Queen Isabella: Treachery, Adultery, and Murder in Medieval England

by Alison Weir

  Soon after arriving in Paris, not only as Queen of England but also as a humble daughter, Isabella presented seven petitions on the subject of Gascony to Philip IV on behalf of her husband and asked him to respond favorably and graciously to them, so that the land would gain profit and Philip honor, and she would be able to return more happily to her lord. It is made clear in the rolls of the Parlement that it was her personal intervention that prompted King Philip to grant most of her petitions and hold others over for further consideration; however, his refusal of the rest shows that he was not so besotted a father that he would prejudice his own interests.

  Isabella’s initial success paved the way for further negotiations to be entered into by Edward’s commissioners, in which the Queen was not directly involved, although of course she may have tried to influence her father in private. It was not her fault that some of these negotiations ultimately ended in failure or stalemate.61

  On 18 March, Isabella wrote another letter to her husband, presumably concerning Philip’s reception of her petitions. The next day, resuming her pilgrimage, she left Saint-Germain for Palaiseau, southeast of Versailles, and the following day arrived at Saint Arnoult-en-Yvelines. Leaving the greater part of her retinue in the fortified town of Gallardon, in its great priory, from 21 to 24 March, she and a few attendants visited Chartres Cathedral and then moved south to make offerings to the image of the Virgin in the basilica at Cléry-Saint-André on the Loire. At each shrine she visited, Isabella presented gifts of rich cloths. She also paused on her travels to purchase a fur and a hanging embroidered with pictures of baboons.62

  The Queen was back at Saint Arnoult on 24 March and moved to Longpont-sur-Orge the next day. She sent more letters, to King Edward and to several English magnates, on 27 March and had returned to Paris by 30 March. This time, she lodged at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, staying in the favored summer residence of the kings of France, set in the vast forest of Saint-Germain, a royal hunting ground for centuries.63 Here she remained until 16 April. During this period, she made frequent visits to her father, who was staying at his palace of the Cité in Paris; on 6 April, money was paid to ten torchbearers who lit her way each evening from Saint-Germain.64 On 11 April, in gratitude for the good work she had done, Edward made a generous award to Isabella and confirmed to her the reversion of the dower held by Queen Marguerite.65

  On 16 April, Isabella left Paris for Ponthieu. That night, she stayed at Boissy-l’Aillerie, near Pontoise; here, she wrote to Edward, announcing that she was making her way back to England.66 But she was back in Paris on the eighteenth, to reimburse Elias de Johnstone, who had traveled to France in January to assist her with her mission; her household waited for her at Bonvillers, where she rejoined it the next day.67 On that same 18 April, as if in fulfillment of Jacques de Molay’s curse, the Pope died. It was a superstitious age, and on hearing the news, Isabella may well have remembered that curse and feared that she had said farewell to her father for the last time.

  The Queen now revisited her own domains. She was at Poix-de-Picardie on 20 April, Airaines on 21 April, and Abbeville on 23 April, where she entertained her brother Charles and her uncle, Charles of Valois.68 The next day, she sent letters, which may have concerned a matter of dreadful significance (as will shortly become clear), to King Philip, Louis of Navarre, and other lords and ladies of France.69 Three days later, having ridden north via Montreuil and Boulogne, she arrived back at Wissant and took ship for England. On landing at Dover, she was given the strange gift of a porcupine, which was doubtless sent straight to the royal menagerie in the Tower; in May, payment was made for apples for it, but it is not mentioned again and may have died soon afterward.70

  Isabella now rode to the shrine of Saint Thomas at Canterbury, where she made an offering.71 Was she just giving thanks for her safe return and the partial success of her mission, or was she praying for her father’s preservation? Or did she have something darker on her mind that prompted the need for spiritual comfort?

