Beatrice of Lorraine, Regent of Tuscany

Beatrice of Lorraine, marchioness and regent of Tuscany (died 18 April 1076)

Before his death in 855 (and after decades of rebellion and instability within the Frankish empire that had once been ruled by Charlemagne), the Carolingian emperor Lothair I divided his kingdom among his three sons--the northern third was given to Lothair II. This region, known as Lotharingen (in German) or Lotharii regnum (in Latin, "Lothair's kingdom"), would ultimately become known as Lorraine. 

Beatrice of Lorraine,
from a twelfth-century manuscript of

Donizo's Vita Mathildis

(Vatican Library,

Codex Vat. Lat. 4922, fol. 30v)

In this act of partition, Lothair I followed a divsion of territory that had occurred after the death of his father, Louis I, "the Pious." Louis was the only surviving son of Charlemagne, inheriting the entirety of the Carolingian empire after his father's death in 814. But during his tumultuous rule, he faced a series of civil wars (he had four rebellious sons by two different wives). 

After his death and yet another civil war, an attempt was made to settle the conflicts among his three sons. By the terms of the Treaty of Verdun (843), the empire was divided: Middle Francia was inherited by Lothair, East Francia, by Louis "the German," and West Francia by Charles "the Bald." (No territory needed to be given to Louis' fourth rebellious son, Pepin, who had predeceased his father.)

And so, as Lothair I approached his death--after years of further unrest--he too attempted to solve conflicts by means of partition. He divided Middle Francia, the portion of the empire he had inherited following the Treaty of Verdun. The Treaty of Prüm (855) did not establish peace, however, and the result was further instability and conflict. 

It was by the terms of this agreement that Lothair II inherited what would become known as Lorraine from his father.* Lothair II would marry twice, but his "marital" history was more than a bit complicated. Although he had several children (at least two sons) by his second "wife," Waldrada, they were all declared illegitimate. Thus, when Lothair II died in 869, the succession was disputed, with control of Lorraine swinging between his two uncles, Louis the German and Charles the Bald.

In 870, by the terms of the Treaty of Mersen, Lorraine was once again partitioned, this time along slightly different lines. (And, interestingly, one of Lothair II's "illegitimate" sons, Hugh, got the duchy of Alsace under the deal.)

But conflict continued until 925, when the Germany king Henry I conquered Lorraine, establishing the kingdom as a duchy under German control. In 953, Henry I's son and successor, Otto I, deposed his rebellious son-in-law as duke of Lorraine and handed the title off to his own younger brother, Bruno. As archbishop of Cologne, Bruno did not marry and have children, but he did have two important feudal commanders to support him in Lorraine, Frederick, count of Bar, and Godfrey, count of Hainault.

In 959, Bruno, divided Lorraine, creating Upper and Lower Lorraine. Control of Upper Lorraine and the title of margrave were given to Frederick. After Bruno's death in 965, Frederick became duke of Upper Lorraine, and it was Upper Lorraine that was inherited by his grandson, Frederick II--who was Beatrice of Lorraine's father. 

All of this just to get us through something of Beatrice of Lorraine's paternal background! 

As for Beatrice of Lorraine's mother. About the year 1012 or 1013, Frederick married Matilda of Swabia, a woman with her own relationship to the conflicts of this tumultuous geography. There had been some dispute about the validity of Matilda's first marriage, said to be consanguinous, though the couple remained together despite condemnation by the church.** After the death of her first husband, Matilda married Frederick despite very similar objections, that the two were too closely related to enter into a valid marriage. (Like her husband, Matilda of Swabia was a descendant of Charlemagne.)

Nevertheless, Frederick II and Matilda remained married and had three children: Sophie (born c. 1013-1018), Beatrice (born in Mantua c. 1013-1026), and Frederick (born c. 1017-1020). As you can see from the range of dates I've offered here, the birthdates--and, thus, birth order--of these children are not clear. Various dates and orders of birth are suggested by sources.

The seal of Beatrice of Lorraine
(reproduced in Nora Duff's Matilda of Tuscany,
La gran donna d'Italia)
 

Whatever the dates of their birth, the three children were still very young when their father died about the year 1026. Frederick's son succeeded his father as Frederick III, duke of Upper Lorraine, though I have found very little information about him. He seems to have died in 1033 because his sister Sophie inherited the county of Bar from him in that year. 

