Bourchard IV (?) Lord of Avesnes & Étrœungt1

M, #8311, b. 1182, d. circa 1244

Coat of arms of Avesnes

The ancestry chart of Archibald MacFarlane (ID # 34) is presented because he unites the ancestry of both his parents. If an individual appears more than once in Archibald's chart this indicates descent from the individual in more than one line. By clicking on the each instance (i.e. Ancestry of Archibald MacFarlane (#5)) each line of descent will be shown.

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  • Name Variation: Bourchard IV (?) Lord of Avesnes & Étrœungt was also known as Bouchard IV d'Avesnes Seigneur de Beaumont.3,4
  • Birth*: He was born in 1182 in Avesnes, France.3,4
  • Marriage*: He married Margaret II (?) Countess of Flanders, daughter of Baldwin VI (IX) (?) Count of Hainaut, Emperor of Constantinople and Marie de Blois-Champagne, before 23 July 1212 in France.5
  • Divorce*: Bourchard IV (?) Lord of Avesnes & Étrœungt and Margaret II (?) Countess of Flanders were divorced in 1221 in France.6
  • Death*: Bourchard IV (?) Lord of Avesnes & Étrœungt died circa 1244 in Rupelmonde, France; He was decapitated at Rupelmonde on the orders of Joanna.6,4
  • Biography*: Burchard IV or Bouchard IV (1182–1244) was the lord of Avesnes and Étrœungt. He was the son of James of Avesnes and Adela of Guise and brother of Walter, Count of Blois by marriage.

    Bouchard began his career as a cantor and subdeacon in the church of Laon. In 1212, he was named bailiff of Hainaut. In this capacity, he served as tutor and guardian of the young Margaret, sister of Joanna, Countess of Flanders and Hainault. Soon he married Margaret, though she was only ten years old and the marriage could not be consummated. Neither did Joanna or Count Ferdinand give their consent.

    Bouchard lived a war-like life. He invaded the territory of his brother Walter, who had received most of their patrimony. He then invaded Flanders and forced Joanna and Ferdinand to recognise his marriage to Margaret. He then fought at the Battle of Bouvines in 1214, under the (losing) Flemish banner. Philip Augustus, the king of France and victor of Bouvines, then councilled the pope, Innocent III, to declared the marriage of Bouchard and Margaret illegal. Innocent eventually excommunicated the couple on 19 January 1216. They took refuge in Luxembourg. Bouchard was captured in combat and imprisoned in Ghent for two years. To obtain his release, Margaret accepted the dissolution of the marriage and Bouchard left for Italy to fight for the Holy See. Upon his return, he was decapitated at Rupelmonde on the orders of Joanna.

    Bouchard and Margaret had three children, who played an important part in the War of the Succession of Flanders and Hainault:
    Baldwin (1217–1219), took refuge with his parents in Luxembourg
    John I (1218–1257), later Count of Hainault
    Baldwin (1219–1295), Lord of Beaumont.4

Family: Margaret II (?) Countess of Flanders b. 2 Jun 1202, d. 10 Feb 1280

  • Last Edited: 9 Nov 2016

Margaret II (?) Countess of Flanders1

F, #8312, b. 2 June 1202, d. 10 February 1280

Margaret II, Countess of Flanders

The ancestry chart of Archibald MacFarlane (ID # 34) is presented because he unites the ancestry of both his parents. If an individual appears more than once in Archibald's chart this indicates descent from the individual in more than one line. By clicking on the each instance (i.e. Ancestry of Archibald MacFarlane (#5)) each line of descent will be shown.

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  • Name Variation: Margaret II (?) Countess of Flanders was also known as Marguerite (?) Comtesse de Hainaut Gravin van Vlaaderen.4
  • Name Variation: Margaret II (?) Countess of Flanders was also known as Marguerite (?) Comtesse de Flandre, Hainaut et Namur.5
  • Birth*: She was born on 2 June 1202 in Flanders, Belgium*.5,1
  • Marriage*: She married Bourchard IV (?) Lord of Avesnes & Étrœungt, son of James (?) Lord of Avesnes, Conde & Leuze, before 23 July 1212 in France.6
  • Divorce*: Margaret II (?) Countess of Flanders and Bourchard IV (?) Lord of Avesnes & Étrœungt were divorced in 1221 in France.7
  • Death*: Margaret II (?) Countess of Flanders died on 10 February 1280 in Hainaut, Belgium*, at age 77.1
  • Biography*: Margaret, called of Constantinople (2 June 1202 – 10 February 1280) was countess of Flanders from 1244 to 1278 and also, countess of Hainaut from 1244 to 1253 and again from 1257 until her death.

    History and Family
    She was the younger daughter of Baldwin I of Constantinople, who was also count of Flanders and Hainaut, and Marie of Champagne. He left on the Fourth Crusade before she was born, and her mother left two years later, leaving Margaret and her older sister Joan in the guardianship of their uncle Philip of Namur.

    After her mother died in 1204, and her father the next year, the now-orphaned Margaret and her sister remained under Philip's guardianship until 1208, when he gave their wardship to King Philip II of France. During her time in Paris, she and her sister became familiar with the Cisterian Order, probably under influence of Blanche of Castile, the future Queen consort of France.

    In 1212 Margaret married Bouchard d'Avesnes, a prominent Hainaut nobleman. This was apparently a love match, though it was approved by Margaret's sister Joan, who had herself recently married. The two sisters subsequently had a falling-out over Margaret's share of their inheritance, which led Joan to attempt to get Margaret's marriage dissolved. She alleged that the marriage was invalid, and without much inspection of the facts of the case Pope Innocent III condemned the marriage, though he did not formally annul it.

    Bourchard and Margaret continued as a married couple, having 3 children, as their conflict with Joan grew violent and Bouchard was captured and imprisoned in 1219. He was released in 1221 on the condition that the couple separate and that Bouchard get absolution from the pope. While he was in Rome, Joan convinced Margaret to remarry, this time to William II of Dampierre, a nobleman from Champagne. From this marriage Margaret had two sons: William and Guy of Dampierre.

    This situation caused something of a scandal, for the marriage was possibly bigamous, and violated the church's strictures on consanguinity as well. The disputes regarding the validity of the two marriages and the legitimacy of her children by each husband continued for decades, becoming entangled in the politics of the Holy Roman Empire and resulting in the long War of the Succession of Flanders and Hainault.

    Countess
    At the death of her sister Joan, Margaret succeeded her as Countess of Flanders and Hainaut.

    In 1246 king Louis IX of France, acting as an arbitrator, gave the right to inherit Flanders to the Dampierre children, and the rights to Hainaut to the Avesnes children. This would seem to have settled the matter, but in 1253 problems arose again. The eldest son, John I of Avesnes, who was uneasy about his rights, convinced William of Holland, the German king recognized by the pro-papal forces, to seize Hainaut and the parts of Flanders which were within the bounds of the empire. William of Holland was theoretically, as king, overlord for these territories, and also John's brother-in-law. A civil war followed, which ended when the Avesnes forces defeated and imprisoned the Dampierres at the Battle of Walcheren. Guy was ransomed in 1256 and the death of Margaret's son John strengthened their position.

    Like her sister, Margaret conducted an economic policy designed to encourage international commerce. She removed restrictions on foreigner traders, despite pressures from local traders, who wanted to maintain monopolies. She also issued a new coinage. Her policies helped Bruges turn into an international port.

    In 1278, she abdicated in Flanders in favour of her son Guy. She ruled Hainaut until her death in 1280.

    Patronage
    Like her sister, Margaret supported religious houses. In 1245, she founded the Béguinage in Bruges. She also had an interest in architecture and patronized writers and poets.

    Issue
    With Bouchard of Avesnes:
    Baldwin (1217–1219)
    John I (1218–1257), later Count of Hainault
    Baldwin (1219–1295), Lord of Beaumont

    With William II of Dampierre:
    William III, Count of Flanders and Lord of Kortrijk
    Guy, Count of Flanders and Margrave of Namur
    John I, Lord of Dampierre, Viscount of Troyes, and Constable of Champagne
    Joanna.1

Family: Bourchard IV (?) Lord of Avesnes & Étrœungt b. 1182, d. c 1244

  • Last Edited: 28 Jul 2015

Citations

  1. [S746] Wikipedia, online http://Wikipedia.com, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_II,_Countess_of_Flanders.
  2. [S742] The Peerage, online thepeerage.com, http://www.thepeerage.com/p365.htm#i3646
  3. [S742] The Peerage, online thepeerage.com, http://www.thepeerage.com/p3111.htm#i31101
  4. [S742] The Peerage, online thepeerage.com, http://www.thepeerage.com/p365.htm#i3645
  5. [S742] The Peerage, online thepeerage.com, http://www.thepeerage.com/p360.htm#i3595
  6. [S742] The Peerage, online thepeerage.com, http://www.thepeerage.com/p360.htm#i3595
    http://www.thepeerage.com/p365.htm#i3644
  7. [S742] The Peerage, online thepeerage.com, http://www.thepeerage.com/p365.htm#i3644

Phillip IV (?) King of France1

M, #8313, b. circa 1268, d. 29 November 1314

King of France and of Navarre
(Roi de France et de Navarre)

The ancestry chart of Archibald MacFarlane (ID # 34) is presented because he unites the ancestry of both his parents. If an individual appears more than once in Archibald's chart this indicates descent from the individual in more than one line. By clicking on the each instance (i.e. Ancestry of Archibald MacFarlane (#5)) each line of descent will be shown.

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  • Name Variation: Phillip IV (?) King of France was also known as Philippe IV (?) Roi de France.3
  • Birth*: He was born circa 1268 in Fontainebleu, Fontainebleu, Ile-de-France, France.4
  • Marriage*: He married Joan I (?) Queen of Navarre, daughter of Henry I (?) King of Navarre and Blanche d'Artois, on 16 August 1284 in Paris, France.4
  • Death*: Phillip IV (?) King of France died on 29 November 1314 in Fontainebleu, Ile-de-France, France; killed.2
  • Burial*: He was buried after 29 November 1314 in Saint-Denis, Ile-de-France, France.2
  • Biography*: He was a member of the House of Capet. Philippe IV, Roi de France also went by the nick-name of Philippe 'le Bel' (or in English, 'the Fair'). He succeeded to the title of Rey Philippe I de Navarre in 1284. He gained the title of Roi Philippe IV de France in 1285.

    Philip IV (French: Philippe le Bel, April–June 1268 – 29 November 1314), called the Fair, was King of France from 1285 until his death. He was the husband of Joan I of Navarre, by virtue of which he was, as Philip I, King of Navarre and Count of Champagne from 1284 to 1305.

    Youth
    A member of the House of Capet, Philip was born at the Palace of Fontainebleau at Seine-et-Marne to King Louis IX's eldest son Prince Philip the Bold and Princess Isabella. Two years later, he became heir apparent when his grandfather died and his father ascended to the throne as King Philip III. The prince was nicknamed the Fair (le Bel) because of his handsome appearance, but his inflexible personality gained him other epithets, from friend and foe alike. His fierce opponent Bernard Saisset, bishop of Pamiers, said of him, "He is neither man nor beast. He is a statue."

    His education was guided by Guillaume d'Ercuis, the almoner of his father.

    As prince, just before his father's death, he negotiated the safe passage of the royal family out of Aragon after the unsuccessful Aragonese Crusade.

    Consolidation of the royal demesne
    Philip ascended to the throne and became King at age 17, although according to the publication titled "The Life And Times Of Jacques de Molay", Philip was 16. As a king, Philip was determined to strengthen the monarchy at any cost. He relied, more than any of his predecessors, on a professional bureaucracy of legalists. Because to the public he kept aloof and left specific policies, especially unpopular ones, to his ministers, he was called a "useless owl" by his contemporaries, among them Bishop Bernard Saisset. His reign marks the French transition from a charismatic monarchy – which could all but collapse in an incompetent reign – to a bureaucratic kingdom, a move, under a certain historical reading, towards modernity.

    King Philip of France married queen Joan I of Navarre (1271–1305) on 16 August 1284. The primary administrative benefit of this was the inheritance of Joan in Champagne and Brie, which were adjacent to the royal demesne in Ile-de-France and became thus effectively united to the king's own lands, forming an expansive area. During the reigns of Joan herself, and her three sons (1284–1328), these lands belonged to the person of the king; but by 1328 they had become so entrenched in the royal domain that king Philip VI of France (who was not an heir of Joan) switched lands with the then rightful heiress, Joan II of Navarre, with the effect that Champagne and Brie remained part of the royal demesne and Joan received compensation with lands in western Normandy.

    The Kingdom of Navarre in the Pyrenees was not so important to contemporary interests of the French crown. It remained in personal union 1284–1329, after which it went its separate way. Philip gained Lyons for France in 1312.

    War with the English
    As Duke of Aquitaine, the English king Edward I was a vassal to Philip, and had to pay him homage. Following the Fall of Acre in 1291 however, the former allies started to show dissent.

    In 1293 following a naval incident between the Normans and the English, Philip summoned Edward to the French court. The English King sought to negotiate the matter and sent ambassadors to Paris but they were turned away with a blunt refusal. Negotiation was for Kings, Edward was addressed by Philip as a Duke, a vassal and nothing more, despite the incident having been an international one between England and France and not an internal one involving Gascony.

    Attempting to use their family connections to achieve what open politics hadn't, Edward sent his brother Edmund Crouchback (who was both Philip's cousin and step-father-in-law) to come to an agreement with the French Royal family that would avert war. This agreement stated that Edward would voluntarily relinquish his continental lands to Philip as a sign of submission in his capacity as Duke of Aquitaine and in return Philip would forgive him and restore his land after a grace period.

    But Edward, Edmund and the English were deceived. The French had no intention of returning the land to the English monarch. Edward kept up his part of the deal and turned over his continental estates to the French but Philip used the pretext that the English King had refused his summons to strip Edward of all his possessions in France, thereby initiating hostilities with England.

    The outbreak of hostilities with England in 1294 was the inevitable result of the competitive expansionist monarchies, triggered by a secret Franco-Scottish pact of mutual assistance against Edward I, who was Philip's brother-in-law, having married Philip's sister Margaret; inconclusive campaigns for the control of Gascony to the southwest of France were fought in 1294–98 and 1300–03. Philip gained Guienne but was forced to return it. The search for income to cover military expenditures set its stamp on Philip's reign and his contemporary reputation. Pursuant to the terms of the Treaty of Paris (1303), the marriage of Philip's daughter Isabella to the Prince of Wales, heir of Philip's enemy, celebrated at Boulogne, 25 January 1308, was meant to seal a peace; instead it would produce an eventual English claimant to the French throne itself, and the Hundred Years' War.

    Drive for income
    In the shorter term, Philip arrested Jews so that he could seize their assets to accommodate the inflated costs of modern warfare, expelling 100,000 of them from his French territories on 22 July 1306 (see The Great Exile of 1306). At this point in his reign Philip was faced with extensive financial liabilities, partially inherited from his father's war against Aragon and partially incurred by the cost of his own campaigns against the English and their allies in Flanders. His financial victims also included rich abbots and the Lombard merchants who had earlier made him extensive loans on the pledge of repayment from future taxation. Like the Jews, the Lombard bankers were expelled from France and their property expropriated. In addition to these measures Philip debased the French coinage by measures which by 1306 had led to a two-thirds loss in the value of the livres, sous and denirs in circulation. This financial crisis led to rioting in Paris which forced Philip to briefly seek refuge in the Paris Temple - headquarters of the Knights Templar.

    Philip was condemned by his enemy, Pope Boniface VIII in the Catholic Church for his spendthrift lifestyle. When he also levied taxes on the French clergy of one half their annual income, he caused an uproar within the Roman Catholic Church and the papacy, prompting Pope Boniface VIII to issue the Bull Clericis laicos, forbidding the transference of any church property to the French Crown and prompting a drawn-out diplomatic battle with the King. In order to condemn the pope, Philip convoked an assembly of bishops, nobles and grand bourgeois of Paris, a precursor to the Etats Généraux that appeared for the first time during his reign, a measure of the professionalism and order that his ministers were introducing into government. Philip emerged victorious, after having sent his agent William Nogaret to arrest Boniface at Anagni, when the French archbishop Bertrand de Goth was elected pope as Clement V and the official seat of the papacy moved to Avignon, an enclave surrounded by French territories.

    In Flanders
    Philip suffered a major embarrassment when an army of 2,500 noble men-at-arms (Knights and Squires) and 4,000 infantry he sent to suppress an uprising in Flanders was defeated in the Battle of the Golden Spurs near Kortrijk on 11 July 1302. Philip reacted with energy to the humiliation and a new battle followed at Mons-en-Pévèle two years later, which ended indecisively. Still, in 1305, Philip forced the Flemish to accept a harsh peace treaty, playing out his superior diplomatic skills; the peace exacted heavy reparations and humiliating penalties, and added to the royal territory the rich cloth cities of Lille and Douai, sites of major cloth fairs. Béthune, first of the Flemish cities to yield, was granted to Mahaut, Countess of Artois, whose two daughters, to secure her fidelity, were married to Philip's two sons.

    Suppression of the Knights Templar
    Philip was hugely in debt to the Knights Templar, a monastic military order that had been acting as bankers for almost two centuries. As the popularity of the Crusades had decreased, support for the Order had waned, and Philip used a disgruntled complaint against the Order as an excuse to disband the entire organization, so as to free himself from his debts. On Friday, 13 October 1307, hundreds of Templars in France were simultaneously arrested by agents of Philip the Fair, to be later tortured into admitting heresy in the Order. The Templars were supposedly answerable to only the Pope, but Philip used his influence over Clement V, who was largely his pawn, to disband the organization. Pope Clement did attempt to hold proper trials, but Philip used the previously forced confessions to have many Templars burned at the stake before they could mount a proper defense.

    In 1314, Philip had the last Masters of the Templars, Jacques de Molay and Geoffroi de Charney, Preceptor of Normandy, burned at the stake. The account goes as follows: "The cardinals dallied with their duty until March 1314, (exact day is disputed by scholars) when, on a scaffold in front of Notre Dame, Jacques de Molay, Templar Grand Master, Geoffroi de Charney, Master of Normandy, Hugues de Peraud, Visitor of France, and Godefroi de Gonneville, Master of Aquitaine, were brought forth from the jail in which for nearly seven years they had lain, to receive the sentence agreed upon by the cardinals, in conjunction with the Archbishop of Sens and some other prelates whom they had called in. Considering the offenses, which the culprits had confessed and confirmed, the penance imposed was in accordance with rule — that of perpetual imprisonment. The affair was supposed to be concluded when, to the dismay of the prelates and wonderment of the assembled crowd, de Molay and Geoffroi de Charney arose. They had been guilty, they said, not of the crimes imputed to them, but of basely betraying their Order to save their own lives. It was pure and holy; the charges were fictitious and the confessions false. Hastily the cardinals delivered them to the Prevot of Paris, and retired to deliberate on this unexpected contingency, but they were saved all trouble. 'When the news was carried to Philippe he was furious. A short consultation with his council only was required. The canons pronounced that a relapsed heretic was to be burned without a hearing; the facts were notorious and no formal judgment by the papal commission need be waited for. That same day, by sunset, a stake was erected on a small island in the Seine, the Isle des Juifs, near the palace garden. There de Molay and de Charney were slowly burned to death, refusing all offers of pardon for retraction, and bearing their torment with a composure which won for them the reputation of martyrs among the people, who reverently collected their ashes as relics.

    The fact that, in little more than a month, Pope Clement V died in torment of a loathsome disease thought to be lupus, and that in eight months Philip IV of France, at the early age of forty-six, perished by an accident while hunting, necessarily gave rise to the legend that de Molay had cited them before the tribunal of God. Such stories were rife among the people, whose sense of justice had been scandalized by the whole affair. Even in distant Germany, Philip's death was spoken of as a retribution for his destruction of the Templars, and Clement was described as shedding tears of remorse on his death-bed for three great crimes, the poisoning of Henry VI, and the ruin of the Templars and Beguines. The throne passed rapidly through Philip's sons, who also died relatively young, and without producing male heirs. By 1328, his line was extinguished, and the throne had passed to the House of Valois.

