Background
Isabella of France was born in 1295 in Paris, France. Isabella was the daughter Philip IV of France and Joan I of Navarre.
Isabella of France was born in 1295 in Paris, France. Isabella was the daughter Philip IV of France and Joan I of Navarre.
One of the most colorful and controversial figures in fourteenth-century English history, Isabella was a formidable child of an equally formidable father, Philippe IV of France, who clashed with the papacy and engineered the suppression of the Knights Templar. Married to Edward II of England soon after his accession in 1307, Isabella was immediately alienated personally and politically when Edward allegedly gave her wedding jewels to his favorite, and probable lover, Piers Gaveston. She accompanied Edward on his ill-fated Scottish campaign of 1319 and had to escape by riverboat when York was attacked by Scots invaders. She played no apparent role in the political opposition to Edward in the middle years of his reign, which saw the overthrow and death of Gaveston.
After the defeat and death of Edward's leading adversary, Thomas of Lancaster, at Boroughbridge in 1322, Isabella and her young son Edward, Prince of Wales, increasingly became a focus of opposition to Edward's tyranny. Edward had allowed the political dominance of the Despensers, a father and son who had gained the ascendancy at Edward's court and had been enriched with confiscated lands seized from the rebels defeated at Boroughbridge. The seizure of Isabella's estates by Edward in September 1324, on the pretext offer of a French invasion, may have helped push her into opposition. Isabella's political maturity in these years was demonstrated by the decision of Edward II to send her to France to negotiate a treaty with her brother Charles IV over the disputed Duchy of Gascony in 1325. In France, she began to organize opposition to her husband and to the Despensers and was joined in exile by Roger Mortimer, a dissident lord who became her lover. When the king foolishly allowed their son Prince Edward to join her in France in order to perform homage for the duchy of Gascony on his father's behalf, Isabella had the trump card in her possession: the heir to the throne. She declared that neither she nor her son would return to England while the younger Despenser remained at court.
Isabella, Mortimer, and young Edward invaded England with the support of William II, Count of Hainault, landing in Suffolk on 24 September 1326. With a force of only 700 Hainaulters, the queen, in the words of the chronicler Henry Knighton, "found favor with all." The people of London rose in her support, forcing the king and his supporters to flee to the west; Isabella pursued him through Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire. The people of Bristol forced the elder Despenser to surrender to Isabella, whereupon he was tried for treason and executed. The army then proceeded to Hereford, and Henry of Lancaster was dispatched to hunt down the king and the younger Despenser, who had fled into South Wales. They were captured at Neath, and Despenser was subsequently tried and executed as a traitor. Edward was deposed, at the instigation of the rebels, by an assembly of the "clergy and people" in January 1327 and was succeeded by his son as Edward III, although Isabella and Mortimer held de facto power. The deposed king died, presumed murdered, at Berkeley Castle in September 1327. Isabella and Mortimer did not enjoy continued military success; the defeat of the English army at Stanhope Park led to the Treaty of Northampton in 1328, which finally recognized Robert Bruce as king of an independent Scotland. This treaty dubbed a "shameful peace" by contemporary chroniclers, did much to undermine the Isabella-Mortimer government, especially in the eyes of the "disinherited," those English lords who had lost their lands in Scotland. The regime was also accused of corruption and favoritism. Isabella and Mortimer were overthrown in a coup d'etat by the young Edward III and his supporters at Nottingham in 1330.
After her displacement, Isabella was allowed to go into an honorable retirement on a pension of £3,000 a year at Castle Rising in Norfolk.
One of the most notorious women in English history, Isabella of France led an invasion of England that ultimately resulted in the deposition of her king and husband, Edward II, in January 1327 - the first-ever abdication of a king in England.
Although her military leadership qualities were never tested in a pitched battle, she showed courage, resourcefulness, decisiveness.
In old age, Isabella of France took the habit of the religious order of the Poor Clares.
Isabella may have first become an active participant in the political-military conflicts in 1321. While traveling, Isabella sought hospitality at the royal castle of Leeds, Kent. Edward doubted the loyalty of Lord Badlesmere, constable of the castle, who was away. It has been suggested that Isabella was sent to gain admittance to, and possibly control of, the castle. However, Lady Badlesmere refused to receive the queen. A fight ensued, and some of Isabella's attendants were killed. This incident became the pretext for Edward to besiege and occupy the castle.
Isabella, the She-Wolf of France aka the Rebel Queen, was a complex, violent person who drank heavily but who was charitable to the poor and well-liked by her people. Later in life, she became a nun.
When Isabella was 14 her father, French King Philip IV, married Isabella off to her second cousin once removed, England’s King Edward II, in 1308. Edward was 23 years old. The young couple was both reportedly beautiful physically.
Isabella gave birth to her first child, whom they named Edward, at Windsor Castle in 1312. He would become King Edward III. The couple had two daughters and another son.
Edward II was brutally murdered at Berkeley Castle with a red-hot poker in a manner considered appropriate to his sexual preferences and his embalmed heart was sent to Isabella, who received it with ostentatious sorrow.
