Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: and Grim and Mild from Aaron Maankie. Listener discretion advised.
Speaker 1: In thirteen twenty six, the billowing sails of eight warships
Speaker 1: rose over the sea on the English horizon. They were
Speaker 1: flanked by one hundred and thirty two smaller vessels, all
Speaker 1: ready for an invasion. The ships had come from France.
Speaker 1: They had sailed from Flanders and were heading toward the
Speaker 1: Thames Estuary that September, as summer turned to fall. They
Speaker 1: were coming to depose the King of England. No invasion
Speaker 1: of England by sea had succeeded since the Norman conquest
Speaker 1: two hundred and sixty years earlier in ten sixty six.
Speaker 1: But this was no ordinary invasion by some hostile foreign hour.
Speaker 1: The man leading the charge had been condemned to death,
Speaker 1: and he had been spared by the very king he
Speaker 1: was now coming to depose. But far more shocking was
Speaker 1: the woman standing next to him. She was the man's
Speaker 1: lover in adulterous scandal. She was said to be among
Speaker 1: the most beautiful women in the world. She had blonde
Speaker 1: hair blowing against her forehead now in the sea wind,
Speaker 1: she was dressed in widows weeds, the black clothes of mourning,
Speaker 1: but her husband was alive for now. Her name was Isabella.
Speaker 1: She had been born in France, but she wasn't some
Speaker 1: foreign usurper. She was the wife of King Edward the
Speaker 1: Second of England. She was the most treasonous queen in
Speaker 1: all of English history. Born the daughter of the King
Speaker 1: of France, adored and then despised by her subjects, mother
Speaker 1: of the future sovereign, scorned and humiliated by an unpopular
Speaker 1: husband more interested in having affairs with men than in
Speaker 1: her She's known to history as a sinner, a Jezebel,
Speaker 1: maybe even a murderer, known in the end as the
Speaker 1: she Wolf of France. She was Isabella, Queen of England,
Speaker 1: and she was sailing from the continent, with troops and
Speaker 1: her lover by her side, and a steely glint in
Speaker 1: her eye, ready to depose her king. I'm Dani Schwartz,
Speaker 1: and this is noble blood. The little girl who would
Speaker 1: someday overthrow the King of England was born Isabel, Princess
Speaker 1: of France around the year twelve five. She was the
Speaker 1: daughter of Philip the Fair, the handsome and fearsome King
Speaker 1: of France. She was one of seven children, the only
Speaker 1: daughter to survive to adulthood. Her father had keen political
Speaker 1: designs for each of his children's marriages, which this podcast
Speaker 1: actually covered in our episode on the Tordonell Affair. Suffice
Speaker 1: to say that in thirteen o three, at only seven
Speaker 1: years old, as a prized princess, Isabella was betrothed to
Speaker 1: then Prince Edward of England, who was nineteen. At the
Speaker 1: betrothal ceremony, Isabella made herself as tall as she could
Speaker 1: in front of an archbishop who was Edward's proxy. She
Speaker 1: put her little hand in the archbishop's big one and
Speaker 1: hoped with her child's heart that her husband would be
Speaker 1: good to her when they finally met, that he would
Speaker 1: love her, that he would fulfill her father's hope for
Speaker 1: a future king of England. And descended from both the
Speaker 1: French and English lines. But she must have noticed that
Speaker 1: her future husband never sent her any gifts across the
Speaker 1: English Channel, nor any letters. Even as a child. She
Speaker 1: may have wondered why not. Five years later she would
Speaker 1: find out. On January twenty five, oh eight, twelve year
Speaker 1: old Isabella formally married Edward, who was by then King
Speaker 1: of England. Despite the mismatch in age, Edward was a
Speaker 1: handsome groom. Isabella biographer Alice and Weir describes the six
Speaker 1: foot tall Edward like a dang Disney prince for Isabella. Quote.
Speaker 1: He was well proportioned and had curly, fair shoulder length
Speaker 1: hair with a mustache and beard. He was also well spoken.
