Two Days After . . .

Two Days After the Election (7 November 2024)

"Women have very little idea of how much men hate them."

 --Germaine Greer

The Female Eunuch (1970)

Did you really think it had all changed in the last fifty years? 

Guglielma of Milan, Unofficial Saint and Posthumous Heretic

Guglielma of Milan, Unofficial Saint, Posthumous Heretic, and Maybe a Princess of Bohemia? (died 24 October 1281)

In the year 1260, a woman who called herself Guglielma arrived in Milan. Apparently a widow, she was accompanied by a man she called her son. In the city, she lived a life devoted to her religious faith, attracting a devoted following. She died on 24 October 1281 and was buried first in the small parish church of San Pietro all'Orto, her body moved later to the Cistercian monastery of Chiaravalle.

Fresco in the church of 
San Andrea in Brunate
( Italy), c. 1450;
Identified by Barbara Newman
as a depiction of Guglielma, 
blessing two of her followers

These are the few verifiable biographical details of Guglielma's otherwise unremarkable life. It's her afterlife that is remarkable.

Guglielma's "history," as far as her background and connections, her religious activities, and her teaching, is now known only through the testimony of her followers given during an inquisitorial investigation in 1300. 

By the time of Guglielma's death, her religious famiglia "had come to believe," to quote historian Barbara Newman's words, that Guglielma was "the Holy Spirit herself, incarnate, in the form of a woman." 

Her followers were led by the man she called her son, Andrea Saramita, and a nun, Sister Maifredo da Pirovano. Although Guglielma herself seems to have denied their claims, the layman and the nun persisted in their teaching that the Holy Spirit, in the person of Guglielma, had come to re-establish the Church. Further, Guglielma's son "predicted that Guglielma would effect a Second Coming on Pentecost 1300." Cleansed and renewed, the Church would then be able to save the souls of Jews, pagans, unbelievers, heretics, and "Saracens." And, since the Holy Spirit, in Guglielma, "had chosen to appear in female form," Sister Maifredo would become the new pope, a woman replacing corrupt popes like Boniface VIII.

Guglielma's followers came to the attention of the inquisition as early as 1284 and again in 1296, but it took nearly twenty years for them to be brought before an inquisition. The investigation began with the examination of Maifreda da Provano in April 1300; the formal trial began in July and ended only in December of that year, resulting in the condemnation of Andrea Saramita and Sister Maifredi as heretics. They were burned at the stake. A second nun, judged a relapsed heretic, was also burned at the stake, while others of Guglielma's followers were assessed "hefty fines" and were condemned to wearing "penitential crosses."

Brunate (Cuomo, Italy)

As for Guglielma herself, dead for twenty years? She was posthumously condemned for heresy. Her body was dug up, her bones were burned, the ashes were scattered, and every attempt was made to make Guglielma disappear--images of her were destroyed, texts written by her followers were destroyed, and the tomb at Chiaravalle where she had been buried was "dismantled."

But, 150 years later, a cycle of paintings devoted to Guglielma appeared in the church of San Andrea, in Brunate, a small village in the province of Cuomo, overlooking Lake Cuomo, some thirty miles northeast of Milan. Only one fresco remains there today, the image that Newman argues represents Guglielma and her two followers (above). 

In the surviving records of the inquisition, several of those who were examined, including Andrea Saramita, the man who arrived in Milan with Guglielma and whom she claimed as her son, said that Guglielma was the daughter of the the king of Bohemia (or maybe his sister, at least according to the testimony of one person).

If these claims are correct, and some scholars think they could be, Guglielma was the daughter of Přemysl Otakar I, king of Bohemia, and his second wife, Constance of Hungary, a woman named Blažena Vilemína. If this surmise is correct, Guglielma would be the sister of Agnes of Bohemia (d. 1282), canonized 12 November 1989. Guglielma would also be a first cousin of Elizabeth of Hungary (d. 1231), canonized 25 May 1235, and a cousin to Elizabeth's niece, Margaret of Hungary (d. 1270), canonized 19 November 1943. She would also be related to Hedwig of Silesia (d. 1243), canonized in 1267--Hedwig was Elizabeth of Hungary's aunt, but I haven't quite worked through her relationship to Guglielma.

But there is no surviving evidence of Guglielma's birth. In Newman's words, "The only problem with this scenario is the absence of any corroborating Bohemian documents."

Despite all efforts to eradicate Guglielma, her story did not die. In 1425, a friar living in Ferrara wrote her vita, a saint's life. This work, filled with incredible and entirely made up detail, does not seem to have been widely read (only one manuscript copy survives), but the vita or some version of it somehow found its way to the Florentine writer Antonia Pulci, whose play on Guglielma's life, The Play of Saint Guglielma (Rappresentazione di Santa Guglielma), preserved and popularized the story of Guglielma.

The most complete and accessible (for English speakers) account of Guglielma of Milan is Barbara Newman's "The Heretic Saint: Guglielma of Bohemia, Milan, and Brunate" Church History 74, no. 1 (2005): 1-38. There is much to Guglielma's afterlife that I have not detailed here, including much about Sister Maifreda, a member of the Visconti family.

If you can read Italian, I recommend Luisa Muraro's Guglielma e Maifreda Storia di un’eresia femminista (3rd edition, Milan: Libreria delle donne), an ebook available in its entirety here.

A thorough analysis of the surviving records of the inquisition is here.

For a view of the "wandering princess" motif in religious cults like the one that grew up around Guglielma, see Dávid Falvay's “'A Lady Wandering in a Faraway Land[:] The Central European Queen/Princess Motif in Italian Heretical Cults"  Annual of Medieval Studies at Central European University Budapest, 8 (2002): 157-179 (available here).

Chiesa di Sant'Andrea Apostolo,
Brunate

Anne of Burgundy, Duchess of Bedford, and Joan of Arc

Anne of Burgundy, duchess of Bedford (born 30 September 1404) 

Anne of Burgundy, kneeling
praying to St. Anne,
from the Bedford Hours
(British Library MS Add 18850,
fol. 257v)

Born in Arras on 30 September 1404, Anne of Burgundy was the daughter of John II, duke of Burgundy, and Margaret of Bavaria--to be more specific, Anne was the sixth of seven daughters born to the couple. 

Although she died when she was still quite young--she was just twenty-eight at the time of her death--Anne of Burgundy was nevertheless one of several notable women in her family who played key roles during the Hundred Years' War. 

Anne's mother was regent of Burgundy twice, first on behalf of her husband and then on behalf of her son, Philip III, duke of Burgundy. 

Anne's elder sister, Margaret, was betrothed to Charles, the dauphin of France (son of Charles VI), in 1394, when she was three years old, but Charles died in 1401. Two years later, in 1403, she married, Louis, who had become dauphin after the death of his brother. (Louis died in 1415, leaving her, at age sixteen, a widow for the second time.)

Anne's sister-in-law was the politically adept infanta Isabel of Portugal, who married Anne's brother, Philip III (Isabel was his third wife) in 1430. (Isabel's son, Charles the Bold, was the father of Mary of Burgundy, the mother of Margaret of Austria; he married--as his third wife--Margaret of York.) 

And here's a connection to recent posts on the Breton War of Succession: Anne's younger sister, Isabelle, married Olivier, count of Penthièvre, the grandson of Jeanne de Penthièvre, duchess of Brittany. She was only six when she married in 1406, and she died in 1412. 