  The likelihood is that Isabella came home greatly disturbed, for in April, scandal and tragedy had hit the French royal family, and she herself perhaps had been involved with it. They called it the affair of the Tour de Nesle, for it was in that tower in Paris, on the banks of the Seine, that Marguerite and Blanche of Burgundy had been wining, dining, and carrying on adulterous affairs with the brothers d’Aulnay; their sister-in-law, Jeanne, had been a witness and had pleaded with them to desist but had not thought fit to reveal their treason. As we have seen, Isabella had already been nursing her own concerns about these young people; according to the chronicles, prompted by her observation of their suspicious behavior, she now informed her father of what she had seen the year before; some go as far as to say that she was one of the chief witnesses against her sisters-in-law.

  There is no reason to disbelieve this, despite much of the evidence coming from later chronicles. For all the embroideries and inaccuracies in some accounts, there is a certain consistency in what they say. Isabella was indeed in Paris at the time the affair was brought to light and had ample opportunity to make her suspicions known and to testify against her sisters-in-law: the Exchequer records show that she was having prolonged private discussions with her father, and it is likely that it was during the course of these that she made her accusations. After she left Paris for the first time, on 19 March, she wrote three letters to her brother, Louis of Navarre, from Palaiseau, Chartres, and Gallardon,72 and, as we have seen, she kept in touch with her father, uncle, and brothers after her departure. Writing around 1317, the French chronicler Geoffrey de Paris states that, through Isabella, many things were disclosed and revealed in France, “to our royals,” which were proved and found true by many people.73 He does not say what these revelations were, but there is little else they could relate to other than the Tour de Nesle affair. Furthermore, “it was generally rumoured among the common people” that Isabella had revealed the affair to the King, although there were many who did not believe that.74

  Adultery in a queen or the wife to the heir to the throne placed the royal succession in grave jeopardy, and any man committing adultery with such royal ladies was guilty of treason. Philip had the five suspects watched for a period, then ordered an immediate inquiry; when it found against the lovers, his vengeance was terrible. All were arrested. The Scalacronica states that one of the knights fled to England but was recaptured and sent back to face his fate. After merciless torture, the d’Aulnay brothers confessed to their crimes and were condemned to death. In a trial held in camera before the Paris Parlement in April, Marguerite and Blanche also admitted their guilt. In May, both were sentenced to life imprisonment.75

  Marguerite’s marriage to Louis of Navarre was immediately annulled; it had never been very happy anyway, for he had often neglected his feisty and shapely wife to play tennis, for which he felt more passion, so it was not surprising that she had looked elsewhere for love. Now, weeping constantly with remorse, she was made to wear the cowled garb of a penitent, and her hair was symbolically shorn;76 then she was shut up in a dark, damp dungeon in Château Gaillard in Normandy, a grim fortress built in the late twelfth century by Richard the Lion-Hearted; here, she appears to have been subjected to a regime of systematic ill-treatment. Her two-year-old daughter, Jeanne, her only surviving child, was disinherited on suspicion that Louis was not her father, a suspicion that was probably unjustified, since Marguerite’s adulterous liaison does not appear to have begun until after Jeanne’s birth in 1311.

  Blanche of Burgundy also had her head shaved and was immured in Château Gaillard, in a cell below ground, yet despite the pleas of her husband, Charles, the Pope refused to annul their marriage. Ten years later, after Blanche had borne a bastard child to her jailer, the Pope proved more cooperative, and she was allowed to take the veil at the Abbey of Maubisson. But her health had been broken by the severity of her imprisonment, and she died a year later, in 1326. Prince Philip did not repudiate his wife, Jeanne of Burgundy, because he bel
ieved her innocent of adultery, but despite having been acquitted by the Paris Parlement, she was kept under house arrest at Dourdan for some months as a punishment for not having revealed what had been going on; however, she was treated with far more leniency and respect than Marguerite and Blanche and in 1315 was received back at court. Later, she bore her husband two more children.