    Expulsion of the Jews
    While King Edward ordered the Jews to leave England in 1290, Philip the Fair expelled the Jews from France in 1306. With the Jews gone, Philip appointed royal guardians to collect the loans made by the Jews, and the money was passed to the Crown. The scheme did not work well. The Jews were regarded to be good businessmen who satisfied their customers, while the kings's collectors were universally unpopular. Finally, in 1315, because of the "clamour of the people", the Jews were invited back with an offer of 12 years of guaranteed residence, free from government interference. In 1322, the Jews were expelled again by the King's successor, who did not honour his commitment.

    Tour de Nesle affair
    In 1314, the daughters-in-law of Philip IV, Margaret of Burgundy (wife of Louis X) and Blanche of Burgundy (wife of Charles IV) were accused of adultery, and their alleged lovers (Phillipe d'Aunay and Gauthier d'Aunay) tortured, flayed and executed in what has come to be known as the Tour de Nesle Affair (French: Affaire de la tour de Nesle). A third daughter-in-law, Joan II, Countess of Burgundy (wife of Philip V), was accused of knowledge of the affairs.

    Crusades and diplomacy with Mongols
    Philip had various contacts with the Mongol power in the Middle East, including reception at the embassy of the Turkic/Mongol monk Rabban Bar Sauma. Bar Sauma presented an offer of a Franco-Mongol alliance with Arghun of the Mongol Ilkhanate in Baghdad. Arghun was seeking to join forces between the Mongols and the Europeans, against their common enemy the Muslim Mamluks. In return, Arghun offered to return Jerusalem to the Christians, once it was re-captured from the Muslims. Philip seemingly responded positively to the request of the embassy, by sending one of his noblemen, Gobert de Helleville, to accompany Bar Sauma back to Mongol lands.

    There was further correspondence between Arghun and Philip in 1288 and 1289, outlining potential military cooperation. However, Philip never actually pursued such military plans.

    In April 1305, the new Mongol ruler Oljeitu sent letters to Philip, the Pope, and Edward I of England. He again offered a military collaboration between the Christian nations of Europe and the Mongols against the Mamluks. European nations attempted another Crusade, but were delayed, and it never took place.

    In 4 April 1312, another Crusade was promulgated at the Council of Vienne. In 1313, Philip "took the cross", making the vow to go on a Crusade in the Levant, thus responding to Pope Clement V's call. He was, however, warned against leaving by Enguerrand de Marigny and died soon after in a hunting accident.

    Death
    Philip IV's rule signaled the decline of the papacy's power from its near complete authority. His palace located on the Île de la Cité is represented today by surviving sections of the Conciergerie. He suffered a cerebral ictus during a hunt at Pont-Sainte-Maxence (Forest of Halatte) and died a few weeks later in Fontainebleau, where he was born. He is buried in the Basilica of St Denis. He was succeeded by his son Louis X.

    Issue
    The children of Philip IV and Jeanne of Navarre were:
    Margaret (ca. 1288, Paris – after November 1294, Paris). Betrothed in November 1294 to Infante Ferdinand of Castile, later Ferdinand IV of Castile.
    Louis X – ( 4 October 1289 – 5 June 1316)
    Blanche (1290, Paris – after 13 April 1294, Saint Denis). Betrothed in December 1294 to Infante Ferdinand of Castile, later Ferdinand IV of Castile. Buried in the Basilica of St Denis
    Philip V – (1292/93–3 January 1322)
    Charles IV – (1294–1 February 1328)
    Isabella – (c. 1295–23 August 1358). Married Edward II of England and was the mother of Edward III of England. This makes Philip IV of France the grandfather of Edward III of England and an ancestor of every English king after Edward III.
    Robert (1297, Paris[19] – August 1308, Saint Germain-en-Laye). The Flores historiarum of Bernard Guidonis names "Robertum" as youngest of the four sons of Philippe IV King of France, adding that he died "in flore adolescentiæ suæ" and was buried "in monasterio sororem de Pyssiaco" in August 1308. Betrothed in October 1306 to Constance of Sicily
    All three of his sons reaching adulthood would become kings of France, and his surviving daughter, as consort of Edward II, was queen of England.2,1

Family: Joan I (?) Queen of Navarre b. 14 Jan 1273, d. 13 Mar 1305

  • Last Edited: 1 Nov 2014

Joan I (?) Queen of Navarre1

F, #8314, b. 14 January 1273, d. 13 March 1305

Drawing of Joan I
Queen of Navarre; Countess of Champagne

The ancestry chart of Archibald MacFarlane (ID # 34) is presented because he unites the ancestry of both his parents. If an individual appears more than once in Archibald's chart this indicates descent from the individual in more than one line. By clicking on the each instance (i.e. Ancestry of Archibald MacFarlane (#5)) each line of descent will be shown.

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  • Name Variation: Joan I (?) Queen of Navarre was also known as Jeanne I (?) Reina de Navarre.4
  • Birth*: She was born on 14 January 1273 in Navarre, Spain*.4,1
  • Marriage*: She married Phillip IV (?) King of France, son of Phillip III (?) King of France and Isabel (?) of Aragon, on 16 August 1284 in Paris, France.5
  • Death*: Joan I (?) Queen of Navarre died on 13 March 1305 in France* at age 32.1
  • Biography*: Joan I (14 January 1273 – 31 March/2 April 1305), the daughter of King Henry I of Navarre and Blanche of Artois, reigned as queen regnant of Navarre and also served as queen consort of France.

    Life
    Joan was born Jeanne de Champagne in Bar-sur-Seine, Champagne on 14 January 1273 as a princess of the house of Champagne. The following year, upon the death of her father, she became Countess of Champagne and queen regnant of Navarre. Her mother was her guardian and regent in Navarre. Various powers, both foreign and Navarrese, sought to take advantage of the minority of the heiress and the "weakness" of the female regent, which caused Joan and her mother to seek protection at the court of Philip III of France.

    At the age of 11 and a half (based on the date of birth above), Joan married the future Philip IV of France on 16 August 1284, becoming queen consort of France a year later. Their three surviving sons would all rule as kings of France, in turn, and their only surviving daughter, Isabella became queen consort of England. Queen Joan founded the famous College of Navarre in Paris.

    Joan was described as having been a plump, plain woman, whereas her beautiful daughter Isabella resembled her father more in physical appearance. As regards her character, Joan was bold, courageous, and enterprising. She even led an army against the Count of Bar when he rebelled against her.

    Joan died in 1305, allegedly in childbirth, though one chronicler accused her husband of having killed her. Her personal physician was the inventor Guido da Vigevano.1

Family: Phillip IV (?) King of France b. c 1268, d. 29 Nov 1314

  • Last Edited: 19 Jun 2015

Phillip III (?) King of France1

M, #8315, b. 1 May 1245, d. 5 October 1285

King Philip III of France,
at his coronation

The ancestry chart of Archibald MacFarlane (ID # 34) is presented because he unites the ancestry of both his parents. If an individual appears more than once in Archibald's chart this indicates descent from the individual in more than one line. By clicking on the each instance (i.e. Ancestry of Archibald MacFarlane (#5)) each line of descent will be shown.

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  • Name Variation: Phillip III (?) King of France was also known as Philippe III (?) Roi de France.3
  • Birth*: He was born on 1 May 1245 in Poissy, Ile-de-France, France.2
  • Marriage*: He married Isabel (?) of Aragon, daughter of Jaime I (?) King of Aragon and Yolande Arpad Queen consort of Aragon, on 28 May 1262 in Clement-en-Auvergne, France.4
  • Marriage*: Phillip III (?) King of France married Marie (?) of Brabant, Queen Consort of France, daughter of Henry III (?) Duke of Brabant and Adelaide (?) of Burgundy, on 21 August 1274 in France.5
  • Death*: Phillip III (?) King of France died on 5 October 1285 in Perpignan, Roussillon, France, at age 40.2
  • Burial*: He was buried after 5 October 1285 in Saint-Denis, Ile-de-France, France.2
  • Biography*: He was a member of the House of Capet. Philippe III, Roi de France also went by the nick-name of Philippe 'Coeur de Lion'. Philippe III, Roi de France also went by the nick-name of Philippe 'le Hardi' (or in English, 'the Hardy'). He gained the title of Roi Philippe III de France in 1270.

    Philip III (30 April 1245 – 5 October 1285), called the Bold (French: le Hardi), was the King of France, succeeding his father, Louis IX, and reigning from 1270 to 1285. He was a member of the House of Capet.

    Biography
    Born in Poissy, to Louis IX (the later Saint Louis) and Margaret of Provence, Philip was prior to his accession Count of Orleans. He accompanied his father on the Eighth Crusade to Tunisia in 1270. His father died at Tunis and there Philip was declared king at the age of 25. Philip was indecisive, soft in nature, timid, and apparently crushed by the strong personalities of his parents and dominated by his father's policies. He was called "the Bold" on the basis of his abilities in combat and on horseback and not his character. He was pious, but not cultivated. He followed the dictates of others, first of Pierre de la Broce and then of his uncle Charles I of Sicily.

    After his succession, he quickly set his uncle on negotiations with the emir to conclude the crusade, while he himself returned to France. A ten-year truce was concluded and Philip was crowned in France on 12 August 1271. On 21 August, his uncle, Alfonso, Count of Poitou, Toulouse, and Auvergne, died returning from the crusade in Italy. Philip inherited his counties and united them to the royal demesne. The portion of the Auvergne which he inherited became the "Terre royale d'Auvergne", later the Duchy of Auvergne. In accordance with Alfonso's wishes, the Comtat Venaissin was granted to the Pope Gregory X in 1274. Several years of negotiations yielded the Treaty of Amiens with Edward I of England in 1279. Thereby Philip restored to the English the Agenais which had fallen to him with the death of Alfonso. In 1284, Philip also inherited the counties of Perche and Alençon from his brother Pierre. Philip also intervened in the Navarrese succession after the death of Henry I of Navarre and married his son, Philip the Fair, to the heiress of Navarre, Joan.

    Philip all the while supported his uncle's policy in Italy. When, after the Sicilian Vespers of 1282, Peter III of Aragon invaded and took the island of Sicily, pope Martin IV excommunicated the conqueror and declared his kingdom (put under the suzerainty of the pope by Peter II in 1205) forfeit. He granted Aragon to Charles, Count of Valois, Philip's son.

    In 1284, Philip and his sons entered Roussillon at the head of a large army. This war, called the Aragonese Crusade from its papal sanction, has been labelled "perhaps the most unjust, unnecessary and calamitous enterprise ever undertaken by the Capetian monarchy." On 26 June 1285, Philip the Bold entrenched himself before Girona in an attempt to besiege it. The resistance was strong, but the city was taken on 7 September. Philip soon experienced a reversal, however, as the French camp was hit hard by an epidemic of dysentery. Philip himself was afflicted. The French retreated and were handily defeated at the Battle of the Col de Panissars. Philip's attempt to conquer Aragon nearly bankrupted the French monarchy.

    Death
    Philip died at Perpignan, the capital of his ally James II of Majorca, and was buried in Narbonne. He currently lies buried with his wife Isabella of Aragon in Saint Denis Basilica in Paris.

    Referenced by Dante
    In the Divine Comedy, Dante sees Philip's spirit outside the gates of Purgatory with a number of other contemporary European rulers. Dante does not name Philip directly, but refers to him as "the small-nosed" and "the father of the Pest of France."

    Marriage and children
    On 28 May 1262, Philip married Isabella of Aragon, daughter of James I of Aragon and his second wife Yolande of Hungary. They had the following children:
    Louis (1265 – May 1276). He was poisoned, possibly by orders of his stepmother.
    Philip IV (1268 – 29 November 1314), his successor, married Joan I of Navarre
    Robert (1269–1271).
    Charles (12 March 1270 – 16 December 1325), Count of Valois, married firstly to Margaret of Anjou in 1290, secondly to Catherine I of Courtenay in 1302, and lastly to Mahaut of Chatillon in 1308.
    Stillborn son (1271).
    After Isabella's death, he married on 21 August 1274, Maria of Brabant, daughter of Henry III of Brabant and Adelaide of Burgundy. Their children were:
    Louis (May 1276 – 19 May 1319), Count of Évreux, married Margaret of Artois
    Blanche (1278 – 19 March 1305, Vienna), married Rudolf III of Austria on 25 May 1300.
    Margaret (1282 – 14 February 1318), married Edward I of England.2,1

Family 1: Isabel (?) of Aragon b. 1243

Family 2: Marie (?) of Brabant, Queen Consort of France b. 13 May 1254, d. 12 Jan 1321

  • Last Edited: 13 Dec 2014

Isabel (?) of Aragon1

F, #8316, b. 1243

The ancestry chart of Archibald MacFarlane (ID # 34) is presented because he unites the ancestry of both his parents. If an individual appears more than once in Archibald's chart this indicates descent from the individual in more than one line. By clicking on the each instance (i.e. Ancestry of Archibald MacFarlane (#5)) each line of descent will be shown.

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Family: Phillip III (?) King of France b. 1 May 1245, d. 5 Oct 1285

  • Last Edited: 5 Jun 2016

Citations

  1. [S742] The Peerage, online thepeerage.com, http://www.thepeerage.com/p10255.htm#i102545
  2. [S742] The Peerage, online thepeerage.com, http://www.thepeerage.com/p10680.htm#i106799
  3. [S742] The Peerage, online thepeerage.com, http://www.thepeerage.com/p11334.htm#i113335
  4. [S742] The Peerage, online thepeerage.com, http://www.thepeerage.com/p10255.htm#i102545
    http://www.thepeerage.com/p10326.htm#i103257
  5. [S742] The Peerage, online thepeerage.com, http://www.thepeerage.com/p10255.htm#i102545
    http://www.thepeerage.com/p10239.htm#i102381
  6. [S742] The Peerage, online thepeerage.com, http://www.thepeerage.com/p11368.htm#i113673

Louis IX (?) King of France

M, #8317, b. 25 April 1215, d. 25 August 1270

The ancestry chart of Archibald MacFarlane (ID # 34) is presented because he unites the ancestry of both his parents. If an individual appears more than once in Archibald's chart this indicates descent from the individual in more than one line. By clicking on the each instance (i.e. Ancestry of Archibald MacFarlane (#5)) each line of descent will be shown.

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  • Name Variation: Louis IX (?) King of France was also known as Louis IX (?) Roi de France.2
  • Birth*: He was born on 25 April 1215 in Poissy, Provence, France.3
  • Marriage*: He married Marguerite de Provence Queen Consort of France, daughter of Raimond Berenger IV (?) Count of Provence and Beatrice di Savola, in 1234 in France.1
  • Death*: Louis IX (?) King of France died on 25 August 1270 in Tunis, Tunisia*, at age 55.1
  • Burial*: He was buried after 25 August 1270 in Saint-Denis, Ile-de-France, France.1
  • Biography*: He was a member of the House of Capet. Louis IX, Roi de France also went by the nick-name of Louis 'the Saint'. He succeeded to the title of Roi Louis IX de France in 1226.

    Louis IX (25 April 1214 – 25 August 1270), commonly Saint Louis, was King of France from 1226 until his death. He was also styled Louis II, Count of Artois from 1226 to 1237. Born at Poissy, near Paris, he was an eighth-generation descendant of Hugh Capet, and thus a member of the House of Capet, and the son of Louis VIII and Blanche of Castile. He worked with the Parliament of Paris in order to improve the professionalism of his legal administration.

    He is the only canonised king of France; consequently, there are many places named after him, most notably St. Louis, Missouri and Mission San Luis Rey de Francia in the United States, São Luís do Maranhão, Brazil and both the state and city of San Luis Potosí in Mexico. Saint Louis was also a tertiary of the Trinitarians. On 11 June 1256, the General Chapter of the Trinitarian Order formally affiliated Louis IX at the monastery of Cerfroid, which had been constructed by Felix of Valois north of Paris.

    Sources
    Much of what is known of Louis's life comes from Jean de Joinville's famous Life of Saint Louis. Joinville was a close friend, confidant, and counsellor to the king, and also participated as a witness in the papal inquest into Louis' life that ended with his canonisation in 1297 by Pope Boniface VIII.

    Two other important biographies were written by the king's confessor, Geoffrey of Beaulieu, and his chaplain, William of Chartres. The fourth important source of information is William of Saint-Parthus' biography, which he wrote using the papal inquest mentioned above. While several individuals wrote biographies in the decades following the king's death, only Jean of Joinville, Geoffrey of Beaulieu, and William of Chartres wrote from personal knowledge of the king.

    Early life
    Louis was born on 25 April 1214 at Poissy, near Paris, the son of Prince Louis the Lion and Princess Blanche, and baptised in La Collégiale Notre-Dame church. His grandfather was King Philip II of France. He was 9 years old when his grandfather died and his father ascended as Louis VIII. A member of the House of Capet, Louis was twelve years old when his father died on 8 November 1226. He was crowned king within the month at Reims cathedral. Because of Louis's youth, his mother ruled France as regent during his minority.

    His younger brother Charles I of Sicily (1227–85) was created count of Anjou, thus founding the second Angevin dynasty.

    No date is given for the beginning of Louis's personal rule. His contemporaries viewed his reign as co-rule between the king and his mother, though historians generally view the year 1234 as the year in which Louis began ruling personally, with his mother assuming a more advisory role. She continued as an important counselor to the king until her death in 1252.

    On 27 May 1234, Louis married Margaret of Provence (1221 – 21 December 1295), whose sister Eleanor later became the wife of Henry III of England.

    Crusading
    When he was 15, Louis' mother brought an end to the Albigensian Crusade in 1229 after signing an agreement with Count Raymond VII of Toulouse that cleared the latter's father of wrongdoing. Raymond VI of Toulouse had been suspected of murdering a preacher on a mission to convert the Cathars.

    Louis went on two crusades, in his mid-30s in 1248 (Seventh Crusade) and then again in his mid-50s in 1270 (Eighth Crusade).

    He had begun with the rapid capture of the port of Damietta in June 1249, an attack which did cause some disruption in the Muslim Ayyubid empire, especially as the current sultan was on his deathbed. But the march from Damietta toward Cairo through the Nile River Delta went slowly. During this time, the Ayyubid sultan died, and a sudden power shift took place, as the sultan's wife Shajar al-Durr set events in motion which were to make her Queen, and eventually place the Egyptian army of the Mamluks in power. On 6 April 1250 Louis lost his army at the Battle of Fariskur and was captured by the Egyptians. His release was eventually negotiated, in return for a ransom of 400,000 livres tournois (at the time France's annual revenue was only about 1,250,000 livres tournois), and the surrender of the city of Damietta.

    Following his release from Egyptian captivity, Louis spent four years in the Crusader kingdoms of Acre, Caesarea, and Jaffa. Louis used his wealth to assist the Crusaders in rebuilding their defences and conducting diplomacy with the Islamic powers of Syria and Egypt. Upon his departure from the Middle East, Louis left a significant garrison in the city of Acre for its defence against Islamic attacks. The historic presence of this French garrison in the Middle East was later used as a justification for the French Mandate.

    Louis exchanged multiple letters and emissaries with Mongol rulers of the period. During his first crusade in 1248, Louis was approached by envoys from Eljigidei, the Mongol ruler of Armenia and Persia. Eljigidei suggested that King Louis should land in Egypt, while Eljigidei attacked Baghdad, to prevent the Saracens of Egypt and those of Syria from joining forces. Louis sent André de Longjumeau, a Dominican priest, as an emissary to the Great Khan Güyük Khan in Mongolia. However, Güyük died before the emissary arrived at his court, and nothing concrete occurred. Louis dispatched another envoy to the Mongol court, the Franciscan William of Rubruck, who went to visit the Great Khan Möngke Khan in Mongolia.

    Patron of arts and arbiter of Europe
    Louis' patronage of the arts drove much innovation in Gothic art and architecture, and the style of his court radiated throughout Europe by both the purchase of art objects from Parisian masters for export and by the marriage of the king's daughters and female relatives to foreign husbands and their subsequent introduction of Parisian models elsewhere. Louis' personal chapel, the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, was copied more than once by his descendants elsewhere. Louis most likely ordered the production of the Morgan Bible, a masterpiece of mediaeval painting.

    Saint Louis ruled during the so-called "golden century of Saint Louis", when the kingdom of France was at its height in Europe, both politically and economically. The king of France was regarded as a primus inter pares among the kings and rulers of the continent. He commanded the largest army, and ruled the largest and most wealthy kingdom of Europe, a kingdom which was the European centre of arts and intellectual thought (La Sorbonne) at the time. The prestige and respect felt in Europe for King Louis IX was due more to the attraction that his benevolent personality created rather than to military domination. For his contemporaries, he was the quintessential example of the Christian prince, and embodied the whole of Christendom in his person. His reputation of saintliness and fairness was already well established while he was alive, and on many occasions he was chosen as an arbiter in the quarrels opposing the rulers of Europe.