Meanwhile, after Frederick II's death and his son's succession, both Sophie and Beatrice were sent to the imperial household of the Holy Roman Emperor--their mother Matilda of Swabia's sister, Gisela, was married to Emperor Conrad III. (The marriage of Gisela and Conrad was also disputed because of their consanguinity--sheesh.) At the imperial court, the two girls were "nourished" by their aunt.

Matilda of Swabia was known to be at the imperial court with her sister and her children in 1030, but she died some time before January 1034. Her two daughters, Sophie and Beatrice, now "orphans," were "adopted" by their aunt.

It was at the imperial court of Conrad II and Gisela that a marriage was arranged for Beatrice with the the most powerful nobleman in northern Italy, Boniface of Canossa. From his father, Boniface had inherited the cities and counties of Mantua, Modena, Reggio, Parma, and Ferrara, among others. From his mother, he had inherited parts of Tuscany, including territory in and around Florence, Lucca, Pisa, Pistoia. Boniface supported the Holy Roman Empire in its various expeditions in northern Italy, and in 1027 Conrad awarded Boniface the lordship of Tuscany. 

In 1036, when Boniface attended the marriage of Conrad and Gisela's son, he seems to have met Beatrice. Recently widowed and childless, the fifty-two-year-old Boniface was soon married to Beatrice, then about seventeen years old, but perhaps a bit younger. In addition to her imperial connections, Beatrice brought her inheritance in Lorraine to the marriage: she was dame du château de Briey and "heiress of the lordships of Stenay, Mouzay, Juvigny, Longlier and Orval, all in the northern part of her family's ancestral lands."

After a magnificent marriage ceremony, Boniface and Beatrice took up residence in the ducal castle in Mantua, where the couple's "homecoming" was celebrated with lavish banquets and entertainments. Their court was known for its "brilliance and culture." 

Little documentation about Beatrice survives from the period, but during the years of her marriage, she seems to have spent most of her time in and around Canossa--there are references to her in Bologna (1040), Ferrara (1042), Mantua (1044), and Luca (1044).

During these years, Beatrice gave birth to three children. As with her natal family, the birth order and dates of birth of Beatrice's children are variously given, with only Matilda of Canossa's birthdate, 1046, generally agreed on. This year is derived from the epic poem about her life, Vita Mathildis, written by the monk Donizo of Canossa, who says Matilda was sixty-nine years old when she died in 1115. In addition to Matilda, Beatrice gave birth to a son, Frederick of Canossa (referred to in some chonicle sources, confusingly, as Boniface), and a third child, probably a daughter named Beatrice of Canossa, though some early chronicles indicate this child was also a boy, a younger son, "Beatricio." 

Boniface maintained his strong relations with the Holy Roman Empire after Conrad II's death in 1036, and received further territories, including Spoleto and Camerino, for his support for Conrad's son and successor, Henry III. In 1046, he hosted Henry, on his way to be crowned as emperor. But ultimately their relationship broke down, and the emperor may (or may not) have played a role in Boniface's assassination in 1052.

Boniface's son, Frederick, succeeded his father, with Beatrice of Lorraine assuming the role of regent for him. To protect his inheritance--to preserve what she could of Frederick II's lands and titles (as well as her own)--the widowed Beatrice needed to act quickly. In the words of a contemporary chronicler, Beatrice, having lost the protection of her husband, needed to find a new protector (Destitutam se priori marito desolatae domui patronuni paravisse). And so, Beatrice quickly married her cousin, Godfrey III, duke of Lorraine, probably in 1053.*** 

The marriage of Beatrice and Godfrey had, however, taken place without the permission of the emperor, Henry III, against whom Godfrey had already rebelled. Traveling to Florence in 1055 for a meeting with the pope, the emperor had Beatrice arrested--she and her daughter Matilda, then about ten years old, were taken as a prisoner to Germany. Her son, Frederick, remained in Tuscany. (It isn't clear whether Beatrice's third child was still alive at this point.)

