WEBVTT - The Queen Caught Between Kingdoms 0:00:00.720 --> 0:00:05.040 Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim 0:00:05.120 --> 0:00:15.440 and Mild from Aaron Manky listener Discretion advised. One night 0:00:15.640 --> 0:00:20.040 in twelve forty two, Louis the ninth King of France 0:00:20.600 --> 0:00:25.080 was settling in for an ordinary dinner when the Royal 0:00:25.239 --> 0:00:29.319 food taster began doing the thing you never want to 0:00:29.360 --> 0:00:33.400 see the royal food taster do. After taking a bite 0:00:33.400 --> 0:00:38.559 of food, he began hacking and coughing. It seemed that 0:00:38.640 --> 0:00:43.320 food taster earned his paycheck with that meal. Somebody had 0:00:43.360 --> 0:00:48.720 poisoned the King's meat and wine. The guards sprang into 0:00:48.800 --> 0:00:53.120 action and began searching the royal grounds. By chance, they 0:00:53.200 --> 0:00:57.760 stumbled upon two suspicious peasants who happened to be lurking 0:00:57.920 --> 0:01:02.600 near the kitchens. Two peasants were tortured until they delivered 0:01:02.640 --> 0:01:07.839 a confession, and it was a startling one. Not only 0:01:07.880 --> 0:01:12.399 had they would be assassins poisoned the King's meal, they 0:01:12.440 --> 0:01:15.640 also confessed that they had been hired to do so 0:01:16.200 --> 0:01:19.920 by a former Queen of England, who had promised them 0:01:20.040 --> 0:01:25.520 riches and status in return for their services. The entire 0:01:25.640 --> 0:01:29.720 botched poisoning was a massive success for the French on 0:01:29.920 --> 0:01:33.840 all counts. The French king had avoided death, they had 0:01:33.880 --> 0:01:38.039 caught the villains, and as a bonus, an English queen 0:01:38.319 --> 0:01:42.480 was implicated. That, at least was the story that passed 0:01:42.480 --> 0:01:45.880 around the French court in the summer of twelve forty two. 0:01:46.800 --> 0:01:50.640 The truth of the events probably looked more like this. 0:01:51.640 --> 0:01:55.520 One night in twelve forty two, two peasants were found 0:01:55.680 --> 0:01:59.840 rummaging through King Louis supplies while the king was out 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:05.160 campaigning against some rebellious barons. These two peasants were most 0:02:05.320 --> 0:02:08.840 likely caught trying to take some food and drink, and 0:02:08.880 --> 0:02:13.320 they were hanged according to martial law. News of local 0:02:13.400 --> 0:02:19.520 thieves somehow transformed, through rumor and storytelling, into news about 0:02:19.840 --> 0:02:24.480 local assassins. Rummaging in the royal stores of mead and 0:02:24.639 --> 0:02:29.680 meat turned into an attempted poisoning, and an otherwise ordinary 0:02:29.800 --> 0:02:34.680 crime turned into a geopolitical plot of the highest order. 0:02:35.600 --> 0:02:38.480 So who was this Queen of England who was so 0:02:38.720 --> 0:02:42.160 reviled that what may very well have just been the 0:02:42.240 --> 0:02:47.160 honest crime of two poor souls evolved into her elaborate 0:02:47.240 --> 0:02:52.760 conspiracy against the French king. If it wasn't already clear, 0:02:53.120 --> 0:02:57.480 Isabelle of ANGLEM Dowager Queen of England was not exactly 0:02:57.600 --> 0:03:02.280 beloved by King Louis the Ninth or court. She was rather, 0:03:02.680 --> 0:03:07.240 as powerful women often are, the perfect candidate for the 0:03:07.320 --> 0:03:13.079 rumor mail. After the supposed assassination attempt, some believed that 0:03:13.200 --> 0:03:17.440 Isabel attempted suicide as the culmination for her life sins. 0:03:18.200 --> 0:03:21.880 Others believed that she fled to a nearby abbey for 0:03:22.000 --> 0:03:27.000 sanctuary from Louis's reprisals. All agreed that she would do 0:03:27.160 --> 0:03:31.200 whatever it took to avoid losing a trial, to hold 0:03:31.280 --> 0:03:35.040 on to whatever crumbs of power she had left after 0:03:35.200 --> 0:03:41.160 decades of losing ground to an aggressive French kingdom. The 0:03:41.280 --> 0:03:45.640 history of the rumor of the attempted poisoning is frankly 0:03:45.760 --> 0:03:50.400 a minuscule part of Isabel's life story, but it illustrates 0:03:50.440 --> 0:03:56.120 the problem with uncovering the historical Isabel quite well. Whatever 0:03:56.160 --> 0:04:00.920 the medieval chronicles say