Isabella of Valois: Child Queen

Tingle, Louise

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-94886-3_6

Louise Tingle⁸

Part of the book series: Queenship and Power ((QAP))

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Abstract

When she married Richard II in 1396, Isabella de Valois became the youngest English consort at the age of six, although Richard’s deposition in 1399 meant that Isabella was queen for barely three years. The relationship between Richard II and Isabella has been characterised as more similar to one between a father and daughter than a husband and wife. Isabella has mainly been overshadowed by Richard’s first wife and was the target of criticism due to her youth. Marriage to Isabella brought Richard a huge dowry and secured a peace treaty with France. Notwithstanding her age, Isabella is recorded to have acted as an intercessor on several occasions, demonstrating the importance of queenly intercession despite an apparent lack of agency. After the deposition of her husband, Isabella remained stranded in England while her parents negotiated her return. Her death in childbirth at the age of twenty meant that Isabella remains one of England’s most obscure and forgotten consorts.

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Notes

1.
Isabella is known to history as Isabella of Valois to differentiate her from her husband’s great-grandmother, another Isabella of France.
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Cardiff, UK
Louise Tingle

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Louise Tingle
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University Campus North Lincolnshire, England, UK
Aidan Norrie
University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
Carolyn Harris
University of Reading, Reading, UK
J.L. Laynesmith
York, UK
Danna R. Messer
University of Winchester, Winchester, UK
Elena Woodacre

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Tingle, L. (2023). Isabella of Valois: Child Queen. In: Norrie, A., Harris, C., Laynesmith, J., Messer, D.R., Woodacre, E. (eds) Later Plantagenet and the Wars of the Roses Consorts. Queenship and Power. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94886-3_6

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94886-3_6
Published: 04 March 2023
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-94885-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-94886-3
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