(There are probably many other connections I'm missing, but these are the ones that spring immediately to mind.)

So, back to Anne of Burgundy herself. Details about her childhood are scanty. After her birth in Arras, Anne spent much of her childhood in the ducal palace in Dijon. In 1412, when she was about seven years old, Anne traveled with her mother and two sisters to Paris. In 1418, when she was about thirteen, she left her mother and Dijon and lived with her younger sister, Agnes, the two spending at least some time at the château Montbard, another ducal residence. Anne and Agnes were at Montbard when they learned of their father's assassination on 10 September 1419. She attended a ceremony in his honor in October, though with an empty coffin--his body was not returned to Dijon until 1420.

The finances of Burgundy were under severe stress at this point--Anne's brother, the new duke, finding that money was scarce and the expenses of his mother and sisters were great. And thus, by 1420, he was eager to arrange a marriage for Anne.  

As early as 1412, Anne's father had sought to marry Anne to Henry IV's eldest son, Henry, but after the prince succeeded his father in 1413, becoming Henry V, that alliance no longer made sense for the new English king. After the signing of the 1420 treaty of Troyes, in which Charles VI of France disinherited his son in favor of Henry V, Henry V married Katherine of Valois, the daughter of Charles VI and his queen, Isabeau of Bavaria,

Still, Burgundy sought to position itself advantageously during the contest between England and France, so an English alliance remained desireable. Philip III, duke of Burgundy, arranged a marriage to strengthen the ties between Burgundy and England. His sister, Anne of Burgundy, was married to the English king's younger brother, John of Lancaster, duke of Bedford, in June 1423. (At the same time, Anne's twice-widowed sister, Margaret, was married to Arthur, count of Richmond.)

John of Lancaster was the third son of Henry IV of England. John was born on 20 June 1389, just two days after the signing of a truce between the English and the French, though disputes between the two countries continued. In 1399, after Richard II was deposed, John of Lancaster's father became the king of England. As Henry IV consolidated power in England, France was involved in civil wars, but after Henry IV's death in 1413, his successor, Henry V, turned once more to war in France. 

In 1414, the new king awarded his brother, John, the title duke of Bedford. By 1415, when Henry V left England for France, Bedford was experienced not only in military campaigns but in government. During his brother's absence, Bedford governed on his behalf, serving three separate times as lieutenant of the kingdom. After Henry V's death in 1422, Bedford became regent of France for the new king, Henry VI, then just a few months old. He was also made Lord Protector of England, although he would continue to manage affairs in France. 

In the castle of Montbard, Anne was married by proxy to Bedford in April 1423. The formal marriage ceremony of the eighteen-year-old Anne of Burgundy to the thirty-three-year-old John, duke of Bedford took place in Troyes on 13 May 1423 as a result of the negotiations of the treaty of Amiens, the so-called Triple Alliance. (The treaty negotiated an alliance between England, Burgundy, and Brittany.) 

While the military, diplomatic, and political activities of John, duke of Bedford, figure in a great number of historical sources, much less is available for Anne of Burgundy. Interestingly, one of the most detailed sources of information about Anne's life is an article on the duke of Bedford's will. Another focuses not so much on Anne's life but on her death--or, rather, on the tomb effigy commissioned by her brother, Philip III. 

For many of the brief glimpses of her life, we need to look at histories of the Hundred Years War or at the biographies of her brother and her husband (although, to be fair, while there are many articles about her husband, there seems to be only one full-length biography of John, duke of Bedford). One of the most accessible of these sources is William Hunt's entry for Bedford, in the old (nineteenth-century) edition of the Dictionary of National Biography.

Hunt notes that by 1419, several marriage alliances had been proposed for John: to Jacqueline of Bavaria, the widow of Jean, the fourth son of Charles VI and Isabeau of Bavaria (he was also the fourth dauphin of France); to the daughter  of Frederic IV, burgrave of Nuremberg; to Isabella, the daughter of Charles II, duke of Lorraine (she later married René of Anjou); and, in Hunt's words, "to some kinswoman of Sigismund," the Holy Roman Emperor.

For various reasons, none of these marriages worked out for him, so John was available when the alliance with Burgundy offered itself. In his biography of Anne's brother, Philip III ("the Good"), Richard Vaughan notes that the "bait" for Bedford was "financial and territorial" rather than personal, for Anne and her sisters were described by a contemporary as being "plain as owls." Despite Burgundy's financial problems, the agreed-upon dowry was generous: "it was agreed that the girl's dowry should be 150,000 gold crowns, and that, in case Philip [of Rurgundy] died without a male heir, [Anne] should succeed to the county of Artois, or, if Philip left an heir, she should receive 100,000 gold crowns." The very beautiful book of hours, now known as the Bedford Hours, was given to Anne as a wedding gift. 

A sixteenth-century drawing of the

Hôtel des Tournelles

After they were married "with great magnificence" at Troyes, the couple lived in Paris at the palace of Tournelles. There, the new duchess became her husband's "zealous collaborator." Just a year after their marriage, in August 1424, she interceded for a group of soldiers who  had been sent to Paris for execution--in response to Anne's intercession, Bedford freed the men. 

In January 1425, Anne was with her husband when he returned to England. A year later, they were back in Paris in April and then, in 1427, they were on to Flanders. In 1428, Bedford reluctantly agreed to the English siege of Orléans--a siege that failed with the arrival of Joan of Arc. 

In 1429, Anne's brother, Philip of Burgundy, was in Paris and, in Hunt's words, "renewed his alliance, being influenced, it is said, by his sister, the Duchess of Bedford." Historian B.-A. Pocquet du Haut-Jussé also stresses Anne's role in maintaining the alliance between England and Burgundy: "It is indisputable [il est incontestabile] that the duchess Anne intervened with all her power [toutes ses forces] to maintain an alliance between her husband and her brother"--an alliance that she saw as necessary for both of them. 

In June of this year, 1429, while marching to Orléans, Bedford made his will, designating his wife as his principal executor and describing her as his "very dear and beloved" wife--she was not only the primary executor, she was also his primary beneficiary.

While her husband continued his military campaign, Anne traveled to Flanders with her brother, but she returned to Paris. Later, Bedford established himself in Rouen, and Anne joined him there. It was in Rouen, in 1431, that Joan of Arc was brought after her capture by Burgundian troops in 1430. 

At this point, Anne steps briefly out of the background, although she makes her appearance only in the words of others, not in words she spoke herself. After Joan had been brought to Rouen, she seems to have undergone a test of her virginity, an examination that Anne, the duchess of Bedford, may have overseen. (I say "seems" and "may have" because no mention of this examination is found in the ample trial records that survive--the testimony to this examination is from the 1455-56 Trial of Rehabilitation.)

According to one of the men who had been at Joan's Trial of Condemnation, Joan herself wished to prove her virginity by means of such an examination, "provided it be done by decent women, as is the custom." Another witness contributed a bit of hearsay: "I heard it said by one, whom I no longer remember, that Joan was examined by some matrons and that she was found to be a virgin and that this examination had been made by order of the Duchess of Bedford." (This same witness adds a bit of creepiness to his testimony, saying that he'd also heard the duke of Bedford hid himself so he could watch Joan being examined . . . ) 

A third claimed firsthand knowledge. According to this witness, "I know well that she was examined to discover if she was a virgin or not by some matrons and midwives, and that on the orders of the Duchess of Bedford and notably by Anna Bavon and another matron whose name I do not remember." He went on to say that he had heard directly from Bavon that Joan "was a virgin intact" and, for this reason, the duchess of Bedford, "had the warders and others forbidden to offer her [Joan] any violence."