about her is distorted by dynastic 0:04:01.080 --> 0:04:05.840 drama and political biases. They paint her as a scandal 0:04:05.880 --> 0:04:11.440 inducing affair having Jezebel who drove two kingdoms into turmoil, 0:04:12.040 --> 0:04:16.359 first England and then Western France. But if we cut 0:04:16.440 --> 0:04:21.559 through the gossip, what would we actually find a heartless mother, 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:27.159 or exactly the type of ruthless parents that medieval politics rewarded, 0:04:27.880 --> 0:04:32.839 a cunning and deceitful sorceress, or a dowager queen so 0:04:33.080 --> 0:04:37.040 relentless in her pursuit of freedom from both the English 0:04:37.080 --> 0:04:40.800 and the French that she earned a bad reputation in 0:04:40.960 --> 0:04:47.400 both kingdoms. Isabel tried, but ultimately failed to establish a 0:04:47.480 --> 0:04:51.440 dynasty of her own. But if she hadn't rocked the 0:04:51.520 --> 0:04:55.479 foundations of England and France, why would she ever have 0:04:55.560 --> 0:04:59.400 been worth the elaborate smear campaign in the first place. 0:05:00.360 --> 0:05:04.120 This is the story of a queen turned nun who, 0:05:04.680 --> 0:05:09.039 in trying to play both sides, ended up playing herself, 0:05:10.080 --> 0:05:14.040 a rogue royal who, even when stripped of her titles, 0:05:14.600 --> 0:05:20.120 lands and reputation, refused to stop signing her name as 0:05:20.240 --> 0:05:25.359 Dowager Queen of England. I'm Danish schwartz and this is 0:05:25.440 --> 0:05:36.360 noble blood. In the month of October twelve sixteen, Isabelle 0:05:36.360 --> 0:05:39.560 of Angoulem learned that her husband, the King of England 0:05:39.600 --> 0:05:44.760 and patriarch of the House of Plantagenet, had died. King 0:05:44.920 --> 0:05:48.719 John had spent the past year embroiled in a war 0:05:48.880 --> 0:05:53.560 against his barons, who raised demands in a little treaty 0:05:53.680 --> 0:05:58.200 called the Magna Carta, which John had absolutely no intention 0:05:58.480 --> 0:06:02.920 of accepting. The vain king marched from county to county, 0:06:03.279 --> 0:06:06.599 pillaging as he went along, all the while his wife 0:06:06.720 --> 0:06:10.279 remained confined to a castle in the city of Bristol. 0:06:11.240 --> 0:06:14.440 When she heard the news that dysentery took John, she 0:06:14.600 --> 0:06:18.839 probably felt a weight lift from her shoulders. For context, 0:06:19.000 --> 0:06:21.719 this is the King John, who was the younger brother 0:06:21.800 --> 0:06:25.720 of Richard the Lionheart, the guy who's the villainous Prince 0:06:25.839 --> 0:06:30.839 John in several adaptations of robin Hood. Upon the death 0:06:31.000 --> 0:06:35.080 of his brother Richard, John inherited not only the Kingdom 0:06:35.120 --> 0:06:39.440 of England, but also a vast swathe of territory in 0:06:39.560 --> 0:06:45.680 western France, encompassing Normandy, Brittany, and Aquitaine together called the 0:06:45.720 --> 0:06:51.760 Anchovin Empire. John's queen, Isabel, was originally from the French 0:06:51.880 --> 0:06:55.560 city of Angoulem, part of the land that she was 0:06:55.600 --> 0:07:00.599 technically supposed to inherit from her father account, but Isabel 0:07:00.760 --> 0:07:04.800 never spent much time with her inheritance, owing to the 0:07:04.839 --> 0:07:08.279 fact that she married John when she was only twelve. 0:07:09.600 --> 0:07:14.040 By all accounts, their marriage was considered scandalous from the start. 0:07:14.800 --> 0:07:19.160 In twelve hundred, Isabel was already betrothed to a French count. 0:07:19.800 --> 0:07:23.400 The union of their lands in central and western France 0:07:23.800 --> 0:07:27.920 would have cut off the northern part of John's empire 0:07:28.040 --> 0:07:32.400 in Normandy from the southern part in Aquitaine. As any 0:07:32.520 --> 0:07:36.520 conniving king would do, John made a back room deal 0:07:36.640 --> 0:07:40.520 to cut off Isabel's betrothal to that count, and he 0:07:40.560 --> 0:07:46.240 promptly married the girl himself. From twelve hundred to twelve sixteen, 0:07:46.840 --> 0:07:50.640 Isabel reigned as the Queen of England, but in fact 0:07:50.680 --> 0:07:55.000 she resided in what amounted to a golden cage, let 0:07:55.080 --> 0:07:58.640 out at the whims of her husband. According