    Shortly before 1256 Enguerrand IV of Coucy arrested and without trial hanged three young squires of Laon whom he accused of poaching in his forest. In 1256 Louis had him arrested and brought to the Louvre by his sergeants. Enguerrand demanded judgment by his peers and trial by battle which was refused by the king because Louis thought it obsolete. Enguerrand was tried, sentenced and ordered to pay 12,000 livres. Part of the money was to pay for masses in perpetuity for the men he had hanged.

    In 1258, Louis and James I of Aragon signed the Treaty of Corbeil, under which Louis renounced his feudal overlordship over the County of Barcelona, which was held by the King of Aragon. James in turn renounced his feudal overlordship over several counties in southern France.

    Religious nature
    The perception of Louis IX as the exemplary Christian prince was reinforced by his religious zeal. Louis was a devout Catholic, and he built the Sainte-Chapelle ("Holy Chapel"), located within the royal palace complex (now the Paris Hall of Justice), on the Île de la Cité in the centre of Paris. The Sainte Chapelle, a perfect example of the Rayonnant style of Gothic architecture, was erected as a shrine for the Crown of Thorns and a fragment of the True Cross, precious relics of the Passion of Jesus. Louis purchased these in 1239–41 from Emperor Baldwin II of the Latin Empire of Constantinople, for the exorbitant sum of 135,000 livres (the chapel, on the other hand, cost only 60,000 livres to build).

    Louis IX took very seriously his mission as "lieutenant of God on Earth", with which he had been invested when he was crowned in Rheims. To fulfill his duty, he conducted two crusades, and even though they were unsuccessful, they contributed to his prestige. Contemporaries would not have understood if the king of France did not lead a crusade to the Holy Land. To finance his first crusade Louis ordered the expulsion of all Jews engaged in usury and the confiscation of their property, for use in his crusade. However, he did not cancel the debts owed by Christians. One-third of the debts was forgiven, but the other two thirds were to be remitted to the royal treasury. Louis also ordered, at the urging of Pope Gregory IX, the burning in Paris in 1243 of some 12,000 manuscript copies of the Talmud and other Jewish books. Legislation against the Talmud in European courts resulted from concerns that its circulation would weaken Christians' faith and threaten the Christian basis of society, the preservation of which was the monarch's duty.

    In addition to Louis' legislation against Jews and usury, he expanded the scope of the Inquisition in France. The area most affected by this expansion was southern France where the Cathar heresy had been strongest. The rate of these confiscations reached its highest levels in the years prior to his first crusade, and slowed upon his return to France in 1254.

    In all these deeds, Louis IX tried to fulfill the duty of France, which was seen as "the eldest daughter of the Church" (la fille aînée de l'Église), a tradition of protector of the Church going back to the Franks and Charlemagne, who had been crowned by the Pope in Rome in 800. Indeed, the official Latin title of the kings of France was Rex Francorum, i.e. "king of the Franks" (until Louis' grand-father's reign, Philip II whose seal reads Rex Franciae, i.e. "king of France"), and the kings of France were also known by the title "most Christian king" (Rex Christianissimus). The relationship between France and the papacy was at its peak in the 12th and 13th centuries, and most of the crusades were actually called by the popes from French soil. Eventually, in 1309, Pope Clement V even left Rome and relocated to the French city of Avignon, beginning the era known as the Avignon Papacy (or, more disparagingly, the "Babylonian captivity").

    Children
    Blanche (12 July/4 December[8] 1240 – 29 April 1243), died young
    Isabella (2 March 1241 – 28 January 1271), married Theobald II of Navarre
    Louis of France (23 September 1243 or 24 February 1244 – 11 January or 2 February January 1260). Betrothed to Infanta doña Berenguela of Castile in Paris on 20 August 1255.
    Philip III (1 May 1245 – 5 October 1285), married firstly to Isabella of Aragon in 1262 and secondly to Maria of Brabant in 1274
    John (1246/1247[8]–1248), died young
    John Tristan of Valois (1250 – 3 August 1270), married Yolande of Burgundy
    Peter I of Alençon (1251–84), married Joanne of Châtillon
    Blanche of France, Infanta of Castile, married Ferdinand de la Cerda, Infante of Castille
    Margaret of France (1254–71), married John I, Duke of Brabant
    Robert, Count of Clermont (1256 – 7 February 1317), married Beatrice of Burgundy. Henry IV of France was his direct male-line descendant.
    Agnes of France (c. 1260 – 19 December 1327), married Robert II, Duke of Burgundy

    During his second crusade, Louis died at Tunis, 25 August 1270. As Tunis was Muslim territory, his body was subject to the process known as mos Teutonicus (a postmortem funerary custom used in mediæval Europe whereby the flesh was boiled from the body, so that the bones of the deceased could be transported hygienically from distant lands back home. He was succeeded by his son, Philip III. Louis was traditionally believed to have died from the bubonic plague but the cause is thought by modern scholars to have been dysentery. The bubonic plague did not strike Europe until 1348, so the likelihood of his contracting and ultimately dying from the bubonic plague was very slim.

    Christian tradition states that some of his entrails were buried directly on the spot in Tunisia, where a Tomb of Saint-Louis can still be visited today, whereas his heart and other parts of his entrails were sealed in an urn and placed in the Basilica of Monreale, Palermo, where they still remain. (Sicily was at that time ruled by his younger brother, Charles of Anjou, and the French army returned to France through the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily.) His corpse was taken, after a short stay at the Basilica of Saint Dominic in Bologna, to the French royal necropolis at Saint-Denis, resting in Lyon on the way. His tomb at Saint-Denis was a magnificent gilt brass monument designed in the late 14th century. It was melted down during the French Wars of Religion, at which time the body of the king disappeared. Only one finger was rescued and is kept at Saint-Denis.

    Veneration as a saint
    Pope Boniface VIII proclaimed the canonization of Louis in 1297; he is the only French monarch to be declared a saint.

    Louis IX is often considered the model of the ideal Christian monarch. Because of the aura of holiness attached to his memory, many kings of France were called Louis, especially in the Bourbon dynasty, which directly descended from one of his younger sons.

    The Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Louis is a Roman Catholic religious order founded in 1842 and named in his honor.

    He is also honored as co-patron of the Third Order of St. Francis, which claims him as a member of the Order.

    Places named after Saint Louis
    The cities of San Luis Potosí in Mexico; St. Louis, Missouri; St. Louis, Michigan; San Luis, Arizona; San Luis, Colorado; Saint-Louis du Sénégal; Saint-Louis in Alsace; as well as Lake Saint-Louis in Quebec, the Mission San Luis Rey de Francia in California and rue Saint Louis of Pondicherry are among the many places named after the king and saint.

    The Cathedral Saint-Louis in Versailles; the Basilica of St. Louis, King of France and the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, both in St. Louis, Missouri; and the St. Louis Cathedral, New Orleans were also named for the king. The French royal Order of Saint Louis (1693–1790 and 1814–1830), the Île Saint-Louis as well as a hospital in the 10th arrondissement of Paris also bear his name. The national church of France in Rome also carries his name: San Luigi dei Francesi in Italian or Saint Louis of France in English.

    Many places in Brazil called São Luís in Portuguese are named after the French Saint Louis.
    Port-Louis, the capital city of Mauritius, as well as its cathedral are also named after St. Louis, who is the patron saint of the island.

    Famous portraits
    A bas-relief of St. Louis is one of the carved portraits of historic lawmakers that adorns the chamber of the United States House of Representatives.
    Saint Louis is also portrayed on a frieze depicting a timeline of important lawgivers throughout world history in the Courtroom at the Supreme Court of the United States.
    A statue of St. Louis by the sculptor John Donoghue stands on the roofline of the New York State Appellate Division Court at 27 Madison Avenue in New York City.
    The Apotheosis of St. Louis is an equestrian statue of the saint, by Charles Henry Niehaus, that stands in front of the Saint Louis Art Museum in Forest Park.

    In fiction
    Davis, William Stearns, "Falaise of the Blessed Voice" aka "The White Queen". New York, NY: Macmillan, 1904
    Peter Berling, The Children of the Grail.4
  • Last Edited: 19 Feb 2016

Marguerite de Provence Queen Consort of France1,2

F, #8318, b. 1221

Margaret of Provence
Queen consort of France

The ancestry chart of Archibald MacFarlane (ID # 34) is presented because he unites the ancestry of both his parents. If an individual appears more than once in Archibald's chart this indicates descent from the individual in more than one line. By clicking on the each instance (i.e. Ancestry of Archibald MacFarlane (#5)) each line of descent will be shown.

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  • Birth*: Marguerite de Provence Queen Consort of France was born in 1221 in Provence, France.1,3
  • Marriage*: She married Louis IX (?) King of France, son of Louis VIII (?) King of France and Blanche of Castile (?) Queen of France, in 1234 in France.4
  • Biography*: Margaret of Provence (1221 – 20 December 1295) was Queen of France as the wife of King Louis IX.

    Family
    Margaret was born in the spring of 1221 in Forcalquier. She was the eldest of four daughters of Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Provence, and Beatrice of Savoy. Her younger sisters were Queen Eleanor of England, Queen Sanchia of Germany, and Queen Beatrice of Sicily. She was especially close to Eleanor, to whom she was close in age, and with whom she sustained friendly relationships until they grew old. The marriages of the royal brothers from France and England to the sisters from Provence improved the relationship between the two countries and this led up to the Treaty of Paris

    Marriage
    In 1233, Blanche of Castile sent one of her knights to Provence, partly to offset the troublesome Raymond VII, Count of Toulouse, and partly to meet Margaret, whose grace and beauty were widely reported. Margaret and her father entertained the knight well, and soon Blanche was negotiating with the count of Provence, so that his daughter might marry the king. Margaret was chosen as a good match for the king more for her religious devotion and courtly manner than her beauty. She was escorted to Lyon by her parents for the marriage treaty to be signed. From there, she was escorted to her wedding in Sens by her uncles from Savoy, William and Thomas. On 27 May 1234 at the age of thirteen, Margaret became wife of Louis IX of France and queen consort of France. She was crowned the following day.

    Blanche still wielded strong influence over her son, and would throughout her life. As a sign of her authority, shortly after the wedding Blanche dismissed Margaret's uncles and all of the servants she had brought with her from her childhood.

    Margaret, like her sisters, was noted for her beauty, she was said to be "pretty with dark hair and fine eyes", and in the early years of their marriage she and Louis enjoyed a warm relationship. Her Franciscan confessor, William de St. Pathus, related that on cold nights Margaret would place a robe around Louis' shoulders, when her deeply religious husband rose to pray. Another anecdote recorded by St. Pathus related that Margaret felt that Louis' plain clothing was unbecoming to his royal dignity, to which Louis replied that he would dress as she wished, if she dressed as he wished.

    They enjoyed riding together, reading, and listening to music. The attentions of the king and court being drawn to the new queen only made Blanche more jealous, and she worked to keep the king and queen apart as much as possible.

    During the Seventh Crusade
    Margaret accompanied Louis on his first crusade. Her sister Beatrice also joined. Though initially the crusade met with some success, like with the capture of Damietta in 1249, it became a disaster after the king's brother was killed and the king then captured.

    Queen Margaret was responsible for negotiations and gathering enough silver for his ransom. She was thus for a brief time the only woman ever to lead a crusade. In 1250, while in Damietta, she gave birth to her son Jean Tristan.

    The chronicler Joinville, who was not a priest, reports incidents demonstrating Margaret's bravery after Louis was made prisoner in Egypt: she decisively acted to assure a food supply for the Christians in Damietta, and went so far as to ask the knight who guarded her bedchamber to kill her and her newborn son if the city should fall to the Arabs. She also convinced some of those who had been about to leave to remain in Damietta and defend it. Joinville also recounts incidents that demonstrate Margaret's good humor, as on one occasion when Joinville sent her some fine cloth and, when the queen saw his messenger arrive carrying them, she mistakenly knelt down thinking that he was bringing her holy relics. When she realized her mistake, she burst into laughter and ordered the messenger, "Tell your master evil days await him, for he has made me kneel to his camelines!"

    However, Joinville also remarked with noticeable disapproval that Louis rarely asked after his wife and children. In a moment of extreme danger during a terrible storm on the sea voyage back to France from the Crusade, Margaret begged Joinville to do something to help; he told her to pray for deliverance, and to vow that when they reached France she would go on a pilgrimage and offer a golden ship with images of the king, herself and her children in thanks for their escape from the storm. Margaret could only reply that she dared not make such a vow without the king's permission, because when he discovered that she had done so, he would never let her make the pilgrimage. In the end, Joinville promised her that if she made the vow he would make the pilgrimage for her, and when they reached France he did so.

    Political significance
    Her leadership during the crusade had brought her international prestige and after she returned to France, Margaret was often asked to mediate disputes. She feared the ambitions of her husband's brother Charles though, and strengthened the bond with her sister Eleanor and her husband Henry III of England as a counterweight. In 1254, she and her husband invited them to spend Christmas in Paris.

    Then, in 1259, Treaty of Paris came about since the relationship between Louis and Henry III of England had improved, since both they and their younger brothers had married the four sisters from Provence. Margaret was present during the negotiations, along with all her sisters and her mother.

    In later years Louis became vexed with Margaret's ambition. It seems that when it came to politics or diplomacy she was indeed ambitious, but somewhat inept. An English envoy at Paris in the 1250s reported to England, evidently in some disgust, that "the queen of France is tedious in word and deed," and it is clear from the envoy's report of his conversation with the queen that she was trying to create an opportunity for herself to engage in affairs of state even though the envoy was not impressed with her efforts. After the death of her eldest son Louis in 1260, Margaret induced the next son, Philip, to swear an oath that no matter at what age he succeeded to the throne, he would remain under her tutelage until the age of thirty. When Louis found out about the oath, he immediately asked the pope to excuse Philip from the vow on the grounds that he himself had not authorized it, and the pope immediately obliged, ending Margaret's attempt to make herself a second Blanche of Castile. Margaret subsequently failed as well to influence her nephew Edward I of England to avoid a marriage project for one of his daughters that would promote the interests in her native Provence of her brother-in-law, Charles of Anjou, who had married her youngest sister Beatrice.

    Later years
    After the death of Louis on his second crusade, during which she remained in France, she returned to Provence. She was devoted to her sister Queen Eleanor of England, and they stayed in contact until Eleanor's death in 1291. Margaret herself died in Paris, at the Poor Clares monastery she had founded, on 20 December 1295, at the age of seventy-four. She was buried near (but not beside) her husband in the Basilica of St-Denis outside Paris. Her grave, beneath the altar steps, was never marked by a monument, so its location was unknown; probably for this reason, it was the only royal grave in the basilica that was not ransacked during the French Revolution, and it probably remains intact today.

    Issue
    With Louis IX of France:
    Blanche (1240 – 29 April 1243)
    Isabella (2 March 1241 – 28 January 1271), married Theobald II of Navarre
    Louis (25 February 1244 – January 1260)
    Philip III of France (1 May 1245 – 5 October 1285), married firstly Isabella of Aragon, by whom he had issue, including Philip IV of France and Charles, Count of Valois; he married secondly Maria of Brabant, by whom he had issue, including Margaret of France.
    John (born and died in 1248)
    John Tristan (1250 – 3 August 1270), born in Egypt on his father's first Crusade and died in Tunisia on his second
    Peter (1251–1284)
    Blanche (1253–1323), married Ferdinand de la Cerda, Infante of Castile
    Margaret (1254–1271), married John I, Duke of Brabant
    Robert, Count of Clermont (1256 – 7 February 1317), married Beatrice of Burgundy, by whom he had issue. It is from him that the Bourbon kings of France descend in the male line.
    Agnes (c. 1260 – 19 December 1327), married Robert II, Duke of Burgundy.3

Family: Louis IX (?) King of France b. 25 Apr 1215, d. 25 Aug 1270

  • Last Edited: 11 Jan 2016

Louis VIII (?) King of France1

M, #8319, b. 5 September 1187, d. 8 November 1226

Louis VIII the Lion

The ancestry chart of Archibald MacFarlane (ID # 34) is presented because he unites the ancestry of both his parents. If an individual appears more than once in Archibald's chart this indicates descent from the individual in more than one line. By clicking on the each instance (i.e. Ancestry of Archibald MacFarlane (#5)) each line of descent will be shown.

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  • Birth*: Louis VIII (?) King of France was born on 5 September 1187 in Paris, France.3
  • Marriage*: He married Blanche of Castile (?) Queen of France, daughter of Alfonso VIII (?) King of Castile and Eleanor (?) of England, Queen of Castile, on 23 May 1200.1,4
  • Death*: Louis VIII (?) King of France died on 8 November 1226 in Chateau de Montpensier, Auvergne, France, at age 39.4,2
  • Burial*: He was buried after 8 November 1226 in Saint Denis Basilica, France.4,2
  • Biography*: Louis VIII the Lion (5 September 1187 – 8 November 1226) reigned as King of France from 1223 to 1226. He was a member of the House of Capet. Louis VIII was born in Paris, France, the son of Philip II and Isabelle of Hainaut. He was also Count of Artois, inheriting the county from his mother, from 1190–1226. It remained attached to the crown until 1237, when his son Louis IX gave the title in accordance with the will of his father to Louis IX's younger brother Robert on attaining his majority.

    While Louis VIII only briefly ruled as king for three years, he was an active leader his years as crown prince during his father's wars against the Angevins under King John. As king, his intervention of royal forces into the Albigensian Crusade in southern France decisively moved the conflict towards a conclusion.

    Marriage
    On 23 May 1200, at the age of 12, Louis was married to Blanche of Castile, following prolonged negotiations between Philip Augustus and Blanche's uncle John of England (as represented in William Shakespeare's historical play King John).

    Campaign of 1214
    In 1214 King John of England began his final campaign to reclaim Normandy from Philip II August. John was optimistic, as he had successfully built up alliances with the Emperor Otto IV, Count Renaud of Boulogne and Count Ferdinand of Flanders. John's plan was to split Philip's forces by pushing north-east from Poitou towards Paris, whilst Otto, Renaud and Ferdinand, supported by William Longespée, marched south-west from Flanders. Whereas Philip II August took personal command of the northern front against the Emperor and his allies, he gave his son Louis the command of the front against the Plantagenet possessions in middle France. The first part of the campaign went well for the English, with John outmanoeuvring the forces under the command of Prince Louis and retaking the county of Anjou by the end of June. John besieged the castle of Roche-au-Moine, a key stronghold, forcing Louis to give battle against John's larger army.[5] The local Angevin nobles refused to advance with the king; left at something of a disadvantage, John retreated back to La Rochelle. Shortly afterwards, Philip II August won the hard-fought battle of Bouvines in the north against Otto and John's other allies, bringing an end to John's hopes of retaking Normandy.

    Pretender to the English throne
    In 1215, the English barons rebelled in the First Barons' War against the unpopular King John of England (1199–1216). The barons offered the throne to Prince Louis, who landed unopposed on the Isle of Thanet in England at the head of an army on 21 May 1216. There was little resistance when the prince entered London and at St Paul's Cathedral, Louis was proclaimed King with great pomp and celebration in the presence of all of London. Even though he was not crowned, many nobles, as well as King Alexander II of Scotland (1214–49) for his English possessions, gathered to give homage.

    On 14 June 1216, Louis captured Winchester and soon controlled over half of the English kingdom. But just when it seemed that England was his, King John's death in October 1216 caused many of the rebellious barons to desert Louis in favour of John's nine-year-old son, Henry III.

    With William Marshall acting as regent, a call for the English "to defend our land" against the French led to a reversal of fortunes on the battlefield. After his army was beaten at Lincoln on 20 May 1217, and his naval forces (led by Eustace the Monk) were defeated off the coast of Sandwich on 24 August 1217, he was forced to make peace on English terms.

    The principal provisions of the Treaty of Lambeth were an amnesty for English rebels, Louis to undertake not to attack England again, and 10,000 marks to be given to Louis. The effect of the treaty was that Louis agreed he had never been the legitimate King of England.

