Joanna of England was the Queen of Sicily and countess of Toulouse. She remains a footnote to Sicilian history, her role perhaps close to that of the typically sheltered, if not passive, medieval European noblewoman, bound by a sense of duty all but abandoned in our modern world.
Background
Joanna of England was born in October 1165, the 7th child and youngest daughter of Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine. 10 years younger than her eldest brother, Henry the Young King, she was born at a time when their parents’ relationship was breaking down; her mother would eventually go to war against her husband, before being imprisoned by him for the last 16 years of Henry’s reign.
Although Joanna spent much of her childhood at her mother’s court in Poitiers, she and her younger brother, John, spent some time at the magnificent Abbey of Fontevraud.
Education
In Abbey of Fontevraud Joanna was educated in the skills needed to run a large, aristocratic household and in several languages; English, Norman French, and rudimentary Latin.
Career
Joanna's brother Richard I, known as 'the Lionheart', who had succeeded as King of England on the death of their father in 1189, arrived in Italy in 1190, whilst en-route to the Holy Land to fight in the Third Crusade. Richard demanded that Tancred return of his sister, along with every penny of her dowry. When Tancred balked at these demands, Richard seized a monastery and the castle of La Bagnara. He decided to spend the winter in Italy and attacked and subdued the city of Messina in Sicily. Finally, Tancred agreed to the terms and returned Joanna's dowry.
In March 1191, Eleanor of Aquitaine arrived in Messina with Richard's intended bride, Berengaria of Navarre. Eleanor returned to England, leaving Berengaria in Joanna's care. Richard postponed his wedding due to Lent, put his sister and bride on a ship, and set sail.
The voyage to the Holy Land continued, but the ship carrying Berengaria and Joanna was wrecked on the coast of Cyprus in the course of a violent storm. The Cyprians besieged the English survivors of the wreck at Limasoll. A large amount of treasure, intended for use on the crusade, was appropriated by Isaac Comnenus, the Emperor of Cyprus. Richard dispatched a letter to Isaac, which was arrogantly ignored. Outraged, he unleashed the full force of the famed Plantagenet fury on the unfortunate Isaac, who discovered he had been unwise to underestimate the strength of the English king. The Cyprian Emperor was overthrown and English governors were set up over the island which was used as a garrison for the crusade. Cyprus proved to be a vital source of supplies throughout the Third Crusade and would remain a Christian outpost in the Middle East for the following four centuries. Richard married Berengaria on 12 May 1191 at Limassol, Cyprus and then sent Joanna and Berengaria on to Acre.
Joanna was Richard's favorite sister, but he was not above using her as a bargaining chip in his political schemes. A superlative general but a poor politician, Richard proposed that Saladin should give the Holy Land to his nephew Saphadin, whom he suggested should marry his sister Joanna, forming a peaceful alliance between Christian and Moslem. The bemused Saladin, unable to believe his luck, accepted. Joanna, however, possessed the famed Plantagenet temper in full measure and refused outright to contemplate marriage with a Moslem, resulting in a heated family dispute.
Her brother Richard was killed at the Siege of Chalus. On the evening of 26th of March, 1199, Richard was walking around the castle directing the siege, when an archer, using a frying pan as a shield, fired a crossbow bolt at him from the battlements, he ducked too late and the bolt embedded itself in his left shoulder. In attempting to pull the bolt out, the shaft broke, leaving the iron head in his flesh. A clumsy surgeon working by torchlight, although succeeding in removing the arrowhead, made the wound far worse and gangrene set in. When the Castle fell, the archer was brought before Richard, who, aware that he was soon to meet his maker, forgave him, stating "Live on, and by my bounty behold the light of day," he gave orders that he was to be set free and given a hundred shillings. Richard's devoted mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, rushed to his side and was with him to the end, he died in her arms on 6th April 1199. His wife, Berengaria, was not even summoned. Richard's mercenary captain, Mercadier had the archer sent to Joanna, who had him flayed alive and torn apart by wild horses.
She died in childbirth, on 4 September 1199, at the age of thirty-three and was veiled a nun on her deathbed. Her son, born by Caesarean section once Joanna had died, lived just long enough to be baptized and was named Richard.
Achievements
Joanna of England remains a footnote to Sicilian history, her role perhaps close to that of the typically sheltered, if not passive, medieval European noblewoman, bound by a sense of duty all but abandoned in our modern world. That Joan of England never produced a surviving heir to the Sicilian throne is historically significant because it heralded the effective end of the Hauteville dynasty of Norman kings of Sicily. Yet, she is an interesting figure, and part of a wider Anglo-Norman influence in twelfth-century Sicily - and a witness to great historic events that shaped the destiny of Sicily, England, and France. Her quiet courage despite a lifetime of difficulty is, in itself, a lesson in the virtue of steadfast strength in the face of overwhelming adversity.
Religion
Joanna asked to be admitted to Fontevrault Abbey, an unusual request for a married, pregnant woman. Eleanor of Aquitaine sent for Matilda, the Abbess of Fontevraud but, fearing she might arrive too late, she asked Hubert Walter, Archbishop of Canterbury, to intervene. The Archbishop attempted to dissuade Joanna, but was impressed by her fervour and convened a committee of nuns and clergy at which her request was granted.
Personality
Joan's relationship with her father probably left something to be desired, and this may partly account for her later devotion to Saint Thomas Becket, the archbishop her father's nobles murdered. True, Henry did public penance for this act at Canterbury in 1174, but this could not attenuate the impact of such dramatic events on an impressionable girl raised in a society where respect for religious institutions as part of daily life.
Physical Characteristics:
Joanna had blond hair and a Sicilian delegation confirmed the exceptional beauty of Joanna, before formally requesting her hand from her father.
Quotes from others about the person
"She was an able woman of great spirit, and after she had recovered from childbed, she was determined to counter the injuries being inflicted upon her husband at the hands of numerous magnates and knights. She, therefore, took arms against the lords of Saint-Felix and laid siege to a castrum belonging to them known as Les Cassés. Her efforts were of little avail; some of those with her treacherously and secretly provided arms and supplies to the besieged enemy. Greatly aggrieved, she abandoned the siege and was almost prevented from leaving her camp by a fire started by the traitors. Much affected by this injury, she hastened to see her brother King Richard tell him about it but found that he had died. She herself died, whilst pregnant, overcome by this double grief." - The Chronicle of Guillaume de Puylaurens
Connections
Joanna was married to King William II of Sicily in 1177, cementing the good relations between England and the Normans of Sicily. Around 1181 she was reputed to have given birth in Normandy to a son, Boamund, but he did not survive infancy; however, nothing else is known about Boamund or any other children of her first marriage. Joanna was widowed in 1189 at age twenty-four.
Joanna was married for a second time on October 1196, at Rouen, when she became the third wife of Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse, she brought Quercy and the Agenais as her dowry. The marriage produced two children Raymond VII of Toulouse (born July 1197), and a daughter, Joanna (born 1198), who married Bernard II de la Tour, Lord of la Tour. It has been claimed that her marriage to Raymond of Toulouse was not a happy one and that she fled to her brother Richard's domains in 1199. On 4 September 1199, she gave birth to her son, born by Caesarean section once Joanna had died, lived just long enough to be baptized and was named Richard.