to the 0:07:58.760 --> 0:08:02.840 terms of their marriage, Isabel was entitled to rents from 0:08:02.960 --> 0:08:07.560 royal estates, but her husband frequently intercepted these funds to 0:08:07.600 --> 0:08:12.560 spend on his own lavish wardrobe. Instead of lodging Isabel 0:08:12.720 --> 0:08:16.360 in her own household as was customary, John thought it 0:08:16.400 --> 0:08:18.960 fit to put her up in the apartments of his 0:08:19.200 --> 0:08:22.880 former wife, the Countess of Gloucester, and then in the 0:08:22.880 --> 0:08:28.480 household of his mistress, the Lady de Neville. Most disturbingly, 0:08:29.040 --> 0:08:33.720 after Isabel bore her first child, Henry, in twelve oh seven, 0:08:34.280 --> 0:08:39.200 the Canterbury chronicles refer to her as being quote in custody. 0:08:39.960 --> 0:08:43.640 A few historians have speculated that Isabel was under some 0:08:43.760 --> 0:08:47.360 kind of house arrest, and this seems corroborated by the 0:08:47.559 --> 0:08:53.240 relative absence of her name among contemporary letters and court records. 0:08:54.280 --> 0:08:58.800 Either way, what's certain is that Isabel's husband humiliated her, 0:08:59.200 --> 0:09:04.000 stole her in, and confined her to a handful of castles. 0:09:04.880 --> 0:09:08.880 At some point in the sixteen years of her English captivity, 0:09:09.480 --> 0:09:13.520 Isabel decided she would no longer take being upawn in 0:09:13.640 --> 0:09:18.160 other people's politics. When her husband died, she may have 0:09:18.320 --> 0:09:22.040 mourned he was, after all, the father of her four children. 0:09:22.600 --> 0:09:25.920 We know that she made three offerings for the salvation 0:09:26.200 --> 0:09:29.760 of her husband's soul in the months that followed, but 0:09:29.840 --> 0:09:33.480 she never again mentioned her husband in any of her 0:09:33.520 --> 0:09:38.880 correspondents for the remaining thirty years of her life. This 0:09:38.960 --> 0:09:44.960 feeling of indifference was probably reciprocal. Considering that John invested 0:09:45.000 --> 0:09:48.000 the care of his heir henry in the hands of 0:09:48.080 --> 0:09:52.640 an esteemed earl and not the boy's own mother, Isabel 0:09:52.840 --> 0:09:57.160 had little to no chance of assuming any power in England. 0:09:57.600 --> 0:10:00.880 She was pushed out of the Regency council and the 0:10:01.040 --> 0:10:04.360 very men that made up that council seemed to have 0:10:04.480 --> 0:10:08.080 purchased a well chartered ship for Isabel to be on 0:10:08.200 --> 0:10:11.840 her merry way off of English shores and back to France. 0:10:12.760 --> 0:10:16.600 Isabel left behind her young sons, Henry and Richard, and 0:10:16.640 --> 0:10:20.240 took only her daughter Joan with her as she set 0:10:20.320 --> 0:10:30.960 sail for the continent. Was it ruthless for a mother 0:10:31.120 --> 0:10:34.280 to have abandoned her children upon the death of their father. 0:10:35.040 --> 0:10:39.280 The medieval chronicles certainly say so, and while they certainly 0:10:39.440 --> 0:10:46.400 overexaggerate Isabel's egomania and irresponsibility, her actions suggest that she was, 0:10:47.000 --> 0:10:51.960 if anything, opportunistic, and her husband's death just so happened 0:10:51.960 --> 0:10:56.960 to present an opportunity to reclaim her inheritance and establish 0:10:57.240 --> 0:11:01.720 her own little kingdom in western France. In the year 0:11:01.840 --> 0:11:06.720 twelve seventeen, Isabel entered the French city of Angoulem to 0:11:06.920 --> 0:11:11.200 great fanfare by the local populace, So much fanfare that 0:11:11.280 --> 0:11:15.280 the mayor of Angoulem even bestowed upon Isabel the keys 0:11:15.360 --> 0:11:19.400 to the city. Only a few years before Isabelle's arrival, 0:11:19.800 --> 0:11:23.920 King John had assigned a group of administrators and barons 0:11:24.080 --> 0:11:28.559 to oversee the county of Angoulem oversee its principal estates 0:11:28.840 --> 0:11:35.440 revenues and defense. Isabel planned to rest political control back 0:11:35.600 --> 0:11:39.280 from her late husband's group, but there would be serious 0:11:39.320 --> 0:11:44.080 obstacles in her path. From twelve seventeen to twelve nineteen, 0:11:44.320 --> 0:11:50.280 those barons launched rebellious campaigns against Isabel's rule. She used 0:11:50.440 --> 0:11:54.479 every ruthless strategy in her playbook to subdue her vassals. 