    As King Louis VIII
    Louis VIII succeeded his father on 14 July 1223; his coronation took place on 6 August of the same year in the cathedral at Reims. As King, he continued to seek revenge on the Angevins and seized Poitou and Saintonge from them.

    Policy on Jews
    On 1 November 1223, he issued an ordinance that prohibited his officials from recording debts owed to Jews, thus reversing the policies set by his father Philip II Augustus. Usury (lending money with interest) was illegal for Christians to practice. According to Church law it was seen as a vice in which people profited from others' misfortune (like gambling), and was punishable by excommunication, a severe punishment. However since Jews were not Christian, they could not be excommunicated, and thus fell in to a legal grey area which secular rulers would sometimes exploit by allowing (or requesting) Jews to provide usury services, often for personal gain to the secular ruler, and to the discontent of the Church. Louis VIII's prohibition was one attempt at resolving this legal problem which was a constant source of friction in Church and State courts.

    Twenty-six barons accepted, but Theobald IV (1201–53), the powerful Count of Champagne, did not, since he had an agreement with the Jews that guaranteed him extra income through taxation. Theobald IV would become a major opposition force to Capetian dominance, and his hostility was manifest during the reign of Louis VIII. For example, during the siege of Avignon, he performed only the minimum service of 40 days, and left home amid charges of treachery.

    The Albigensian Crusade and Conquest of Languedoc
    The Albigensian Crusade had begun in 1209, ostensibly against the Cathar heretics of southern France and Languedoc in particular, though it soon became a contest between lords of northern France and those of Occitania in the south. The first phase from 1209 to 1215 was quite successful for the northern forces, but this was followed by a series of local rebellions from 1215 to 1225 which undid many of these earlier gains. There followed the seizure of Avignon and Languedoc.

    In 1225, the council of Bourges excommunicated the Count of Toulouse, Raymond VII, and declared a renewed crusade against the southern barons. Louis happily renewed the conflict in order to enforce his royal rights. Roger Bernard the Great, Count of Foix, tried to keep the peace, but the king rejected his embassy and the counts of Foix and Toulouse took up arms against him. The king was largely successful, taking Avignon after a three-month siege, but he did not complete the conquest before his death.

    While returning to Paris, King Louis VIII became ill with dysentery, and died on 8 November 1226 in the Château de Montpensier, Auvergne.

    The Saint Denis Basilica houses the tomb of Louis VIII. His son, Louis IX (1226–70), succeeded him on the throne. Louis IX concluded the crusade in the south in 1229.

    Marriage and issue

    On 23 May 1200, at the age of twelve, Louis married Blanche of Castile (4 March 1188 – 26 November 1252).
    Blanche (1205–1206).
    Agnes (b. and d. 1207).
    Philip (9 September 1209 – July 1218), married (or only betrothed) in 1217 to Agnes of Donzy.
    Alphonse (b. and d. Lorrez-le-Bocage, 23 January 1213).
    John (b. and d. Lorrez-le-Bocage, 23 January 1213), twin of Alphonse.
    Louis IX (Poissy, 25 April 1214 – 25 August 1270, Tunis), King of France as successor to his father.
    Robert (25 September 1216 – 9 February 1250, killed in Battle of Al Mansurah, Egypt)
    Philip (2 January 1218–1220).
    John Tristan (21 July 1219–1232), Count of Anjou and Maine.
    Alphonse (Poissy, 11 November 1220 – 21 August 1271, Corneto), Count of Poitou and Auvergne, and by marriage, of Toulouse.
    Philip Dagobert (20 February 1222–1232).
    Isabelle (14 April 1225 – 23 February 1269).
    Charles Etienne (21 March 1226 – 7 January 1285), Count of Anjou and Maine, by marriage Count of Provence and Forcalquier, and King of Sicily.4

Family: Blanche of Castile (?) Queen of France b. 4 Mar 1188, d. Nov 1252

  • Last Edited: 19 Dec 2015

Blanche of Castile (?) Queen of France1

F, #8320, b. 4 March 1188, d. November 1252

Blanche of Castile
Queen consort of France

The ancestry chart of Archibald MacFarlane (ID # 34) is presented because he unites the ancestry of both his parents. If an individual appears more than once in Archibald's chart this indicates descent from the individual in more than one line. By clicking on the each instance (i.e. Ancestry of Archibald MacFarlane (#5)) each line of descent will be shown.

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  • Name Variation: Blanche of Castile (?) Queen of France was also known as Blanca de Castilla.4,1
  • Birth*: She was born on 4 March 1188 in Palencia, Spain*.4,1
  • Marriage*: She married Louis VIII (?) King of France, son of Phillip II (?) King of France and Isabelle de Hainaut Queen of France, on 23 May 1200.4,5
  • Burial*: Blanche of Castile (?) Queen of France was buried in November 1252 in Maubuisson Abbey, France.1
  • Death*: She died in November 1252 in Paris, France, at age 64.1
  • Biography*: Blanche of Castile (Spanish: Blanca; 4 March 1188 – 27 November 1252) was Queen of France as the wife of Louis VIII. She acted as regent twice during the reign of her son, Louis IX. She was born in Palencia, Spain, 1188, the third daughter of Alfonso VIII, king of Castile, and Eleanor of England. Eleanor was a daughter of Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine.

    Early life
    In her youth, she visited the Abbey of Santa María la Real de Las Huelgas, founded by her parents, several times. In consequence of the Treaty of Le Goulet between Philip Augustus and John of England, Blanche's sister, Urraca, was betrothed to Philip's son, Louis. Their grandmother Eleanor of Aquitaine, after meeting the two sisters, judged that Blanche's personality was more fit for a queen consort of France. In the spring of 1200 Eleanor crossed the Pyrenees with her and brought her to France instead.

    Marriage
    On 22 May 1200 the treaty was finally signed, John ceding with his niece the fiefs of Issoudun and Graçay, together with those that André de Chauvigny, lord of Châteauroux, held in Berry, of the English crown. The marriage was celebrated the next day, at Port-Mort on the right bank of the Seine, in John's domains, as those of Philip lay under an interdict. Blanche was twelve years of age, and Louis was only a year older so the marriage was consummated a few years later. Blanche bore her first child in 1205.

    During the English barons' rebellion of 1215-16 against King John, it was Blanche's English ancestry as granddaughter to Henry II that led to Louis being offered the throne of England as Louis I. However, with the death of John in October 1216, the barons changed their allegiance to John's son, the nine-year-old Henry. Louis continued to claim the English crown in her right, only to find a united nation against him. Philip Augustus refused to help his son, and Blanche was his sole support. Blanche raised money from her father-in-law by threatening to put up her children as hostages. She established herself at Calais and organized two fleets, one of which was commanded by Eustace the Monk, and an army under Robert of Courtenay. With French forces defeated at Lincoln in May 1217 and then routed on their way back to their London stronghold, Louis desperately needed the reinforcements from France. On 24 August, the English fleet destroyed the French fleet carrying those reinforcements off Sandwich and Louis was forced to sue for peace.

    Regency
    Philip died in July 1223, and Louis VIII and Blanche were crowned on August 6. Upon Louis' death in November 1226, he left Blanche, by then 38, regent and guardian of his children. Of her twelve or thirteen children, six had died, and Louis, the heir — afterwards the sainted Louis IX — was but twelve years old. She had him crowned within a month of his father's death in Reims and forced reluctant barons to swear allegiance to him. The situation was critical, since Louis VIII had died without having completely subdued his southern nobles. The king's minority made the Capetian domains even more vulnerable. To gain support, she released Ferdinand, Count of Flanders, who had been in captivity since the Battle of Bouvines. She ceded land and castles to Philip Hurepel, son of Philip II and his controversial wife Agnes of Merania.

    Several key barons, led by Peter Mauclerc, refused to recognize the coronation of the young king. Shortly after the coronation, Blanche and Louis were traveling south of Paris and nearly captured. Blanche appealed to the people of Paris to protect their king. The citizens lined the roads and protected him as he returned.

    Helped by Theobald IV of Champagne and the papal legate to France, Romano Bonaventura, she organized an army. Its sudden appearance brought the nobles momentarily to a halt. Twice more did Blanche have to muster an army to protect Capetian interests against rebellious nobles and Henry III of England. Blanche organized a surprise attack in the winter. In January of 1229, she led her forces to attack Mauclerc and force him to recognize the king. She accompanied the army herself and helped collect wood to keep the soldiers warm. Not everyone was happy with her administration. Her enemies called her “Dame Hersent” (the wolf in the Roman de Renart)

    In 1229, she was responsible for the Treaty of Paris, in which Raymond VII, Count of Toulouse, submitted to Louis. By the terms of the agreement, his daughter and heir, Joan, married Blanche's son, Alfonso, and the county could only pass to his heirs. He gave up all the lands conquered by Simon de Montfort to the crown of France. It also meant the end of the Albigensian Crusade.

    To prevent Henry III of England from gaining more French lands through marriage, Blanche denied him the first two brides he sought. In 1226, he sought to marry Yolande of Brittany, Mauclerc's daughter. Blanche instead forced her father to give Yolande to Blanche's son John. When Henry became engaged to Joan, Countess of Ponthieu, Blanche lobbied the Pope to deny the marriage based on consanguinity, denying the dispensation Henry sought.

    In 1230, Henry III came to invade France. At the cost of some of the crown's influence in Poitou, Blanche managed to keep the English Queen mother Isabelle, Countess of Angoulême and her second husband, Hugh X of Lusignan, from supporting the English side. Mauclerc did support the English and Brittany rebelled against the crown in 1230. The rebellion was put down, which added to the growing prestige of Blanche and Louis. Henry's failure to make any significant impact with his invasions ultimately discouraged Mauclerc's rebellion, and by 1234 he was firm in his support of Louis.

    St. Louis owed his realm to his mother and remained under her influence for the duration of her life.

    Queen mother
    In 1233, Raymond of Toulouse was starting to chafe under the terms of the treaty of Paris, and so Blanche sent one of her knights, Giles of Flagy, to convince him to cooperate. Blanche had also heard through troubadours of the beauty, grace, and religious devotion of the daughters of Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Provence. So she assigned her knight a second mission to visit Provence. Giles found a much better reception in Provence than in Toulouse. Upon his return to Paris, Blanche decided that a Provençal marriage would suit her son and help keep Toulouse in check. In 1234, Louis married Margaret of Provence, who was the eldest of the four daughters of Ramon, Count of Provence, and Beatrice of Savoy.

    She did not have a good relationship with her daughter-in-law, perhaps due to the controlling relationship she had with her son. To maintain better control over the new queen, Blanche dismissed the family and servants who had come to her wedding before the couple reached Paris. Prior to the arrival of the new queen, Blanche was considered the beauty of the court, and had poems written about her beauty by the count of Champagne. In 1230, it was even rumoured that she was pregnant by Romano Bonaventura. The new queen drew the attention of the court and the king away from Blanche, so she sought to keep them apart as much as she could. Jean de Joinville tells of the time when Queen Margaret was giving birth and Blanche entered the room telling her son to leave saying "Come ye hence, ye do naught here". Queen Margaret then allegedly fainted out of distress. One contemporary biographer notes that when Queen Blanche was present in the royal household, she did not like Margaret and Louis to be together "except when he went to lie with her".

    In 1239, Blanche insisted on a fair hearing for the Jews, who were under threat by increasing Antisemitism in France. She presided over a formal disputation in the king's court. Louis insisted on the burning of the Talmud and other Jewish books, but Blanche promised Rabbi Rehiel of Paris, who spoke for the Jews, that he and his goods were under her protection.

    Second regency and death
    In 1248, Blanche again became regent, during Louis IX's absence on the Crusade, a project which she had strongly opposed. In the disasters which followed she maintained peace, while draining the land of men and money to aid her son in the East. She fell ill at Melun in November 1252, and taken to Paris, but lived only a few days. She was buried at Maubuisson Abbey, which she had founded herself. Louis heard of her death in the following spring and reportedly did not speak to anyone for two days afterwards.

    Patronage and learning
    Blanche was a patron of the arts and owned a variety of books, both in French and in Latin. Some of these were meant as teaching tools for her son. Le Miroir de l'Ame was dedicated to Blanche. It instructs queens to rigorously practice Christian virtues in daily life. She oversaw the education of her children, all of whom studied Latin. She also insisted on lessons in Christian morals for all of them. Both Louis and Isabelle, her only surviving daughter, were canonized.

    Issue
    Unnamed daughter [Blanche?] (1205 - died soon after).
    Philip (9 September 1209 – before July 1218), betrothed in July 1215 to Agnes of Donzy.
    Alphonse (b. and d. Lorrez-le-Bocage, 26 January 1213), twin of John.
    John (b. and d. Lorrez-le-Bocage, 26 January 1213), twin of Alphonse.
    Louis IX (Poissy, 25 April 1214 – 25 August 1270, Tunis), King of France as successor to his father.
    Robert (25 September 1216 – 9 February 1250, killed in battle, Manssurah, Egypt), Count of Artois.
    Philip (20 February 1218 - 1220).
    John (21 July 1219 - 1232), Count of Anjou and Maine; betrothed in March 1227 to Yolande of Brittany.
    Alphonse (Poissy, 11 November 1220 – 21 August 1271, Corneto), Count of Poitou and Auvergne, and by marriage, of Toulouse.
    Philip Dagobert (20 February 1222 - 1232).
    Isabelle (March 1224 – 23 February 1270).
    Etienne (end 1225- early 1227).
    Charles (posthumously 21 March 1227 – 7 January 1285), Count of Anjou and Maine, by marriage Count of Provence and Folcalquier, and King of Sicily.

    Literature
    Blanche of Castile is mentioned in François Villon's 15th century poem Ballade des Dames du Temps Jadis (Ballad of Ladies of Times Past), together with other famous women of history and mythology.
    Blanche and Isabella of Angoulême are the main characters in Jean Plaidy's novel The Battle of the Queens.
    Blanche of Castile is briefly mentioned in Marcel Proust's Swann's Way.
    Blanche is a key character in the novel "Four Sisters, All Queens", by Sherry Jones.1

Family: Louis VIII (?) King of France b. 5 Sep 1187, d. 8 Nov 1226

  • Last Edited: 27 Jul 2015

Mary Agnes Cameron1

F, #8321, b. 26 August 1906

The ancestry chart of Archibald MacFarlane (ID # 34) is presented because he unites the ancestry of both his parents. If an individual appears more than once in Archibald's chart this indicates descent from the individual in more than one line. By clicking on the each instance (i.e. Ancestry of Archibald MacFarlane (#5)) each line of descent will be shown.

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  • Last Edited: 12 Mar 2016

Citations

  1. [S709] Diocese of Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada , 1906 Birth Registration for Mary Agnes Cameron
    Page 69000348.

Phillip II (?) King of France1

M, #8326, b. 21 August 1165, d. 14 July 1223

Philip (right) and Richard accepting the keys to Acre; from the Grandes Chroniques de France.

The ancestry chart of Archibald MacFarlane (ID # 34) is presented because he unites the ancestry of both his parents. If an individual appears more than once in Archibald's chart this indicates descent from the individual in more than one line. By clicking on the each instance (i.e. Ancestry of Archibald MacFarlane (#5)) each line of descent will be shown.

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  • Name Variation: Phillip II (?) King of France was also known as Philippe II Auguste (?) Roi de France.3
  • Birth*: He was born on 21 August 1165 in Gonesse, Ile-de-France, France.4
  • Marriage*: He married Isabelle de Hainaut Queen of France, daughter of Baldwin V (VIII) (?) Count of Hainaut, Margrave of Namur and Margaret I (?) Countess of Flanders, on 28 April 1180 in France.4
  • Death*: Phillip II (?) King of France died on 14 July 1223 in Mantes, Ile-de-France, France, at age 57.2
  • Burial*: He was buried after 14 July 1223 in Saint-Denis, Ile-de-France, France.2
  • Biography*: Philip II Augustus (French: Philippe Auguste; 21 August 1165 – 14 July 1223) was the last King of the Franks from 1180 to 1190, and the first King of France from 1190 until his death. A member of the House of Capet, Philip Augustus was born at Gonesse in the Val-d'Oise, the son of Louis VII and of his third wife, Adela of Champagne. He was originally nicknamed Dieudonné ("the God-given" - compare other epithets etymologically rooted in Indo-European devadatta) because he was the first son of Louis VII late in his father's life.

    Philip was one of the most successful medieval French monarchs in expanding the royal demesne and the influence of the monarchy. He broke up the great Angevin Empire and defeated a coalition of his rivals (German, Flemish and English) at the Battle of Bouvines in 1214. He reorganized the government, bringing financial stability to the country and thus making possible a sharp increase in prosperity. His reign was popular with ordinary people because he checked the power of the nobles and passed some of it on to the growing middle class.

    Philip was born in Gonesse on 21 August 1165. As soon as he was able, Louis planned to associate Philip with him on the throne, but it was delayed when Philip, at the age of thirteen, was separated from his companions during a royal hunt and became lost in the Forest of Compiègne. He spent much of the following night attempting to find his way out, but to no avail. Exhausted by cold, hunger and fatigue, he was eventually discovered by a peasant carrying a charcoal burner, but his exposure to the elements meant he soon contracted a dangerously high fever. His father went on pilgrimage to the Shrine of Thomas Becket to pray for Philip's recovery, and was told that his son had indeed recovered. However, on his way back to Paris, he suffered a stroke.

    In declining health, Louis VII had him crowned and anointed at Rheims by the Archbishop William Whitehands on 1 November in 1179. He was married on 28 April 1180 to Isabelle of Hainaut, who brought the County of Artois as her dowry. From his coronation, all real power was transferred to Philip, as his father slowly descended into senility. The great nobles were discontented with Philip's advantageous marriage, while his mother and four uncles, all of whom exercised enormous influence over Louis, were extremely unhappy with his association to the throne, causing a diminution in their power. Eventually, Louis died on 18 September 1180.

    Consolidation of royal demesne
    While the royal demesne had increased under Philip I and Louis VI, under Louis VII it had diminished slightly. In April 1182, Philip expelled all Jews from the demesne and confiscated their goods. Philip's eldest son, Louis, was born on 5 September in 1187 and inherited Artois in 1190, when his mother Isabelle died. The main source for Philip's army was from the royal demesne. In times of conflict, he could immediately call up 250 knights, 250 horse sergeants, 100 crossbowmen (mounted), 133 crossbowmen (foot), 2,000 foot sergeants and 300 mercenaries. Towards the end of his reign, the King could muster some 3,000 knights, 9,000 sergeants, 6,000 urban militiamen, and thousands of foot sergeants. Using his increased revenues, Philip was the first Capetian King to actively build a French navy. By 1215, his fleet could carry a total of 7,000 men. Within two years his fleet included 10 large ships and many smaller ones.

    Wars with his vassals
    In 1181, Philip began a war with Philip of Alsace, Count of Flanders over the Vermandois, which King Philip claimed as his Queen's dowry, which the Count was unwilling to give up. Finally the Count of Flanders invaded France, ravaging the whole district between the Somme and the Oise, before penetrating as far as Dammartin. Notified of Philip's impending approach with 2,000 knights, he turned around and headed back to Flanders. Philip chased him, and the two armies confronted each other near Amiens. By this stage, Philip had managed to counter the ambitions of the count by breaking his alliances with Henry I, Duke of Brabant, and Philip of Heinsberg, Archbishop of Cologne. This, together with an uncertain outcome were he to engage the French in battle, forced the Count to conclude a peace. In July 1185, the Treaty of Boves left the disputed territory partitioned, with Amiénois, Artois and numerous other places passing to the King and the remainder, with the county of Vermandois proper, being left provisionally to Philip of Alsace. It was during this time that he was nicknamed "Augustus" by the monk Rigord for augmenting French lands.

    Meanwhile in 1184, Stephen I of Sancerre and his Brabançon mercenaries ravaged the Orléanais. Philip defeated him with the aid of the Confrères de la Paix.

    War with Henry II
    Philip also began to wage war with Henry II of England, who was also Count of Anjou and Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine in France. The death of Henry's eldest son, Henry the Young King in June 1183 began a dispute over the dower of the widowed Margaret, who was Philip's sister, who insisted that it should be returned to France as the marriage did not produce any children, as per the betrothal agreement. The two kings would hold conferences at the foot of an elm tree near Gisors, which was so positioned that it would overshadow each monarch's territory, but to no avail. Philip pushed the case further when King Béla III of Hungary asked for the widow's hand in marriage, and thus her dowry had to be returned, to which Henry finally agreed.