In the same year, we catch another glimpse of Anne of Burgundy in Rouen, when the duchess presented the Bedford Hours as a Christmas present to the nine-year-old Henry VI, just before his coronation, a gift recorded by the king's tutor in a note in the manuscript (fol. 256r) just preceding the two portrait miniatures of the duke and the duchess (see the first image in this post, above right).

Anne of Burgundy, duchess of Bedford,
marble effigy,
formerly in the Church of the Celestines
(now in the Louvre Museum, Paris)

But just two years later, on 13 November 1432, Anne, duchess of Bedford, died in Paris. As a contemporary, known as the "bourgeois of Paris," noted in his journal, she died in a time of "great death" in the city. He gives fulsome praise to the woman he describes as the duchess of Bedford, wife of the regent of France, and sister of the duke of Burgundy:

the most pleasant of all women who were then in France, because she was good and beautiful, and of good age, for she was only twenty-eight years old when she died; and certainly, she was well loved by the people of Paris. And it is true that she died in the Hôtel de Bourgon, near the Louvre, on the twelfth day of November, two hours after midnight between Thursday and Friday, about which those [men and women] of Paris spoke a great deal of their hope, but also of their pain.

Anne of Burgundy, duchess of Bedford, was buried in Paris in the convent church of the Celestines in the Marais. Because many members of royal families were buried in the church, it was desecrated during the French Revolution and eventually the remains were demolished in the nineteenth century.

In his 1934 analysis of the duke of Bedford's will, B.-A. Pocquet du Haut-Jussé claims that the duke's decision to designate his wife as his primary executor and beneficiary represents a testament that Anne was a a "tenderly loved wife." In his biography of Anne's brother, Richard Vaughan notes that Anne and her husband "apparently became fond of each other."

These assertions about the state pf tje couple's relationship persist. In his 1984 article on Anne of Burgundy's tomb, Jeffrey Chipps Smith wrote that, although the couple had been "childless," they had been "happily married." This view is repeated elsewhere--it appears in Janet Backhouse's 1985 Books of Hours ("one of the happiest love matches of the period") and in online blog posts and the Wikipedia entry for Anne of Burgundy. 

I wish I knew the source of the claim. None of the sources I've mentioned here supports this conclusion with a reference to documentary evidence. Still, I'd like to think it was so . . . 

Anne of Burgundy, duchess of Bedford
(Louvre Museum);
Jeffrey Chipps Smith writes that her hair is
"tightly trussed in a pearl ornamented hairnet" that
culminates in a bicorne, or two horned, headdress 
around which a richly jewelled crown is placed"

The most complete biographical information about Anne of Burgundy is B.-A. Pocquet du Haut-Jussé, “Anne de Bourgogne et le Testament de Bedford (1429)” Bibliothèque de l’École Des Chartes 95 (1934): 284–326. Also extremely useful is Jeffrey Chipps Smith, "The Tomb of Anne of Burgundy, Duchess of Bedford, in the Musée du Louvre" Gesta 23, no. 1 (1984): 39-50. 

Back to the Future, Part 20: "Maternity Care Deserts"

March of Dimes Report: "Nowhere to Go: Maternity Care Deserts Across the US," Back to the Future, Part 20

I've been writing these "Back to the Future" reports since January 2017--for more than seven years years now, women have faced increasingly dire conditions in the U. S. So bad that I added a second series, "When Women Became No Longer Equal." (To view all the posts in these two series, click on the labels, below.) Let's hope that conditions improve after the coming presidential election.

You can download the entire
report by clicking here.

All that being said, the recent March of Dimes report on maternity care offers up more bad news for reproductive health. According to "Nowhere to Go," the reality of "maternity care" is that for many women in the U.S.--more than 2.3 million women, to be accurate--there is no "maternity care" at all. These women live in so-called maternity care deserts, where there is "not a single birthing facility or obstetric clinician." Some 1,104 counties--35% of U.S. counties--are maternity care desserts (p. 3). In addition, over 3 million women live in counties with "limited" access to obstetrical care, hospitals, or birth centers. 

From the report's "Key Findings" (p. 5):

• Living in a maternity care desert is associated with a 13% increased risk of preterm birth;
• Over half of counties in the US do not have a hospital that provides obstetric care; 
• Nearly 70% of birth centers are located within just 10 states. 

And, dangerously, "Fertility rates in rural counties and maternity care deserts are higher than urban and full access counties and are decreasing at a slower pace." 

It should be no surprise that women living in maternity care deserts also receive "inadequate" pre-natal care (page 11).

Much more information and analysis is included in the report, which you can download by clicking here.

From "Nowhere to Go," click here

Jeanne de Penthièvre: "the Courage of a Man and of a Lion"

Jeanne de Penthièvre, duchess of Brittany (died 10 September 1384)

A year ago, I wrote about Joanna of Flanders, countess of Montfort, and her involvement in the War of the Breton Succession, and just last month, I posted an essay about another Jeanne, Jeanne de Belleville, who was also caught up in the conflict over the duchy of Brittany, an independent state. Both of these women gained a reputation for their activities during the war, Joanna of Flanders as "la flamme" (or, "fiery Joanna") and Jeanne de Belleville as an avenger of her husband's death. 

But there is a third woman caught up in this conflict over Brittany, Jeanne de Penthièvre. She did not have quite as colorful a life as her two contemporaries, though the trauma and tragedy she faced were much like the traumas and tragedies the other women suffered.

An imagined portrait of 

Jeanne de Penthièvre

from Jacques de Boucq's 

Receuil de portraits historiques

(image 107, fol. 045r)

Born about the year 1325,* Jeanne de Penthièvre was the daughter of Guy II de Bretagne and Jeanne d'Avaugour, the daughter of Henri d'Avaugour, count of Penthièvre. 

Guy de Bretagne was the younger son of Arthur II, duke of Brittany, and his wife, Marie of Limoges. Guy's elder brother, John (or Jean) III, became duke of Brittany after the death of Arthur II. 

But Arthur of Brittany had remarried after the death of his wife, and his second wife bore him another son, John de Montfort. Notably, John III detested his father's second wife and after his father's death, John III attempted to have the marriage annulled posthumously and to have his half siblings declared illegitimate. Remember John de Montfort . . . 

Meanwhile, following his wife's death in 1327, Guy de Bretagne married Jeanne de Belleville--but, as you may already know if you've read the earlier post for Jeanne de Belleville, this marriage was annulled by the pope in 1330 after complaints by Guy's family about its legitimacy--and there was also some involvement by Charles of Blois, nephew of the king of France, Philip VI, in the annulment of this marriage. (Even though Jeanne de Belleville's marriage to Guy was annulled, she was still pulled into the Breton war of succession by her marriage to Olivier de Clisson.)

After the failure of his marriage to Jeanne de Belleville, Guy tried again, this time allying himself with Marie of Blois--who just so happened to be Philip VI's niece and Charles of Blois' sister. A dispensation for the two to marry during Lent was issued on 12 February 1331. But on 26 March, just a few weeks later, Guy de Bretagne died. His only child, his daughter Jeanne de Penthièvre, was his heir. 