But Frederick III did not survive for long, and it was rumored that the emperor had had both Frederick and Beatrice's third child killed, leaving only Matilda of Canossa as heir to Frederick II. (Beatrice of Lorraine would make a donation to the abbey of Santa Maria de Fenonica for the souls of of her husband, Boniface, her son, and her daughter, so perhaps that solves the question of her third child's sex).

As for Godfrey, he assumed control of Tuscany in the right of his wife and Matilda. The emperor died suddenly in October of 1056, succeeded by his son, Henry, a minor. The boy's mother, Agnes of Poitou, was appointed to act as the boy's guardian and regent--and she rather quickly reconciled with Godfrey of Lorraine. Beatrice and Matilda were released and reunited with Godfrey, who was recognized as margrave of Tuscany.

Beatrice of Lorraine, her husband, and her daughter, Matilda, were all in Rome in 1059, celebrating celebrating the election of Pope Nicholas II. Indeed, Beatrice played a role in three papal elections over the course of just a few years, those of Stephen IX (1057), Nicholas II (1059), and Alexander II (1061). Historian Valerie Eads notes that these elections were accompanied by a "turbulence" in Rome and that Beatrice "played an active role" in maintaining the peace, protecting the elections, and opposing the anti-popes supported by the empire. 

After 1060, Godfrey returned to Lorraine, leaving Beatrice in Italy, though the two were together again in Rome in 1062 and 1063. During these years, Beatrice took an active rold in papal politics and reform as well as governing Tuscany on behalf of her daughter. In November 1069, Beatrice returned to Lorraine with her husband and daughter, but by December Godfrey III of Lorraine lay dying. Before his death, Beatrice arranged for her daughter, Matilda, to be married to Godfrey's son, another Godfrey (he would succeed his father as Godfrey IV).****

Beatrice of Lorraine,

from a 14th century manuscript of 

Donizo's Vita Mathildis

(Biblioteca Panizzi, MS Turri E52)

Beatrice remained loyal to her second husband, commemorating their marriage in a seal (reproduced above) dating to 1073. The legend reads, "May you always be happy, dear Godfrey, Beatrix" (Sis semper felix, Gotfredo cara, Beatrix). But the younger Godfrey and Beatrice's daughter, Matilda, were not well matched, and after the birth and death of a daughter in 1071, Matilda left her husband and rejoined her mother.

Although Matilda of Tuscany was by now fully old enough to rule in her own name, Beatrice continued to exercise power as "dux of Tuscany." In her entry on Beatrice of Lorraine in the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Margherita Giuliana Bertolini details Beatrice's "jurisdictional activity" (attività giurisdizionale) involving ecclesiastical institutions in the years from 1070 through 1076 in various locations, including Florence, Lucca, Siena, Perugia, Arezzo, and Pisa. Interestingly, given her past involvement in papal politics, Beatrice appears not to have played a role in the 1073 papal election of Gregory VII--she received news of the election by letter. 

During these years Beatrice also founded and endowed a number of religious institutions, including monasteries,  churches, and hospitals, in Siena, Arezzo, Luca, Florence, Parma, and Mantua, among other places (these are detailed by Bertolini).

Beatrice's daughter, Matilda of Tuscany, never reconciled with her husband, Godfrey. He was assassinated on 27 February 1076 while fighting on behalf of the Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV during what has become known as the Investiture Controversy--for her part, Matilda supported papal power against imperial power. 

On 18 April 1076, just two months after the death of her son-in-law (and stepson), Beatrice of Lorraine died. When he came to write his great epic poem about the life of Matilda of Tuscany, the Italian monk Donizo of Canossa noted the pivotal role that Beatrice had played during her lifetime: "She persuaded [the emperor] to peace with love for the pope, / And the pious pope for love of the king" (Pontificis pacem regem suadebat amore / Atque pium papam de regis amore rogabat, quoted by Bertolini--my Latin is really bad these days, so I hope this translation is close).

The tomb of Beatrice of Lorraine,
Camposanto, Pisa

Beatrice of Lorraine was buried in a Roman sarcophagus in the cathedral church of Pisa, her burial arranged by her daughter. Her tomb was relocated inside the church in the fourteenth century, and then moved to its current location, in the Camposanto, in the nineteenth century. (For an excellent analysis of the tomb and its construction, click here.)