0:11:55.040 --> 0:11:58.240 In one case, she took the two sons of one 0:11:58.280 --> 0:12:04.800 baron hostage until capitulated, a tactic considered so extreme that 0:12:04.880 --> 0:12:11.439 a bishop in a nearby city threatened Isabel with excommunication. Isabel, 0:12:11.679 --> 0:12:16.120 leveraging her prestige as a dowager Queen of England, sent 0:12:16.200 --> 0:12:19.600 a letter to the Pope about her discontent with the 0:12:19.679 --> 0:12:23.480 local bishop, sort of the equivalent of going directly to 0:12:23.520 --> 0:12:27.520 the manager. By twelve eighteen, the Pope wrote back and 0:12:27.600 --> 0:12:32.040 proclaimed that Isabel could not be excommunicated except by a 0:12:32.160 --> 0:12:37.719 direct order from Rome. Isabel used every tool in her 0:12:37.800 --> 0:12:43.000 arsenal to exert control over her inheritance, brute force against 0:12:43.000 --> 0:12:48.400 the barons, ride diplomacy among the bishops, even deceit occasionally 0:12:48.800 --> 0:12:53.560 to win the favor of her powerful children, Isabel needed 0:12:53.720 --> 0:12:58.000 deeper pockets to continue her war against the barons, so 0:12:58.080 --> 0:13:01.679 she sent please for finance shall help to her son 0:13:02.120 --> 0:13:06.920 in England, King Henry the Third. Technically Isabel owned a 0:13:07.040 --> 0:13:12.240 variety of dower estates in England, but Henry's Regency Council 0:13:12.440 --> 0:13:15.920 withheld the income from those estates out of fear that 0:13:16.000 --> 0:13:19.480 Isabel would use them to create her own base of power, 0:13:20.040 --> 0:13:24.480 which was in fact exactly what she was doing. In 0:13:24.520 --> 0:13:29.240 her letters to her son Henry, Isabel persuasively explained that 0:13:29.280 --> 0:13:34.439 her takeover of western France wasn't about personal interest, but 0:13:34.600 --> 0:13:39.679 instead was about maintaining the Anjevin Empire. She blamed the 0:13:39.720 --> 0:13:43.600 barons for collaborating with the King of France, and so 0:13:43.640 --> 0:13:48.440 she needed additional resources to squash their resistance before it 0:13:48.559 --> 0:13:53.160 turned into a crisis. Wouldn't Henry help his poor mother 0:13:53.559 --> 0:13:58.559 as she defended his empire. The letters worked, but even 0:13:58.679 --> 0:14:02.520 with the additional coin, Isabelle had to face the fact 0:14:02.760 --> 0:14:06.880 that she was in a pretty weak position. She was 0:14:06.920 --> 0:14:12.000 sandwiched in between the two massive kingdoms of England and France, 0:14:12.559 --> 0:14:16.960 operating on a paltry budget, and she had even failed 0:14:17.000 --> 0:14:21.440 to fully establish her claim over Angoulem. Her cousin Matilda, 0:14:21.640 --> 0:14:26.800 was also claiming those ancestral lands. Isabelle needed an ally, 0:14:27.720 --> 0:14:39.200 or alternatively a new husband. Back in twelve fourteen, isabel 0:14:39.280 --> 0:14:43.400 had betrothed her baby daughter Joan to a count named 0:14:43.520 --> 0:14:47.040 Hughes of Lusignan, a twenty four year old who ruled 0:14:47.040 --> 0:14:52.080 over the lands just north of Angoulem. The countess had 0:14:52.120 --> 0:14:55.840 originally intended for the powerful Lucignon family to act as 0:14:55.880 --> 0:15:01.000 allies of the English crown, but in twelve twenty, with John, 0:15:01.160 --> 0:15:05.080 King of England dead and Isabelle desperately needing support for 0:15:05.160 --> 0:15:09.240 her own government, she began to see Hughes, her would 0:15:09.280 --> 0:15:13.640 be future son in law in a new light. This 0:15:14.000 --> 0:15:18.680 now thirty year old count was dashing, a bachelor, and 0:15:18.920 --> 0:15:23.200 most important of all, in control of large and wealthy 0:15:23.360 --> 0:15:27.960 estates in some of the most hotly contested French territories. 