Speaker 1: His mother tongue was Norman French and articulate, and he
Speaker 1: dressed elegantly, even lavishly end quote. One limitation of histories
Speaker 1: that old is we have very little insight into Isabella's
Speaker 1: thoughts around this time. Even the biographies and articles about
Speaker 1: her are frequently about her husband, which leaves a blank
Speaker 1: space in our understanding. The fact is that Isabella was
Speaker 1: twelve years old at her wedding to a man twice
Speaker 1: her age. Both Isabella's mother and her new husband's mother
Speaker 1: had been married by age eleven. Twelve was the youngest
Speaker 1: age at which the Church permitted sex between husband and wife.
Speaker 1: Historians generally believe that Isabella and Edward didn't consummate the
Speaker 1: marriage on their wedding night. I can imagine a young
Speaker 1: Isabella who was grateful for this reprieve. Maybe she felt
Speaker 1: like a child thrown into a stranger's bed, albeit a
Speaker 1: bed that she had been preparing for since youth. Maybe
Speaker 1: she viewed her new husband's restraint as chivalrous or loving,
Speaker 1: but that wasn't all it was. This podcast has covered
Speaker 1: the story of Edward the Second and his affair with
Speaker 1: the love of his life, his boyhood courtier Piers Gaveston.
Speaker 1: The fact that he's the tragic hero of one episode
Speaker 1: of this podcast and a side character in this one.
Speaker 1: It's just more proof that history can be told from
Speaker 1: many angles. Love for one person is heartache for another.
Speaker 1: The difference between comedy and tragedy is often just a
Speaker 1: matter of who your main character is. When Isabella arrived
Speaker 1: in England after the wedding, her husband greeted Gaveston with
Speaker 1: a degree of enthusiasm that shocked Isabella's relatives. Isabella had
Speaker 1: to watch as Gaveston wore jewels that were part of
Speaker 1: her dowry, and he wore purple to the coronation, the
Speaker 1: color of royalty, as though he were the true spouse
Speaker 1: of Edward being elevated to the throne. For Isabella, it
Speaker 1: was embarrassing. She told her father that she was quote
Speaker 1: the most wretched of wives. She received no money from
Speaker 1: her husband. She was miserable. She wasn't the only one.
Speaker 1: The English barons all wanted the king's favorite, Gaveston gone,
Speaker 1: and they got their way. In th eight, six months
Speaker 1: after Isabella arrived in England, Gaveston was banished from the country.
Speaker 1: With Gaveston gone, Isabella's husband warmed to her. He started
Speaker 1: giving her lands and money. Wherever he traveled, she went
Speaker 1: with him. She may have felt like any girl who
Speaker 1: has a crush on a guy who has a crush
Speaker 1: on someone else. It hurts, yes, but maybe his affections
Speaker 1: can be turned. But then Edward brought Gaveston back. Everybody
Speaker 1: likes a catfight sensation. Aalized history would have us believed
Speaker 1: that Isabella hated Gaveston to the end. Isabella was probably
Speaker 1: pained to see the return of her competition, but she
Speaker 1: was quite a bit older now with some relationship of
Speaker 1: her own with the king, and she reached some equilibrium
Speaker 1: with Gaveston. It's worth noting that everyone in this saga,
Speaker 1: from Gaveston to the lovers of both king and Queen
Speaker 1: that I'll mention later in this episode was married to
Speaker 1: a member of the opposite sex and had children of
Speaker 1: their own. Once Gaveston came back, Isabella was kind to
Speaker 1: his pregnant wife. She spent time with Gaveston. She may
Speaker 1: have even found him kind of amusing. But if Isabella
Speaker 1: mellowed somewhat towards Galveston, the English courts as a whole
Speaker 1: did not. They wanted him gone for good, violently if
Speaker 1: need be, as violence mounted around them. In thirteen eleven
Speaker 1: and twelve of Isabella told her husband that she was pregnant,
Speaker 1: probably hoping that with that news, Edward would prioritize her protection.
Speaker 1: He didn't. He left her at Newcastle while he protected
Speaker 1: Gaveston instead. Some piece of her must have learned, no
Speaker 1: matter how good her relationship with Edward seemed, she would
Speaker 1: never really come first. Gaveston would be brutally executed on
Speaker 1: June twelve. The details of that brutality belonged to edwards story,
Speaker 1: covered in another episode. This is Isabella's story, and here
Speaker 1: it's more interesting to imagine her reunion with her grieving
Speaker 1: husband in the aftermath. I wonder if she felt a
Speaker 1: victor's gladness at being the only remaining competitor for her
Speaker 1: husband's heart, or a wife's sorrow for her husband's grief,
Speaker 1: or maybe she felt the empathy of the fellow unlucky
Speaker 1: in love. Either way, five months later, at age seventeen,
Speaker 1: Isabella gave birth to the heir to the throne, another Edward.