After her father's death, which occurred when she was about eleven years old, Jeanne became countess of Penthièvre in her own right. From her father, she also inherited a claim to the duchy of Brittany. But in 1331, her uncle, John III, was still alive, and although his first two marriages had been childless, he had married for a third time in 1330. 

In the meantime, arrangements were being made for Jeanne de Penthièvre's marriage. In 1335, negotiations for her match to John, earl of Cornwall, King Edward III's younger brother, were begun, but the projected alliance with England did not materialize. (In any case, John iof Cornwall died in September of 1336--maybe his death is the reason the negotiations were abandoned.) Instead, on 4 June 1337, Jeanne was married to Charles of Blois, the French king's nephew. (Remember him? He was involved in having Guy of Penthièvre's marriage to Jeanne of Belleville annulled, and his sister, Marie of Blois, would have been married to Guy of Penthièvre if he had not died . . . hmm.) With her marriage to Charles of Blois, Jeanne, countess of Penthièvre, became countess of Blois. 

I've spent a lot of time here noting all of these relationships and interrelationships because after John III, duke of Brittany, died on 30 April 1341, still childless, all hell broke loose about who would succeed him--the result was the so-called War of the Breton Succession. 

Without a direct male heir to succeed John III as duke of Brittany, who was to inherit the duchy? The two claimants were Jeanne de Penthièvre, only heir of John III's younger brother Guy, and John de Montfort, John III's half brother. 

The critical question was to be which of these claims took precedence. When Arthur II, duke of Brittany, died, he had been succeeded by John III, his eldest son by his first wife. When John III died, himself childless, his younger brother Guy was also dead, and Guy's daughter, Jeanne de Penthièvre, was her father's heir. But Arthur II of Brittany had a third son, still living, John de Montfort, the child of Arthur and his second wife. 

So, did John III's younger brother, Guy, have a right of succession to the duchy of Brittany? And, if so, could a daughter--in this case, Guy's daughter--inherit her father's rights of succession? Or did the succession belong to the next eldest male heir in the line? That is, did John de Montfort, as the only surviving son of Arthur II, have a right of succession? In sum: since John III had no direct male heir, who had the better claim: his half brother or his niece?

Here is an analysis of the problem from historian Dan Moorhouse: since John III died childless, the question of inheritance "reverted back to his father [Arthur II], with claims being made against lineage from him." Arthur had been married twice--John III and Guy were the sons of his first wife, Marie, countess of Limoges. Although Guy had died before his elder brother, he had an heir, Jeanne; if her right to inherit was recognized, she would become duchess of Brittany, and her husband, Charles of Blois, would become duke of Brittany "by right of her claim." Moorhouse continues: Arthur II of Brittany had been married a second time, to Yolande de Dreux, and with her he had another son, John de Montfort. If the right of inheritance was "to the male with the closest lineage, then he would inherit." 

It was not as if John III were unaware of the explosive situation. According to the contemporary chronicler Jean Froissart, the duke's intentions were for his niece to succeed him: "It seemed to the duke, that the daughter of his brother-german ought, by reason of her proximity, to have the duchy after his death, in preference to the earl of Montfort, his [half] brother. And as he had long had his suspicions that the earl of Montfort would, after his decease, enforce his claim, to the prejudice of his young niece, with all his [Montfort's] power, he had married her to the lord Charles of Blois, with the intent that the king of France, his [Charles of Blois'] uncle, might more powerfully assist him in preserving his rights, should the earl of Montfort attempt to encroach on them." 

So that was the state of affairs after the death of John III, duke of Brittany. The succession of Jeanne de Penthièvre was recognized by the parlement of Paris and by the king of France--Philip VI accepted the homage of her husband, his nephew Charles of Blois, on 7 September 1341. Although Jeanne's right to inherit Brittany would trigger decades of war, she would assert her right to be recognized as duchess of Brittany for twenty-three years, from this date until she was forced to relinquish the title in 1364. 

Despite the French king's recognizion of Jeanne's claims to Brittany, John de Montfort had arrived in Nantes after John III's death and seems to have been recognized there as duke in May of 1341. According to Froissart, he "held a solemn court, and a great feast at Nantes. Summons were ordered to be sent to all the barons and nobles of Brittany, and to the councils of the great towns. Inviting them to attend this court, to do their fealty and homage as to their true lord, which was done."

But by October 1341, Charles of Blois and his forces reached Nantes, and the city surrendered to him. John de Montfort was captured and imprisoned in the Louvre, his wife, Joanna of Flanders, carrying on the fight without him. Although John de Montfort was eventually released, he died in 1345, leaving his wife to continue the struggle, claiming the inheritance of Brittany for her son.

Jeanne de Penthièvre's seal
1369

As for Jeanne de Penthièvre. Her husband, Charles of Blois, was initially successful in pursuing her claims to Brittany, and after John de Montfort's capture and imprisonment, it seemed as if the pair had been victorious. Joanna of Flanders, however, continued to pursue war, in her son's name, and Charles of Blois was taken captive by the English in 1347. He was taken to England, where he was imprisoned in the Tower of London.

Although there are records documenting Jeanne's role in the administration of Brittany from the time she claimed the title of duchess, it was after her husband's capture that she played a more active role. She took command of Charles of Blois' troops, leading them into battle. In Froissart's words, she "takes the war with a great will." In a later version of his chronicle, he adds that she "held the bridle to the teeth and showed the courage of a man and of a lion," reminding her husband's forces that they fought for her two sons. 

At this point, the war for Brittany had become a fight between two women, two Jeannes, as the chronicler noted: "[Jeanne de Penthièvre] waged as good and strong a war against [Joanna, or Jeanne,] the Countess of Montfort and her people as had my lord Charles, her husband, and his people before."

During her husband's captivity, Jeanne de Penthièvre also sought assistance from the pope, attempted to engage Edward III in negotiations to settle the Breton conflict, and even suggested a marriage between one of the English king's daughters and one of her sons. She attended peace talks in Calais in 1351, one of the results of which was the marriage of her daughter, Marguerite, to Charles de la Cerda ("Charles of Spain"), who was appointed constable of France by his cousin, John II, who had succeeded Philip VI in 1350. Jeanne also involved Breton religious leaders, barons, and citizens of the towns as she negotiated for her husband's release--for one thing, she would have to pay a huge ransom, and she would need support in Brittany from all these groups. 

In 1353, three of Jeanne de Penthièvre's children were sent to England as part of the negotiations for her husband's release--her daughter Marie, and her two sons, Jean and Guy. Charles of Blois was finally relieased from captivity--after nine years, he was ransomed in 1356. When he returned to Brittany, he was accompanied only by his daughter. His sons would remain in England for decades.

Back in Brittany, Charles of Blois resumed the title of duke, and the war for control of Brittany recommenced. But within three years he was dead; Charles of Blois was killed on 29 September 1364 at the battle of Auray, after which Jeanne de Penthièvre was forced to relinquish her claims to the duchy, ceding them to the son of Joanna of Flanders and John de Montfort (he was also named John, becoming John IV of Brittany). 