0:15:28.920 --> 0:15:33.080 Isabelle broke off her daughter's engagement to Hughes and took 0:15:33.120 --> 0:15:37.560 the count for herself. It's also highly likely that the 0:15:37.600 --> 0:15:40.840 two had an affair leading up to the actual exchanging 0:15:40.840 --> 0:15:46.240 of vows, to make matters even more complicated. Before Isabelle 0:15:46.320 --> 0:15:50.240 had married King John of England twenty years earlier, she 0:15:50.320 --> 0:15:55.240 had originally been betrothed to Hugh's father, so in effect, 0:15:55.440 --> 0:15:59.160 the Countess ended up marrying the son of her former 0:15:59.240 --> 0:16:04.760 fiance and the former fiance of her daughter. Messi is 0:16:04.840 --> 0:16:08.360 an understatement, you can imagine what the thanksgivings would have 0:16:08.400 --> 0:16:14.040 been like. Even before this messy second marriage, the chroniclers 0:16:14.120 --> 0:16:20.000 of the day already despised Isabel. They believed her wicked, adulterous, 0:16:20.040 --> 0:16:24.840 and manipulative, the very source of England instability during her 0:16:24.920 --> 0:16:30.560 husband John's reign. In fact, this character portrait has no 0:16:30.720 --> 0:16:34.800 real basis. In reality, we have no evidence to suggest 0:16:34.960 --> 0:16:38.800 that Isabel had any say in matters of her husband's government, 0:16:39.400 --> 0:16:42.400 nor evidence that she had an affair while her husband 0:16:42.480 --> 0:16:46.840 was alive. The chroniclers did not take too kindly to 0:16:46.920 --> 0:16:51.600 her second marriage, seeing it as further proof of her depravity. 0:16:52.520 --> 0:16:57.440 One contemporary historian wrote that news of the marriage quote 0:16:57.640 --> 0:17:03.640 really stimulated conversation. Indeed, rumor got around that Isabel not 0:17:03.840 --> 0:17:08.359 only stole away her own daughter Joan's future prospects, but 0:17:08.440 --> 0:17:11.880 also that she was keeping her daughter captive in order 0:17:11.960 --> 0:17:15.639 to extract a ransom from her son, King Henry the 0:17:15.720 --> 0:17:21.040 Third in England. These accusations eventually made their way to Rome, 0:17:21.440 --> 0:17:24.919 where the Pope furiously wrote to Isabel in twelve twenty 0:17:24.960 --> 0:17:28.760 one that her son had ultimate authority over his sister Joan. 0:17:29.560 --> 0:17:34.040 This in no way deterred Isabel from refusing to send 0:17:34.040 --> 0:17:39.000 her daughter to England. The Regency Council in England retaliated 0:17:39.440 --> 0:17:45.040 by confiscating Isabel's English estates, but when Isabel threatened to 0:17:45.240 --> 0:17:50.200 ally with the French king, the council relented. Of course. 0:17:50.320 --> 0:17:54.720 In letters to King Henry, her son, Isabel pretended all 0:17:54.760 --> 0:17:58.239 of this was in his best interest. Her marriage to 0:17:58.320 --> 0:18:02.280 Hughes was in service of the English crown, As she 0:18:02.359 --> 0:18:05.800 wrote in one letter, God knows we did this more 0:18:05.840 --> 0:18:12.000 for your sake than four hours. It was clear to 0:18:12.119 --> 0:18:15.920 all passers by that Isabel seemed willing to do almost 0:18:15.960 --> 0:18:20.680 anything in her pursuit of dynastic power, or at least 0:18:20.800 --> 0:18:26.960 control over her own lands. Many accounts describe her as vain, glorious, 0:18:27.200 --> 0:18:33.000 or megalomaniacal. She demanded a court befitting a queen, but 0:18:33.160 --> 0:18:38.120 operated on the income of three counties. She always expected 0:18:38.160 --> 0:18:42.400 to be taken seriously as a political actor, even when 0:18:42.480 --> 0:18:46.439 her power waned. At the same time, she learned to 0:18:46.520 --> 0:18:51.120 try her best, and she often succeeded in switching sides 0:18:51.240 --> 0:18:55.919 between the English plantagenets and the French copetions when it 0:18:55.960 --> 0:19:01.000 was convenient for the growth of her own territory. For example, 0:19:01.119 --> 0:19:04.800 when the French King Louis the eighth died prematurely in 0:19:04.840 --> 0:19:10.200 twelve twenty six, Isabel sought an opportunity to win broader 0:19:10.280 --> 0:19:14.960 privileges from the fragile French kingdom, despite the fact that 0:19:15.040 --> 0:19:19.680 she technically owed full fealty to her son Henry in England. 