Speaker 1: She went on to have three more children with the king,
Speaker 1: and whether there was any love in the act of
Speaker 1: conception or purely dynastic duty was a secret that died
Speaker 1: with their history. What certain is that once Gaveston was
Speaker 1: out of the picture for good, there was at least
Speaker 1: mutual respect between Isabella and her husband. Isabella was smart
Speaker 1: and savvy, versed in both English and French territorial and
Speaker 1: political interests. She was also impressively involved in negotiations and diplomacy. Edward,
Speaker 1: never one of the greats when it came to statecraft,
Speaker 1: seemed to like having his queen involved. They simply liked
Speaker 1: each other. They wrote letters to each other any time
Speaker 1: they were apart. They played gambling games together as a team.
Speaker 1: It would have been hard to imagine that this beautiful
Speaker 1: woman laughingly playing games of chance beside her husband would
Speaker 1: some day gather the flotilla that would overthrow him. But
Speaker 1: maybe there were hints. At one point, giggling playing a game,
Speaker 1: Isabella's ladies fake captured the king and wouldn't let him
Speaker 1: go until the fake ransom had been paid. Some games
Speaker 1: seemed more ominous in retrospect. Isabella spent years developing mutual
Speaker 1: respect with her husband, maybe even genuine affection, so she
Speaker 1: must have been devastated when she learned that his dalliances
Speaker 1: did not die with Gaveston. Not yet a decade after
Speaker 1: Gaveston's death, Edward took a new lover, Hewla Dispenser, Royal Chamberlain.
Speaker 1: This dispense her was nothing like Isabella's earlier arrival, Galveston,
Speaker 1: who honestly seemed kind of meek, almost cute by comparison,
Speaker 1: Dispenser was a cruel and violent man, especially depraved toward women.
Speaker 1: He had one widow tortured until all four limbs were
Speaker 1: broken and she was said to have lost her mind.
Speaker 1: Isabella hated him. Dispenser began to turn her husband against her.
Speaker 1: It's possible that Dispenser actually sexually harmed Isabella in some way,
Speaker 1: although the details aren't quite clear. As relations between France
Speaker 1: and England worsened, Dispenser whispered in the King's ear and
Speaker 1: Isabella lost everything King Edward asked the Pope to annul
Speaker 1: their marriage, though the Pope declined. Isabella's lands were taken
Speaker 1: from her. French servants, who had come to England with
Speaker 1: her when she was twelve years old, were taken from
Speaker 1: her household. Finally, her three younger children were taken from her,
Speaker 1: on suspicion that she would incite them to treason because
Speaker 1: she's a French woman. Well, you tell someone what they
Speaker 1: are enough, they might believe you. She didn't deserve this treatment.
Speaker 1: Isabella was the Queen of England, the daughter of King
Speaker 1: Philip of France. She had spent years giving Edward children,
Speaker 1: doing his diplomacy, playing games with him, delighting side by
Speaker 1: side at the animals in their menagerie. No, she deserved
Speaker 1: a husband like her father had been, who never remarried
Speaker 1: after the death of his wife. Isabella's mother loyal to
Speaker 1: the end. Isabella's father was harsh as a king, but
Speaker 1: as a father, he was in touch with his daughter constantly.
Speaker 1: He mentioned Isabella's name in every written record of French
Speaker 1: concessions to England. Knowing that she loved books, he made
Speaker 1: sure she got the gift of an ornately illustrated apocalypse
Speaker 1: when she burned her hand, he sent doctors to attend
Speaker 1: to her. In England, Isabella's husband didn't show loyalty anywhere
Speaker 1: nearly that much. But Isabella's husband had never been loyal
Speaker 1: to her, so why she thought should she be loyal
Speaker 1: to him? Isabella started smiling. It hurt far more to
Speaker 1: have lost her husband's respect as a thirty year old
Speaker 1: adult than it had been as a child to have
Speaker 1: never had it. But she played nice, so nice that
Speaker 1: Edward himself allowed his beautiful, smiling wife to go alone
Speaker 1: to France, ostensibly as a peacemaker between the nations. A
Speaker 1: nightmare dressed like a day dream. When Isabella arrived in France,
Speaker 1: she kissed her brother, King Charles the Fourth, who looked
Speaker 1: so much like their departed father. She breathed in the
Speaker 1: sweet scent of home, and soon enough she encountered a
Speaker 1: man named Roger Mortimer. He had once been a friend
Speaker 1: and ally of King Edward, until, under Dispenser's cruel regime,
Speaker 1: he turned against the English king. They had this in common.
