Joan the Lame

Joan the Lame
Queen consort of France
Tenure	1 April 1328 – 12 September 1348
Coronation	27 May 1328
Spouse	Philip VI of France
Issue	John II of France Philip, Duke of Orléans
House	House of Burgundy
Father	Robert II, Duke of Burgundy
Mother	Agnes of France
Born	24 June 1293
Died	12 September 1348(1348-09-12) (aged 55)
Burial	Basilica of St Denis, France
Religion	Roman Catholicism

Joan of Burgundy (French: Jeanne; 24 June 1293 – 12 September 1348), also known as Joan the Lame (French: Jeanne la Boiteuse), was Queen of France as the first wife of King Philip VI. Joan served as regent while her husband fought on military campaigns during the Hundred Years' War.

Background

Joan was the daughter of Robert II, Duke of Burgundy, and Agnes of France.^[1] Her older sister, Margaret, was the first wife of Louis X of France.^[2] Joan married Philip of Valois, Louis's cousin, in July 1313. From 1315 to 1328, they were Count and Countess of Maine;^[2] from 1325, they were also Count and Countess of Valois and Anjou.

Queenship

Louis and his brothers left no surviving male heirs, leading to the accession of Joan's husband to the French throne. The Hundred Years' War ensued, with Edward III of England, a nephew of Louis X, claiming the French crown. Intelligent and strong-willed, Joan proved a capable regent while her husband fought on military campaigns during the war. However, her nature and power earned both herself and her husband a bad reputation, which was accentuated by her deformity (which was considered by some to be a mark of evil), and she became known as la male royne boiteuse ("the lame evil Queen"), supposedly the driving force behind her weaker husband. 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."^[3]

She was also considered to be a scholarly woman and a bibliophile: she sent her son, John, manuscripts to read, and commanded the translation of several important contemporary works into vernacular French, including the Miroir historial of Vincent de Beauvais (c.1333) and the Jeu d'échecs moralisés of Jacques de Cessoles (c.1347), a task carried out by Jean de Vignay.

Joan died of the plague by 1349.^[4] She was buried in the Basilica of Saint Denis; her tomb, built by her grandson Charles V, was destroyed during the French Revolution.

Family, children and descent

Her children with Philip VI include:

• John II of France
• Philip of Valois, Duke of Orléans

In 1361, Joan's grandnephew, Philip I of Burgundy, died without legitimate issue, ending the male line of the Dukes of Burgundy. 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 the proximity of blood. In the end, John won.

Ancestry

References