Jeanne de Penthièvre did not lose everything, however. She may have lost the title of duchess of Brittany, but by the terms of the first treaty of Guérande, she retained her rights to Penthièvre and Avaugour, she was exempt from paying homage to the new duke, and she received a pension. She also retain some claim to Brittany--if the Montfort dukes failed to produce an heir, her descendants would inherit.** 

In the years following the loss of her title, Jeanne de Penthièvre endeavored to have her husband, Charles of Blois, canonized. Charles had always been a pious man (despite all the fighting!), and as early as 1366, groups had begun traveling to the monastery of the Cordeliers in Guincamp to pray at his tomb. A few cures were attributed to him, as were a miracle or two. An investigation into his case began in 1368 and continued until 1371, after which the report was sent to Avignon. The case was under review throughout the papacies of Gregory XI, Clement VII, and Urban VI, but Charles was never canonized. His case was reopened in 1894, and Charles of Blois was beatified in 1904.

During this same period, Jeanne struggled to repay debts that she and her husband had incurred in their long struggle for Brittany. After the Montfort duke of Brittany, John IV, was forced into exile in 1373--he had tried to strike a balance between his English allies and the Breton lords, and he had failed--she also attempted to reclaim her rights in the duchy, actions which brought her into increasing conflict with Charles V, now king of France (he was Philip VI's grandson). 

When the king attempted to bring the independent duchy of Brittany under French control in 1379, Jeanne de Penthièvre briefly united with her old enemies. The combined efforts of the barons of Brittany brought the Montfort duke back to the duchy and preserved its independence.

Cenotaph of
Jeanne de Penthièvre

After Charles V's death in 1380, a second treaty of Guérande was negotiated with his son and successor, Charles VI. Jeanne signed the second treaty on 2 May 1381. It confirmed the terms which the earlier treaty had laid out. 

Although no longer duchess of Brittany, Jeanne de Penthièvre lived in a peaceful Brittany for the rest of her life. Jeanne spent the last years of her life in La Roche-Darrien, where her husband had been fighting when he was taken captive by the English in 1347. 

She died on 10 September 1384. Notice of her death is preserved in a contemporary chronicle of Brittany: "Lady Jeanne, daughter of Guy of Brittany, count of Penthièvre, and Jeanne of Avaugour, duchess of Brittany, wife of Charles of Blois of good memory (Pendomina Johanna filia D. Guidonis de Britannia Penthevriæ comitiis, Johannæque de Avalgorio...ducissa Britanniæ uxor bonæ memoriæ Caroli de Blesis). The necrology of Notre Dame de Beauport (Brittany) also records the death of Jeanne, duchess of Brittany, in 1384. 

She is buried at the Franciscan monastery, the Cordeliers à Guingamp, where her father, mother, and husband are also buried.

Jeanne de Penthièvre had six children: Marguerite de Blois-Châtillon (1339-c. 1354), Marie de Blois-Châtillon (1343-1404), Jean I de Blois-Châtillon, comte de Penthièvre (1345-1404), Guy de Blois-Châtillon (b. before 1347-d. 1385), Henri de Blois-Châtillon (c. 1356-c. 1400), and Charles de Blois-Châtillon (b. and d. before 1364).

• In 1352, Marguerite de Blois-Châtillon married Charles de la Cerda, who was given the title count of Angoulême. Charles "the Spaniard" was a descendant of both Alfonso X of Spain and of Louis IX of France. 
• Marie de Blois-Châtillon married Louis I, duke of Anjou, son of John II of France, in 1360. Historian Erika Graham-Goering notes that Marie was sent to England, along with her brothers Jean and Guy, as a hostage. She was the only one of the three to return to Brittany when her father was ransomed in 1356.
• Jean de Blois-Châtillon became count of Penthièvre and continued to claim the duchy of Brittany. He remained as a hostage in England until 1387--Graham-Goering notes that he was finally released with the assistance of Olivier de Clisson, and the following year he married Olivier's daughter, Marguerite de Clisson (Jeanne de Belleville's granddaughter!).
• A reference in his father's canonization file indicates that Guy de Blois-Châtillon was still a hostage in England. Graham-Goering notes that he died there in 1385, a year after his mother's death.
• Henri de Blois-Châtillon was likely born after his father was released from captivity in 1356. Graham-Goering notes that a reference dated 1365 says that he is in the care of nourrices, suggesting that he was still a small child. Graham-Goering also writes that along with his mother, Henri swore on 2 May 1381 to uphold the terms of the seconed treaty of Guérande. In 1382, when his brother-in-law Louis, duke of Anjou, went to Italy to claim the crown of Naples, Henri went with him. There, at some point after 1385 (when her first husband died), he married Giacobella Caetani. Henri is named in a legal document dated 31 July 1400, the last surviving reference to him.
• Charles de Blois-Châtillon (d. before 1364). According to Graham-Goering, this child "probably died in infancy."

In her assessment Jeanne de Penthièvre, Graham-Goering concludes that she "was an active and determined ruler who maintained her claim to the duchy throughout a war of succession and even after her eventual defeat." 

*The years given for Jeanne de Penthièvre's birth vary widely--here, I have used the date provided by Erika Graham-Goering in her full-length study, Princely Power in Late Medieval France: Jeanne de Penthièvre and the War for Brittany. She notes that a 1337 betrothal contract indicates that Jeanne will be "of an age to bear children in a year or two" and that her "intelligence" could "make up for age," suggesting she is "about 10 or 12 years old" at the time. Twelve was the canonical age for marriage for girls: "The marriageable age is fourteen full years in males and twelve full years in females, under penalty of nullity (unless natural puberty supplies the want of years)."

**Although the treaty of Guérande was intended to settle the War of the Breton Succession, it was not quite successful. In 1420, another John de Montfort, duke of Brittany (this one is John V, John IV's son) was abducted by Olivier, the count of Penthièvre, and his brother, Charles de Avaugour (the grandsons of Jeanne). They held John for five months before his release was negotiated. As a result of his abduction and captivity, John V declared that the treaty settling the Breton War of Succession had been abrogated, thus ending any future Penthièvre claims. So, when Francis II, duke of Brittany (John IV's grandson), died in 1488 without a male heir, the rights of inheritance to the duchy of Brittany did not revert to the Penthièvres--Francis II was succeeded by his daughter, Anne of Brittany.

Jeanne de Belleville, "Breathing with Vengeance"

Jeanne Louise de Belleville (sentenced to banishment on 26 August 1343)

Born in the year 1300, Jeanne de Belleville was the daughter of Maurice IV Montaigu, seigneur of Belleville and Palluau, and Létice de Parthenay. To save you from a quick Google check, I will note that Belleville and Palluau are both in the Loire valley (Pays de la Loire), in the province of Poitou, just south of Brittany, while Parthenay was then in the Aquitaine, also on the border between France and Brittany. Remember the Brittany part . . . 

Jeanne's Belleville coat-of-arms

Most of the accessible information about Jeanne de Belleville focuses on her "career" as a pirate, and we'll get to that. But her life is more than a rollicking narrative of a swashbuckling female pirate.

A bit more about her family history first. Jeanne's mother, Létice de Parthenay, was Maurice Montaigu's second wife--he was first married to Sybille de Chateaubriant. Some sources claim that Sybille gave birth to a daughter, named Olive, while others indicate that Olive was Létice's daughter. And according to various sources, Maurice's second wife, Létice, gave birth to birth to a son, Maurice V, as well as to Jeanne (saying nothing about Olive). 