    The death of Henry's fourth son, Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany in 1186 began a new round of disputes, as Henry insisted that he retain the guardianship of the duchy for his unborn grandson Arthur I, Duke of Brittany. Philip, as Henry's liege lord, objected, stating that he should be the rightful guardian until the birth of the child. Philip then raised the issue of his other sister, Alys, Countess of the Vexin, and her delayed betrothal to Richard the Lionheart.

    With these grievances, two years of combat (1186–1188) followed, but the situation remained unchanged. Philip initially allied with Henry's young sons, Richard the Lionheart and John Lackland, who were in rebellion against their father. Philip II launched an attack on Berry in the summer of 1187 but then in June made a truce with Henry, which left Issoudun in his hands and also granted him Fréteval, in Vendômois. Though the truce was for two years, Philip found grounds for resuming hostilities in the summer of 1188. He skilfully exploited the estrangement between Henry and Richard, and Richard did homage to him voluntarily at Bonmoulins in November 1188.

    Then in 1189 Richard openly joined forces with Philip to drive Henry into abject submission. They chased him from Le Mans to Saumur, losing Tours in the process, before forcing him to acknowledge Richard as his heir. Finally, by the Treaty of Azay-le-Rideau (4 July 1189), Henry was forced to renew his own homage, to confirm the cession of Issoudun, with Graçay also, to Philip, and to renounce his claim to suzerainty over Auvergne. Henry died two days later. His death, and the news of the of the fall of Jerusalem to Saladin, diverted attention from the Franco-English war.

    Philip befriended all of Henry's sons and used them to foment rebellion against their father, but turned against both Richard and John after their respective accessions to the throne. The Angevin Kings of England, as Dukes of Normandy and Aquitaine, and Count of Anjou, were his most powerful and dangerous vassals. Philip made it his life's work to destroy Angevin power in France. With Henry the Young King and Geoffrey of Brittany he maintained friendship until their deaths. Indeed, at the funeral of Geoffrey, he was so overcome with grief that he had to be forcibly restrained from casting himself into the grave.

    Third Crusade     
    Philip went on the Third Crusade (1189–1192) with Richard I of England and the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick I Barbarossa. His army left Vézelay on 1 July 1190. At first the French and English crusaders travelled together, but the armies split at Lyon, as Richard decided to go by sea, and Philip took the overland route through the Alps to Genoa. The French and English armies were reunited in Messina, where they wintered together. On 30 March 1191 the French set sail for the Holy Land and Philip arrived on 20 May. He then marched to Acre which was already besieged by a lesser contingent of crusaders and started to construct large siege equipments before Richard arrived in 8 June (see Siege of Acre). By the time Acre surrendered on 12 July, Philip was severely ill with dysentery which reduced his crusading zeal. Ties with Richard were further strained after the latter acted in a haughty manner after Acre had fallen.

    More importantly, the siege resulted in the death of Philip of Alsace, who held the county of Vermandois proper; an event that threatened to derail the Treaty of Gisors which Philip had orchestrated to isolate the powerful Blois-Champagne faction. Philip decided to return to France to settle the issue of succession in Flanders, a decision that displeased Richard, who said, "It is a shame and a disgrace on my lord if he goes away without having finished the business that brought him hither. But still, if he finds himself in bad health, or is afraid lest he should die here, his will be done." So on 31 July 1191 the French army of 10,000 men (along with 5,000 silver marks to pay the soldiers) remained in Outremer under the command of Hugh III, Duke of Burgundy. Philip and his cousin Peter of Courtenay, count of Nevers, made their way to Genoa and from there returned to France. This decision to return was also fuelled by the realisation that with Richard campaigning in the Holy Land, English possessions in northern France (Normandy) would be open for attack. After Richard's delayed return home after the Third Crusade, war between England and France would ensue over possession of English-controlled territories in modern-day France.

    Conflict with England, Flanders and the Holy Roman Empire

    Conflict with King Richard 1192–1199
    The immediate cause of the conflict with Richard stemmed from Richard's decision to break his betrothal with Phillip's sister Alys at Messina in 1191. Part of Alys's dowry that had been given over to Richard during their engagement was the territory of the Vexin which included the strategic fortress of Gisors. This should have reverted to Philip upon the end of the betrothal, but Philip, to prevent the collapse of the Crusade, agreed that this territory was to remain in Richard's hands, and would be inherited by his male descendents. Should Richard die without an heir, the territory would return to Philip, and if Philip died without an heir, those lands would be considered a part of Normandy.

    Returning to France in late 1191, he began plotting to find a way to have those territories restored to him. He was in a difficult situation, as he had taken an oath to Richard not to attack his lands while he was away, and as Richard was still on Crusade, his territory was under the protection of the Church in any event. He had unsuccessfully asked Pope Celestine III to release him from his oath, and as a result Philip was forced to build a casus belli from scratch.

    On 20 January 1192, Philip met with William of FitzRalph, Richard's seneschal of Normandy. Presenting some documents purporting to be from Richard, Philip claimed that Richard had agreed at Messina to hand back the disputed lands to Philip. Not having heard anything directly from their sovereign, FitzRalph and the Norman barons rejected Philip's claim to the Vexin. Philip at this time also began spreading rumours about Richard's action in the east to discredit the English king in the eyes of his subjects. Among the stories Philip invented included Richard was involved in treacherous communication with Saladin, that he had conspired to cause the fall of Gaza, Jaffa and Ashkelon, and that he had participated in the murder of Conrad of Montferrat. Finally, Philip made contact with Prince John, Richard's brother, whom he convinced to join him and overthrow his brother.

    At the start of 1193, John paid a visit to Philip in Paris where he paid homage for Richard's continental lands. When word reached Philip that Richard had finished crusading and had been captured on his way back from Holy Land, he promptly invaded the Vexin. His first target was the fortress of Gisors, commanded by Gilbert de Vascoeuil, which surrendered without putting up a struggle. Philip then penetrated deep into Normandy, reaching as far as Dieppe. To keep the duplicitous John on side, Philip entrusted the defence of the town of Évreux over to him. Meanwhile, Philip was joined by Count Baldwin of Flanders, and together they laid siege to the ducal capital of Normandy, Rouen. Here, Philip's advance was halted by a defence led by Earl Robert of Leicester. Unable to penetrate their defences, Philip moved on.

    At Mantes on 9 July 1193, Philip came to terms with Richard's ministers who agreed that Philip could keep his gains and would be given some extra territories if he ceased all further aggressive actions in Normandy, along with the condition that Philip would hand back the captured territory if Richard would pay homage to Philip. To prevent Richard from spoiling their plans, Philip and John attempted to bribe the Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI to keep the English king captive for a little while longer. He refused, and Richard was released from captivity on 4 February 1194. By 13 March Richard had returned to England, and by 12 May he had set sail for Normandy with some 300 ships, eager to take the war to Philip.

    Philip had spent this time consolidating his territorial gains, and by now was controlling much of Normandy east of the Seine, and remaining within striking distance of Rouen. His next objective was the castle of Verneuil, which had withstood an earlier siege. Once Richard had arrived at Barfleur, he was soon marching towards Verneuil. As his forces neared the castle, Philip, who had been unable to break through, decided to strike camp. Leaving a large force behind to prosecute the siege, he moved off towards Évreux, which Prince John had handed over to his brother to prove his loyalty. Philip retook the town and sacked it, but during this time, his forces besieging Verneuil abandoned the siege, and Richard entered the castle unopposed on 30 May. Throughout June while Philip's campaign ground to a halt in the north, Richard was taking a number of important fortresses to the south. Philip, eager to relieve the pressure off his allies in the south, marched to confront Richard's forces at Vendôme. Refusing to risk everything in a major battle, Philip retreated, only to have his rear guard caught at Fréteval on 3 July which turned into a general encounter during which Philip only managed to avoid capture, as his army was put to flight. Fleeing back to Normandy, Philip revenged himself on the English by attacking the forces of Prince John and the Earl of Arundel, seizing their baggage train. By now both sides were tiring, and they agreed to the temporary Truce of Tillières.

    War continued in 1195 with Philip once again besieging Verneuil. Richard arrived to discuss the situation face to face. During negotiations, Philip secretly continued his operations against Verneuil, and when Richard discovered it, he left, swearing revenge. Philip now pressed his advantage in northeastern Normandy, where he conducted a raid at Dieppe, during which he burnt the English ships in the harbour, repulsing an attack by Richard at the same time. Philip now marched southward into the Berry region, and his primary objective was the fortress of Issoudun, which had just been captured by Richard's mercenary commander, Mercadier. The French king took the town and was besieging the castle when Richard stormed through French lines and made his way in to reinforce the garrison, while at the same time another army was approaching Philip's supply lines. Philip called off his attack, and another truce was agreed to.

    The war slowly turned against Philip over the course of the next three years. Though things looked promising at the start of 1196 when Arthur of Brittany ended up in Philip's hands, and he won the Siege of Aumale, it would not last. Richard won over a key ally, Baldwin of Flanders in 1197. Then in 1198, Henry the Holy Roman Emperor died, and his successor was to be Otto IV, Richard's nephew, who in turn put additional pressure on Philip. Finally, many Norman lords were switching sides, and returning to Richard's camp. This was the state of affairs when Philip launched his 1198 campaign with an attack on the Vexin. He was pushed back before then having to deal with the Flemish invasion of Artois.

    On 27 September, Richard entered the Vexin, taking Courcelles-sur-Seine and Boury-en-Vexin before returning to Dangu. Philip, believing that Courcelles was still holding out, went to its relief. Discovering what was happening, Richard decided to attack the French king's forces, catching Philip by surprise. Philip's forces fled and attempted to reach the fortress of Gisors. Bunched together, the French knights and Philip attempted to cross the Epte River on a bridge that promptly collapsed under their weight, almost drowning Philip in the process. He was dragged out of the river and shut himself up in Gisors.

    Philip soon began a new offensive, launching raids into Normandy and again targeting Évreux. Richard countered Philip's offensive with a counterattack in the Vexin, while Mercadier led a raid on Abbeville. The upshot was that by the fall of 1198, Richard had regained almost all that had been lost in 1193. Philip, now in desperate circumstances, offered a truce so that discussions could begin towards a more permanent peace, with the offer that he would return all of the territories except for Gisors.

    In mid-January 1199, the two kings met for a final meeting, Richard, standing on the deck of a boat, Philip, standing on the banks of the Seine River. Shouting terms at each other, they could not reach agreement on the terms of a permanent truce, but did agree to further mediation, which resulted in a five year truce. The truce held and later that year, Richard was killed during a siege involving one of Richard's vassals.

    Conflict with King John 1200–1206
    Normandy campaigns of 1200–1204 and Anglo-French War (1202–1214)
    In May 1200, Philip signed the Treaty of Le Goulet with Richard's successor king John of England, as youngest son of Henry called the Lackland, now also Duke of Normandy. The treaty was meant to bring peace to Normandy by settling the issue of the boundaries of the much reduced duchy and the terms of John's vassalage for it and Anjou, Maine, and Touraine. John agreed to heavy terms, including the abandonment of all the English possessions in Berry and 20,000 marks of silver, but Philip in turn recognised John as king, formally abandoning Arthur I of Brittany, whom he had thitherto supported, and recognised John's suzerainty over the Duchy of Brittany. To seal the treaty, a marriage between Blanche of Castile, John's niece, and Louis the Lion, Philip's son, was contracted.

    This did not stop the war, however. John's mismanagement of Aquitaine saw that province erupt in rebellion later that year, which Philip secretly encouraged. To disguise his ambitions, he invited John to a conference at Andely, and then entertained him at Paris, and both times he committed to complying with the Treaty.Then in 1202, disaffected patrons petitioned the French king to summon John to answer their charges in his capacity as John's feudal lord, and, when the English king refused to appear, Philip again took up the claims of Arthur, to whom he betrothed his six-year-old daughter, Marie. John crossed over into Normandy and his forces soon captured Arthur, and in 1203, the young man disappeared, with most people believing that John had Arthur murdered.

    The outcry over Arthur's fate saw an increase in local opposition to John which Philip used to his advantage. He took the offensive and, apart from a five-month siege of Andely, he swept all before him. On the fall of Andely, John fled to England, and by the end of 1204, most of Normandy and the Angevin lands, including much of Aquitaine had fallen into Philip's hands.

    What Philip had gained through victory in war, he then sought to confirm by legal means. Philip, again acting as John's liege lord, summoned his vassal to appear before the Court of the Twelve Peers of France, to answer for the murder of Arthur of Brittany. John's request for safe conduct only saw Philip agree to allow him to come in peace, but that his return would only occur if it were allowed after the judgment of his peers. Not willing to risk his life on such a guarantee, he refused to appear, so Philip summarily dispossessed him of his French lands. Pushed by his barons, John eventually launched an invasion in 1206, disembarking with his army at La Rochelle during one of Philip's absences, but the campaign was a disaster. After backing out of a conference that he himself had demanded, John eventually bargained at Thouars for a two-year truce, the price of which was his agreement to the chief provisions of the judgment of the Court of Peers, including the loss of his patrimony.

    Alliances against Philip 1208–1213
    In 1208, Philip of Swabia, the successful candidate for becoming the next emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, was assassinated, meaning that the imperial crown was given to his rival, Otto IV, the nephew of King John. Otto, prior to his accession, had promised to help John to recover his lost European possessions, but circumstances prevented them from making good their claims. By 1212, both John and Otto were engaged in power struggles against Pope Innocent III, John over his refusal to accept the papal nomination for the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Otto over his attempt to strip Frederick II of his Sicilian crown. Philip decided to take advantage of this situation, firstly in Germany where he supported the rebellion of the German nobility in support of the young Frederick. John immediately threw his support behind Otto, and Philip now saw his chance to launch a successful invasion of England.

    In order to secure the cooperation of all his vassals in his plans for the invasion, Philip denounced John as an enemy of the Church, thereby justifying his attack against him as being solely for religious reasons. He summoned an assembly of French barons at Soissons, which was well attended with the exception of Ferdinand, Count of Flanders. He refused to attend, still angry over the loss of the towns of Aire and Saint-Omer which had been captured by Philip's son, Louis the Lion, and he would not participate in any campaign until they had been restored to him.

    In the meantime, Philip, eager to prove his loyalty to Rome and thus secure Papal support for his planned invasion, announced at Soissons his reconciliation with his estranged wife Ingeborg of Denmark which the Popes had been pushing. The Barons fully supported his plan, and they all gathered their forces and prepared to join with Philip at the agreed rendezvous. In all this, Philip remained in constant communication with Pandolfo, the Papal Legate, who was encouraging Philip to pursue his objective. Pandolfo however was also holding secret discussions with King John. Advising the English King of his precarious predicament, he persuaded John to abandon his opposition to Papal investiture and agreed to accept the Papal Legate's decision in any ecclesiastical disputes as final. In return, the Pope agreed to accept the Kingdom of England and the Lordship of Ireland as Papal fiefs, which John would rule as the Pope's vassal, and for which John would do homage to the Pope.

    No sooner had the treaty been ratified in May 1213 than Pandolfo announced to Philip that he would have to abandon his expedition against John, since to attack a faithful vassal of the Holy See would constitute a mortal sin. In vain did Philip argue that his plans had been drawn up with the consent of Rome, that his expedition was in support of papal authority which he only undertook on the understanding that he would gain a Plenary Indulgence, or that he had spent a fortune preparing for the expedition. The Papal Legate remained unmoved, but Pandolfo did suggest an alternative. The Count of Flanders had denied Philip's right to declare war on England while King John was still excommunicated, and that his disobedience needed to be punished. Philip eagerly accepted the advice, and quickly marched at the head of his troops into the territory of Flanders.

    War of Bouvines 1213–1214
    The French fleet, reportedly numbering some 1,700 ships, proceeded first to Gravelines and then to the port of Dam. Meanwhile the army marched by Cassel, Ypres and Bruges, before laying siege to Ghent. Hardly had the siege begun when Philip learned that the English fleet had captured a number of his ships at Dam, and that the rest were so closely blockaded in its harbor that it was impossible for them to escape. After having obtained 30,000 marks as a ransom for the hostages he had taken from the Flemish cities he had captured, Philip quickly retraced his steps in order to reach Dam. It took him two days, and he arrived in time to relieve the French garrison. But he discovered that he could not rescue his fleet, and in order to prevent it from falling into enemy hands, he ordered it to be burned before also commanding that the town of Dam be burned to the ground. Determined to make the Flemish pay for his retreat, in every district he passed through he ordered that all towns be razed and burned, and that the peasantry be either killed or sold as slaves.

    But the destruction of the French fleet had once again raised John's hopes, and so he began preparing for an invasion of France and a reconquest of his lost provinces. Initially his barons were unenthusiastic about the expedition, which delayed his departure, and so it was not until February 1214 that he was able to disembark at La Rochelle. John was to advance from the Loire, while his ally Otto IV made a simultaneous attack from Flanders, together with the Count of Flanders. Unfortunately, the three armies could not coordinate their efforts effectively. It was not until John, who had been disappointed in his hope for an easy victory after being driven from Roche-au-Moine and had retreated to his transports that the Imperial Army, with Otto at its head, assembled in the Low Countries.

    On 27 July 1214, the opposing armies suddenly discovered they were in close proximity to each other, on the banks of a little tributary of the River Lys, near the Bridge of Bouvines. Philip's army numbered some 15,000, while the allied forces possessed around 25,000 troops, and the armies clashed at the Battle of Bouvines. It was a tight battle; Philip was unhorsed by the Flemish pikemen in the heat of battle, and were it not for his plate mail armor in which he was encased, he would probably have been killed. When Otto was carried off the field by his wounded and terrified horse, and Ferdinand, Count of Flanders, severely wounded, was captured by the French, the Flemish and Imperial troops saw that the battle was lost, then turned and fled from the battlefield. The French troops began pursuing them but with night approaching, and with the prisoners they already had being too many and, more importantly, too valuable to risk in a pursuit, Philip ordered a recall before his troops had moved little more than a mile from the battlefield. Philip returned to Paris triumphant, marching his captive prisoners behind him in a long procession, as his grateful subjects came out to greet the victorious king. In the aftermath of the battle, Otto retreated to his castle of Harzburg and was soon overthrown as Holy Roman Emperor, and replaced by Frederick II. Count Ferdinand remained imprisoned following his defeat, while King John obtained a five-year truce, on very lenient terms given the circumstances.

    Philip's decisive victory was crucial in ordering Western European politics in both England and France. In the former, so weakened was the defeated King John of England that he soon needed to submit to his barons' demands and sign the Magna Carta, limiting the power of the crown and establishing the basis for common law. In the latter, the battle was instrumental in forming the strong central monarchy that would characterise France until the first French Revolution. It was also the first battle in the Middle Ages in which the full value of infantry was realised.

    Marital problems
    After Isabelle's early death in childbirth, in 1190, Philip decided to marry again. On 15 August 1193, he married Ingeborg (1175–1236), daughter of King Valdemar I of Denmark (ruled 1157–82). She was renamed Isambour, and Stephan of Dornik described her as "very kind, young of age but old of wisdom." For some unknown reason, Philip was repelled by her and he refused to allow her to be crowned Queen. Ingeborg protested at this treatment; his response was to confine her to a convent. He then asked Pope Celestine III for an annulment on the grounds of non-consummation. Philip had not reckoned with Isambour, however; she insisted that the marriage had been consummated, and that she was his wife and the rightful Queen of France. The Franco-Danish churchman William of Paris intervened on the side of Ingeborg, drawing up a genealogy of the Danish kings to disprove the alleged impediment of consanguinity.

    In the meantime Philip had sought a new bride. Initially agreement had been reached for him to marry Margaret of Geneva, daughter of William I, Count of Geneva, but the young bride's journey to Paris was interrupted by Thomas I of Savoy, who kidnapped Philip's intended new queen and married her instead, claiming that Philip was already bound in marriage. Philip finally achieved a third marriage, on 7 May 1196, to Agnes of Merania from Dalmatia (c. 1180 – 29 July in 1201). Their children were Marie (1198 – 15 October in 1224) and Philippe Hurepel (1200–1234), Count of Clermont and eventually, by marriage, Count of Boulogne.
    Pope Innocent III (ruled 1198–1216) declared Philip Augustus's marriage to Agnes of Merania null and void, as he was still married to Isambour. He ordered the King to part from Agnès; when he did not, the Pope placed France under an interdict in 1199. This continued until 7 September 1200. Due to pressure from the Pope and from Ingeborg's brother, King Valdemar II of Denmark (ruled 1202–41), Philip finally took Isambour back as his Queen in 1213.