0:19:20.520 --> 0:19:23.760 The King of England was sent into a spiral at 0:19:23.800 --> 0:19:27.280 this betrayal. He refused to send any more of the 0:19:27.359 --> 0:19:32.119 income from his mother's dower land, and no more imploring 0:19:32.280 --> 0:19:36.960 letters from Isabel would ever change his mind. This, of course, 0:19:37.000 --> 0:19:41.400 would pose quite the challenge for Angoulem, as it depended 0:19:41.720 --> 0:19:46.399 so much on English coin. This then, would have been 0:19:46.440 --> 0:19:50.239 the perfect time for Isabel to deepen her relationship with 0:19:50.320 --> 0:19:53.000 the new French king, now that she had all but 0:19:53.160 --> 0:19:57.119 ruined her relationship with her son Henry in England. The 0:19:57.200 --> 0:20:01.080 new king in France, Louis the ninth, was just a 0:20:01.240 --> 0:20:04.720 twelve year old boy when he took the throne, meaning 0:20:04.800 --> 0:20:08.400 most of the kingdom's affairs were vested in the hands 0:20:08.400 --> 0:20:13.320 of his mother and regent, Blanche of Castile, granddaughter of 0:20:13.400 --> 0:20:18.560 Eleanor of Aquitaine and sister to Isabel's late husband, King John. 0:20:19.520 --> 0:20:24.240 Unfortunately for Isabel and her grand designs at her own 0:20:24.280 --> 0:20:29.960 independent kingdom, Blanche, her previous sister in law, would prove 0:20:30.080 --> 0:20:33.160 to be more of a thorn in her backside than 0:20:33.240 --> 0:20:37.760 a stepping stone to power. To begin with, Blanche was 0:20:37.840 --> 0:20:42.600 everything that Isabel was not. Where Isabel's husband, King John 0:20:42.720 --> 0:20:46.080 had refused to invest the future of his heir in 0:20:46.119 --> 0:20:49.640 the hands of his wife Isabel, the old French king 0:20:50.040 --> 0:20:54.280 had entrusted Blante with the full stewardship of young Louis. 0:20:55.119 --> 0:21:00.479 Where Isabel had needed to remarry under scandalous circumstance in 0:21:00.560 --> 0:21:04.680 order to expand and hold her reach, Blanche had been 0:21:04.720 --> 0:21:09.399 able to preserve her widowhood and her reputation, all while 0:21:09.560 --> 0:21:16.760 commanding France's ruling Copetian dynasty. Contemporary accounts usually frame Isabelle 0:21:16.880 --> 0:21:22.920 as selfish and promiscuous and Blanche as sage and chaste, 0:21:23.520 --> 0:21:28.000 though we should be wary about those subjective and highly 0:21:28.080 --> 0:21:36.160 political and totalizing characterizations. Either way, Isabel undoubtedly agonized over 0:21:36.200 --> 0:21:41.040 the Queen consort and what Isabel considered Blanche's wicked brood 0:21:41.200 --> 0:21:46.760 of French princes. Isabelle was by no means impervious to jealousy, 0:21:47.280 --> 0:21:51.840 and it's exactly when she attempted to hurl down Blanche 0:21:52.320 --> 0:22:01.359 that the Countess of Angoulim sealed her own fate. Well 0:22:01.440 --> 0:22:06.080 into the twelve thirties, Isabelle continued signing her letters as 0:22:06.480 --> 0:22:10.080 the Queen of England, despite the fact that she hadn't 0:22:10.240 --> 0:22:14.640 stepped onto English soil for over a decade, and also 0:22:14.680 --> 0:22:17.679 despite the fact that she was taking every measure to 0:22:17.920 --> 0:22:22.520 actively ingratiate herself with France, the full enemies of the 0:22:22.600 --> 0:22:28.200 English crown. In twelve thirty, when Blanche foremented unrest among 0:22:28.440 --> 0:22:33.080 King Henry of England's vassals in Brittany, isabel agreed to 0:22:33.160 --> 0:22:37.480 support Blanche's insurrection on the condition that one of her 0:22:37.680 --> 0:22:41.040 newborn children that she had with her second husband would 0:22:41.080 --> 0:22:45.600 be betrothed to one of Blanche's children. In other words, 0:22:45.680 --> 0:22:50.199 she was siding against her own oldest son, Henry, but 0:22:50.560 --> 0:22:53.920 there would be no better way of securing Isabel's dynasty 0:22:54.359 --> 0:22:57.600 than by using her newest children to mix in with 0:22:57.680 --> 0:23:04.120 the Kapecians. Sick Isabelle fashion, though her tactics changed as 0:23:04.200 --> 0:23:08.760 the winds of opportunity blew from one direction to the other. 0:23:09.520 --> 0:23:14.240 The agreement fell through, and by twelve thirty six, Isabelle 0:23:14.320 --> 0:23:18.360 was convincing the King of Navarre to wage war against 0:23:18.400 --> 0:23:22.399 the French King Louis on a promise of military aid. 0:23:23.080 --> 0:23:25.280 It took no time at all for the French to 0:23:25.480 --> 0:23:29.360 repel that attack, win the pope to their side, and 0:23:29.680 --> 0:23:34.840 disgrace Isabelle and Hughes for their treachery. The following years 0:23:35.040 --> 0:23:39.119 saw Isabelle and Hughes begin to lose their grip on 0:23:39.160 --> 0:23:42.760 the lands of Angoulem and Lucignon in the face of 0:23:42.800 --> 0:23:48.480 a prosperous