The most complete and seemingly reliable genealogical information that I've found, one documenting its claims with references to contemporary records, indicates that Maurice V was born during Maurice IV's first marriage, to Sybille, and thus he was Jeanne's half-brother. And this source does not refer to any daughter named Olive. (For another reliable source, the Dictionnaire historique et généalogique des familles du Poitou. click here.)

Sorry, but I love these complicated bits of genealogical information and the research involved. In any case, brother or half-brother, Maurice V succeeded his father when Maurice IV died between 1304 and 1308--dates vary, depending on the source. 

In 1312, when she was twelve years old,* Jeanne was married to Geoffrey de Châteaubriant VIII. She quickly gave birth to two children: a son, Geoffrey, in 1314, and a daughter, Louise, in 1316. Just four years later, in 1320, Jeanne's brother, Maurice V, died--although he had married twice, he had no children to succeed him, leaving Jeanne to inherit both Montaigu and Belleville. As a result, she gained control of "a great domain": "La Garnache, Beauvoir-sur-Mer, Palluau, Belleville, Les Deffens, Montaigu, Châteaumur et les îles de Bouin, Noirmoutier et Yeu. . . ." 

But by 1326, Jeanne's husband was dead and Jeanne was a widow. Two years later, in 1328, Jeanne married for a second time. Her new husband was Guy de Bretagne, count of Penthièvre, the second son of Arthur II, duke of Brittany. At the time of the marriage, Guy's older brother, John, had succeeded his father as duke of Brittany. The two brothers had long-standing conflicts, and there were objections to the match, instigated by the Charles of Blois (who would later go to war over the ducal title). 

After an investigation carried out by the bishops of Vannes and Rennes, the marriage was annulled in 1330 by Pope John XXII, who immediately made up the loss of a wife to Guy by authorizing his marriage to Marie of Blois, niece of the French king. Unfortunately, poor Guy died before he could remarry--his claims to Brittany--whatever they might be--were passed to his daughter, Jeanne de Penthièvre. (Still reminding you to keep Brittany in mind.) 

And so, by age thirty, Jeanne de Belleville was the mother of two children, and she had been widowed and had a marriage annulled. In 1330, she married for a third time. Olivier IV de Clisson was a Breton lord who was a vassal of the duke of Brittany. The marriage was advantageous for both--their combined territories (Olivier's were in southwest Brittany, Jeanne's in Poitou and Châteaubriant) made them a power in the region.

Territories of Jeanne de Belleville and 
Olivier de Clisson
(map by Carical Rooikat)

In the years immediately following their marriage, all was well. Jeanne gave birth to four children: Maurice (b. 1333-d. 1334), Olivier, who would succeed his father as Olivier V de Clisson (b. 1336), Guillaume (b. 1338), and Jeanne (b. 1340). 

At this point, Jeanne lived a life that was completely expected for a woman of her social class: described as having a "sweet" and "timid" character, she cared for her family, rode and hunted, and managed not only her own estate but her husband's, during his frequent absences. She did sue him once, though--evidently to enforce some element of her marriage contract--but even that seems to have been normal.

As for Olivier, he followed Philip de Valois, later King Philip VI of France, in a number of actions against the English before and during the Hundred Years' War (he was on military campaigns with Philip at various times between 1324 and 1338). During these years he also maintained ties with John III, duke of Brittany, even named as a beneficiary in the codicil to the duke's will (1341). 

Now here is the Brittany part of Jeanne de Belleville’s story: 

The death of the duke of Brittany triggered what has become known as "The War of the Breton Succession," which played out against the Hundred Years' War, pitting John de Montfort, John III's half brother (backed by Edward III of England) against Charles of Blois, married to John III's niece (backed by Philip VI of France). Interestingly, two women figured prominently in this war over the succession: John de Montfort's wife, Joanna of Flanders, and Charles of Blois' wife, Jeanne de Penthièvre, through whom he made his claim to Brittany.

During the conflict over the succession, Olivier de Clisson supported Charles of Blois (though some members of the family supported the Montfort claim, and early in 1342 his brother, Amaury, changed sides and declared his support for John de Monfort as well). 

After an extended siege at the English-controlled city of Vannes in 1342--it was captured by Charles of Blois, retaken by the forces of Montfort, returned to the control of the Blois army, then once again under siege by the English--Olivier de Clisson was captured by the victorious English forces. He was taken to England, but ultimately redeemed for what seemed to Philip VI and his counselors as a suspiciously small ransom. (For an extended account of all this by the contemporary chronicler, Jean Froissart, click here, pp. 119-24)

A detail from the Belleville Breviary,

produced for Jeanne de Belleville

(Bibliothèque nationale de France.

Département des Manuscrits. Latin 10483)

On his release and return to France in July 1343, Olivier was lured to his death by a ruse--invited to participate in a tournament, he was instead arrested by order of the French king "in front of the entire court" and taken as a prisoner. Without a trial, Olivier de Clisson was executed on 2 August 1343--he was beheaded, his body left hanging on a gibbet and his head sent to the Breton city of Nantes, where it was displayed on a pike. This brutal action was shocking, according to Froissart: it "occasioned great grief, for no one could find a sufficient reason for it."

In the meantime, Jeanne de Belleville had attempted to intercede for her husband. She was accused of having tried to bribe a captor to set Olivier free. Summoned to answer the charges laid against her, she managed to evade arrest--on 26 August, she was condemned in absentia and the couple's property was confiscated by the crown and redistributed.

These events transformed Jeanne de Belleville. In the words of the nineteenth-century historian Auguste Lefranc, ''she was suddencly transformed by grief and hatried into a kind of Fury, breathing only with vengeance" (elle fut tout-à-coup transformée par la douleur et la haine en une sorte de furie ne respirant plus que la vengeance).

Jeanne de Belleville, now a widow, regarded the French king as an enemy. In Biographie bretonne, Prosper Levot writes that "Jeanne was no longer a woman" (Jeanne n'est plus une femme); she had become, he says, "a wild beast" (une bète fauve). With a small force of loyal men, she successfully attacked a series of castles in Brittany, killing their garrisons when she was victorious. 

Banished by the French king, Jeanne fled the country with her two surviving sons and her daughter, hoping to find asylum in England. She took to the sea, and in order to avoid capture by the French, she engaged with a number of vessels as she fled. Her own ship was sunk, and she and her children were adrift for several days. The younger boy, Guillaume, died, but eventually Jeanne and her eldest, Olivier V de Clisson, were rescued.** 

The two were at first taken to Brittany by supporters of John de Montfort. She then went to Hennebont, where she was under the protection of Joanna, countess of Montfort, but she eventually made her way to England, where she found refuge with Edward III. She also found a fourth husband, marrying Walter Bentley, who had campaigned with the English king in Brittany. To celebrate the marriage, Edward III awarded Jeanne with some territories in France, but control of these were disputed, and when the English king changed his mind and decided to negotiate with Charles of Blois, he ordered return of some of the properties.

After years of dispute over lands she had been given and had then seen taken away, Jeanne de Belleville and her fourth husband finally accepted a settlement in 1357. They settled at Hennebont, the castle still held by allies of the Montforts. Jeanne de Belleville's fourth husband died at Hennebont in December 1359, and she seems to have died a short while later. 

A full page from the Belleville Breviary

(Bibliothèque nationale de France. 