    Last years
    Understandably, he turned a deaf ear when the Pope asked him to do something about the heretics in the Languedoc. When Pope Innocent III called for a crusade against the Albigensians or Cathars, in 1208, Philip did nothing to support it, but neither did he stop his nobles from joining. The war against the Cathars did not end until 1244, when finally their last strongholds were captured. The fruits of it, namely the submission of the south of France to the crown, were to be reaped by Philip's son, Louis VIII, and grandson, Louis IX, the successive kings of France. From 1216 to 1222 Philip also arbitrated in the War of Succession in Champagne and finally helped the military efforts of Eudes III, Duke of Burgundy and Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor to bring it to an end.

    Philip II Augustus would play a significant role in one of the greatest centuries of innovation in construction and in education. With Paris as his capital, he had the main thoroughfares paved, built a central market, Les Halles, continued the construction begun in 1163 of Notre-Dame de Paris, constructed the Louvre as a fortress and gave a charter to the University of Paris in 1200. Under his guidance, Paris became the first city of teachers the medieval world had known. In 1224, the French poet Henry d'Andeli wrote of the great wine tasting competition that Philip II Augustus commissioned The Battle of the Wines.

    Philip II Augustus died 14 July 1223 at Mantes-la-Jolie, and was interred in Saint Denis Basilica. Philip's son by Isabelle de Hainaut, Louis VIII, was his successor.

    Portrayal in fiction
    King Philip appears in William Shakespeare's historical play King John.
    King Philip also appears in James Goldman's 1966 Broadway Production of The Lion in Winter and was portrayed by Christopher Walken, as well as the 1968 Academy Award winning film of the same name, with Timothy Dalton playing the role. In the 2003 remake starring Patrick Stewart and Glenn Close, he is played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers.
    King Philip also appears in the Ridley Scott's 2010 movie Robin Hood.
    King Philip appears in Sharon Kay Penman's novels The Devil's Brood and Lionheart.1

Family: Isabelle de Hainaut Queen of France b. 5 Apr 1170, d. 11 Mar 1190

  • Last Edited: 1 Nov 2014

Isabelle de Hainaut Queen of France1,2

F, #8327, b. 5 April 1170, d. 11 March 1190

Isabella of Hainault
Queen consort of France

The ancestry chart of Archibald MacFarlane (ID # 34) is presented because he unites the ancestry of both his parents. If an individual appears more than once in Archibald's chart this indicates descent from the individual in more than one line. By clicking on the each instance (i.e. Ancestry of Archibald MacFarlane (#5)) each line of descent will be shown.

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  • Birth*: Isabelle de Hainaut Queen of France was born on 5 April 1170 in Valenciennes, France.1,2
  • Marriage*: She married Phillip II (?) King of France, son of Louis VII (?) King of France and Adele de Champagne Queen of France, on 28 April 1180 in France.5
  • Death*: Isabelle de Hainaut Queen of France died on 11 March 1190 in Paris, France, at age 19.2
  • Biography*: Isabella of Hainaut (Valenciennes, 5 April 1170 – 15 March 1190, Paris) was Queen of France as the first wife of King Philip II.

    Early life
    Isabella was born in Valenciennes on 5 April 1170, the daughter of Baldwin V, Count of Hainaut, and Margaret I, Countess of Flanders. At the age of one, her father had her betrothed to Henry, the future Count of Champagne. He was the nephew of Adèle of Champagne, who was Queen of France. In 1179, both their fathers swore that they would proceed with the marriage, but her father later agreed to her marrying Philip II of France.

    Queen of France
    She married King Philip on 28 April 1180 at Bapaume and brought as her dowry the county of Artois. The marriage was arranged by her maternal uncle Philip, Count of Flanders, who was advisor to the King.

    Isabella was crowned Queen of France at Saint Denis on 28 May 1180. As Baldwin V rightly claimed to be a descendant of Charlemagne, the chroniclers of the time saw in this marriage a union of the Carolingian and Capetian dynasties.

    The wedding did not please the queen mother, since it had meant the rejection of her nephew and the lessening of influence for her kinsmen. Though Isabella received extravagant praise from certain annalists, she failed to win Philip's affections due to her inability to provide him with an heir, though she was only 14 years old at the time. Meanwhile, King Philip in 1184, was waging war against Flanders, and angered at seeing his wife's father, Baldwin, support his enemies, he called a council at Sens for the purpose of repudiating her. According to Gislebert of Mons, Isabella then appeared barefooted and dressed as a penitent in the town's churches and thus gained the sympathy of the people. Her appeals angered them so much that they went to the palace and started shouting loud enough to be heard inside.

    Robert, the king's uncle, successfully interposed and no repudiation followed as repudiating her would also have meant the loss of Artois to the French crown.

    Finally, on 5 September 1187, she gave birth to the needed heir, the future King Louis VIII of France.

    Death
    Her second pregnancy was extremely difficult; on 14 March 1190, Isabella gave birth to twin boys named Robert and Philip. Due to complications in childbirth, Isabella died the next day, and was buried in the cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. She was not quite 20 years old and was mourned for greatly in the capital, since she had been a popular queen.

    The twins lived only four days, both having died on 18 March 1190. Her son Louis succeeded her as Count of Artois. Isabella's dowry of Artois eventually returned to the French Crown following the death of King Philip, when her son Louis became king.

    Appearance
    "Queen Isabelle, she of noble form and lovely eyes." In 1858, Isabelle's body was exhumed and measured at the cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. At 90 cm from pelvis to feet, she would have stood about 5'8"-5'9", (1.72-1.75 m) tall. It was during this exhumation that a silver seal (now in the British Museum ) was discovered in the queen's coffin. Little used during her life time, it is one of the few medieval seals with a royal connection to survive from the Middle Ages.2

Family: Phillip II (?) King of France b. 21 Aug 1165, d. 14 Jul 1223

  • Last Edited: 2 Aug 2015

Louis VII (?) King of France1

M, #8328, b. circa 1121, d. 18 September 1180

The ancestry chart of Archibald MacFarlane (ID # 34) is presented because he unites the ancestry of both his parents. If an individual appears more than once in Archibald's chart this indicates descent from the individual in more than one line. By clicking on the each instance (i.e. Ancestry of Archibald MacFarlane (#5)) each line of descent will be shown.

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  • Birth*: Louis VII (?) King of France was born circa 1121 in France.3
  • Marriage*: He married Constance of Castile Queen of France, daughter of Alfonso VII (?) King of Castile and Berengaria de Barcelona Queen consort of Castile, circa 1154 in France.4
  • Marriage*: Louis VII (?) King of France married Adele de Champagne Queen of France, daughter of Theobald the Great (?) Count of Champagne and Matilda (?) of Carinthia, on 13 November 1160 in France.3
  • Death*: Louis VII (?) King of France died on 18 September 1180 in Paris, France.2
  • Burial*: He was buried after 18 September 1180 in Abbey Barbeaux, Melun, Ile-de-France, France.2
  • Biography*: Louis VII (called the Younger or the Young) (French: Louis le Jeune) (1120 – 18 September 1180) was King of the Franks, the son and successor of Louis VI (hence his nickname). He ruled from 1137 until his death. He was a member of the House of Capet. His reign was dominated by feudal struggles (in particular with the Angevin family), and saw the beginning of the long rivalry between France and England. It also saw the beginning of construction on Notre-Dame de Paris, the founding of the University of Paris and the disastrous Second Crusade.

    Early life
    Louis VII was born in 1120 in Paris, the second son of Louis VI of France and Adelaide of Maurienne. As a younger son, Louis VII had been raised to follow the ecclesiastical path. He unexpectedly became the heir to the throne of France after the accidental death of his older brother, Philip, in 1131. A well-learned and exceptionally devout man, Louis VII was better suited for life as a priest than as a monarch.

    In his youth, he spent much time in Saint-Denis, where he built a friendship with the Abbot Suger that served him well in his early years as king.

    Early reign
    In the same year he was crowned King of France, Louis VII was married on 25 July 1137 to Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine, heiress of William X of Aquitaine. The pairing of the monkish Louis VII and the high-spirited Eleanor was doomed to failure; she once reportedly declared that she had thought to marry a king, only to find she'd married a monk. They had only two daughters, Marie and Alix.

    In the first part of Louis VII's reign he was vigorous and zealous of his prerogatives, but after his Crusade his piety limited his ability to become an effective statesman. His accession was marked by no disturbances, save the uprisings of the burgesses of Orléans and of Poitiers, who wished to organize communes. But soon he came into violent conflict with Pope Innocent II. The archbishopric of Bourges became vacant, and the King supported as candidate the chancellor Cadurc, against the Pope's nominee Pierre de la Chatre, swearing upon relics that so long as he lived Pierre should never enter Bourges. This brought the interdict upon the King's lands.

    Louis VII then became involved in a war with Theobald II of Champagne, by permitting Raoul I of Vermandois and seneschal of France, to repudiate his wife, Theobald II's niece, and to marry Petronilla of Aquitaine, sister of the queen of France. Champagne also sided with the Pope in the dispute over Bourges. The war lasted two years (1142–1144) and ended with the occupation of Champagne by the royal army. Louis VII was personally involved in the assault and burning of the town of Vitry-le-François. More than a thousand people who had sought refuge in the church died in the flames. Overcome with guilt, and humiliated by ecclesiastical contempt, Louis admitted defeat, removing his armies from Champagne and returning them to Theobald, accepting Pierre de la Chatre, and shunning Raoul and Petronilla. Desiring to atone for his sins, he then declared on Christmas Day 1145 at Bourges his intention of going on a crusade. Bernard of Clairvaux assured its popularity by his preaching at Vezelay (Easter 1146).

    Meanwhile in 1144, Geoffrey the Handsome, Count of Anjou, completed his conquest of Normandy. In exchange for being recognised as Duke of Normandy by Louis, Geoffrey surrendered half of the Vexin—a region considered vital to Norman security—to Louis. Considered a clever move by Louis at the time, it would later prove yet another step towards Angevin power.

    n June 1147, in fulfillment of his vow to go on crusade, Louis VII and his queen, Eleanor, set out from the Basilica of St Denis, first stopping in Metz, Lorraine, on the overland route to Syria. Soon they arrived to the Kingdom of Hungary where they were welcomed by the king Géza II of Hungary, who was already waiting with the German emperor. Due to his good relationships with Louis VII, Géza II asked the French king to be his son Stephen's baptism godfather. After receiving provisions from the Hungarian king, the armies continued the march to the East (the good relationships between both kingdoms continued flourishing, and decades later Louis's daughter Margaret was taken as wife by Géza's son Béla III of Hungary). Just beyond Laodicea the French army was ambushed by Turks. The French were bombarded by arrows and heavy stones, the Turks swarmed down from the mountains and the massacre began. The historian Odo of Deuil reported:
    During the fighting the King Louis lost his small and famous royal guard, but he remained in good heart and nimbly and courageously scaled the side of the mountain by gripping the tree roots … The enemy climbed after him, hoping to capture him, and the enemy in the distance continued to fire arrows at him. But God willed that his cuirass should protect him from the arrows, and to prevent himself from being captured he defended the crag with his bloody sword, cutting off many heads and hands.

    Louis VII and his army finally reached the Holy Land in 1148. His queen Eleanor supported her uncle, Raymond of Antioch, and prevailed upon Louis to help Antioch against Aleppo. But Louis VII's interest lay in Jerusalem, and so he slipped out of Antioch in secret. He united with Conrad III of Germany and King Baldwin III of Jerusalem to lay siege to Damascus; this ended in disaster and the project was abandoned. Louis VII decided to leave the Holy Land, despite the protests of Eleanor, who still wanted to help her doomed uncle Raymond of Antioch. Louis VII and the French army returned home in 1149.

    A shift in the status quo
    The expedition came to a great cost to the royal treasury and military. It also precipitated a conflict with Eleanor, leading to the annulment of their marriage at the council of Beaugency (March 1152). The pretext of kinship was the basis for annulment; in fact, it owed more to the state of hostility between the two, and the decreasing odds that their marriage would produce a male heir to the throne of France. Eleanor subsequently married Henry, Count of Anjou, the future Henry II of England, in the following May giving him the duchy of Aquitaine, three daughters, and five sons. Louis VII led an ineffective war against Henry for having married without the authorisation of his suzerain; the result was a humiliation for the enemies of Henry and Eleanor, who saw their troops routed, their lands ravaged, and their property stolen. Louis reacted by coming down with a fever, and returned to the Ile-de France.

    In 1154 Louis VII married Constance of Castile, daughter of Alfonso VII of Castile. She, too, failed to give him a son and heir, bearing only two daughters, Marguerite of France, and Alys.

    Louis having produced no sons by 1157, Henry II of England began to believe that he might never do so, and that consequently the succession of France would be left in question. Determined to secure a claim for his family, he sent the Chancellor, Thomas Becket, to press for a marriage between Princess Marguerite and Henry's heir, also called Henry (later Henry the Young King). Louis, surprisingly, agreed to this proposal, and by the Treaty of Gisors (1158) betrothed the young pair, giving as a dowry the Norman Vexin and Gisors.

    Constance died in childbirth on 4 October 1160, and five weeks later Louis VII married Adele of Champagne. Henry II, to counterbalance the advantage this would give the King of France, had the marriage of their children (Henry "the Young King" and Marguerite) celebrated at once. Louis understood the danger of the growing Angevin power; however, through indecision and lack of fiscal and military resources compared to Henry II's, he failed to oppose Angevin hegemony effectively. One of his few successes, in 1159, was his trip to Toulouse to aid Raymond V, Count of Toulouse who had been attacked by Henry II: after he entered into the city with a small escort, claiming to be visiting the Countess his sister, Henry declared that he could not attack the city whilst his liege lord was inside, and went home.

    Diplomacy
    At the same time the emperor Frederick I (1152–1190) in the east was making good the imperial claims on Arles. When the schism broke out, Louis VII took the part of the Pope Alexander III, the enemy of Frederick I, and after two comical failures of Frederick I to meet Louis VII at Saint Jean de Losne (on 29 August and 22 September 1162), Louis VII definitely gave himself up to the cause of Alexander III, who lived at Sens from 1163 to 1165. Alexander III gave the King, in return for his loyal support, the golden rose.

    More importantly for French – and English – history would be his support for Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, whom he tried to reconcile with Henry II. Louis sided with Becket as much to damage Henry as out of piousness – yet even he grew irritated with the stubbornness of the archbishop, asking when Becket refused Henry's conciliations, "Do you wish to be more than a Saint?"

    He also supported Henry's rebellious sons, and encouraged Plantagenet disunity by making Henry's sons, rather than Henry himself, the feudal overlords of the Angevin territories in France; but the rivalry amongst Henry's sons and Louis's own indecisiveness broke up the coalition (1173–1174) between them. Finally, in 1177, the Pope intervened to bring the two Kings to terms at Vitry-le-François.

    In 1165, Louis' third wife bore him a son and heir, Philip II Augustus. Louis had him crowned at Reims in 1179, in the Capetian tradition (Philip would in fact be the last King so crowned). Already stricken with paralysis, King Louis VII himself could not be present at the ceremony. He died on 18 September 1180 at the Abbey at Saint-Pont, Allier and was in the Cistercian Abbey of Barbeaux and was later moved to Saint-Denis in 1817.

    Marriages and children
    Louis married three times. By Eleanor of Aquitaine, he had:
    Marie (1145 – March 11, 1198), married Henry I of Champagne
    Alix (1151–1197/1198), married Theobald V of Blois
    By Constance of Castile:
    Margaret (1158 – August/September 1197), married (1) Henry the Young King; (2)\ King Béla III of Hungary
    Alys (4 October 1160 – ca. 1220), engaged to Richard I of England; she married William III Talvas, Count of Ponthieu
    By Adele of Champagne:
    Philip II Augustus (22 August 1165 – 1223)
    Agnes (1171 – after 1204), who was betrothed to Alexius II Comnenus (1180–1183) but married Andronicus I Comnenus (1183–1185); Theodore Branas (1204)

    Legacy
    The reign of Louis VII was, from the point of view of royal territory and military power, a difficult and unfortunate one. Yet the royal authority made progress in the parts of France distant from the royal domains: more direct and more frequent connection was made with distant vassals, a result largely due to the alliance of the clergy with the crown. Louis VII thus reaped the reward for services rendered the church during the least successful portion of his reign. His greater accomplishments lie in the development of agriculture, population, commerce, the building of stone fortresses, as well as an intellectual renaissance. Considering the significant disparity of political leverage and financial resources between Louis VII and his Angevin rival, not to mention Henry II's superior military skills, Louis VII should be credited with preserving the Capetian dynasty.

    Fictional portrayals

    ouis is a character in Jean Anouilh's play Becket. In the 1964 film adaptation he was portrayed by John Gielgud, who was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He was also portrayed by Charles Kay in the 1978 BBC TV drama series The Devil's Crown. He has a role in Sharon Kay Penman's novel When Christ and His Saints Slept. The early part of Nora Lofts' biography of Eleanor of Aquitane deals considerably with Louis VII, seen through Eleanor's eyes and giving her side in their problematic relationship.5

Family 1: Constance of Castile Queen of France b. c 1140, d. 4 Oct 1160

Family 2: Adele de Champagne Queen of France b. 1140, d. 4 Jun 1206

  • Last Edited: 19 Dec 2015

Adele de Champagne Queen of France1

F, #8329, b. 1140, d. 4 June 1206

Adela of Champagne
Queen consort of France

Adela with Louis VII and Philip II

The ancestry chart of Archibald MacFarlane (ID # 34) is presented because he unites the ancestry of both his parents. If an individual appears more than once in Archibald's chart this indicates descent from the individual in more than one line. By clicking on the each instance (i.e. Ancestry of Archibald MacFarlane (#5)) each line of descent will be shown.

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  • Birth*: Adele de Champagne Queen of France was born in 1140 in Blois, Loir-et-Cher, Centre, France.5,6
  • Marriage*: She married Louis VII (?) King of France, son of Louis VI Capet King of France and Adelaide (?) di Savoia, on 13 November 1160 in France.7
  • Death*: Adele de Champagne Queen of France died on 4 June 1206 in Paris, France.5
  • Biography*: Adela of Champagne (French: Adèle; c. 1140 – 4 June 1206), also known as Adelaide and Alix, was Queen of France as the third wife of Louis VII. She was the daughter of Theobald II, Count of Champagne, and Matilda of Carinthia, and was named after her grandmother, Adela of Normandy.

    Louis and Adela married on 18 October 1160, five weeks after his previous wife, Constance of Castile, died in childbirth. Queen Adèle was the mother of Louis VII's only son, Philip II, and of the Byzantine empress Agnes.

    Adela was active in the political life of the kingdom, along with her brothers Henry I, Theobald V, and Guillaume aux Blanches Mains. Henry and Theobald were married to daughters of Louis VII and Eleanor of Aquitaine. Adela and her brothers felt their position threatened when the heiress of Artois, Isabella of Hainault, married Adèle's son Philip. Adèle formed an alliance with Hugh III, Duke of Burgundy, and Philip of Flanders, and even tried to interest Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. War broke out in 1181, and relations became so bad that Philip attempted to divorce Isabella in 1184.

    Although her power decreased after the accession of Philip in 1180, Queen Adela acted as regent in 1190 while Philip was away on the Third Crusade. She returned to the shadows when he returned in 1192 but participated in the founding of many abbeys.

    Queen Adela died on 4 June 1206 in Paris, Île-de-France, France, and was buried in the church of Pontigny Abbey near Auxerre.6

Family: Louis VII (?) King of France b. c 1121, d. 18 Sep 1180

  • Last Edited: 21 Apr 2017

Louis VI Capet King of France1

M, #8330, b. between 1077 and 1078, d. 1 August 1137

The ancestry chart of Archibald MacFarlane (ID # 34) is presented because he unites the ancestry of both his parents. If an individual appears more than once in Archibald's chart this indicates descent from the individual in more than one line. By clicking on the each instance (i.e. Ancestry of Archibald MacFarlane (#5)) each line of descent will be shown.