Speaker 1: Mortimer and Isabella. Mortimer had once been sentenced to death
Speaker 1: for treason against the king, but Edward had commuted the
Speaker 1: sentence he could not have known at the time that
Speaker 1: he was sparing the life of the man who would
Speaker 1: become his wife's lover. Yes, Isabella started an affair with Mortimer,
Speaker 1: fueled by the aphrodisiac of shared hatred for her husband.
Speaker 1: There's something almost tragic that Isabella and Edward had so
Speaker 1: much in common. Both were trapped in a marriage when
Speaker 1: their real devotions were elsewhere. Both turned to an adulterous affair.
Speaker 1: We can imagine in a different life, in a different
Speaker 1: time in history, with a different understanding of sexuality, the
Speaker 1: wife and husband might have divorced, might have even remained married,
Speaker 1: but understood their desires for people that their spouses could
Speaker 1: never be. They had respected each other once upon a time,
Speaker 1: but that time was now long past. By thirty five,
Speaker 1: Isabella and Mortimer were playing it very smart, while at
Speaker 1: the exact same moment Edward played it very dumb. Edwards
Speaker 1: sent his firstborn son to visit Isabella in France, which
Speaker 1: put all the power in her hand. She now had
Speaker 1: the heir. The king pretty soon realized his mistake. He
Speaker 1: started sending letter after letter to Isabella, to Charles, to
Speaker 1: anyone he could think of. He asked Isabella to come
Speaker 1: home to England with their son. She sent back de
Speaker 1: mural letters with feeble excuses. Oh, I couldn't possibly leave France,
Speaker 1: my brother wants us to say. Edward started to get
Speaker 1: very nervous. He was right to. Isabella was hanging out
Speaker 1: in France with English exiles who hated Edward. She was
Speaker 1: wearing the black garb of a widow, major alarm bells.
Speaker 1: It was probably seen as a symbol of her displeasure
Speaker 1: with her husband's infidelity, but it was also a threat.
Speaker 1: If she wasn't a widow yet, she would be one soon.
Speaker 1: She would make sure of it. Edward kept asking Isabella
Speaker 1: to return with their son, and Isabella kept defying him.
Speaker 1: It became like a game of keepaway. Finally she made
Speaker 1: it plain she would not return to England except upon
Speaker 1: quote the destruct action of Hugh. At this point Edward
Speaker 1: really and rightly freaked out. On December one, five, his
Speaker 1: bishops wrote to Isabella, quote, the whole country is disturbed
Speaker 1: by the answers which you have lately sent to our
Speaker 1: Lord King, and because you delay your return out of
Speaker 1: hatred for Hugh la dispenser, we warn you as a
Speaker 1: daughter to return to our Lord King. Your husband. It's
Speaker 1: striking that Edwards Bishops wrote from the perspective of a
Speaker 1: father figure to this woman whose father had actually helped
Speaker 1: her in her life. Isabella knew whose daughter she really was,
Speaker 1: so she and Mortimer drew up plans they would invade
Speaker 1: England by sea. At the time, it had been two
Speaker 1: hundred years since the last successful sea invasion, far but
Speaker 1: not so far outside in history that it couldn't be
Speaker 1: done again. They gathered their eight warships and one hundred
Speaker 1: and thirty two support vessels together they set sail. They
Speaker 1: landed in England two days later, September twenty four, twenty six.
Speaker 1: As far as invasions go, it was a shockingly easy
Speaker 1: and bloodless one, As had happened with Gaveston. Isabella's hatred
Speaker 1: of Dispenser matched the public sentiment. Under Dispenser's influence, Edward
Speaker 1: had become a tyrant. The people were on her side.
