Joan the Lame

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This article is about Joan of Burgundy. For another Joan the Lame, see Joan, Duchess of Brittany.
Joan the Lame
Basilica of St Denis, France
Spouse
​
(m. 1313)​
IssueJohn II of France
Philip, Duke of Orléans
HouseBurgundy
FatherRobert II, Duke of Burgundy
MotherAgnes of France

Joan of Burgundy (

Queen of France as the first wife of King Philip VI. Joan ruled as regent while her husband fought on military campaigns during the Hundred Years' War
during the years 1340, 1345–1346 and 1347.

Early life

Joan was the daughter of Duke

Anjou
.

Queenship

The sons of King Philip IV - Louis X, Philip V, and Charles IV - left no surviving sons of their own, which led to the accession of Joan's husband to the French throne in 1328 as the eldest son of Charles of Valois, Philip's younger brother.

The Hundred Years' War ensued in 1337, with Edward III of England, a nephew of Louis X, claiming the French crown.

In a document issued by Philip VI at

Clermont-en-Beauvaisis in August 1338, Queen Joan was invested with power of attorney to manage the affairs of state whenever circumstances made it necessary.[3] She was explicitly allowed to manage the finances of the state, to make verdicts and issue pardons and all powers included in the king's duties except managing warfare.[4] This power of attorney was to be used whenever the king was absent, but it technically gave the queen the potential status of a co-ruler, and one reason suggested to Philip's great trust of Joan was his equally great distrust of his courtiers.[5]
Intelligent and strong-willed, Joan proved a capable regent while her husband fought on military campaigns during the war.

Joan reportedly favored people from her home region of Burgundy, a policy followed by her husband and her son, thus attracting animosity from the nobility at court from the northwest.[6]

Her political activity attracted controversy to both her and her husband, which was accentuated by her deformity (considered by some to be a mark of evil), and she became known as la male royne boiteuse ("the lame evil Queen"). One chronicler described her as a danger to her enemies in court: "the lame Queen Jeanne de Bourgogne...was like a King and caused the destruction of those who opposed her will."[7]

Joan was considered to be a scholar and a

Jacques de Cessoles (c. 1347), a task carried out by Jean de Vignay
.

Death

Joan died of the

Basilica of Saint Denis; her tomb, built by her grandson Charles V, was destroyed during the French Revolution
.

Children

Joan and Philip had nine children together:

In 1361, Joan's grandnephew,

Philip I of Burgundy, last duke of Burgundy of the first Capetian House of Burgundy, died without issue. The rightful heir to Burgundy was unclear. King Charles II of Navarre, grandson of Joan's elder sister Margaret, was the heir according to primogeniture, but John II of France (Joan's son) claimed to be the heir according to proximity of blood. In the end, John won.[9]

Ancestry

In fiction

Joan is a character in

French miniseries adaptation
of the series.

References

  1. ^ Setton 1975, p. 773.
  2. ^ a b Hallam 1980, p. 282.
  3. ^ Parsons, John Carmi: Medieval Queenship
  4. ^ Parsons, John Carmi: Medieval Queenship
  5. ^ Parsons, John Carmi: Medieval Queenship
  6. ^ Kibler, William W: Medieval France An Encyclopedia
  7. ^ Knecht 2004, p. 11.
  8. ^ Sumption 1999, p. 49.
  9. ^ Campeaux, Ernest (1936). "La succession de Bourgogne à la mort de Philippe de Rouvres". Mémoires de la Société pour l'histoire du droit et des institutions des anciens pays bourguignons, comtois et romands (in French). 3: 5–50.; Campeaux, Ernest (1936). "Un dossier inédit de la succession de Bourgogne (1361)". Mémoires de la Société pour l'histoire du droit et des institutions des anciens pays bourguignons, comtois et romands (in French). 3: 83–123..

Sources

  • Hallam, Elizabeth (1980). Capetian France: 987-1328. Longman.
  • Knecht, Robert (2004). The Valois: Kings of France 1328-1589. Hambledon Continuum.
  • Setton, Kenneth Meyer, ed. (1975). A History of the Crusades: The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Vol. III. University of Wisconsin Press.
  • Sumption, Jonathan (1999). The Hundred Years War II:Trial by Fire. University of Pennsylvania Press.
Joan the Lame
Cadet branch of the Capetian dynasty
Born: 24 June 1293 Died: 12 December 1349
French royalty
Vacant
Title last held by
Joan of Évreux
Queen consort of France

1328–1349 		Vacant
Title next held by
Blanche of Navarre
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