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  • Birth*: Louis VI Capet King of France was born between 1077 and 1078 in Paris, France.3
  • Marriage*: He married Adelaide (?) di Savoia, daughter of Humbert II (?) Count of Savoy and Gisela de Bourgogne-Comte, in 1115.3
  • Death*: Louis VI Capet King of France died on 1 August 1137 in Chateau Bethizy, Paris, France.2
  • Burial*: He was buried on 3 August 1137 in Saint-Denis, Ile-de-France, France.2
  • Biography*: Louis VI (1 December 1081 – 1 August 1137), called the Fat (French: le Gros), was King of the Franks from 1108 until his death (1137). Chronicles called him "roi de Saint-Denis".

    Reign

    The crowning of Louis VI in Orléans.
    Louis was the Great-great grandson of Hugh Capet. The first member of the House of Capet to make a lasting contribution to the centralising institutions of royal power, Louis was born in Paris, the son of Philip I and his first wife, Bertha of Holland. Almost all of his twenty-nine-year reign was spent fighting either the "robber barons" who plagued Paris or the Norman kings of England for their continental possession of Normandy. Nonetheless, Louis VI managed to reinforce his power considerably and became one of the first strong kings of France since the division of the Carolingian Empire. His biography by his constant advisor Abbot Suger of Saint Denis renders him a fully rounded character to the historian, unlike most of his predecessors.

    In his youth, Louis fought the Duke of Normandy, Robert Curthose, and the lords of the royal demesne, the Île de France. He became close to Suger, who became his adviser. He succeeded his father on Philip's death on 29 July 1108. Louis's half-brother prevented him from reaching Rheims and so he was crowned on 3 August in the cathedral of Orléans by Daimbert, Archbishop of Sens. The archbishop of Reims, Ralph the Green, sent envoys to challenge the validity of the coronation and anointing, but to no avail.

    On Palm Sunday 1115, Louis was present in Amiens to support the bishop and inhabitants of the city in their conflict with Enguerrand I of Coucy, one of his vassals, who refused to recognise the granting of a charter of communal privileges. Louis came with an army to help the citizens to besiege Castillon (the fortress dominating the city, from which Enguerrand was making punitive expeditions). At the siege, the king took an arrow to his hauberk, but the castle, considered impregnable, fell after two years.

    Just before his death in 1137, William X, Duke of Aquitaine appointed Louis guardian of his daughter and heir, the young Eleanor of Aquitaine, and expressed his wish for her to marry Louis' son. The prospect of adding the Aquitaine to his son's domains made him so happy he could hardly speak.

    Louis VI died on 1 August 1137, at the castle of Béthisy-Saint-Pierre, nearby Senlis and Compiègne, of dysentery. He was interred in Saint Denis Basilica. He was succeeded on the throne by his son Louis VII, called "the Younger," who had originally wanted to be a monk.

    Marriages and children
    He married in 1104: 1) Lucienne de Rochefort — the marriage was annulled on 23 May 1107 at the Council of Troyes by Pope Paschal II.
    He married in 1115: 2) Adélaide de Maurienne (1092–1154)
    Their children:
    Philip (1116 – 13 October 1131), King of France (1129–31), not to be confused with his brother of the same name; died from a fall from a horse.
    Louis VII (1120 – 18 September 1180), King of France
    Henry (1121–75), archbishop of Reims
    Hugues (born ca 1122)
    Robert (ca 1123 – 11 October 1188), count of Dreux
    Constance (ca 1124 – 16 August 1176), married first Eustace IV, count of Boulogne and then Raymond V of Toulouse.
    Philip (1125–61), bishop of Paris. not to be confused with his elder brother.
    Peter of France (ca 1125–83), married Elizabeth, lady of Courtenay
    With Marie de Breuillet, daughter of Renaud de Breuillet de Dourdan, Louis VI was the father of a daughter:
    Isabelle (ca 1105 – before 1175), married (ca 1119) Guillaume I of Chaumont.4

Family: Adelaide (?) di Savoia b. c 1090

  • Last Edited: 11 Jan 2016

Adelaide (?) di Savoia1

F, #8331, b. circa 1090

Adelaide of Maurienne
Queen consort of the Franks

The ancestry chart of Archibald MacFarlane (ID # 34) is presented because he unites the ancestry of both his parents. If an individual appears more than once in Archibald's chart this indicates descent from the individual in more than one line. By clicking on the each instance (i.e. Ancestry of Archibald MacFarlane (#5)) each line of descent will be shown.

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  • Birth*: Adelaide (?) di Savoia was born circa 1090 in Savoy, Italy*.1
  • Marriage*: She married Louis VI Capet King of France, son of Phillip I (?) King of France and Berthe de Hollande, in 1115.3
  • Biography*: Adelaide of Savoy (or Adelaide of Maurienne) (Italian: Adelaide di Savoia or Adelasia di Moriana, French: Adélaïde or Adèle de Maurienne) (1092 – 18 November 1154) was the second spouse but first Queen consort of Louis VI of France.

    Biography
    Adelaide was the daughter of Humbert II of Savoy and Gisela of Burgundy, and niece of Pope Callixtus II, who once visited her court in France. Her father died in 1103, and her mother married Renier I of Montferrat as a second husband.

    She became the second wife of Louis VI of France (1081–1137), whom she married on 3 August 1115. They had eight children, the second of whom became Louis VII of France. Adelaide was one of the most politically active of all France's medieval queens consort. Her name appears on 45 royal charters from the reign of Louis VI. During her tenure as queen, royal charters were dated with both her regnal year and that of the king. Among many other religious benefactions, she and Louis founded the monastery of St Peter's (Ste Pierre) at Montmartre, in the northern suburbs of Paris. She was reputed to be "ugly," but attentive and pious.

    Children
    She and Louis had seven sons and one daughter:
    Philip of France (1116–1131)
    Louis VII (1120–18 November 1180), King of France
    Henry (1121–1175), Archbishop of Reims
    Hugues (b. c. 1122)
    Robert (c. 1123–11 October 1188), Count of Dreux
    Constance (c. 1124–16 August 1176), married first Eustace IV, Count of Boulogne and then Raymond V of Toulouse.
    Philip (1125–1161), Bishop of Paris. not to be confused with his elder brother.
    Peter (c. 1125–1183), married Elizabeth, Lady of Courtenay
    Queen dowager[edit source | editbeta]

    After Louis VI's death, Adélaide did not immediately retire to conventual life, as did most widowed queens of the time. Instead she married Matthieu I of Montmorency, with whom she had one child. She remained active in the French court and in religious activities.

    Adélaide is one of two queens in a legend related by William Dugdale. As the story goes, Queen Adélaide of France became enamoured of a young knight, William d'Albini, at a joust. But he was already engaged to Adeliza of Louvain and refused to become her lover. The jealous Adélaide lured him into the clutches of a hungry lion, but William ripped out the beast's tongue with his bare hands and thus killed it. This story is almost without a doubt apocryphal.

    In 1153 she retired to the abbey of Montmartre, which she had founded with Louis VII. She died there on 18 November 1154. She was buried in the cemetery of the Church of St. Pierre at Montmarte, but her tomb was destroyed during the Revolution.4

Family: Louis VI Capet King of France b. bt 1077 - 1078, d. 1 Aug 1137

  • Last Edited: 17 Apr 2017

Phillip I (?) King of France1

M, #8332, b. 23 May 1052, d. 29 July 1108

The ancestry chart of Archibald MacFarlane (ID # 34) is presented because he unites the ancestry of both his parents. If an individual appears more than once in Archibald's chart this indicates descent from the individual in more than one line. By clicking on the each instance (i.e. Ancestry of Archibald MacFarlane (#5)) each line of descent will be shown.

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  • Name Variation: Phillip I (?) King of France was also known as Philippe I (?) Roi de France.3
  • Birth*: He was born on 23 May 1052 in France.3,1
  • Marriage*: He married Berthe de Hollande, daughter of Florent I (?) Count of Holland & West Friesland and Gertrude (?) of Saxony, circa 1077.3
  • Divorce: Phillip I (?) King of France and Berthe de Hollande were divorced in 1091 in France.4
  • Death*: Phillip I (?) King of France died on 29 July 1108 in France at age 56.1
  • Biography*: Philip I (23 May 1052 – 29 July 1108), called the Amorous, was King of the Franks from 1060 to his death. His reign, like that of most of the early Capetians, was extraordinarily long for the time. The monarchy began a modest recovery from the low it reached in the reign of his father and he added to the royal demesne the Vexin and Bourges.

    Philip was the son of Henry I and Anne of Kiev. Unusual at the time for Western Europe, his name was of Greek origin, being bestowed upon him by his mother. Although he was crowned king at the age of seven, until age fourteen (1066) his mother acted as regent, the first queen of France ever to do so. Baldwin V of Flanders also acted as co-regent.

    Following the death of Baldwin VI of Flanders, Robert the Frisian seized Flanders. Baldwin's wife, Richilda requested aid from Philip, who defeated Robert at the battle of Cassel in 1071.

    Philip first married Bertha, daughter of Floris I, Count of Holland, in 1072. Although the marriage produced the necessary heir, Philip fell in love with Bertrade de Montfort, the wife of Count Fulk IV of Anjou. He repudiated Bertha (claiming she was too fat) and married Bertrade on 15 May 1092. In 1094, he was excommunicated by Hugh, Archbishop of Lyon, for the first time; after a long silence, Pope Urban II repeated the excommunication at the Council of Clermont in November 1095. Several times the ban was lifted as Philip promised to part with Bertrade, but he always returned to her, and after 1104, the ban was not repeated. In France, the king was opposed by Bishop Ivo of Chartres, a famous jurist.

    Philip appointed Alberic first Constable of France in 1060. A great part of his reign, like his father's, was spent putting down revolts by his power-hungry vassals. In 1077, he made peace with William the Conqueror, who gave up attempting the conquest of Brittany. In 1082, Philip I expanded his demesne with the annexation of the Vexin. Then in 1100, he took control of Bourges.

    It was at the aforementioned Council of Clermont that the First Crusade was launched. Philip at first did not personally support it because of his conflict with Urban II. Philip's brother Hugh of Vermandois, however, was a major participant.

    “…Philip died in the castle of Melun and was buried per request at the monastery of Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire – and not in St Denis among his forefathers. He was succeeded by his son, Louis VI, whose succession was, however, not uncontested. According to Abbot Suger:
    ”… King Philip daily grew feebler. For after he had abducted the Countess of Anjou, he could achieve nothing worthy of the royal dignity; consumed by desire for the lady he had seized, he gave himself up entirely to the satisfaction of his passion. So he lost interest in the affairs of state and, relaxing too much, took no care for his body, well-made and handsome though it was. The only thing that maintained the strength of the state was the fear and love felt for his son and successor. When he was almost sixty, he ceased to be king, breathing his last breath at the castle of Melun-sur-Seine, in the presence of the [future king] Louis... They carried the body in a great procession to the noble monastery of St-Benoît-sur-Loire, where King Philip wished to be buried; there are those who say they heard from his own mouth that he deliberately chose not to be buried among his royal ancestors in the church of St. Denis because he had not treated that church as well as they had, and because among so many noble kings his own tomb would not have counted for much.”

    Issue
    Philip's children with Bertha were:
    Constance, married Hugh I of Champagne before 1097 and then, after her divorce, to Bohemund I of Antioch in 1106
    Louis VI (1 December 1081 – 1 August 1137), King of the Franks
    Henry (b. 1083) (died young)
    Odo (1087–1096)
    Philip's children with Bertrade were:
    Philip, Count of Mantes (living 1123)
    Fleury, Seigneur of Nangis (1093 – July 1119)[7]
    Cecile of France, married Tancred, Prince of Galilee; married secondly Pons of Tripoli.1

Family: Berthe de Hollande b. c 1050, d. 1093

  • Last Edited: 12 Jan 2016

Citations

  1. [S746] Wikipedia, online http://Wikipedia.com, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_I_of_France
  2. [S742] The Peerage, online thepeerage.com, http://www.thepeerage.com/p10310.htm#i103094
  3. [S742] The Peerage, online thepeerage.com, http://www.thepeerage.com/p10310.htm#i103092
  4. [S742] The Peerage, online thepeerage.com, http://www.thepeerage.com/p10310.htm#i103095

Berthe de Hollande1

F, #8333, b. circa 1050, d. 1093

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertha_of_Holland

The ancestry chart of Archibald MacFarlane (ID # 34) is presented because he unites the ancestry of both his parents. If an individual appears more than once in Archibald's chart this indicates descent from the individual in more than one line. By clicking on the each instance (i.e. Ancestry of Archibald MacFarlane (#5)) each line of descent will be shown.

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  • Birth*: Berthe de Hollande was born circa 1050 in Holland.1
  • Marriage*: She married Phillip I (?) King of France, son of Henri I (?) King of the Franks and Anne (?) of Kiev, Queen Consort of France, circa 1077.1
  • Divorce*: Berthe de Hollande and Phillip I (?) King of France were divorced in 1091 in France.2
  • Death*: Berthe de Hollande died in 1093.2
  • Biography*: Bertha of Holland (c. 1055–1093), also known as Berthe or Bertha of Frisia and erroneously as Matilda or Bertrada, was queen consort of the Franks from 1072 until 1092, as the first wife of King Philip I. Bertha's marriage to the king in 1072 was a result of peace negotiations between him and her stepfather, Count Robert the Frisian of Flanders. After nine years of childlessness, the royal couple had three children, including Philip's successor, Louis the Fat. Philip, however, grew tired of his wife by 1090, and repudiated her in 1092 in order to marry the already married Bertrada of Montfort. That marriage was a scandal since both Philip and Bertrada were already married to other people, at least until Queen Bertha died the next year.

    Early life
    Bertha was the daughter of Count Floris I of Holland and his wife, Gertrude of Saxony. She is erroneously referred to as Matilda (Machtilda) by Chronologia Johannes de Beke. Bertha had six siblings and both of her parents came from large families. Her father ruled a territory vaguely described as "Friesland west of the Vlie", which is where Bertha spent her childhood. Count Floris I was assassinated in 1061, and two years later her mother remarried to Robert of Flanders. Robert, now known as Robert the Frisian, became guardian of Bertha and her six siblings. In 1070, Robert the Frisian became involved in a war with King Philip I of France over succession to the County of Flanders. Within two years, Robert and Philip concluded a peace treaty which was to be sealed by a marriage; Robert's own daughters were too young, but their half-sister Bertha was just the right age. Robert thus agreed to the marriage of his stepdaughter to King Philip. Bertha married Philip, thus becoming queen of the Franks, probably in 1072.

    Queenship
    Bertha was, at the time, the lowest ranking woman to marry a French king; no suitable princess could be found, since they were all too closely related to Philip for the marriage to any of them to be seen as perfectly valid by the Church. Bertha had no kings among her traceable ancestors and lacked even tenuous links with the Carolings that her predecessors could claim. Consequently, contemporary chroniclers did not even try to present her lineage as more exalted than that of a count's daughter. Nevertheless, the shortage of royal candidates made Bertha a suitable choice. The regal title she gained by this marriage was prestigious, but had little meaning, as she was confined to her husband's small royal domain that covered little more than areas around Paris and Orléans.

    Little is known about Bertha's queenship. She co-signed only three donation charters. However, she plays a prominent role in the hagiography titled Vita Arnulfi. The hagiography describes how she used her regal power (vi regia) to expel Abbot Gerard of Saint-Médard and reinstate the former abbot, Pontius, who had been removed due to his mismanagement of the abbey. Saint Arnulf of Soissons warned her that doing so would incur the wrath of God and lead to her being driven out of the kingdom into exile, where she would die despised and miserable. The queen furiously refused to listen to him. Although all the extant versions of Vita Arnulfi refer to the queen as Bertrada, it is clear that the queen mentioned in the hagiography is Bertha of Holland, given that the events mentioned in it took place while Bertha was queen and more than a decade before she was replaced as such by Bertrada. The hagiography, however, was written after Bertha died and during Bertrada's queenship, which might explain the name confusion.

    Childlessness
    For nine years, King Philip and Queen Bertha were troubled by their childlessness and especially by the lack of male children, which was not unusual among the early male members of the House of Capet. Things suddenly took a different course, however, when the Queen had three children in quick succession, starting with a son named Louis in 1081. The birth of the long-awaited heir apparent had such a great impact that a story of a miracle developed around it. Reportedly, the couple's fertility was only restored thanks to the prayers of a hermit, Saint Arnulf of Soissons. Arnulf informed Queen Bertha that she was expecting a son and that it would be appropriate to give him the Carolingian name of Louis. A daughter named Constance soon followed. Bertha gave birth to one more son, named Henry, but he appears to have died in infancy or childhood.

    Repudiation
    After the birth of three children, the marriage began breaking apart. The King became tired of his wife but the reasons are unclear. Contemporary chroniclers give different explanations. According to the English historian William of Malmesbury, Philip complained that Bertha was "too fat", though he was himself becoming too obese to ride a horse. In 1092, Philip announced his decision to divorce "the noble and virtuous daughter of Florent count of Holland and stepdaughter of Robert the Frisian" and marry the already married Bertrada of Montfort, the wife of Count Fulk IV of Anjou. The repudiated queen withdrew to the fortress of Montreuil-sur-Mer, which was part of her dower land. By doing so, Philip infuriated his stepfather-in-law. Bertha died soon thereafter, simplifying matters for Philip who was now free to remarry - though not the Countess of Anjou, whose husband Fulk was still living.

    In 1108, Philip died. The son of the queen who had been repudiated ostensibly for her obesity ascended the French throne as Louis VI. Both he and her fraternal nephew, Count Floris II of Holland, were nicknamed "the Fat".

    Issue
    Together, Philip and Bertha had three children:
    Louis VI of France (1 December 1081–1 August 1137)
    Constance, married Hugh I of Champagne before 1097 and then, after her divorce, to Bohemund I of Antioch in 1106
    Henry (b. 1083) (died young.)4

Family: Phillip I (?) King of France b. 23 May 1052, d. 29 Jul 1108

  • Last Edited: 18 Jun 2015

Citations

  1. [S742] The Peerage, online thepeerage.com, http://www.thepeerage.com/p10310.htm#i103092
  2. [S742] The Peerage, online thepeerage.com, http://www.thepeerage.com/p10310.htm#i103095
  3. [S746] Wikipedia, online http://Wikipedia.com, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floris_I,_Count_of_Holland.
  4. [S746] Wikipedia, online http://Wikipedia.com, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertha_of_Holland

Fernando III (?) King of Castile & Leon1

M, #8334, b. 1199, d. 30 May 1252

Saint Ferdinand III, T.O.S.F.
Secular Franciscan Order, Roman Catholic Church

The ancestry chart of Archibald MacFarlane (ID # 34) is presented because he unites the ancestry of both his parents. If an individual appears more than once in Archibald's chart this indicates descent from the individual in more than one line. By clicking on the each instance (i.e. Ancestry of Archibald MacFarlane (#5)) each line of descent will be shown.

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  • Name Variation: Fernando III (?) King of Castile & Leon was also known as Fernando III (?) Rey de Castilla y Leon.2
  • Birth*: He was born in 1199 in Spain*.3
  • Marriage*: He married Jeanne d'Aumale Comtesse de Ponthieu, daughter of Simon de Dammartin Comte de Ponthieu et Aumale and Marie de Ponthieu Countess of Ponthieu, in 1237.3
  • Death*: Fernando III (?) King of Castile & Leon died on 30 May 1252 in Spain*.4
  • Biography*: Fernando III, Rey de Castilla y León also went by the nick-name of Saint Fernando. He succeeded to the title of Rey Fernando III de Castilla in 1217. He succeeded to the title of Rey Fernando III de León in 1230.

    Ferdinand III received the Kingdom of Castile from his mother, Queen Berengaria of Castile, in 1217, and the Kingdom of León from his father (Alfonse IX of León) in 1230. From then on the two kingdoms were united under the name of the Kingdom of León and Castile, or simply as the Crown of Castile. Ferdinand III later conquered the Guadalquivir Valley, while his son Alfonso X conquered the Kingdom of Murcia from Al-Andalus, further extending the area of the Crown of Castile. Given this, the kings of the Crown of Castile traditionally styled themselves "King of Castile, León, Toledo, Galicia, Murcia, Jaén, Córdoba, Seville, and Lord of Biscay and Molina", among other possessions they later gained. The heir to the throne has been titled Prince of Asturias since the 14th century.

