Joanna of Bourbon

Joanna of Bourbon (Jeanne de Bourbon; 3 February 1338 – 6 February 1378) was Queen of France by marriage to King Charles V. She acted as his political adviser and was appointed potential regent in case of a minor regency.

Joanna of Bourbon
Joanna in the Parement de Narbonne, c. 1375
Queen consort of France
Tenure8 April 1364 – 6 February 1378
Coronation1 June 1364
Born3 February 1338
Vincennes, France
Died6 February 1378(1378-02-06) (aged 40)
Paris, France
Burial
Basilique Saint-Denis
Spouse
​
(m. 1350)​
Issue
HouseBourbon
FatherPeter I, Duke of Bourbon
MotherIsabella of Valois

Life

Early life

Born in the Château de Vincennes, Joanna was a daughter of Peter I, Duke of Bourbon, and Isabella of Valois,[1] a half-sister of Philip VI of France.

From October 1340 through at least 1343, negotiations and treaties were made for Joanna to marry Amadeus VI, Count of Savoy.[2] The goal was to bring Savoy more closely into French influence.[2] Following this, she was betrothed to Humbert, Dauphin of Viennois, which also fell through.[3]

Queen

On 8 April 1350, Joanna married her cousin, the future Charles V of France, at Tain-l'Hermitage.[1] Since they were first cousins once removed, their marriage required a papal dispensation.[1] Born thirteen days apart, they both were 12 years old. When Charles ascended the throne in 1364, Joanna became queen of France.

Queen Joanna and Charles V had somewhat of a strained relationship during his tenure as dauphin because of his infidelity with Biette de Cassinel, but their relationship improved when after he became King, and reportedly, he sometimes confided in her in political and cultural issues and relied on her advice.[4] According to tradition, Joanna was rumored to have taken the poet Hippolyte de Saint-Alphon for a lover, who was the biological father of the short-lived child she had in 1366.[4]

Queen Joanna was described as mentally fragile, and after the birth of her son Louis in 1373, she suffered a complete mental breakdown.[5] This deeply worried Charles V, who made a pilgrimage and offered many prayers for her recovery.[5] When she did recover and regained her normal state of mind in 1373, Charles V appointed her legal guardian and regent of France should he die when his son and heir was still a minor.[5]

Death and burial

Joanna died at the royal residence Hôtel Saint-Pol in Paris, on 6 February 1378 three days after her 40th birthday, and two days after the birth of her youngest child, Catherine.[1] Froissart[6] recorded that Joanna took a bath against her physicians' advice. Soon after, she went into labour and died two days after giving birth. The king was devastated. Her heart was buried in the Cordeliers Convent and her entrails in the Couvent des Célestins. The Couvent des Célestins in Paris was the most important royal necropolis after the Basilica of St Denis. The rest of her remains were then placed at Saint-Denis.

Issue

Joanna and Charles had eight[1] or nine[7] children. Two of them reached adulthood:

  1. Joanna (end September 1357[lower-alpha 1] – 21 October 1360, Saint Antoine-des-Champs Abbey, Paris[lower-alpha 2]), interred at Saint-Antoine-des-Champs Abbey.
  2. Bonne (1358 – 7 November 1360, Palais Royal, Paris[lower-alpha 3]), interred beside her older sister.[lower-alpha 4]
  3. Joanna (Château de Vincennes, 6 June 1366[lower-alpha 5] – 21 December 1366, Hôtel de Saint-Pol, Paris[lower-alpha 6]), interred at Saint Denis Basilica.
  4. Charles VI (3 December 1368 – 22 October 1422), King of France.[14]
  5. Marie (Paris, 27 February 1370 – June 1377, Paris).
  6. Louis (13 March 1372 – 23 November 1407), Duke of Orléans.[14]
  7. Isabella (Paris, 24 July 1373 – 23 February 1378, Paris).
  8. John (1374/76 – died young).[lower-alpha 7]
  9. Catherine (Paris, 4 February 1378 – November 1388, buried at Abbaye De Maubuisson, France), m. John of Berry, Count of Montpensier (son of John, Duke of Berry).[15]

Ancestry

Notes
  1. News of "l’accouchement madame la duchesse de Normandie" was brought to her husband on 30 September 1357.[8]
  2. An epitaph at Saint-Antoine-des-Champs records the death at the Abbey on 21 October 1360 of "madame Jehanne aisnée fille de Monsieur Charles, aisné filz du roy de France régent le Royaume..."[9]
  3. An epitaph at Saint-Antoine-des-Champs records the death "au palais" on 7 November 1360 of "madame Bonne seconde fille de Monsieur Charles, aisné filz du roy de France régent le Royaume...".[10]
  4. The Chronique des règnes de Jean II et de Charles V records the burial on 12 November 1360 of "les deux filles du duc de Normandie" at "Saint-Anthoine près de Paris".[11]
  5. The Chronique des règnes de Jean II et de Charles V records that 7 June 1366 "la royne de France...Jehanne fille du duc de Bourbon" gave birth to "une fille au Bois de Vincennes...Jehanne".[12]
  6. The Chronique des règnes de Jean II et de Charles V records the death on 21 December 1366 of "madame Jehanne fille du...roy de France Charles...en l’ostel de la Conciergerie de l’ostel du Roy...près de Saint-Pol" and her burial "en l’eglise Saint-Denis en France".[13]
  7. Le Laboureur records that Charles V had "trois fils, dont le dernier nommé Jean estant mort en enfance", adding that "il n’en est fait aucune mention dans les histoires" but without noting his own source on which he bases the information.[7]

References
  1. Hand 2013, p. 16.
  2. Cox 1967, p. 57.
  3. Hand 2013, p. 46.
  4. Tuchman, Barbara W, En Fjärran Spegel. Det stormiga 1300-talet. Atlantis, Stockholm, 1994. ISBN 91-7486-260-X, sid 304
  5. Tuchman 2011, p. 297.
  6. J. A. Buchon, Collection des Chroniques nationales françaises écrites en langue vulgaire du treizième au seizième siècle, Chroniques de Froissart, Tome VII, Verdière, Libraire, Paris, 1824, p. 61
  7. Le Laboureur 1663, p. 4.
  8. Petit 1905, p. 88, vol. IX, footnote 2.
  9. Raunié 1890, p. 133, vol. I, 210.
  10. Raunié 1890, p. 134, vol. I, 211.
  11. Delachenal 1910, p. 330, vol. I.
  12. Delachenal 1910, p. 20, vol. II.
  13. Delachenal 1910, p. 25, vol. II.
  14. Keane 2016, p. 17.
  15. Guicciardini 1969, p. 136.

Sources

Media related to Joanna of Bourbon at Wikimedia Commons

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