Letters from and to Beatrice of Lorraine are available at Epistolae: Medieval Women's Latin Letters (click here).

There is a full-length biography of Beatrice of Lorraine, Elke Goetz's Beatrix von Canossa und Tuszien :Eine Untersuchung zur Geschichte des 11. Jahrhunderts (1995).

 

*For Paul B. Pixton's summary of all this, in Medieval Germany: An Encyclopedia, click here.

**Canon law concerned itself with the blood relationships among those who would marry. For a discussion of consanguinity as an impediment to a valid marriage, click here.

***Godfrey III, "the Bearded," duke of Lower Lorraine, was a member of the house of Ardennes-Verdun, Beatrice of the house of Ardennes-Bar. In her entry on Beatrice of Lorraine in the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Margherita Giuliana Bertolini notes that after the death of Frederick II of Upper Lorraine in 1033, the House of Ardennes-Bar became "extinct," and  Gothelo, duke of Lower Lorraine, of the house of Ardennes-Verdun, was invested with Upper Lorraine, uniting the once-divided territories. After Gothelo's death, his son Godfrey eventurally succeeded to his father's role ("eventually" because there had been conflict and rebellion). Notably, Bertolini suggests that Godfrey had "probably" (probabile) administered Beatrice's holdings (dei beni) in Upper Lorraine. 

****Godfrey IV was the son of Godfrey III's first wife, Doda.

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 this blog about 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. 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 had become 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 had 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 had become 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 had 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 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 the 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. 

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 was disputed, and when the English king changed his mind and decided to negotiate with Charles of Blois, he ordered the 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 22 or 25 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, Robert married Rozala (or Rosela) of Italy--it was a marriage that was arranged by his father, a marriage that brought Hugh Capet an important alliance and Robert significant territorial possessions. 

A fifteenth-century image
of Rozala of Italy--
too old
(detail from a panel, 
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 and divorce Rozala.

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, seems shocked 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 maybe thirty. Notably, when he rid himself of his "old" wife, Robert kept a significant part of her dowry.

After finally getting rid of Rozala, Robert quickly 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 children with her first husband). Bertha's husband, the count of Blois, conveniently died just before the death of Robert's father, and after repudiating Rozala, 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-y
(detail from family tree in the

Royal Chronicle of Cologne

[Chronica Regia Coloniensis],

Cod. Guelf. 74.3 Aug. 2°;

Heinemann-Nr. 2710, fol. 114v) 

Unfortunately, Robert's second marriage was "incestuous." 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. So Bertha also had to go. After much delay, Robert finally repudiated his second wife about the year 1003. 

Which brings us, at last, to Constance of Arles. Born on 22 or 25 July 1032 (sources vary), Constance was 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

Despite all that unpleasantness about his incestuous marriage to Bertha of Burgundy, Robert would of course 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 could seem "quite trustworthy" even "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' equipage 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, among others, Odo II, count of Blois, the son of the discarded Bertha. 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 Judith 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 the years of 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 born in 1007 and recognized as Robert's heir in 1016, when he was about nine years old. 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 c. 1008/9), while Constance favored Robert (born c. 1011/12), 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)

*Canon law concerned itself with the blood relationships among those who would marry. For a discussion of consanguinity as an impediment to a valid marriage, click here.

**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 Flanders,
 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, 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." Letters written to her are available at Epistolae: Medieval Women's Latin Letters (click here).

Poor Odo, or Eudes, was Constance and Robert's fourth son (born c. 1013)--he lived until 1057/9, 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 may have been a daughter named Constance (born c. 1014?), who 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! However, there is some question about whether this Constance is the daughter of Robert, king of the Franks, and Constance of Arles, with the Foundation of Medieval Genealogy suggesting that "the affiliation [may have been] proposed for onomastic reasons only." This Constance may also have been a daughter-in-law, an illegitimate child of Robert's, or a god-daughter. 

Barbara of Cilli: Queen, Empress, Regent

Barbara of Cilli, queen of Hungary and Bohemia, empress of the Holy Roman Empire, and regent of Hungary (died 11 July 1451)

The daughter of Herman II, count of Celje (a city in what is today Slovenia), and Anna of Schaunberg, Barbara of Cilli would become "one of the most powerful and influential women in fifteenth-century central Europe." Her recent biographer writes that Barbara of Cilli "is one of the most remarkable historical female personalities of the Middle Ages," a figure who became part legend, part myth, and part of the national folklore. 

