Isabella

sabella was the only daughter and heir of Aymer Taillefer, Count of Angoulême, and therefore the Countess of Angoulême in her own right. She was born between 1186 and 1188.

At just 12 years old, Isabella had been betrothed to Hugh IX 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 her. As a result of John's temerity in taking her as his second wife, King Philip II of France confiscated all of their French lands, and armed conflict ensued.

They married on August 24, 1200, in Angoulême, a year after he annulled his first marriage to Isabel of Gloucester. She was crowned queen in an elaborate ceremony on October 8 at Westminster Abbey in London. It was said that he neglected his state affairs to spend time with Isabella, often remaining in bed with her until noon. However, it is possible these were rumours spread by John's enemies to discredit him as a weak and grossly irresponsible ruler, given that at the time John was engaging in a desperate war against King Philip II of France to hold on to the remaining Plantagenet duchies.

Isabella gave birth to their first child, Henry, seven years after her marriage to John, in 1207 at Winchester Castle. Two years later, another son, Richard, was born. Between 1210 and 1215, three daughters followed: Joan, Isabel, and Eleanor.

John died at Newark on the wild, stormy night of October 18, 1216, leaving England in a state of anarchy and civil war. Isabella and John's nine-year-old son Henry was crowned King Henry III at the Abbey Church of Gloucester with a golden circlet belonging to his mother since his father had previously lost the royal treasure while attempting to cross the Wash estuary.

The following July, less than a year after his crowning as King Henry III of England, she left him in the care of his regent, William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke, and returned to France to assume control of her inheritance of Angoulême.

In the spring of 1220, Isabella married Hugh X of Lusignan, Count of La Marche and the son of her former fiancé, Hugh IX, to whom she had been betrothed before her marriage to King John. It had been previously arranged that her eldest daughter Joan should marry Hugh, and the little girl 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.

Isabella had married Hugh without the consent of the king's council in England, as was required of a queen dowager. That council had the power not only to assign to her any subsequent husband but also to decide whether she should be allowed to remarry at all. Isabella's flouting of its authority moved the council to confiscate her dower lands and stop the payment of her pension. Isabella and her husband retaliated by threatening to keep Joan, who had now been promised in marriage to the King of Scotland. They eventually came to terms to avoid conflict with the Scottish king, who was eager to receive his bride. Isabella was granted the stannaries in Devon and the revenue of Aylesbury for a period of four years in compensation for her confiscated dower lands in Normandy, as well as the £3,000 arrears for her pension.

Isabella had nine more children with Hugh X. Isabella's children from her royal marriage did not join her in Angoulême, remaining in England with their eldest brother, Henry III.

Isabella could not reconcile herself with her less prominent position in France. Though a former queen of England, Isabella was now mostly regarded as a mere countess and had to give precedence to other women. At the French court, Queen Dowager Blanche openly snubbed her. This so infuriated Isabella, who had a deep-seated hatred of Blanche for having fervently supported the French invasion of England during the First Barons' War in May 1216, that she began to conspire actively against King Louis. Isabella and her husband, along with other disgruntled nobles, sought to create an English-backed confederacy that united the provinces of the south and west against the French king. She encouraged her son Henry in his invasion of Normandy in 1230 but then did not provide him with the support she had promised.

In 1244, after the confederacy had failed and Hugh had made peace with King Louis, two royal cooks were arrested for attempting to poison the king; upon questioning, they confessed to having been in Isabella's pay. Before Isabella could be taken into custody, she fled to Fontevraud Abbey, where she died on June 4, 1246.

By Isabella's own prior arrangement, she was first buried in the abbey's churchyard as an act of repentance for her many misdeeds. On a visit to Fontevraud, her son, King Henry III of England, was shocked to find her buried outside the abbey and ordered her to be immediately moved inside. She was finally placed beside Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine.

Picture: The effigy of Isabella of Angoulême.

Sources:

Isabella of Angouleme:John's Jezebel, Nicholas Vincent

The Conquering Family, Thomas B. Costain

Isabella , suo jure countess of Angoulême (c.1188–1246), Nicholas Vincent

The Marriage and Coronation of Isabelle of Angoulême, H.G. Richardson