Jeanne des Roches

Jeanne des Roches, Dame de Sablé, de La Suze, de Briollay, de Mayet, de Loupeland, de Chateauneuf-sur-Sarte, de Genneteil, de Precigné, de Agon, and de Craon (c. 1195 – 28 September 1238) was a wealthy French noblewoman and heiress. She was also the suo jure seneschal of Anjou,^[1] which she had inherited from her father, Guillaume des Roches upon his death. The seneschalship passed to her husband, Amaury I, Sire de Craon, as well as the vast Sablè barony, to which she had succeeded in 1222.

Family

Jeanne was born in about 1195, the eldest daughter of Guillaume des Roches, Seneschal of Anjou and one of the greatest barons in Anjou and Maine. Her mother was Marguerite de Sablé, Dame de Sablé who had brought the rich Sablé barony to her husband. Jeanne had a brother Robert, who died in 1204, and a younger sister Clémence, Viscountess de Chateaudun (died after September 1259). Her paternal grandparents were Baudoin des Roches and Alix de Châtellerault, and her maternal grandparents were Robert de Sablé and Clémence de Mayenne, daughter of Geoffroy, Sire de Mayenne and Isabelle de Meulan.

Jeanne's father was a knight who had fought in the Third Crusade in the service of the Angevin kings of England and King Philip II of France. Upon his death on 15 July 1222, Jeanne being the eldest surviving child, succeeded to the seneschalship of Anjou, as well as his vast lordships which included Sablé, La Suze, Briollay, Mayet, Loupeland, Chateauneuf-sur-Sarte, Genneteil, Precigné, and the Norman manor of Agon. Jeanne did homage to King Louis IX of France for Senescaltia Andegavie, Cenomannie et Turonie.. bone memorie Guillmus de Ruppiebus, genitor noster...tenuit in a charter dated 27 January 1226.^[2] The seneschalship and barony passed to her husband Amaury.

Marriage and issue

On an unknown date, Jeanne married Amaury I, Sire de Craon. He was the son of Maurice II, Sire de Craon and Isabelle de Meulan. Jeanne's mother-in-law, Isabelle de Meulan was also her maternal great-grandmother, as Isabelle had married twice; Geoffroy de Mayenne was her first husband, and Maurice de Craon her second.

Together Amaury and Jeanne had three children:

• Maurice IV de Craon, Sire de Craon (1213–1250), married Isabelle de Lusignan, half-sister of King Henry III of England, by whom he had three children.
• Jeanne de Craon, bethrothed in 1223 to Arthur of Brittany (1220–1223)
• Isabelle de Craon (born 1212), married Raoul III, Sire de Fougères, by whom she had two children, Jean de Fougères, and Jeanne de Fougères, Dame de Fougères.

Jeanne died on 28 September 1238. Her husband had died in 1226.

References

• Charles Cawley, Medieval Lands, Anjou