Barbara of Cilli, detail from the
fifteenth-century Nuremberg Chronicle

Very little is known of Barbara's early life. Although her date of birth is conjectural, Daniela Dvořáková indicates that Barbara was probably born in 1392.

Dvořáková also notes that "how" Barbara was raised and "who" oversaw her childhood are both unknown. Nevertheless she asserts that Barbara of Cilli must "undoubtedly" have "received an excellent education."

Barbara's father was an influential landholder and a supporter of Sigismund of Luxembourg, the man who would become his son-in-law. I've written about Sigismund before--his first wife was Mary of Hungary, and Sigismund fought long to secure his marriage to her and then to ensure her rights to inherit the crown of Hungary. Even after the pair were crowned, Sigismund struggled to maintain Mary's role as queen--as for his own position in Hungary, that was even more difficult. 

After Queen Mary of Hungary's early death in 1395--she was in her twenties and pregnant--Sigismund's role as king was disputed. He was king consort, not king--that is, he had been king of Hungary by marriage, not in his own right, by inheritance. 

To bolster his claims in Hungary, Sigismund settled on another bride, but before his marriage to Maragaret of Brieg could be made, he was imprisoned. He was freed in time to lead a Christian force against the Turks and to suffer a disastrous military defeat in 1396. Returning to Hungary, he was again imprisoned, but this time he had the support of Herman of Celje. A condition of Herman's effort on behalf of Sigismund seems to have included Sigismund's marriage Herman's daughter, Barbara of Cilli.

And so, in 1401, Sigismund was released from prison and betrothed to Barbara. Her family connections improved Sigismund's position in Hungary: Sigismund's first wife, Mary of Hungary, and his second, Barbara of Cilli, were cousins--although the origins of Herman's mother are unclear, she was closely related to Mary of Hungary's mother, Elizabeth of Bosnia. Another of Barbara's cousins,  Anna of Cilli, became the queen of Poland in 1402, when she married Jogaila of Lithuania (later known as Władysław II Jagiełło)--Jogaila was the widower of Jadwiga, queen of Poland. After Jadwiga's death, Jogaila had maintained his position as king of Poland, and he offered another important source of support for Sigismund.

Sigismund and Barbara of Cilli were married on 24 May 1405. After years of tumult and conflict, Sigismund finally found his fortunes changing. Following his marriage, he managed to retain the crown of Hungary, holding on to it until his death in 1437. In 1410, he was elected king of the Romans and Germans, he became king of Bohemia in 1419, and was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 1433. 

As for Barbara, she was crowned queen of Hungary in 1405 and served as regent there during Sigismund's absences. She was crowned queen of the Romans and Germans in 1414, Holy Roman Empress in 1433, and queen of Bohemia in 1437. She also gave birth to the couple's only child, Elizabeth, on 28 February 1409.

From the mid-fifteenth century

Chronik des Konzils von Konstanz

(Österreichische Nationalbibliothek)--
the lower panel shows the entry of

Barbara of Cilli into the Council of Constance 

(her daughter Elizabeth is behind her in the procession)

Together, Sigismund and Barbara founded the Order of the Dragon in 1408, a chivalric order dedicated to the defeat of the Turks, the defense of Hungary, and the defense of Christianity. Barbara was regent of Hungary from 1411-14 and again from 1431-34, governing with powers "markedly exceed[ing] the practice of the era." In addition to serving as regent for her husband, Barbara attended the Council of Constance with him in 1414-5 and appeared in imperial diets in 1420, 1422, and 1429. Charters were issued in her name, she administered the collection of taxes, and she settled disputes that were brought to her.

Barbara also acquired significant properties during her marriage, assets that were developed and grown through her own "economic and financial policy." 

Although her "huge fortune" and her political power were used in support of Sigismund, Barbara's wealth and influence made her the subject of venomous attacks. While accusations about her infidelity did not seem to affect her relationship with her husband, the libels of her contemporaries shaped images of Barbara of Cilli as a "Black Queen," linked not only to sexual depravity and heresy but to practicing alchemical magic, the drinking of human blood, and keeping a harem full of women. 