Speaker 1: Isabella and Mortimer captured Cambridge, than Oxford militias that were
Speaker 1: called in defense of the king instead defected to the
Speaker 1: side of the invaders. When Isabella found out what her
Speaker 1: husband did next, perhaps she felt only a superior, justified
Speaker 1: kind of vengeance. Perhaps she felt a twinge of sorrow
Speaker 1: at how predictable her husband was, how well she knew
Speaker 1: his heart, how much she had changed while he had not.
Speaker 1: As his reign collapsed around him, Edward left with Dispenser,
Speaker 1: just as he had with Gaveston years before, when she
Speaker 1: had been left alone and pregnant with their son. Isabella's
Speaker 1: husband had never been a great tactician. His actions gave
Speaker 1: her the chance to claim that he had abandoned his people,
Speaker 1: given up his throne. No one was willing to fight
Speaker 1: for him. The will of the nation was with Isabella.
Speaker 1: Dispenser was captured and brutally executed. He was hanged, castrated,
Speaker 1: and burned Edward the Second it was kept under guard
Speaker 1: in Berkeley Castle. On January seven, Edward the Third was
Speaker 1: proclaimed King of England. As he was only fourteen, not
Speaker 1: yet of age, some one else would have to rule
Speaker 1: as regent in his stead. Well, one woman was up
Speaker 1: to the task. Queen Isabella had invaded with popular support.
Speaker 1: She had deposed her husband. She essentially took the crown.
Speaker 1: Queen Mother Isabella came to rule on behalf of her
Speaker 1: son on a wave of public popularity. But the public
Speaker 1: is fickle. On September twenty first, thirteen twenty seven, former
Speaker 1: King Edward the Second was murdered in his captivity. It
Speaker 1: was said that he was suffocated by a pillow to
Speaker 1: the mouth and a heavy table to the stomach, and
Speaker 1: then killed, my apologies, by a hot iron up the rectum.
Speaker 1: Rumors swirled that Isabella and Mortimer had secretly ordered the
Speaker 1: king's death. After all, a living former king who had
Speaker 1: been deposed by his French wife and her lover would
Speaker 1: always be a threat to their rule. The public is fickle,
Speaker 1: after all, this was the Middle Ages. What if opinion
Speaker 1: had turned. What if over time Edward came to be
Speaker 1: seen as the wronged party and he gathered support. God
Speaker 1: knew if he were reinstated, it would be Isabella's had
Speaker 1: that rolled. But whoever was responsible for the loss of
Speaker 1: Isabella's husband, he was gone. Isabella was making royal decisions,
Speaker 1: and six months later, in thirty eight, she supported the
Speaker 1: Treaty of Edinburgh Northampton, which recognized Scotland's independence and promised
Speaker 1: her daughter to the son of the Scottish king. The
Speaker 1: English public felt betrayed, their support for Isabella fell apart.
Speaker 1: In an ironic twist, Isabella did what her husband had done.
Speaker 1: In the face of public disapproval, she unjustly elevated the
Speaker 1: status of her lover to the consternation of the public
Speaker 1: and the pain of her family. Amidst calls for Mortimer's banishment,
Speaker 1: Isabella defiantly gave him an earldom that she invented for him,
Speaker 1: pretty much exactly in the mold of edwards defiant elevation
Speaker 1: of Gaveston and then Dispenser. Isabella and her husband really
Speaker 1: did have a lot in common, and just as Isabella
Speaker 1: had done to her husband, her son did to her
Speaker 1: in thirteen thirty he took Isabella's favorite away. Mortimer was
Speaker 1: convicted of treason and hanged naked in London, where his
Speaker 1: body was left dangling for two days. And as for Isabella,
Speaker 1: for a woman regarded by history as evil, she got
Speaker 1: off pretty lightly. In life, Queens of England have been
Speaker 1: beheaded and imprisoned for far less than deposing a king
Speaker 1: alongside an adulterous lover, But Edward the third made sure
Speaker 1: that his mother was barely even mentioned in Mortimer's trial.
Speaker 1: Isabella was briefly placed under house arrest, but she lived
Speaker 1: out the majority of her next twenty eight years in freedom.
