Isabella de Coucy

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Isabella de Coucy LG (also Isabella of England ; * June 16, 1332 in Woodstock Palace near Woodstock (Oxfordshire) ; † shortly before May 4, 1379 ) was an English princess and only married Enguerrand VII , Lord in 1365 after several failed marriage projects from Coucy, to whom she bore two daughters. When, after initial reluctance, in the Hundred Years War raging between England and France at the time, her husband finally openly decided in favor of France in 1377, his marriage to Isabella effectively ended.

Ancestry, early life, and failed marriage projects

Isabella was the second child and eldest daughter of the English King Edward III. and his wife Philippa of Hainaut . She was named after her paternal grandmother, Isabella of France , and may have been Edward's favorite daughter. Even as a toddler she was very pampered, slept in a gold-plated cradle and wore dresses made of Italian silk adorned with gemstones. Numerous service personnel took care of their needs as well as those of their siblings. As a child, Isabella was looked after in the household by William and Elizabeth of St Omer, together with her older brother Eduard and her sister Johanna, who was one and a half years younger .

Although the dark-haired and dark-eyed English princess was included in the considerations of the royal family's marriage policy as a toddler, she was not supposed to marry until she was 33 years old. As early as June 1335, Eduard III. to marry his eldest daughter, who was then only three years old, to the one-year-old Castilian Infante Peter , but this marriage project did not materialize. Instead, Isabella's sister Johanna was later betrothed to the Infante Peter.

In November 1338 negotiations began about a marriage between Isabella and Ludwig , the son of the Count of Flanders of the same name . Although Edward III urged. on a realization of this marriage connection, but Louis I of Flanders was a close ally of the French king because many of the rich and powerful cities under his control were very keen to maintain their autonomy and privileges and were also not concerned about rebellious behavior towards their sovereign flinched. However, their commercial interests in turn dictated the Flemish cities to seek close ties to England, whatever policy they pursued under the leadership of Jacobs van Artevelde . These differences between Ludwig I and his subjects initially thwarted the Anglo-Flemish marriage negotiations.

In 1344, not long after the outbreak of the Hundred Years War , a new marriage project came into view for Isabella; she should be the son of Duke Johann III. from Brabant to marry. But after Artevelde's murder in July 1345, the Flemish cities asked the English king to renew efforts to marry his eldest daughter to the son of the Flemish count. In the battle of Crécy , which took place on August 26, 1346 with the victory of Edward III. about King Philip VI. of France ended, Louis I of Flanders fell, who was now succeeded by his 15-year-old son as Ludwig II. Despite the pressure from his subjects and the English, he did not want to know anything about his marriage to Isabella, who was present at the siege of Calais . The young count only found himself ready to change his posture, albeit only ostensibly, when he was imprisoned by the Flemings. He met Isabella and her parents on March 1, 1347 in Bergues and promised to marry the English king's daughter soon and to furnish her with an appropriate bridal gift, but was able to escape to France at the end of the same month and celebrated his wedding to Margaret of Brabant shortly afterwards , Daughter of Duke Johann III. from Brabant.

One of Eduard III. In 1349 his eldest daughter's marriage to the Roman-German King Charles IV was also unsuccessful. On November 15, 1351, Isabella was to set out for Gascony aboard a fleet of five ships in order, as previously agreed, to be married to Bernard d'Albret, the second eldest son of the English ally Bernard Ezi IV , Lord von Albret take, but this project also failed, this time due to the sudden refusal of the idiosyncratic and extravagant king's daughter.

The English king transferred Isabella, who apparently had no open political influence, English lands, and also in March 1355 the supervision of Burstall Priory in Yorkshire and on September 29, 1358 an annual income of a thousand marks. The still single princess was meanwhile actively involved in court life, often watched tournaments and took part in hunts.

Marriage to Enguerrand VII. De Coucy and death

Finally, Isabella was allowed a love marriage with the French nobleman Enguerrand VII. De Coucy , who was about seven years her junior , with whom she celebrated their wedding on July 27, 1365 at Windsor Castle . The lord of Coucy, who was taken into English captivity in 1360 as one of the noble French hostages for the release of King John II , now regained his freedom and received other tokens of favor. Isabella received a substantial annual lifelong income from her father, as well as expensive jewelry and estates.

In November 1365, Isabella was allowed to translate with her husband to France, where Enguerrand VII wanted to inspect his property. Isabella gave birth to her first daughter, Marie , in April 1366 at the ancestral home of her husband, Coucy Castle in Picardy . Because after the couple's return to England Enguerrand VII was awarded the title of Earl of Bedford on May 11, 1366 , his wife was not only mistress of Coucy, but also Countess of Bedford. 1367 received Enguerrand VII from Edward III. the county of Soissons , with which Isabella was able to add that of a Countess of Soissons to her sovereign titles. Shortly before April 18, 1367, she gave birth to her second daughter in Eltham , who was named after the wife of the English king Philippa . In July 1367, Isabella and her husband returned to France.

After the resumption of the Hundred Years War in early 1369, Enguerrand VII was confronted with the problem of being a vassal of France on the one hand and the son-in-law of the English king on the other. Because of the resulting conflict of loyalty, he decided not to take part in the subsequent battles of the Hundred Years War.Instead, in autumn 1369, he first looked in vain for inheritance claims in Alsace against his Habsburg cousins Albrecht III. and Leopold III. militarily enforced, and then served from 1371 to 1374 as papal general against the Visconti in Italy. Isabella, now living in England, did not see her husband again until 1374 after his return to France. As early as 1375, Enguerrand VII fought with mercenary troops again against his Habsburg cousins, ultimately without much success. During this time his wife stayed in England again.

At the beginning of 1376 the Lord of Coucy returned to his homeland, met Isabella and soon afterwards traveled with her to England. In the autumn of the same year he went back to France. Also in 1376, Isabella was accepted into the Order of the Garter as Lady of the Garter . She was staying on her father's deathbed when he died on June 21, 1377. Her nephew Richard II became the new king . In the meantime, Enguerrand VII had decided to cut all ties with England and only serve the French king. This decision effectively marked the end of Isabella's marriage, who stayed in England with her younger daughter Philippa while her older daughter Marie continued to live in France.

Isabella died in April 1379 and was buried in Greyfriars Church in London .

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ So James L. Gillespie, ODNB Vol. 29, p. 423; different information for Isabella's death date on thepeerage.com : between June 17 and October 5, 1382.
personal data
SURNAME Isabella de Coucy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Isabella of England
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Wife of Enguerrand VII. De Coucy
DATE OF BIRTH June 16, 1332
PLACE OF BIRTH Woodstock Palace at Woodstock (Oxfordshire)
DATE OF DEATH before May 4, 1379