By the seventeenth century, her reputation had been fixed:

[Sigismund's] consort Barbara was a German Messalina, a woman of insatiable appetite for lust; at the same time so heinous that she did not believe in God and neither angel nor devil, neither heaven nor hell. How she scolded her maidservants when they fasted and prayed, that they were agonizing their bodies and worshipped a fictional god: she on the other hand admonishes . . . that they should make use of all the pleasures of this life, because after this one, there is no other to hope for. (trans. Sara Katanec)

Although the scurrilous accusations about Barbara's infidelity may not have been the cause, there was some kind of disagreement between the couple in 1419. Her biographer, Daniela Dvořáková, suggests that Barbara of Cilli's independence and her "individual decisions" may have been the source of the rift. The two were ultimately reconciled, however, and Barbara's court was re-established and her control of her income fully restored. Whatever the nature of the problem between them may have been, by 1424 Barbara received further grants and territories from her husband.

Meanwhile, in 1421, Barbara of Cilli's daughter, Elizabeth, was betrothed to the Habsburg Albert II, duke of Austria. At the time of the engagement, Elizabeth's position as the sole heir to the crown of Hungary was affirmed. (For the sad end of all that, click here.) The two were married the next year, in 1422.

Barbara continued as her husband's financial manager, diplomatic negotiator, and political advisor throughout the 1420s and 1430s, her "power over Sigismund" widely recognized by their contemporaries. But as Sigismund lay dying, in 1437, Albert decided his mother-in-law offered a challenge to his own interests. He confiscated many of her possessions in Hungary, and after Sigismund's death, he had her imprisoned. Barbara of Cilli was ultimately able to find protection at the court of the Polish king. (In the years since their marriage in 1402, both Anne of Cilli and Jogaila had died--the new Polish king, Ladislaus III, was the son of Jogaila and his fourth wife.) 

A fifteenth-century depiction of

Barbara of Cilli. from Konrad

Kyeser, Bellifortis

(Besançon, France,

Bibliothèque municipale, Ms. 1360) 

After Albert's death in 1439, Barbara of Cilli went to Bohemia, where she was the dower queen and where she had maintained lands originally given to her by Sigismund. She died there, of the plague, on 11 July 1451.

Unfortunately, a great deal of the scholarship on Barbara of Cilli is inaccessible, at least to me--much of the original work is in German, Croatian, and Slovenian, and while there seems to be a great deal of interest, particularly archival work and reassessments of Barbara of Cilli's role in fifteenth-century politics, I am handicapped as a reader. 

The one recent biography in English is also, unfortunately, largely inaccessible--Daniela Dvořáková's Barbara of Cilli (1392-1451): A Hungarian, Holy Roman, and Bohemian Queen, trans. David McLean, is so expensive I don't know who can afford to read it. It's so expensive that I doubt many academic libraries would purchase a copy. The book's publisher, Brill, does not provide a sample to read on Amazon, and not even a snipper view is available via Google Books. 

Dvořáková's "The Economic Background to and the Financial Politics of Queen Barbara of Cilli in Hungary," in Roman Zaoral's Money and Finance in Central Europe during the Later Middle Ages, is more accessible and is the source I've quoted from here. (This book is also extremely expensive, but at least some of it can be found via Google Books.)

The most helpful account of Barbara of Cilli I have found is found in Sara Katanec's M.A. thesis, "The Perquisite of a Late Medieval Wedding: Barbara of Cilli's Acquisition of Wealth, Power, ad Lands." I've linked to this thesis in numerous places, above, and although Katanec notes that hers is a "limited" study of Barbara, it includes an invaluable survey of Barbara of Cilli's reputation among chroniclers and historians, from the fifteenth century through today.

I do not usually link to Wikipedia in my posts here--not because there are not excellent essays to be found there, but because anyone can find them, and I like to point readers in directions that they may not otherwise find. But I will note here that the Wikipedia entry for Barbara of Cilli is excellent.

A two-Euro commemorative coin,
issued in 2014 on the occasion of 
the 600th anniversary Barbara of Cilli's coronation