Blanche of France (1253-1323)
Blanche (also Blanka * 1253 in Jaffa , † 17 June 1320 to 1323 in Paris ) was a French princess from the dynasty of the Capetian . She was a daughter of King Louis IX. of Saint Louis and Margaret of Provence .
Blanche had an older sister of the same name who had died as an infant in 1243. She herself was born in the Holy Land during the sixth crusade . According to her father's will, she was to join the Cistercian order as a nun, which she successfully opposed with the encouragement of Pope Urban IV . On September 28, 1266, a marriage contract between the 13-year-old Blanche and the 11-year-old Castilian Infante Ferdinand de la Cerda was sealed in Saint-Germain-en-Laye , who was the eldest son and thus the likely heir of King Alfonso X of Castile . The marriage was concluded on November 30, 1268 in Burgos . Blanche and Ferdinand were 13 and 15 years old at the time. The marriage had two children. They had the first child between the ages of 15 and 17 and the second between the ages of 20 and 22. Their children were Alfonso de la Cerda (* 1270; † 1324) and Ferdinand de la Cerda (* 1275; † 1322).
Infant Ferdinand de la Cerda died in 1275 before his father at the age of 20, whereby the sons of Blanche rose to the throne of Castile. Her brother-in-law, Infante Sancho , forced his father to change the line of succession in his favor. Blanche and her sons were temporarily imprisoned, but in 1277 after an intervention by King Philip III. leave for France. From there she upheld the claims of her sons to the Castilian throne, but these could never be realized. Her great-nephew, King Philip IV the Handsome , gave up support for de la Cerda from the French crown entirely in 1290.
Together with her mother, Blanche is considered to be the founder of the Couvent des Cordelières of the Clariss Sisterhood in Paris in 1289. There she retired in old age, where she died between 1320 and 1323. She was buried in the monastery church of Sainte Claire de l'Oursine.
literature
- Jacques Le Goff : Louis the saint . Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-608-91834-5
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Blanche of France |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Daughter of Louis IX, wife of Ferdinand de la Cerda |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1253 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Jaffa |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 17th between 1320 and 1323 |
| Place of death | Paris |