Département des Manuscrits. Latin 10484)

*Twelve was the canonical age for marriage for girls: "The marriageable age is fourteen full years in males and twelve full years in females, under penalty of nullity (unless natural puberty supplies the want of years)."

**This period is what has given rise to the legend of Jeanne de Belleville as a pirate. The Wikipedia entry for "Jeanne de Clisson" summarizes the legend of her "Black Fleet" and offers sources for her "career" as a pirate, if you would like to pursue more. For a succinct overview of the fiction and the facts, you might start with "Jeanne de Belleville, Pirate or Politician," available at James Adams, Historic Enterprises (click here).

Constance of Arles, Queen of the Franks

Constance of Arles, queen of the Franks (died 28 July 1032)

Lucky Constance of Arles, third wife of Robert II of France
(detail from a copy of Grandes Chroniques de France,
Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS 10135);
the manuscript's text indicates this image depicts Constance.
confronting her son, Henry, who is fleeting from her

Consider the terrible plight of Robert II of France--Robert "the Pious"--the son and heir of Hugh Capet, king of the Franks. Poor Robert just wanted a wife.

And so in 988, he married Rozala (or Rosela) of Italy--it was a marriage that was arranged by his father, Hugh Capet, a marriage that brought the king an important alliance and Robert significant territorial possessions, and a marriage that gave Rozala a new name, Susanna. 

A fifteenth-century image
of Rozala of Italy--
too old
(detail from a panel,
St. Peter's Abbey, 
Ghent)

But within a very few years, the marriage had broken down. By 992, the couple was living separately, and after Hugh Capet's death in 996, Robert was quick to repudiate Rozala/Susanna.

According to one contemporary chronicler, Robert was still a young man, and Susanna was "too old" to bear children. This view of the gross disparity in their ages persisted--the noted nineteenth-century historian Chrétien  Pfister, whose account of Robert's marital career remains the most thoroughly documented, sniffs at the marriage between Rozala, "the old widow" (la vieille veuve), and poor Robert, tied to an aged crone, a man "in the springtime of youth" (dans le printemps de sa jeunesse). Sheesh. 

Although the birthdates of Rozala and Robert are unknown, she was some ten to fifteen years older than he was--Robert was likely about eighteen when they married, Rozala about thirty. Notably, when he rid himself of his "old" wife, Robert kept a significant part of her dowry.*

So then poor Robert married Bertha of Burgundy. He'd met her before he repudiated his first wife--he was a godfather to one of Bertha's children (like Rozala, Bertha had been married before and had several children with her first husband). Bertha's husband, Theobald of Blois, conveniently died just before the death of Robert's father, and after repudiating Rozala/Susanna, Robert quicky married Bertha. Interestingly, his new wife was not much younger than the discarded "old" one--Bertha was over thirty when she married Robert, who was still in his early twenties.

A twelfth-century image
of Bertha of Burgundy--
too incestuous
(detail from Genealogy of 
the Germans) 

Unfortunately, Robert's second marriage was "incestuous," and the two, Robert and Bertha, had known about the problematic nature of their relationship, but they had married anyway--according to church rules about consanguinous marriages, Robert and Bertha were too closely related. Moreover, their "spiritual affinity," the bond that had been created with Robert's role in the baptism of Bertha's child, compounded their incestuous (by contemporary standards) union. 

In 998, because the couple refused to separate, Robert was sentenced to a period of penance by Pope Gregory V and threatened with excommunication if he failed to separate from Bertha. Under a new pope, Sylvester II, the sentence was confirmed. Robert and Bertha were finally compelled to separate in 1001--significantly, while Bertha had given her first husband a son and heir (and several spares), she had not given birth to a single child with Robert. So Bertha also had to go. 

Robert repudiated his second wife about the year 1003. None of this whole affair seemed to damage Robert's reputation. In his biography of the king, Robert's chaplain, Helgaud de Fleury, did mention the unfortunate nature of the king's marriage to Bertha, but rather than condemning the sin of incest, Helgaud regarded the whole affair as yet another reason to praise Robert "the Pious"--Helgaud compared the "virtuous" and "humble" King Robert to the biblical King David and then explained that Robert's sin had been "washed away" because he had recognized his fault and prayed for forgiveness.**

Which brings us, at last, to Constance of Arles, the daughter of the count of Provence and the politically capable and experienced Adelaide-Blanche of Anjou. Robert married Constance about the year 1004--when she was about eighteen and he was about thirty-two. Hmmmm. Nothing from contemporary chroniclers or more recent historians about a poor young woman in the freshness of youth being tied to an ancient, twice-divorced man . . .

A fourteenth-century image of
Constance of Arles--
too not right
(detail from a manuscript of
Grandes Chroniques de France,
Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS 2813); 
in this image, Constance is
surrendering to her son, Henry

Robert of course would remain "the very good and very pious king of the French," whose "piety and goodness . . .  resounded throughout the world." Constance, by contrast, quickly became the target of hostility and animosity.

Fulbert, the bishop of Chartres, claimed he was "frightened" by Constance's "savagery." In his view, she was "quite trustworthy when she promises evil." In contrast to her patient, pious husband, Constance is always "inflamed with fury" or knocking some poor guy's eye out or otherwise acting in ways beyond her husband's control. 

She was, in the view of her critics, willful, haughty, and, obviously (and dangerously), foreign. She and her Provençal attendants were "strange" and "eccentric" in their clothing and behavior--even their horses' eqipage was viewed with suspicion. One cleric claimed all these "novelties" showed "the mark of the devil."

Historian Penelope Adair notes the many difficulties Constance faced when she became queen: the kingdom's deteriorating finances, the king's declining authority, and ongoing tension with the son of the discarded Bertha, Odo II, count of Blois, among them. According to Adair, "The repudiated Bertha, her children, and allies would not have welcomed her successor as queen" and "may have worked to weaken Constance's marriage." 

According to contemporary sources, allies of Odo, including the king's favorite, "sowed the seeds of discord between the king and his spouse." Pfister writes that even after their separation, Bertha "found an ally in Robert's heart" (Berthe trouva dans le cœur de Robert un allié). In their recent history of Capetian France, Elizabeth Hallam and Judity Everard indicate that it was Constance who "polarised the court into two factions," one favoring her own family, the other supporting Bertha and her sons. But considering the circumstances in which she found herself, I'm not altogether sure why Constance should be blamed for developing allies among her family and friends. 

Whether or not Bertha remained in Robert's heart, Constance of Arles gave the French king what his previous two queens had not: children. Constance gave birth to a daughter, shortly after her marriage, and a son and heir in 1007. Despite this, Robert seems to have listened to his favorite, Hugh of Beauvais, and separated himself from his wife. In defense of Constance, a group of her supporters murdered Hugh. This bloody act--for which she was blamed, whether the deed had been performed at her request or not--lay behind Robert's trip to Rome in 1010 to see whether he could divorce her (and maybe remarry Bertha).

But the pope did not allow Robert to divorce Constance, and the two remained married. In fact, while he "separated" from his third wife and trying to divorce her, Constance gave birth to two more children during this period. (During her marriage to Robert, Constance had seven children, four sons and three daughters.)

Ultimately, after Robert and Constance were reconciled, the king gave her the authority to manage finances, to some extent, and Helgaud de Fleury's biography of the king is filled with anecdotes about the king's great generosity and Constance's efforts to restrain him. Rather than using these incidents as a way of demonstrating Constance's concern for the well-being of the treasury, the chaplain uses them to suggest that Constance was motivated by avarice. 