and well governed French kingdom edging them out. 0:23:49.359 --> 0:23:53.359 Isabelle and her second husband simply didn't have the revenue, 0:23:53.600 --> 0:23:57.720 the military might, or the allies to compete with King 0:23:57.840 --> 0:24:03.000 Louis and his mother Blanche one on one. Isabel's worst 0:24:03.160 --> 0:24:07.720 fears culminated in a nighting ceremony that would go on 0:24:07.880 --> 0:24:12.600 to haunt isabel for the rest of her life. Before 0:24:12.680 --> 0:24:16.480 he died, the late King Louis the Eighth had dictated 0:24:16.600 --> 0:24:21.760 a comprehensive will. Among his stipulations was a decree that 0:24:21.960 --> 0:24:26.639 his and Blanche's son, Alphonse would receive the title to 0:24:26.720 --> 0:24:30.800 the County of Poitier when he came of age. Poitier 0:24:30.960 --> 0:24:35.560 overlapped with much of the territory that was formally controlled 0:24:35.960 --> 0:24:40.120 by Isabel and Hughes at the time of the late 0:24:40.240 --> 0:24:44.320 king's decree, that wasn't much of a problem. The French 0:24:44.440 --> 0:24:47.720 king was distracted with too many other things to really 0:24:47.800 --> 0:24:51.960 focus on consolidating his power in the west. Not to 0:24:52.040 --> 0:24:56.160 mention those western lands were also at the time occupied 0:24:56.240 --> 0:25:00.720 by baron's loyal to the English crown. But by twelve 0:25:00.880 --> 0:25:05.439 forty one, the political landscape was looking a lot worse 0:25:05.680 --> 0:25:11.000 for Isabelle. Prince Alphonse was angling to marry a princess 0:25:11.200 --> 0:25:15.040 from the County of Toulouse, which would threaten to create 0:25:15.080 --> 0:25:19.480 a block of southern territories that could easily all but 0:25:19.680 --> 0:25:24.800 absorb the land that Isabel had worked so tirelessly to 0:25:24.920 --> 0:25:29.760 make independent. A knighting ceremony where she would be expected 0:25:29.800 --> 0:25:35.119 to show fealty to Alphonse would only solidify that horrible 0:25:35.280 --> 0:25:40.359 state of affairs. Needless to say, Isabel went into that 0:25:40.520 --> 0:25:50.720 ceremony looking for trouble. The account we have of Alphonse's 0:25:50.760 --> 0:25:55.159 oath swearing ceremony was told by a baron to Queen Blanch, 0:25:55.280 --> 0:26:00.320 who already hated jealous Isabel. So with that disclaimer, take 0:26:00.359 --> 0:26:03.240 the following events as I described them, with a grain 0:26:03.320 --> 0:26:06.760 of salt. There was a great feast in Poitier to 0:26:06.840 --> 0:26:11.359 celebrate the ceremony, and nobles from all over France streamed 0:26:11.359 --> 0:26:17.000 into the city for a cornucopia of savory meats, courtly games, 0:26:17.119 --> 0:26:22.600 and joyous camaraderie. King Louis, his younger brother Alphonse, and 0:26:22.640 --> 0:26:26.520 their entourage brought all of these festivities into the city, 0:26:26.800 --> 0:26:32.000 where Hughes was obligated to host and entertain his honored 0:26:32.040 --> 0:26:37.200 guests in preparation for the oath swearing. But during the 0:26:37.280 --> 0:26:41.600 actual ceremony there must have been some sort of mistake. 0:26:42.400 --> 0:26:46.480 Isabelle arrived to the oath swearing finding that Queen Blanche 0:26:46.560 --> 0:26:51.879 and several French countesses all had seats, while Isabelle, the 0:26:52.119 --> 0:26:56.480 Countess of Agoulem, and must she remind you, Dowager Queen 0:26:56.640 --> 0:27:02.360 of England, was somehow expected to stay. And the indecency 0:27:02.520 --> 0:27:07.520 outraged isabel so much that she apparently tore down the 0:27:07.640 --> 0:27:12.720 tapestries hanging over Hugh's throne, packed up the fine dinnerware, 0:27:13.040 --> 0:27:17.359 and even removed quote image of the Blessed Mary, along 0:27:17.440 --> 0:27:20.920 with the altar cloth and all the ornaments from the chapel. 0:27:22.080 --> 0:27:25.840 Isabel took everything fifty miles away to her own castle 0:27:25.880 --> 0:27:29.600 in Angoulem, in a fit of rage that could only 0:27:29.600 --> 0:27:32.840 have been meant to signal her anger at her husband, Hughes, 0:27:33.280 --> 0:27:36.720 who she blamed for failing to stand his ground in 0:27:36.760 --> 0:27:43.200 the face of their combined enemy. Hughes, understandably embarrassed, finished 0:27:43.280 --> 0:27:46.840 up the oath swearing, and then rushed off to confront Isabel, 0:27:47.280 --> 0:27:51.480 at which point she immediately scolded him, get away, get 0:27:51.520 --> 0:27:54.440 out of my sight. You are viler and baser than 0:27:54.480 --> 0:27:58.480 anybody else, and a reproach to everyone you've honored, the 0:27:58.640 --> 0:28:02.479 very people who disenhaet you. I'll never look at you again. 