Isabeau Of BAVARIA

Notes:

Isabeau de BaviËre (also Isabella of Bavaria-Ingolstadt; ca. 1370 ? September 24, 1435) was a Queen Consort of France (1385 - 1422) after marrying Charles VI of France, a member of the Valois Dynasty, on July 17, 1385. She assumed a prominent role in public affairs during the disastrous later years of her husband's reign.

Lineage
Isabeau of Bavaria was the daughter of Stephen III of Bavaria-Ingolstadt and Taddea Visconti.

Her paternal grandparents were Stephen II, Duke of Bavaria, a son of Emperor Louis IV, and Elisabeth of Sicily (whose name Isabella received), daughter of king Frederick III of Sicily and his wife Eleonora of Anjou. Eleonora was herself a daughter of Charles II of Naples and Maria Arpad of Hungary. Maria was a daughter of Stephen V of Hungary and Elizabeth of the Cumans (whose namesake her great-granddaughter, and through that, ultimately queen Isabella became). Elizabeth was daughter of Koteny (Kuthens, Zayhan) of the Cumans, a chieftain apparently descending from the Kipchaks and lord of the clan of Kun which had settled to Hungary after Mongol pressure drove them westwards.

Her maternal grandparents were BarnabÚ Visconti, Lord of Milan and Regina-Beatrice della Scala. Regina was daughter of Mastino II della Scala, Lord of Verona from 1329 to 1351 and his wife Taddea di Carrara.

Career
Isabeau of Bavaria was the prominent and unpopular queen of an unsuccessful reign. She assumed an unusually powerful role in government to fill the gap left by her husband's frequent bouts of insanity. Around this time she organised the disastrous Bal des Ardents, or 'Ball of the Burning Men'. She was named Regent due to her husband suffering greatly from what now is believed to have been schizophrenia, and she successfully replaced herself with a royal mistress, Odette de Champdivers. Her husband was never the wiser, and rarely made any public appearances.

Others who vied for power in the place of the King included the King's brother Louis of Valois, Duke of OrlÈans, and their cousin John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy. Queen Isabeau's strong partisanship for the Duke of OrlÈans led to rumors of an extramarital affair. Orleans' bitter feud with Burgundy reached a crisis point when the former was assassinated in 1407. Bitter resentment continued and the late duke's supporters became known as the Armagnacs.

Henry V of England took advantage of French internal strife and invaded the northwest coast. He delivered a crushing defeat to the French at Agincourt. Nearly an entire generation of military leaders died or fell prisoner in a single day. John the Fearless, still feuding with Queen Isabeau, remained neutral as Henry V conquered towns in northern France.

Most of Isabeau's twelve children did not survive to adulthood. Shortly after her fifth and final son assumed the title of dauphin as heir to the throne, the sixteen-year-old future Charles VII of France negotiated a truce with John the Fearless in 1418. Armagnac partisans murdered John while the two met on a bridge under Charles's guarantee of protection.

The new Duke of Burgundy Philip the Good entered an active alliance with the English. With most of northern France under foreign domination, Isabeau agreed to the Treaty of Troyes in 1420. This arranged the marriage of her daughter Catherine of Valois to Henry V and assigned the French royal succession to Henry V and their children. Isabeau's detractors and the Dauphin's political enemies cited this treaty as evidence that he was not the legitimate son of Charles VI. The treaty did not have its intended effect on the French royal succession but did have an ultimate effect on English royal succession. Catherine's second marriage resulted in the eventual Tudor dynasty.

Both Charles VI and Henry V died within two months of each other in 1422. Charles VII, now fully grown, claimed that the Treaty of Troyes was illegal and assumed leadership of the Armagnac party, ruling what was left of central and southern France, and taking his father's former mistress, Odette de Champdivers, as his own.

Isabeau and her son Charles VII shared no apparent love for each other. Charles was to face a similar relationship with his own son Louis XI. Charles' principal female mentor was his childhood guardian Yolande of Aragon.

Isabeau moved to English-controlled territory and exerted no further influence over public affairs. She died in Paris in 1435 and is interred in the Saint Denis Basilica.

Legacy
Posterity has not been kind to Isabeau of Bavaria. A popular saying late in her life was that France had been lost by a woman and would be recovered by a girl. Many took this to be a prediction of Joan of Arc.

In fairness to Isabeau it must be noted that her leadership confronted double prejudice as a woman and a foreigner. There are a few bright spots in her reign, such as her artistic patronage. Isabeau aided the era's most significant French author Christine de Pizan and sponsored artisans who developed innovative techniques in decorative arts.

Isabeau married Charles VI King Of FRANCE on 17 Jul 1385. Charles (son of Charles V The Wise Of FRANCE and Jeanne DE BOURBON) was born on 03 Dec 1368; died on 21 Oct 1422. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Catherine Of FRANCE was born on 27 Oct 1401; died on 3 Jan 1437.
2. Johanna Of FRANCE was born on 24 Jan 1391; died on 02 Dec 1432.
3. Michelle Of FRANCE was born on 11 Jan 1395; died on 08 Jul 1422.
4. Louis Duke Of GUYENNE was born on 22 Jan 1397; died on 18 Dec 1415.
5. Mary Of FRANCE was born on 24 Aug 1393; died on 19 Aug 1438.
6. Charles Of FRANCE was born on 06 Feb 1392; died on 13 Jan 1401.
7. Philip Of FRANCE was born on 10 Nov 1407; died on 10 Nov 1407.
8. Isabella Of VALOIS was born on 09 Nov 1389 in Paris; died on 13 Sep 1410.
9. Joan Of FRANCE was born on 14 Jun 1388; died in 1390.
10. Charles VII King Of FRANCE was born on 22 Feb 1403; died on 21 Jul 1461 in Mehun-sur-Yevre.
11. John Duke Of TOURAINE was born on 31 Aug 1398; died on 04 Apr 1417.
12. Charles Of FRANCE was born on 26 Sep 1386; died on 28 Dec 1386.

Stephen married Taddea VISCONTI on 13 Oct 1364. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]