Isabelle (Foix)

Foix-Béarn coat of arms

Isabelle de Foix-Castelbon ( French : Isabeau , Occit : Isabel ) (* around 1361, † 1428 ) was Countess of Foix , Vice Countess of Béarn , Marsan and Lautrec and Co-Mistress of Andorra from 1398 until her death . Since 1400 she was also Vice Countess of Castelbon . She was the eldest child and only daughter of Vice Count Roger Bernard IV of Castelbon and his wife Geraude de Navailles.

After the death of her younger brother Count Mathieu in 1398, Isabelle was the last living member of the House of Foix to be the heir to its extensive property, which was mainly concentrated on the northern slopes of the Pyrenees . However, this inheritance was denied to her by the French crown, which was mainly due to the fact that Isabelle had been married to Archambaud de Grailly since 1381 , whose family had been loyal supporters of the English king for several generations, the enemy of France in the Hundred Years War . King Charles VI. wanted to prevent the inheritance of Foix from changing into the sphere of influence of England, so a royal army under the leadership of the Connétable de Sancerre marched into the county of Foix and occupied larger parts of it. In this situation, Isabelle and her husband were ready to submit to the French crown. In the Treaty of Tarbes on May 10, 1399, Isabelle was recognized in her inheritance, but her husband had to give up his allegiance to the English king, and the couple's two older sons were to go hostage to the royal court. For Foix and Lautrec, the family had to pay homage to the French king, while they ruled the Gascognischen possessions (Béarn and Marsan) as a sovereign principality.

This ensured that the new dynasty would remain in the French feudal world, which was also reflected in their name, because Isabelle's descendants renounced the use of the name and coat of arms of Grailly in favor of that of the House of Foix. The loyalty of the new house to France was rewarded in 1412 with the appointment of Archambaud as Lieutenant-Général des Languedoc . The family was able to record a further expansion of power in 1419, after Isabelle's son Mathieu married the heiress of the neighboring county of Comminges .

Relations with her southern neighbor, the Kingdom of Aragon , eased after King Martin I restored Isabelle the vice-county of Castelbon in 1400, which the king had confiscated from her brother in 1386. Only a few castles remained at Aragon, but they were later to be handed over to Isabella's descendants.

Isabelle died in 1428 and was buried in the abbey of Boulbonne , the resting place of her ancestors.

Marriage and succession planning

Countess Isabelle was married to Archambaud de Grailly († 1413) since 1381 , with whom she had five sons:

• Johann I (* 1382; † 1436), successor as Count of Foix, Vice-Count of Béarn, Marsan, Lautrec and Castelbon as well as co-lord of Andorra
• Gaston I († after 1455), Captal de Buch , Count of Longueville , Vice-Count of Bénauges and Lord of Grailly
• Archambaud († September 10, 1419), Lord of Navailles, in the service of Duke John of Burgundy, murdered with him on the bridge of Montereau
• Mathieu († December 1453), ∞ I) 1419 Countess Marguerite von Comminges , ∞ II) 1446 Catharine d'Aspet
• Pierre l'Ancien (* 1386; † December 13, 1464 in Avignon ), cardinal since 1409 , 1405–1422 Bishop of Lescar , 1450–1463 Archbishop of Arles

In order to ensure that the Foix legacy in the tension between the kingdoms of France and England will be held together for the future, it was completely bequeathed to Isabelle's eldest son John I according to a family arrangement, while the second oldest, Gaston I, received the inheritance of his father, for whom in its entirety the King of England had to be recognized as feudal lord.

Web links

• Thierry Borel: Short biography on Isabella von Foix and Archambaud de Grailly. In: Histoire des Comtes de Foix. 2009, archived from the original on February 1, 2012 (French). 

predecessor	Office	successor
Mathieu	Countess of Foix Vice Countess of Castelbon 1398–1428	Johann I.
Mathieu	Vice Countess of Béarn 1398–1428	Johann I.
Mathieu	Co-Prince of Andorra 1398–1412	Johann I.