    Saint Ferdinand III, T.O.S.F., (5 August 1199 – 30 May 1252) was the King of Castile from 1217 and King of León from 1230. He was the son of Alfonso IX of León and Berenguela of Castile. Through his second marriage he was also Count of Aumale. Ferdinand III was one of the most successful kings of Castile, securing not only the permanent union of the crowns of Castile and León, but also masterminding the most expansive campaign of Reconquista yet. By military and diplomatic effort, Ferdinand III greatly expanded the dominions of Castile into southern Spain, annexing many of the great old cities of al-Andalus, including the old Andalusian capitals of Córdoba and Seville, and establishing the boundaries of the Castilian state for the next two centuries. He was canonized in 1671 by Pope Clement X and, in Spanish, he is known as Fernando el Santo, San Fernando or San Fernando Rey.

    Early life
    Ferdinand was born at the monastery of Valparaíso (Peleas de Arriba, in what is now the Province of Zamora) in 1198-99.

    His parents' marriage was annulled by order of Pope Innocent III in 1204, due to consanguinity. Berenguela took their children, including Ferdinand, to the court of her father, Alfonso VIII of Castile. In 1217, her younger brother Henry I died and she succeeded him to the Castilian throne, but immediately surrendered it to her son, Ferdinand, for whom she initially acted as regent.

    Unification of Castile-León
    When his father, Alfonso IX of León, died in 1230, his will delivered the kingdom to his older daughters Sancha and Dulce, from his first marriage to Theresa of Portugal. But Ferdinand contested the will, and claimed the inheritance for himself. At length, an agreement was reached, negotiated primarily between their mothers, Berengaria and Theresa, and signed at Benavente on December 11, 1230, by which Ferdinand would receive the Kingdom of León, in return for a substantial compensation in cash and lands for his half-sisters, Sancha and Dulce. Ferdinand thus became the first sovereign of both kingdoms since the death of Alfonso VII in 1157.

    Early in his reign, Ferdinand had to deal with a rebellion of the House of Lara.

    Conquest of al-Andalus
    Since the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212 halted the advance of the Almohads in Spain, a series of truces had kept Castile and the Almohad dominions of al-Andalus more-or-less at peace. However, a crisis of succession in the Almohad Caliphate after the death of Yusuf II in 1224 opened to Ferdinand III an opportunity for intervention. The Andalusian-based claimant, Abdallah al-Adil, began to ship the bulk of Almohad arms and men across the straits to Morocco to contest the succeession with his rival there, leaving al-Andalus relatively undefended. Al-Adil's rebellious cousin, Abdallah al-Bayyasi (the Baezan), appealed to Ferdinand III for military assistance against the usurper. In 1225, a Castilian army accompanied al-Bayyasi in a campaign, ravaging the regions of Jaén, vega de Granada and, before the end of the year, had successfully installed al-Bayyasi in Córdoba. In payment, al-Bayyasi gave Ferdinand the strategic frontier strongholds of Baños de la Encina, Salvatierra (the old Order of Calatrava fortress near Ciudad Real) and Capilla (the last of which had to be taken by siege). When al-Bayyasi was rejected and killed by a popular uprising in Cordoba shortly after, the Castilians remained in occupation of al-Bayyasi's holdings in Andújar, Baeza and Martos.

    The crisis in the Almohad Caliphate, however, remained unresolved. In 1228, a new Almohad pretender, Abd al-Ala Idris I 'al-Ma'mun', decided to abandon Spain, and left with the last remnant of the Almohad forces for Morocco. Al-Andalus was left fragmented in the hands of local strongmen, only loosely led by Muhammad ibn Yusuf ibn Hud al-Judhami. Seeing the opportunity, the Christian kings of the north - Ferdinand III of Castile, Alfonso IX of León, James I of Aragon and Sancho II of Portugal - immediately launched a series of raids on al-Andalus, renewed almost every year. There were no great battle encounters - Ibn Hud's makeshift Andalusian army was destroyed early on, while attempting to stop the Leonese at Alange in 1230. The Christian armies romped through the south virtually unopposed in the field. Individual Andalusian cities were left to resist or negotiate their capitulation by themselves, with little or no prospect of rescue from Morocco or anywhere else.

    The twenty years from 1228 to 1248 saw the most massive advance in the Christian reconquista yet. In this great sweep, most of the great old citadels of al-Andalus fell one by one. Ferdinand III took the lion's share of the spoils - Badajoz and Mérida (which had fallen to the Leonese), were promptly inherited by Ferdinand in 1230; then by his own effort, Cazorla in 1231, Úbeda in 1233, the old Umayyad capital of Córdoba in 1236, Niebla and Huelva in 1238, Écija and Lucena in 1240, Orihuela and Murcia in 1243 (by the famous 'pact of Alcaraz'), Arjona, Mula and Lorca in 1244, Cartagena in 1245, Jaén in 1246, Alicante in 1248 and finally, on December 22, 1248, Ferdinand III entered as a conqueror in Seville, the greatest of Andalusian cities. At the end of this twenty-year onslaught, only a rump Andalusian state, the Emirate of Granada, remained unconquered (and even so, Ferdinand III managed to extract a tributary arrangement from Granada in 1238).

    Ferdinand III annexed some of his conquests directly into the Crown of Castile, and others were initially received and organized as vassal states under Muslim governors (e.g. Alicante, Niebla, Murcia), although they too were eventually permanently occupied and absorbed into Castile before the end of the century (Niebla in 1262, Murcia in 1264, Alicante in 1266). Outside of these vassal states, Christian rule could be heavy-handed on the new Muslim subjects. This would eventually lead to the mudéjar uprisings of 1264-66, which resulted in mass expulsions of the Muslim populations. The range of Castilian conquests also sometimes transgressed into the spheres of interest of other conquerors. Thus, along the way, Ferdinand III took care to carefully negotiate with the other Christian kings to avoid conflict, e.g. the treaty of Almizra (26 March 1244) which delineated the Murcian boundary with James I of Aragon.

    Ferdinand divided the conquered territories between the Knights, the Church, and the nobility, whom he endowed with great latifundias. When he took Córdoba, he ordered the Liber Iudiciorum to be adopted and observed by its citizens, and caused it to be rendered, albeit inaccurately, into Castilian.

    The capture of Córdoba was the result of a well-planned and executed process whereby parts of the city (the Ajarquía) first fell to the independent almogavars of the Sierra Morena to the north, which Ferdinand had not at the time subjugated. Only in 1236 did Ferdinand arrive with a royal army to take the Medina, the religious and administrative centre of the city. Ferdinand set up a council of partidores to divide the conquests and between 1237 and 1244 a great deal of land was parcelled out to private individuals and members of the royal family as well as to the Church. On 10 March 1241, Ferdinand established seven outposts to define the boundary of the province of Córdoba.

    Domestic policy
    On the domestic front, he strengthened the University of Salamanca and founded the current cathedral of Burgos. He was a patron of the newest movement in the Church, that of the friars. Whereas the Benedictines and then the Cistercians and Cluniacs had taken a major part in the Reconquista up until then, Ferdinand founded Dominican, Franciscan, Trinitarian, and Mercedarian houses in Andalusia, thus determining the religious future of that region. Ferdinand has also been credited with sustaining the convivencia in Andalusia. He himself joined the Third Order of St. Francis, and is honored in that Order.

    Death
    Ferdinand III had started out as a contested king of Castile. By the time of his death in 1252, Ferdinand III had delivered to his son and heir, Alfonso X, a massively expanded kingdom. The boundaries of the new Castilian state established by Ferdinand III would remain nearly unchanged until the late 1400s. His biographer, Sr. Maria del Carmen Fernández de Castro Cabeza, asserts that, on his death bed, Ferdinand said to his son "you will be rich in land and in many good vassals, more than any other king in Christendom."

    Ferdinand was buried in the cathedral of Seville by his son Alfonso X. His tomb is inscribed in four languages: Arabic, Hebrew, Latin, and an early version of Castilian. He was canonized as St. Ferdinand by Pope Clement X in 1671. Today Saint Fernando can still be seen in the Cathedral of Seville, for he rests enclosed in a marvelous gold and crystal casket worthy of the king. His golden crown still encircles his head as he reclines beneath the statue of the Virgin of the Kings. Several places named San Fernando were founded across the Spanish Empire in his honor.

    The symbol of his power as a king was his sword Lobera.

    Family
    First marriage
    In 1219, Ferdinand married Elisabeth of Hohenstaufen (1203–1235), daughter of the German king Philip of Swabia and Irene Angelina. Elisabeth was called Beatriz in Spain. Their children were:
    Alfonso X, his successor
    Frederick
    Ferdinand (1225–1243/1248)
    Eleanor (born 1227), died young
    Berengaria (1228–1288/89), a nun at Las Huelgas
    Henry
    Philip (1231–1274). He was promised to the Church, but was so taken by the beauty of Christina of Norway, daughter of Haakon IV of Norway, who had been intended as a bride for one of his brothers, that he abandoned his holy vows and married her. She died in 1262, childless.
    Sancho, Archbishop of Toledo and Seville (1233–1261)
    John Manuel, Lord of Villena
    Maria, died an infant in November 1235

    Second marriage
    After he was widowed, he married Joan, Countess of Ponthieu, before August 1237. They had four sons and one daughter:
    Ferdinand (1239–1260), Count of Aumale
    Eleanor (c.1241–1290), married Edward I of England
    Louis (1243–1269)
    Simon (1244), died young and buried in a monastery in Toledo
    John (1245), died young and buried at the cathedral in Córdoba.5,4
  • Last Edited: 10 Oct 2014

Jeanne d'Aumale Comtesse de Ponthieu1

F, #8335, b. circa 1220

The ancestry chart of Archibald MacFarlane (ID # 34) is presented because he unites the ancestry of both his parents. If an individual appears more than once in Archibald's chart this indicates descent from the individual in more than one line. By clicking on the each instance (i.e. Ancestry of Archibald MacFarlane (#5)) each line of descent will be shown.

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  • Birth*: Jeanne d'Aumale Comtesse de Ponthieu was born circa 1220 in France*.1,3
  • Marriage*: She married Fernando III (?) King of Castile & Leon in 1237.4
  • Biography*: Joan of Dammartin (French: Jeanne de Dammartin; c.1220 – March 16, 1279) was Queen consort of Castile and León (1252), suo jure Countess of Ponthieu (1251–1279) and Aumale (1237–1279). Her daughter, the English queen Eleanor of Castile, was her successor in Ponthieu. Her son and co-ruler in Aumale, Ferdinand II, Count of Aumale, predeceased her, so she was succeeded by her grandson John I, Count of Aumale, deceased at the Battle of Courtrai, 11 July 1302.

    Family
    Joan was the eldest daughter of Simon of Dammartin, Count of Ponthieu (1180- 21 September 1239) and his wife Marie of Ponthieu, Countess of Montreuil (17 April 1199- 1251). Her paternal grandparents were Alberic II, Count de Dammartin and Mahaut de Clermont, daughter of Renaud de Clermont, Count of Clermont-en-Beauvaisis, and Clémence de Bar. Her maternal grandparents were William IV of Ponthieu and Alys, Countess of the Vexin, daughter of Louis VII of France and Constance of Castile.

    Henry III of England
    After secret negotiations were undertaken in 1234, it was agreed that Joan would marry King Henry III of England. This marriage would have been politically unacceptable to the French, however, since Joan stood to inherit not only her mother's county of Ponthieu but also the county of Aumale that was vested in her father's family. Ponthieu bordered on the duchy of Normandy, and Aumale lay within Normandy itself. The French king Philip Augustus had seized Normandy from King John of England as recently as 1205, and Philip's heirs could not risk the English monarchy recovering any land in that area, since it might allow the Plantagenets to re-establish control in Normandy.

    As it happened, Joan's father Simon had become involved in a conspiracy of northern French noblemen against Philip Augustus and to win pardon from Philip's son Louis VIII, Simon—who had only daughters—was compelled to promise that he would marry off neither of his two eldest daughters without the permission of the king of France. In 1235, the queen-regent of France, Blanche of Castile, invoked that promise on behalf of her son, King Louis IX of France, and threatened to deprive Simon of all his lands if Joan married Henry III. Henry therefore abandoned the project for his marriage to Joan and in January 1236 married instead Eleanor of Provence, the sister of Louis IX's wife.

    Queen of Castile
    In November 1235, Blanche of Castile's nephew, King Ferdinand III of Castile, lost his wife, Elisabeth of Hohenstaufen, and Blanche's sister Berengaria of Castile, Ferdinand's mother, was concerned that her widowed son might involve himself in liaisons that were unsuited to his dignity as king. Berengaria determined to find Ferdinand another wife, and her sister Blanche suggested Joan of Dammartin, whose marriage to the king of Castile would keep her inheritance from falling into hostile hands. In October 1237, at the age of about seventeen, Joan and Ferdinand were married in Burgos. Since Ferdinand already had seven sons from his first marriage to Elisabeth of Hohenstaufen, there was little chance of Ponthieu being absorbed by Castile.

    They had four sons and one daughter:
    Ferdinand II, Count of Aumale (1239–ca 1265) m. (after 1256) Laure de Montfort, Lady of Espernon (d before 08.1270), and had issue:
    Eleanor of Castile, Countess of Ponthieu, who married king Edward I of England and had issue
    Louis (1243–ca 1275), who married Juana de Manzanedo, Lady of Gaton, and had issue
    Simon (1244), died young and buried in a monastery in Toledo
    John (1245), died young and buried at the cathedral in Córdoba
    She accompanied Ferdinand to Andalucia and lived with him in the army camp as he besieged Seville in 1248.

    Upon her mother's death in 1251, Joan succeeded as Countess of Ponthieu and Montreuil, which she held in her own right.

    After Ferdinand III died in 1252, Joan did not enjoy a cordial relationship with his heir, her stepson Alfonso X of Castile, with whom she quarreled over the lands and income she should have received as dowager queen of Castile. Sometime in 1253, she became the ally and supporter of another of her stepsons, Fadrique of Castile, who also felt Alfonso had not allowed him all the wealth their father had meant him to have. Joan unwisely attended secret meetings with Henry and his supporters, and it was rumored that she and Fadrique were lovers. This further strained her relations with Alfonso and in 1254, shortly before her daughter Eleanor was to marry Edward of England, Joan and her eldest son Ferdinand left Castile and returned to her native Ponthieu.

    Rule in Ponthieu and Aumale
    Sometime between May 1260 and 9 February 1261, Joan took a second husband, Jean de Nesle, Seigneur de Falvy et de La Hérelle (died 2 February 1292). This marriage is sometimes said to have produced a daughter, Béatrice, but she was in fact a child of Jean de Nesle's first marriage. In 1263, Joan was recognized as countess of Aumale after the death of a childless Dammartin cousin. But her son Ferdinand died around 1265, leaving a young son known as John of Ponthieu.

    During her marriage to Jean de Nesle, Joan ran up considerable debts and also appears to have allowed her rights as countess in Ponthieu to weaken. The death of her son Ferdinand in 1265 made her next son, Louis, her heir in Ponthieu but around 1275 he, too, died, leaving two children. But according to inheritance customs in Picardy, where Ponthieu lay, Joan's young grandson John of Ponthieu could not succeed her there; her heir in Ponthieu automatically became her adult daughter Eleanor, who was married to Edward I of England.[6] It does not appear that Joan was displeased at the prospect of having Ponthieu pass under English domination; from 1274 to 1278, in fact, she had her granddaughter Joan of Acre (the daughter of Edward I and Eleanor) with her in Ponthieu, and appears to have treated the girl so indulgently that when she was returned to England her parents found that she was thoroughly spoiled.

    That same indulgent nature appears to have made Joan inattentive to her duties as countess. When she died at Abbeville, in March 1279, her daughter and son-in-law were thus confronted with Joan's vast debts, and to prevent the king of France from involving himself in the county's affairs, they had to pay the debts quickly by taking out loans from citizens in Ponthieu and from wealthy abbeys in France.

    They also had to deal with a lengthy legal struggle with Eleanor's nephew, John of Ponthieu, to whom Joan bequeathed a great deal of land in Ponthieu as well as important legal rights connected with those estates. The dispute was resolved when John of Ponthieu was recognized as Joan's successor in Aumale according to the inheritance customs that prevailed in Normandy, while Edward and Eleanor retained Ponthieu and John gave up all his claims there. By using English wealth, Edward and Eleanor restored stability to the administration and the finances of Ponthieu, and added considerably to the comital estate by purchasing large amounts of land there.3
  • Last Edited: 12 Mar 2015

Citations

  1. [S742] The Peerage, online thepeerage.com, http://www.thepeerage.com/p10191.htm#i101904
  2. [S742] The Peerage, online thepeerage.com, http://www.thepeerage.com/p11305.htm#i113044
  3. [S746] Wikipedia, online http://Wikipedia.com, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan,_Countess_of_Ponthieu.
  4. [S742] The Peerage, online thepeerage.com, http://www.thepeerage.com/p10191.htm#i101904
    http://www.thepeerage.com/p11305.htm#i113044

Ann (Annag) MacMillan1

F, #8336, b. circa 1790, d. after 1871
  • Relationship: 2nd great-grandmother of Donald James MacFarlane

The ancestry chart of Archibald MacFarlane (ID # 34) is presented because he unites the ancestry of both his parents. If an individual appears more than once in Archibald's chart this indicates descent from the individual in more than one line. By clicking on the each instance (i.e. Ancestry of Archibald MacFarlane (#5)) each line of descent will be shown.

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Family: Donald Gillis b. c 1788, d. bt 1818 - 1871

  • Last Edited: 27 Dec 2012

Citations

  1. [S781] J. R. Reid, "Descendants of Angus Gillis (Little Judique)", page 2.
  2. [S783] JR Reid, Ancestors of Donald James MacFarlane #0001, page 7.
  3. [S783] JR Reid, Ancestors of Donald James MacFarlane #0001, page 4.
  4. [S616] Marriages Registered in Nova Scotia, Inverness County 1864-1877: #1.
  5. [S701] Certificate, see memo marriage of 1862-1908, Gillis-Gillis 1871 February 8.

Christina MacPherson1

F, #8337, b. circa 1793

The ancestry chart of Archibald MacFarlane (ID # 34) is presented because he unites the ancestry of both his parents. If an individual appears more than once in Archibald's chart this indicates descent from the individual in more than one line. By clicking on the each instance (i.e. Ancestry of Archibald MacFarlane (#5)) each line of descent will be shown.

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Family: John Gillis b. c 1791, d. c 1869

  • Last Edited: 19 Dec 2012

Citations

  1. [S781] J. R. Reid, "Descendants of Angus Gillis (Little Judique)", page 2.

Donald Kennedy1

M, #8338

The ancestry chart of Archibald MacFarlane (ID # 34) is presented because he unites the ancestry of both his parents. If an individual appears more than once in Archibald's chart this indicates descent from the individual in more than one line. By clicking on the each instance (i.e. Ancestry of Archibald MacFarlane (#5)) each line of descent will be shown.

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Family: Mary (?)

  • Last Edited: 21 Dec 2012

Citations

  1. [S770] Nova Scotia Historical Vital Statistics, online https://www.novascotiagenealogy.com/, Registration year 1982
    Book 1825
    Page 106
    Number 5.

Mary (?)1

F, #8339

The ancestry chart of Archibald MacFarlane (ID # 34) is presented because he unites the ancestry of both his parents. If an individual appears more than once in Archibald's chart this indicates descent from the individual in more than one line. By clicking on the each instance (i.e. Ancestry of Archibald MacFarlane (#5)) each line of descent will be shown.

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Family: Donald Kennedy

  • Last Edited: 21 Dec 2012

Citations

  1. [S770] Nova Scotia Historical Vital Statistics, online https://www.novascotiagenealogy.com/, Registration year 1982
    Book 1825
    Page 106
    Number 5.

John Finlay Gillis1

M, #8340, b. 2 June 1899, d. 14 March 1987

The ancestry chart of Archibald MacFarlane (ID # 34) is presented because he unites the ancestry of both his parents. If an individual appears more than once in Archibald's chart this indicates descent from the individual in more than one line. By clicking on the each instance (i.e. Ancestry of Archibald MacFarlane (#5)) each line of descent will be shown.

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  • Last Edited: 8 Jan 2017

Citations

  1. [S782] JR Reid, Ancestors of Mary Ann Gillis #4141, page 1.