13th-century English princess; Queen of Scotland
Joan of England
(22 July 1210 ? 4 March 1238), was
Queen of Scotland
from 1221 until her death as the wife of
Alexander II
.
[1]
[2]
She was the third child of
John, King of England
[3]
and
Isabella of Angouleme
.
Life
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Joan was sought as a bride by
Philip II of France
for his son. In 1214, however, her father King John promised her in marriage to
Hugh X of Lusignan
, as compensation for his father
Hugh IX of Lusignan
being jilted by her mother Isabella. She was promised
Saintes
,
Saintonge
and the
Isle of Oleron
as dowry, and was sent to her future spouse in that year to be brought up at his court until marriage. Hugh X laid claim on her dowry already prior to their marriage, but when this did not succeed, he reportedly became less eager to marry her.
On the death of John of England in 1216, queen dowager Isabella decided she should marry Hugh X herself. Hugh X kept Joan with him in an attempt to keep her dowry as well as having the dowry of her mother Isabella released from the English. On 15 May 1220, after an intervention from the
Pope
and an agreement of the dowry, Joan was sent back to England where negotiations for her hand with
Alexander II of Scotland
were taking place. Alexander had been in England in 1212, where he had been knighted by her father. It is alleged that King John had promised to give him Joan as a bride and Northumberland as her dowry.
On 18 June 1221, Alexander officially settled the lands Jedburgh, Hassendean, Kinghorn and Crail to Joan as her personal income. She and Alexander married on 21 June 1221, at
York Minster
.
[4]
Alexander was twenty-three. Joan was almost eleven. They had no children. This fact was a matter of concern, but an annulment of the marriage was regarded as risky as it could provoke war with England. Queen Joan did not have a strong position at the Scottish court, which was dominated by her mother-in-law, queen dowager
Ermengarde
. Her English connections nevertheless made her important regardless of her personal qualities. Joan accompanied Alexander to England in September 1236 at Newcastle, and in September 1237 at York, during the negotiations with her brother
King Henry III
over disputed northern territories. At this point, chronicler Matthew Paris suggests that Joan and Alexander had become estranged and that Joan wished to spend more time in England, and her brother King Henry granted her manors in Driffield, Yorkshire and Fen Stanton in Huntingdonshire to reside if needed. In York, Joan and her sister-in-law
Eleanor of Provence
agreed to make a pilgrimage to
Thomas Becket
's shrine in
Canterbury
.
Joan died in the arms of her brothers King Henry and
Richard of Cornwall
at
Havering-atte-Bower
in 1238, and was buried at
Tarrant Crawford Abbey
in
Dorset
in accordance with her wishes.
[5]
[6]
[7]
Homages
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]
Henry III continued to honour Joan's memory for the rest of his life. Most dramatically, in late 1252, almost fourteen years after her death, Henry ordered the production of the image of a queen in marble for Joan's tomb, at a great cost. This was one of the first funerary effigies of a queen in England; the tradition developed in the early thirteenth century, but the tombs of
Eleanor of Aquitaine
and
Berengaria of Navarre
were in France. Nothing now remains of the church of the Cistercian nunnery, as the abbey became - the last mention of it is before the
Reformation
. Legend has it that she is buried in a golden coffin located in the graveyard of the current church.
Notes
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]
References
[
edit
]
- Rosalind K. Marshall: “Scottish Queens: 1034?1714”
- Richard Oram: “The Kings and Queens of Scotland”
- Timothy Venning: “The Kings and Queens of Scotland”
- Mike Ashley: “British Kings and Queens”
- Elizabeth Ewan, Sue Innes and Sian Reynolds: “The Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women”
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Royal consorts in England until 1603
| Royal consorts in Scotland until 1603
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Spouses of debatable or disputed rulers are in
italics
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- Illegitimate:
Joan, Lady of Wales
- Richard FitzRoy
- Oliver FitzRoy
- Geoffrey FitzRoy
- John FitzRoy
- Henry FitzRoy
- Osbert Gifford
- Eudes FitzRoy
- Bartholomew FitzRoy
- Maud FitzRoy
- Isabel FitzRoy
- Philip FitzRoy
- William de Forz
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- Illegitimate: Edmund Leboorde
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