1403, when a group of royal ordinances attempted to achieve a balance of power among
the royal relatives.
In 1405, Isabeau’s court was accused of moral corruption and the queen herself was
rebuked for instigating extravagant fashions by Jacques Legrand, an Augustinian friar.
Until recently, historians have considered her frivolous and, more significantly, involved
in an adulterous relationship with her brother-in-law, Louis of Orléans. The accusation of
adultery first appeared in the anti-dauphin Paris of 1422–29, as part of an effort to throw
doubts on the paternity of Charles VII. The myth found expression in the Pastoralet, a
poem composed at that time to glorify John the Fearless of Burgundy, recently murdered
at the dauphin’s command.
Politically, Isabeau was quite unsupportive of Louis of Orléans until late 1404 or
1405, and she opposed John the Fearless until he rescued her from the exile imposed by
the Armagnacs (Orléanist party) in 1417. Her objective from 1409 until that time had
been to set up her eldest son as a replacement for the king during his periods of illness
and thus keep the power to govern within the immediate royal family and away from the
warring dukes. In January 1418, viewing the king and dauphin as prisoners of the
Armagnacs in Paris, Isabeau formed a rival government with John the Fearless in Troyes.
The Burgundian invasion of Paris in May 1418 produced a rapprochement between the
king and queen but caused the departure of the dauphin, breaking the familial link that
was essential to save the independence of the monarchy. Isabeau played an important role
in the negotiations that led to the Treaty of Troyes (1420), and her policy of this period,
aimed at protecting the monarchy, was long misinterpreted by historians as anti-French.
Isabeau died at the Hôtel Saint-Pol in Paris in 1435.
Richard C.Famiglietti
[See also: ARMAGNACS; CHARLES VI]
Famiglietti, R.C. Royal Intrigue: Crisis at the Court of Charles VI 1392–1420. New York: AMS,
1986
Grandeau, Yann. “Les dernières années d’Isabeau de Bavière.” Cercle Archéologique et Historique
de Valenciennes 9 (1976):411–28.
——. “Isabeau de Bavière, ou l’amour conjugal.” Actes du 102e Congrès National des Sociétés
Savantes, Limoges 1977, Section de Philologie et d’Histoire jusqu’à 1610 (1979): 117–48.
Kimm, Heidrun. Isabeau de Bavière, reine de France, 1370–1435. Munich: Stadtarchiv München,
1969.
Thibault, Marcel. Isabeau de Bavière, reine de France: la jeunesse 1370–1405. Paris: Perrin, 1903.
ISABELLA OF FRANCE
(1292–1358). Queen of England. The daughter of Philip IV and Jeanne of Navarre,
Isabella of France was born at Paris and subsequently became queen of Edward II of
England (r. 1307–27) and mother of Edward III (r. 1327–77). Her marriage, which had
been under discussion as early as 1298, took place at Boulogne on January 25, 1308.
After the execution of Edward’s favorite, Piers Gaveston, Isabella played a leading role
in mediating between her husband and his nobles (1312 and 1316). A chronicler of
Medieval france: an encyclopedia 910