Speaker 1: Isabella died on August twenty second, fifty eight, at sixty
Speaker 1: three years old. Her body was embalmed and, per her
Speaker 1: own instructions, wrapped in her wedding cloak. It was an
Speaker 1: odd move for a woman who had been so betrayed
Speaker 1: by her husband. In the end, she wanted to dress
Speaker 1: as his bride. History was not kind to Isabella, The
Speaker 1: beautiful daughter of the fair King, was called ugly a
Speaker 1: sinner at Jezebel until two thousand and six. She had
Speaker 1: no published biography, but her influence lasted juries. When her brother,
Speaker 1: Charles the Fourth died, she insisted that her son had
Speaker 1: the rightful claim to the French crown, which eventually set
Speaker 1: off the Hundred Years War between England and France. She
Speaker 1: instigated the first parliamentary deposition of a king, which set
Speaker 1: a precedence that would depose five more kings over the
Speaker 1: next three hundred years. Today we might call her a
Speaker 1: femme fatale. They're sort of a hashtag feminist kind of
Speaker 1: basic reading of Isabella, which her story lends itself to.
Speaker 1: She was a slighted woman, overthrowing her tyrannical husband and
Speaker 1: removing his lover, who was a brutal torturer of vulnerable
Speaker 1: women and widows. But the Middle Ages don't really lend
Speaker 1: themselves to girl bosses. Mortimer had at one point threatened
Speaker 1: to kill her if she didn't follow through with their
Speaker 1: designs against the King. However areous or not he was,
Speaker 1: Isabella had needed Mortimer to do what she did. The
Speaker 1: role of women was constricted in the fourteenth century, and
Speaker 1: while Isabella acted fiercely, audaciously, bravely, she still had to
Speaker 1: rely on a man in order to do it. In
Speaker 1: fifteen ninety one, Shakespeare would coin the term she wolf
Speaker 1: of France to describe Henry the Fourth's wife, Margaret of Anjou.
Speaker 1: Centuries later, in seventeen fifty seven, the English poet Thomas
Speaker 1: Gray applied the term to Isabella, quote she Wolf of
Speaker 1: France with unrelenting fangs that tearced the bowels of thy
Speaker 1: mangled mate. The name stuck. Isabella became known to history
Speaker 1: as the she wolf of France. The imagery is striking
Speaker 1: a feigned creature waiting in the woods, the suggestion of
Speaker 1: sexual predation and indiscretion. There's also the suggestion in the phrase,
Speaker 1: though Gray didn't mean it, of a pack of other
Speaker 1: she wolves to come after. That's the story of Queen
Speaker 1: Isabella deposing her husband the King, but stick around after
Speaker 1: a brief sponsor break to find out whether she really
Speaker 1: was responsible for Edward the seconds murder. While many sources,
Speaker 1: including this very podcast, have speculated that Isabella and her
Speaker 1: lover Mortimer were behind the murder of the deposed King
Speaker 1: Edward the Second, not all historians agree. Another story goes
Speaker 1: that Isabella had nothing to do with the death of
Speaker 1: her husband. According to that story, Edward escaped his captors
Speaker 1: in thirty six and a doppelganger was buried in his place. Eventually,
Speaker 1: he even reunited with his son, Edward the Third in
Speaker 1: disguise as a humble, unsuspecting Welshman William the Welshman. It
Speaker 1: sounds like a merry children's book character, but it has
Speaker 1: an outside chance of being true. In this version of events,
Speaker 1: Isabella knew or had reason to suspect that her husband
Speaker 1: was alive, gave her peace to know she was not
Speaker 1: his murderer enough piece that she felt comfortable wrapping herself
Speaker 1: in their wedding cloak after her death. Her conscience Free
Speaker 1: Noble Blood is a production of I Heart Radio and
Speaker 1: Grim and Mile from Aaron Mankey. Noble Blood is hosted
Speaker 1: by me Danishwartz. Additional writing and researching done by Hannah Johnston,
Speaker 1: hannah's Wick, Miura Hayward, Courtney Sunder, and Laurie Goodman. The
Speaker 1: show is produced by rema Il Kayali, with supervising producer
Speaker 1: Josh Thaine and executive producers Aaron Mankey, Alex Williams, and
Speaker 1: Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit
Speaker 1: the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.