Blanche of Valois (1317-1348) was the Empress of the Holy Roman Empire, the wife of Emperor Charles IV. Blanche was the daughter of Charles of Valois and the sister of Philip VI of France, and her marriage to Charles IV consolidated an alliance between the House of Valois of France and the House of Luxembourg of Germany and Bohemia.
Biography
Blanche was born in 1317, the youngest daughter of Charles of Valois and Mahaut of Chatillon, and she was the cousin of Charles IV of France. In 1323, she was betrothed to marry Wenzel, the eldest son of King John of Bohemia, while he was studying in the Kingdom of France. Her brother would become Philip VI of France, and her husband would become Karl IV of Germany. She was popular in Bohemia, as she learned Czech and German; in 1346, she became Holy Roman Empress when her husband was elected King of the Romans. Blanche's husband and her brother would form an alliance during the Hundred Years' War, and she died of illness in 1348 a year after Charles' coronation as Holy Roman Empire. While Blanche was once bitter rivals with her husband due to his affairs with Richara, she was always faithful to him until her death.
