Bonne of Bohemia

Bonne of Bohemia
Duchess consort of Normandy, Countess consort of Anjou and Maine
Tenure 1332-1349
Spouse John II of France
Issue
Charles V of France
Louis I of Naples
John, Duke of Berry
Philip II, Duke of Burgundy
Joan, Queen of Navarre
Marie, Duchess of Bar
Isabella, Lady of Milan
House House of Luxembourg (by birth)
House of Valois (by marriage)
Father John of Bohemia
Mother Elizabeth of Bohemia
Born 20 May 1315
Died 11 September 1349 (aged 34)

Bonne of Luxemburg, Duchess of Normandy, Countess of Anjou and of Maine (20 May 1315 – 11 September 1349), was born Jutta (Judith), the daughter of John the Blind of Luxemburg, king of Bohemia and his first wife Elisabeth of Bohemia. She was the first wife of King John II of France; however, as her death occurred a year prior to his coronation, she was never a French queen consort. Jutta was referred to in French historiography as Bonne de Luxembourg. She was a member of the House of Luxembourg. King Charles V of France, and Joan of Valois, Queen of Navarre, were two of her ten children.

Contents

Family

Jutta was born in Prague, Bohemia on 20 May 1315, the second eldest daughter of John the Blind of Luxembourg, King of Bohemia and Elisabeth of Bohemia. Jutta was an elder sister of the future Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV, who was crowned six years after Jutta's death in 1349. Jutta's maternal grandparents were, Wenceslaus II of Bohemia and his first wife, Judith of Habsburg. Her paternal grandparents were, Henry VII, Holy Roman Emperor and his wife Margaret of Brabant. When Jutta was about fifteen, her mother died. Her father decided to remarry, he married Beatrice of Bourbon. They had a son, Wenceslaus, who succeeded his father in Luxembourg.

Biography

Jutta was originally betrothed to Casimir III of Poland, however this arrangement was broken and Casimir married Aldona of Lithuania. After Aldona's death, Casimir was betrothed to Jutta's elder sister Margaret, however this betrothal was also broken and Casimir remarried to Adelaide of Hesse.[1]

Jutta was married to the future John II of France on 28 July 1332 at the Notre-Dame de Melun in Melun. She was 17 years old, and the future king was 13. The name for Jutta (or Guta) translatable into English as Good (in the feminine case), was changed by the time of marriage to Bonne (French) or Bona (Latin). Upon marriage, Bonne was the wife of the heir to the French throne, becoming Duchess of Normandy, and Countess of Anjou and of Maine. The wedding was celebrated at the church of Notre-Dame in Melun in the presence of six thousand guests. The festivities were prolonged by a further two months when the young groom was finally knighted at the cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris. Duke John of Normandy was solemnly granted the arms of a knight in front of a prestigious assistance bringing together the kings of Luxembourg and Navarre, and the dukes of Burgundy, Lorraine and the Brabant.

She was a patron of the arts, being a favorite of composer Guillaume de Machaut.[2]

She died on 11 September 1349 of the bubonic plague in Maubisson, France at the age of thirty-four. This was one year and fifteen days prior to the coronation of her husband as King, John II of France. She was buried in the Abbey of Maubisson.[3]

Less than six months after Bonne's death, John married secondly Jeanne I, Countess of Auvergne by whom he had two daughters who both died young.

Issue

John and Bonne's children were:

Ancestors

References

  1. ^ POLAND, Medieval Lands
  2. ^ Anne Walters Robertson. Guillaume de Machaut and Reims. (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2002). 3.
  3. ^ Charles Cawley, Medieval Lands, France, Capetian Kings