0:28:03.400 --> 0:28:07.880 Isabel refused to see her husband Hughes for three days, and, 0:28:08.040 --> 0:28:11.320 according to the writer of the letter that gives us 0:28:11.400 --> 0:28:15.959 that quote, what finally spurred Hughes to action was his 0:28:16.040 --> 0:28:20.639 wife's insistence that she wouldn't bed him until he rebelled 0:28:20.800 --> 0:28:26.520 against Queen Blanche. That most certainly is apocryphal, and it's 0:28:26.560 --> 0:28:30.679 worth noting that this detail both confirmed popular perceptions of 0:28:30.760 --> 0:28:36.240 Hughes as meek and Isabel as manipulative, exactly the sort 0:28:36.280 --> 0:28:39.960 of gossip that Blanche and the French court would have relished. 0:28:40.680 --> 0:28:44.840 What isn't apocryphal is that isabel played a major role 0:28:45.400 --> 0:28:50.920 in convincing Hughes to organize a rebellion against the French crown. 0:28:51.760 --> 0:28:57.479 It may have been symbolically sparked by Blanche's disrespect at court, 0:28:58.080 --> 0:29:01.960 but it was actually Isabelle's life, last ditch effort to 0:29:02.120 --> 0:29:07.880 exert control over her inheritance. Hughes and Isabel managed to 0:29:07.920 --> 0:29:11.680 recruit the Count of Toulouse as an ally, and they 0:29:11.760 --> 0:29:16.000 mustered every noble in the North that already resented Louis. 0:29:16.680 --> 0:29:20.480 In a familiar turn of events, Isabel reached out to 0:29:20.520 --> 0:29:23.600 the only person who wanted to see the ruin of 0:29:23.680 --> 0:29:28.080 the French more than she did. Her son. Henry, the 0:29:28.160 --> 0:29:31.840 King of England, looked past his rocky relationship with his 0:29:31.880 --> 0:29:36.520 mother in the face of this opportunity, and he gathered 0:29:36.600 --> 0:29:40.640 funding in late twelve forty one and early twelve forty 0:29:40.640 --> 0:29:46.520 two for an army. One chronicle relates the encounter between 0:29:46.920 --> 0:29:50.840 King Henry and his mother Isabel. When they finally met 0:29:50.880 --> 0:29:57.440 in France after decades of mutual vitriol apart, Isabel tenderly 0:29:57.600 --> 0:30:02.040 kissed her first born and in the sweetest tone, said 0:30:02.080 --> 0:30:05.560 to him, dear son, you have such a good character 0:30:06.200 --> 0:30:09.800 to help your mother and your brothers, whom the sons 0:30:09.840 --> 0:30:14.040 of Blanche of Spain want so wickedly to crush and 0:30:14.280 --> 0:30:22.760 keep under their feet. Tender maternal words. Notwithstanding, the invasion 0:30:22.840 --> 0:30:25.920 fell apart as soon as it began. The Count of 0:30:25.960 --> 0:30:30.040 Toulouse pulled his support. Henry wasn't able to raise a 0:30:30.080 --> 0:30:34.280 force large enough to compete with King Louis, and even 0:30:34.480 --> 0:30:39.120 Hughes only halfheartedly went about the whole rebellion thing, maybe 0:30:39.160 --> 0:30:42.800 hoping for an escape plan just in case. When the 0:30:42.800 --> 0:30:46.640 French and English armies met at Talburg in July twelve 0:30:46.680 --> 0:30:52.000 forty two, a French cavalry charge decimated the English forces. 0:30:52.680 --> 0:30:56.760 King Louis handed Henry a defeat so horrendous that the 0:30:56.800 --> 0:31:00.400 English king would have been captured had it not been 0:31:00.400 --> 0:31:07.400 for the diplomatic intervention of Henry's brother Richard. Hughes switched sides, 0:31:07.560 --> 0:31:10.720 to the chagrin of his wife. In less than a 0:31:10.760 --> 0:31:15.719 week of fighting. According to a popular myth, one that 0:31:15.760 --> 0:31:21.040 we can't verify or completely disprove, Isabel made a last 0:31:21.360 --> 0:31:26.360 stand by hiring out two serfs to poison the French king. 0:31:27.320 --> 0:31:32.600 Promised vast estates and noble titles. The two paupers managed 0:31:32.640 --> 0:31:36.320 to poison the meat and drink of Louis and Alphonse, 0:31:36.880 --> 0:31:40.280 but as we know, they were caught in the act 0:31:40.440 --> 0:31:46.040