  The unfortunate d’Aulnay brothers fared far worse: after being publicly castrated, with their genitals thrown to the dogs, they were partially flayed alive before being broken on the wheel and then mercifully decapitated at Montfaucon in Paris; afterward, their broken bodies were displayed on gibbets.77

  If Isabella felt any remorse for the dreadful fate of these stupid, promiscuous girls and their lovers, there is no record of it. And if she had given evidence against them, she doubtless would have accounted it a signal service to the House of Capet, for no bastard strain could be allowed to pollute such a sacred royal bloodline. It has been suggested that she was at the center of a plot to discredit the issue of her brothers so that her son could in time succeed to the French throne,78 which is stretching credibility rather too far, since the French Princes were young men who could easily remarry and have other heirs. Nor is there evidence of any such plot; Isabella went to France at Edward II’s behest, not with the purpose of denouncing her sisters-in-law.79

  Furthermore, the Chronicum Comitum Flandriae asserts that the accusations against the Princesses and their knights were “without cause” and that they had all been framed by Philip’s chief councillor, Enguerrand de Marigny, but we know that the King placed the lovers under surveillance, and it seems that the guilty lovers were all condemned on good evidence. King Philip would hardly have allowed the French Crown to be tainted by such a scandal without sufficient justification.

  Isabella’s actions argue a certain ruthlessness in her nature, which, given that she was the daughter of Philip IV, was perhaps only to be expected; they also provoked a backlash, at least in France, where she was vilified for betraying her sisters-in-law, and for a time, this had a detectable effect on diplomatic relations with England.80

  Edward II’s preparations for his campaign against the Scots were now complete, and on 10 June, an immense English army assembled at Wark in Northumberland. The next day, it marched for Berwick. Pembroke and Mortimer were among those who attended on the King. Although Lancaster, Warwick, Arundel, and Surrey had also been summoned, all were conspicuous by their absence, which they were to justify on the grounds that the King had gone to war without the consent of Parliament and thus disregarded the Ordinances.81

  On arriving in London after her return from France, Isabella had obtained her traveling expenses and immediately ridden north to join her husband; passing through Doncaster, Pontefract, and Boroughbridge, she arrived at Berwick on 14 June82 and was lodged in the castle, which had been heavily fortified by Edward I. She was involved to a degree in the preparations for the campaign and lent Gloucester equipment for his field kitchen; it was never returned.83 On 17 June, the great army marched forth from Berwick. Five days later, it reached Falkirk.

  Robert Bruce was ready and waiting for the English, his forces drawn up before Stirling at a place called Bannockburn. There, the two armies met. Bruce was heavily outnumbered—he had seven thousand men, and Edward had twenty thousand—but he knew the terrain and had deliberately chosen a site surrounded by boggy ground and in the enclosed area had dug concealed pits, which were to prove lethal to the invading army. The battle was fought over two days, on 23 and 24 June, and its outcome was a devastating defeat for the English. The young Earl of Gloucester was among four thousand killed, Hereford was captured,84 and King Edward, despite having “fought like a lion,” was forced to flee the field. With the aid of Despenser, he made his way home by stealth via Dunbar and Berwick, having left all his possessions, including his seal, behind. Chivalrously, the victorious Bruce sent them after him.85

  Isabella was waiting at Berwick when her husband returned, crushed, angry, and humiliated. She was supportive, lending him her seal to replace the one he had abandoned and supervising the cleaning of his armor. She also bought clothes for three knights who had lost everything when they fled the battlefield,86 and she later secured the release of a royal messenger, Robert le Messager, who was imprisoned after Bannockburn for speaking “irreverent and indecent words” about his sovereign: he had said “it was no wonder the King couldn’t win a battle, because he spent the time when he should have been hearing Mass in idling, ditching, digging and other improper occupations.” Isabella persuaded Archbishop Reynolds to stand surety for the man’s good behavior;87 presumably, she had had the wisdom to realize that he had been punished only for uttering sentiments that most people were thinking or saying in private.

  The dreadful import of the defeat is reflected in the words of the author of the Vita Edwardi Secundi: “O day of vengeance and disaster, day of utter loss and shame; evil and accursed day, not to be reckoned in our calendar!” Bannockburn was a disaster for Edward in many ways. It effectively ended England’s hopes of ever establishing political supremacy over Scotland and essentially secured Bruce’s crown and Scotland’s independence. It left the north of England more vulnerable than ever to Scottish raids and protection rackets. And it also shattered Edward II’s credibility with his barons and put Lancaster in an impregnable position, determined to enforce the Ordinances.

