion raged around him, and Louis garnered more support, John wished to ensure the succession of his dynasty and asked Pope Honorius III to place his kingdom and heirs under papal protection.⁶¹ John died on 19 October, and on 20 January 1217, Honorius wrote to Isabella, expressing his condolences on the death of her husband. Honorius’s letter, however, is a reply to a—now lost—missive written to the Pope by the Queen. His response intimates that Isabella had constructed a letter of sorrow and pleading, to which the Pope replied that “the more we see you destitute of great comfort in your grief … the more we aspire to preserve his justice for you with very firm intent. Inclined therefore to your just prayers, we take you … under the protection of St. Peter.”⁶² Honorius’s letter also reveals that Isabella was aware of the nature of John’s previous appeal. Five to seven months pregnant with her daughter Eleanor, Isabella had no qualms about using John’s dying request to effect whatever she saw as necessary to protect herself, and wielded her authority to ensure her aim.⁶³ Without a copy of Isabella’s letter, we can only speculate to its contents. But this, and later correspondence, demonstrate that—like many other queens—Isabella kept an ongoing relationship with the papacy.

Isabella’s marginalisation from Henry III’s minority government has been attributed to the King’s counsellors’ belief that she had been too long associated with John and possessed a “sharp tongue” and “passionate excess.”⁶⁴ But her initial lack of involvement can be ascribed to her pregnancy: confinement prior to and after the birth dictating the removal of the Queen from the arena of active government. In addition, ensuring the Queen’s safety was of greater importance than a place beside her eldest son. A letter composed very shortly after 28 October 1216 to Geoffrey de Marisco, Justiciar of Ireland, to inform him of John’s death, reveals that Geoffrey must previously have offered Ireland as a safe haven for Isabella, and her second son, Richard.⁶⁵ The offer was declined, but the experiences of Henry’s chief guardian William Marshal—who had been alive since the reign of Henry II and seen John’s route to succession via the death of his elder siblings—meant that he likely placed the protection of the Queen’s life, and the life of another potential heir over every other consideration.

By June 1217, Louis of France began to consider negotiations for a peace treaty, and returning to court after her daughter Eleanor’s birth, Isabella joined the attempt to bring the two parties to agreement. Rather than distancing themselves from the Queen, the minority government utilised her authority as peace-maker. First, Isabella met with Louis’s representative Hervé de Donzy, Count of Nevers near Windsor, but while the meeting was amicable there was no agreement. However, following the decisive Battle of Sandwich in August, Louis finally conceded his loss and sued for terms. At the beginning of September Isabella returned to Windsor. She participated in the talks, guaranteed an extension of the truce, and was with Guala, and William Marshal when they met with Louis on an island in the Thames to cement the final agreement.⁶⁶ Having assisted in securing peace in Henry’s English domains, Isabella left England sometime after mid-September to take full personal possession of her ancestral lands.⁶⁷ Far from abandoning her children however, her move was to help ensure that Henry’s dynastic inheritance in Poitou was safe.

Comtesse-Reine

French historiography refers to Isabella as the Countess-queen, an epithet that not only states the titles which were hers by right, but also captures both her role and persona upon her return to Angoulême. According to the Histoire des ducs, she arrived in Angoulême, took homage from those of her lands, and “became very much lady of the Angoumois.” In the first years of her independent lordship, Isabella’s efforts to consolidate her rule were performed in Henry’s interests as well as her own. In an act designed to provide a physical representation of her inheritance, Isabella began negotiations to construct a new chapel and burial place for her father at the Abbey of La Couronne, which Ademar had previously intimated would become the family’s new necropolis—memorialisation was a powerful tool in marking dynastic credibility. In Angoulême Isabella attempted to regain lost holdings. She took hostages, waged war against recalcitrant vassals, and entered into dispute with the bishop of Saintes.⁶⁸ Isabella acted in a vice-regal capacity on behalf of Henry, evidenced by an instruction by the King to his mother and the abbots of St. Maixent and St. Jean d’Angély to gain an oath of fealty from the bishop of Limoges.⁶⁹ All the while Isabella’s cousin Matilda—who had married Hugh IX de Lusignan, to whom Isabella had been betrothed—continued to push her claim as rightful lord of Angoulême.

