Alice of Courtenay

Alice of Courtenay
Countess of Angouleme
Countess of Joigny
Spouse(s) Guillaume I, Count of Joigny
Aymer Taillefer, Count of Angouleme

Issue

Isabella of Angouleme, Queen of England
Noble family Capetian House of Courtenay
Father Peter I of Courtenay
Mother Elisabeth of Courtenay
Born 1160
France
Died 12 February 1218 (aged 57–58)

Alice of Courtenay, Countess of Angoulême (1160 – 12 February 1218)[1] was a French noblewoman of the House of Courtenay. Her father was Peter I of Courtenay and her brother was Peter II of Courtenay, Latin Emperor of Constantinople. Alice married twice; by her second husband, Aymer Taillefer, Count of Angoulême, she was the mother of Isabella of Angoulême, who was Queen consort of England, as the wife of King John.

She is also known as Alix de Courtenay.

Family

Alice was born in 1160, the second eldest daughter and one of the ten children of Peter I of Courtenay and Elisabeth of Courtenay, daughter of Renauld de Courtenay and Hawise du Donjon. Her family was one of the most illustrious in France; and her paternal grandparents were King Louis VI of France and Adélaide de Maurienne. Her eldest brother Peter became the Latin Emperor of Constantinople in 1216. In addition to Peter, she had three more brothers, Philippe de Courtenay, Robert, Seigneur of Champignelles, and William, Seigneur of Tanlay; and five sisters, Eustacie, Clemence, Isabelle, Constance, and another whose name is unknown.

Marriages

In 1178, she married her first husband, Guillaume I, Count of Joigny. The marriage did not produce any children, and they were divorced in 1186. A charter dated 1180 records that Count Guillaume, with Alice's consent, donated property to Pontigny Abbey.[2]

Alice married her second husband, Aymer Taillefer in 1186, the same year he succeeded his father, William IV as Count of Angoulême. Sometime in 1188, Alice gave birth to her only child:

Alice's husband died on 16 June 1202. Their only child, Isabella succeeded him as suo jure Countess of Angoulême. By this time, Isabella was already Queen of England.

She herself died on 11 (or 12) February 1218 at the age of about 58.[3]

Ancestry

References

  1. ↑ Charles Cawley, Medieval Lands, Angoulême, retrieved on 12 March 2010
  2. ↑ Cawley
  3. ↑ [see Molinier, Obituaires de la Province de Sens 1(1) (Recueil des Historiens de la France, Obituaires 1) (1902): xxxi–xxxii (“On peut affirmer maintenant qu’elle se nommait Alais ou Alix. Elle est mentionnée en trois des nécrologes que renferme le présent volume. Son décès est inscrit au 11 février dans l’obituaire de Saint-Victor, au 12 du même mois en celui de l'Hôtel-Dieu de Provins, et au 22 janvier, autrement dit au 11 des calendes de février dans l’obituaire de la léproserie sénonaise du Popelin. J’en conclus qu'elle mourut le 11 février, la date du 11 des calendes de février donnée par le nécrologe du Popelin résultant certainement d’une confusion avec le 11 février.”), 542 (Abbaye de Saint-Victor de Paris: “III id. febr. [11 February]. It. anniv. domne Adelaidis, comitisse Engolismensis [1218], de cujus beneficio habuimus Lta libras.”), 928 (Hôtel-Dieu de Provins: “pridie idus [12 February]. Ob. dilectissima nostra Alesis, comitissa Angolismensis [1218], que multa bona nobis contulit et in fine duos equos et centum libras, de quibus emimus quadraginta octo arpenta nemoris apud Orbetam.”), 972 (Léproserie du Popelin à Sens: “XI kal. [22 January]. Ob. comitissa d'Angoloiesme, que dedit nobis C solidos annuatim pro anniversario suo faciendo.”)