Constance's eldest son, Hugh Magnus, was recognized as Robert's heir in 1016, when he was about nine years old, but he rebelled against his father in 1025, earning his mother's disapproval. Although father and son were soon reconciled, Constance was blamed for Hugh's rebellion, because in consecrating Hugh as his heir, Robert had ignored "the great and more prudent men" and listened to his wife instead. Unfortunately Hugh Magnus died in September of that year, just eighteen years old. 

Which left the question of who should succeed Robert as king of France to be answered once more. Robert favored Henry (born in 1008), while Constance favored Robert (born in 1011), whom she thought better suited for kingship. After Henry was crowned as his Robert's heir in 1027, Constance encouraged her sons to rebel against their father, which they did, in 1030--evidently each son had a reason to be angry with what he got out of the arrangement, and they decided to join together to oppose their father. The two sons were ultimately reconciled with Robert before his death in 1031, with Henry succeding him as king of France and Robert confirmed as duke of Burgundy.*** 

Scarcely had Robert died when Constance turned on Henry, now king of France, gathering a number of important allies to oppose her son. Henry fled to Normandy. Gathering his own supporters, Henry returned to France and besieged Constance at Poissy, where she had retreated. She enlisted her son Robert, duke of Burgundy, in her opposition to Henry, though after a defeat in battle against Henry, Robert reconciled with his brother and recognized his title. 

For her part, Constance managed to escape, but she died on 28 July 1032, supposedly as a result of a fit of coughing. 

Constance is buried next to her husband, King Robert II of France, in Saint-Denis.

The tomb of Constance of Arles,
Basilica of Sant-Denis
(Paris, France)

*Rozala of Italy was the daughter of Berengar II, king of Italy, and Willa of Tuscany, countess of Ivrea. Although Rozala's exact date of birth is uncertain, she was probably born c. 960, making her about sixteen years old when she married Arnulf II, count of Flanders, in 976. Arnulf himself was born in 960/61, a date helping to clarify Rozala's own birth date. During her first marriage, Rozala gave birth to two children including a son and heir, Baldwin IV of Flanders. When Arnulf died in 987, Rozala became regent for her son, but she lost the regency when she married Robert of France. Although Rozala's name change is usually said to have taken place after her second marriage, that may not have been the case--at least one reference to her as Susanna occurs in a charter before her second marriage.

After she was repudiated and divorced by Robert, Rozala/Susanna returned to Flanders, where she acted as an advisor to her son and where several charters document her charitable donations to religious institutions. She died in 1003 or 1004 (accounts vary) and is buried in St. Peter's Abbey, Ghent, next to her first husband. For a brief overview of the speculation about the age difference between Rozala and Robert, see Penelope Ann Adair, "Constance of Arles: A Study in Duty and Frustration" in Kathleen Nolan, Capetian Women--click here and scroll to note. 7.

**Born in 964, Bertha of Burgundy was the daughter of Conrad I, king of Burgundy, and Matilda of France, daughter of King Louis IV. Bertha was married to Otto I, count of Blois, about the year 983 and gave birth to three sons and a daughter. Bertha's husband, Otto, died on 12 March 996, and Robert's father, Hugh Capet, died months later, in October--despite knowing the ecclesiastical objections to their marriage, the two still wed. For the best explanation of this "problem," see Constance B. Bouchard's "Consanguinity and Noble Marriage in Tenth and Eleventh Centuries," Speculum 56, no. 2 (1981): 268-87.

After years of ignoring and resisting condemnations of their marriage, the two were "forced to separate," although "Robert repeatedly attempted--perhaps even after he remarried--to rejoin Bertha" (Bouchard 276). There is some evidence that, as late as 1010, when Robert visited Rome, he was trying to divorce his third wife, Constance of Arles, in order to reunite with Bertha. According to historian Penelope Ann Adair, Bertha "followed Robert to Rome hoping for permission to remarry him." 

I haven't been able to trace Bertha after she was separated from Robert, and her death is generally dated to this year, based on a reference in the records of the cathedral of Chartres recording the death on "XVII Kal Feb" 1010 of "Berta mater Odonis comitis" ("Bertha, mother of count Odo"), but some sources indicate (without documentation) Bertha may have died years later. Writing about Bertha, the nineteenth-century historian Chrétien Pfister notes a "legend" that the repudiated Bertha sought refuge in Montreuil, just outside Paris, and built a number of churches. Here and there I've also run across speculation that Bertha of Burgundy may be the Bertha who married Arduin of Ivrea, who became king of Italy in 1002, just a year or so before Bertha was separated from Robert of France. I'd like to think she was the Bertha who married Arduin of Ivrea, became his queen, had three sons with him, and lived happily ever after for some number of years. That's probably not the case, but, still, it would be a nice ending for her. (I'm not at all a Hemingway fan, but I'll steal a line from The Sun Also Rises: "Isn't it pretty to think so?")

***As for the other children of Constance of Arles: 

Advisa (or Hedwig), who seems to have been the eldest child (born c. 1003), was married to Renaud, count of Nevrs, in 1016 and gave birth to several children. Her husband died in 1028, fighting against his wife's brother at the battle of Seignelay.

Fourteenth-century
depiction of Baldwin V,
count of Flancers,
 and Adela of France,
sequence of 28 portraits
of counts of Flanders by
Jan van der Asselt,
Gravenkapel (Count's
Chapel), in the Belgian 
city of Courtrai

Adela, the couple's second daughter (born in 1009), was married first to Richard III, duke of Normandy, in January 1027, but after his death just months later, she married Baldwin V, count of Flanders, early in 1028. She gave birth to several children, including a daughter, Matilda, who would marry William of Normandy, William "the Conqueror," and become queen of England. After the death of Baldwin in 1067, Adela became a Benedictine nun and was sainted, now recognized as "Adela the Holy."

Poor Odo, or Eudes, was Constance and Robert's fourth son (born in 1013)--he lived until 1055, but he died without title or lands or marriage or anything . . . The nineteenth-century historian Chrétien Pfister claims that Odo, having received nothing from his father, knew that he would have to succeed on his own (il fallait, lui aussi, se soulever). And so in 1037 he joined Odo II, count of Blois (yes, that Odo, Bertha of Burgundy's son) and went to war against his brother, King Henry. He was defeated and imprisoned in Orléans. When he was freed, he still had nothing, so he wound up fighting once more, this time with Henry, when the king invaded Normandy, but once again he wound up on the losing side when Henry was defeated in 1054 at the battle of Mortemer. Pfister ends his brief summary of Odo's life by an account of his sacking and pillaging of some small villages. Odo supposedly took the food stores he found to a church, ordering that a banquet be prepared for him. But, Pfister claims, St. Benedict had his revenge--the night after he stuffed himself full of stolen food, Odo died. Yikes.

Constance's youngest child, Constance (born c. 1014?), was married to Manasses, count of Dammartin (in central France). The couple had several children. Manasses died in Burgundy when it was invaded by Odo II, count of Blois--yeah, that guy . . . Manasses was succeeded by his (and Constance's) eldest son, named, hmmm, Odo! There is some question among some historians, though, about whether this Constance is the daughter of Robert and Constance or whether she was a daughter-in-law, an illegitimate child of Robert's, or a goddaughter.