In 1220, however, things changed: Isabella unexpectedly married Hugh X, Lord of Lusignan and La Marche, who at the time was betrothed to her daughter Joan.⁷⁰ In a letter to Henry written in May of that year, Isabella explained her actions, stating that Hugh’s friends had, “counselled him to take a wife from whom he might quickly have heirs, and it was suggested that he take a wife in France. If he had done so, all your land in Poitou and Gascony and ours would have been lost. But we, seeing the great danger that might emerge from such a marriage—and your counsellors would give us no counsel in this took said H[ugh], count of La Marche, as our lord and God knows that we did this more for your advantage than for ours.”⁷¹ Was Isabella sincere in her sentiments, or was she attempting to make excuses for her actions? Rumours that Hugh was looking to marry elsewhere had reached England before the wedding took place, and Isabella had previously written to the minority government looking for support and guidance, suggesting that her words did not have the hollow ring that has frequently been assumed.⁷²

After the marriage, however, Isabella’s interests began to diverge from that of her eldest son. Now focused on her own lands, the remaining years of Isabella’s life were spent in the turbulent politics of Aquitaine, and marked by periods when—like their parents before them—Isabella and Hugh switched loyalties between Henry and the Capetian monarchy, pragmatically shifting their allegiances as it suited them best.⁷³ Charters, concords, treaties, and records of homage all show that Isabella was an active and powerful lord. In addition, she gave birth to a further nine surviving children with Hugh, several of whom moved to England and were offered support and patronage by their half-brother Henry.⁷⁴

A letter written in 1241 to the French queen-mother Blanche of Castile—by an observer loyal to the Capetians—reveals Isabella’s concept of herself as comtesse-reine. Pleading on behalf of her husband before Louis IX and his wife Margaret of Provence, the author recounts the anger of domina regina Marchiae, that after waiting three days for an audience to formally ask for their forgiveness, the King and Queen did not rise to meet her when she entered their chamber, ask her to sit with them, or rise as she left.⁷⁵ Isabella’s experience of authority as a queen is explicit in this document.⁷⁶ In spite of the fact that Isabella had not been part of a reigning monarchy for over twenty years, the expectation of the treatment she ought to have received shows the conveyance of queenly status through anointing. Once a queen, always a queen.

Death and Commemoration

In 1243, Isabella and Hugh appear to have decided to live out the remainder of their marriage separately. Isabella chose to withdraw from society and see out the closing stages of her life at Fontevraud, the abbey favoured by many aristocratic women—including Eleanor of Aquitaine—whose tradition allowed those who had been used to holding and exercising power to continue to maintain direction of their life, even in monastic seclusion.

Isabella died on 4 June 1246, and was buried as she had requested in the chapter house at Fontevraud.⁷⁷ Given that she had created a memorial chapel at La Couronne for her family—her eldest son Hugh XI de Lusignan would be buried there—her decision not to have her body transferred to the abbey is, perhaps, unusual. In the 1230s, Henry III had made provision for the relocation of his father’s body to what eventually was covered by an impressive—and innovative—memorial tomb, but his choice of tomb form for Isabella was different.⁷⁸ Visiting Fontevraud in 1254, Henry instructed that a gisant be made.⁷⁹ He relocated Isabella’s remains, and selected a monument form prevalent during her time as queen that showed her robed and crowned, a design that matched those of his uncle and grandparents already located in the abbey. Often criticised as simplistic, Henry’s choice suggests he wanted to ensure his mother would always be remembered as a Queen of England, and member of the Plantagenet royal family.⁸⁰ But while this commemoration of Isabella may have been appropriate to her queenly status, it ultimately robbed the Countess-Queen of her final act of authority: the choice of her own burial place.

Queen of England, Countess of Angoulême, mother of fourteen surviving children, Isabella of Angoulême was a woman who spent most of her life in a position of power. Her reputation was ultimately shaped by the failings of her husband. She became an easy target for misogynistic tropes and topoi deployed by monastic chroniclers interested in explaining John’s failures as King. Yet a more careful analysis of the surviving historical record reveals a Queen who was anything but vanished who, from the age of just 12, performed an active and important role at the royal court and who, even after the death of her first husband, continued to wield power and hold influence. Up until her death, Isabella acted in a way which suggests she fully understood how to wield power and expected to be afforded the dignity and reverence which her position as queen consort was due.