  Almost immediately, the Lords Ordainers gathered in York, where the disgraced King faced his Parliament in September. Isabella also attended,88 no doubt dismayed and shamed by her husband’s humiliation. Stiff-faced, they sat there, King and Queen, as Lancaster blamed England’s defeat on the King’s failure to observe the Ordinances, refused to heed Edward’s demands to press on with the war, and demanded a purge of the royal household and the administration that would lead to the expenses of the King’s household being cut to £10 per day. And Edward was forced to capitulate: he “refused nothing to the earls”;89 there was no redress, for it was clear that from now on, it was to be Lancaster, and not Edward, who ruled England. Edward would be merely a cipher, a puppet, in Lancaster’s hands.

  Isabella, staunch as ever, supported her husband. There was now every reason for Lancaster to regard her as an enemy. She had been close to Gloucester, with whom he had fallen out, and she had continued to befriend the Beaumonts, whom he hated, and had welcomed them back to court after their dismissal by the Ordainers. In soliciting pardons without reference to Parliament, she had ignored the provisions of the Ordinances. Moreover, she was influential with her father, who had already sent lawyers to help Edward circumvent the Ordinances.90

  In retaliation, Lancaster saw to it that Isabella’s revenues were drastically cut; this slump is evident in records of her finances between October 1314 and March 1316;91 fortunately, the King was able to supplement her reduced income by small grants from his own Wardrobe.92 Lancaster’s spite may not have been the only reason for the cuts, for the weather was now mirroring the political situation: during the late summer and autumn, there were torrential rains that led to a ruined harvest, which heralded the great famine that was to ravage Europe over the next two years.

  Then Isabella, back at Westminster, received the sad news of the death of her father, King Philip, who died on 29 November at Fontainebleau, cut down by a stroke while out hunting. Now it truly seemed to many that the Grand Master’s curse had been fulfilled, for both the Pope and the King of France had died before the year was out. And, given the dynastic scandal that had overtaken Philip’s sons, it is hardly surprising that he and they quickly became known as “les Rois Mauduits”—“the accursed Kings.” As for Philip’s daughter, it may very well have seemed to her at this time that that curse extended to both her and her husband, as Philip’s daughter and son-in-law.

  Philip IV was succeeded by his eldest son, who became Louis X and was nicknamed “le Hutin,” which has been variously translated as “the Stubborn,” “the Quarrelsome,” or “the Headstron
g.” With his Queen in prison and his daughter disinherited, he did not enjoy an auspicious start to his reign. He was a somewhat frivolous young man with little interest in government, and the real ruler of France during his reign was his uncle, Charles of Valois.

  In Avignon, also, there was change, with the election of a new Pope, the shrewd and clever John XXII, who was to play an influential role in Isabella’s life during the years to come. In December 1314, to mark his election, the Queen sent him two copes that had been embroidered with coral and large pearls by Rose de Burford, the wife of a London merchant. They were purchased through an intermediary called Katherine Lincoln. Through her almoner, Isabella also sent the Pope an incense boat, a ewer, and a gold buckle set with pearls and precious stones. These three gifts cost £300, which the King paid.93

  By now, Edward had been successful in his bid to have the ban of excommunication on Piers Gaveston overturned by the Pope, and on 2 January 1315, he had the corpse of his late lamented “intimate friend”94 wrapped in cloth of gold and buried with great pomp in the Dominican church at Langley; Archbishop Reynolds officiated, assisted by four other bishops and thirteen abbots. The Queen attended, as did Pembroke, Norfolk, Mortimer, Hugh le Despenser the Younger, Henry de Beaumont, the Lord Mayor of London, and fifty knights. Hereford, who had been instrumental in having Piers condemned to death, but who had now made his peace with the King, was also among the mourners. But most other magnates stayed away.95 Edward paid for Masses for Gaveston’s soul to be offered in churches all over England and later established a chantry at Langley, where prayers could be said for Piers in perpetuity. His Wardrobe accounts show that every year, for the rest of his life, on Gaveston’s birthday and the anniversary of his death, the King would have Masses said and offer gifts, including rich cloths, at his tomb.96