Isabella of Aragon, Queen of France

Isabella of Aragon
Isabella
Queen consort of France
Tenure	25 August 1270 – 28 January 1271
Born	1248
Died	28 January 1271 (aged 22–23)
Burial	Basilica of St Denis
Spouse	Philip III of France
Issue	Louis Philip IV of France Robert Charles, Count of Valois
House	Barcelona
Father	James I of Aragon
Mother	Violant of Hungary
Religion	Roman Catholicism

Isabella (1248 – 28 January 1271),^{[1][lower-alpha 1]} infanta of Aragon, was by marriage Queen consort of France^[3] from 1270 to 1271.^[4]

Life

Isabella was the daughter of King James I of Aragon^[5] and his second wife Violant of Hungary^[6] and thus granddaughter of Yolanda de Courtenay.

In Clermont on 28 May 1262, Isabella married the future Philip III of France, son of Louis IX and Margaret of Provence. They had four sons:

1. Louis (1265–1276)
2. Philip IV "the Fair" (1268–1314), King of France
3. Robert (1269–1271)
4. Charles, Count of Valois (1270–1325)

She accompanied her husband on the Eighth Crusade against Tunis. On their way home, they stopped in Cosenza, Calabria. Six months pregnant with her fifth child, on 11 January 1271 she suffered a fall from her horse after they had resumed the trip back to France. Isabella gave birth to a premature stillborn son. She never recovered from her injuries and the childbirth, and died seventeen days later, on 28 January. Her husband took her body and their stillborn son and, when he finally returned to France, buried her in the Basilica of St Denis.^[7] Her tomb, like many others, was desecrated during the French Revolution in 1793.

Her famous granddaughter was Queen Isabella of France.^[8]

Family tree

Ancestors of Isabella of Aragon, Queen of France

16. Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Barcelona               8. Alfonso II of Aragon                       17. Petronila of Aragon               4. Peter II of Aragon                             18. Alfonso VII of León               9. Sancha of Castile                       19. Richeza of Poland               2. James I of Aragon                                   20. William VII of Montpellier               10. William VIII of Montpellier                       21. Matilda of Burgundy               5. Marie of Montpellier                             22. Isaac Komnenos               11. Eudokia Komnene                       23. Irene               1. Isabella of Aragon                                         24. Géza II of Hungary               12. Béla III of Hungary                       25. Euphrosyne of Kiev               6. Andrew II of Hungary                             26. Raynald of Châtillon               13. Agnes of Antioch                       27. Constance of Antioch               3. Violant of Hungary                                   28. Peter I of Courtenay               14. Peter II of Courtenay                       29. Elizabeth de Courtenay               7. Yolanda de Courtenay                             30. Baldwin V, Count of Hainaut               15. Yolanda of Flanders                       31. Margaret I, Countess of Flanders

Notes

1. She had not been born yet when her father King James executed a will in January 1248 since he stipulates that if he had another male heir, he should become a knight Templar and if the newborn was daughter, she should enter the Monastery of Santa María de Sigena. Isabella was born after January of 1248.^[2]

References

1. Rodrigo Estevan 2009, p. 90.
2. Zurita 1562-1580, p. 272 of PDF, Chapter XLIII, p. 272 of pdf.
3. Sabine Geldsetzer, Frauen auf Kreuzzügen
4. Patrick Weber, Les reines de France
5. The new Cambridge medieval history / 5 C. 1198 - c. 1300. by David Abulafia and Rosamond MacKitterick. The standard work of reference on the whole of Europe, east and west, during the thirteenth century. Page 654.
6. The book of deeds of James I of Aragon: a translation of the medieval Catalan Llibre dels Fets by Damian J Smith and Helena Buffery. Page 139.
7. Alain Erlande-Brandenburg, Le roi est mort. Étude sur les funérailles, les sépultures et les tombeaux des rois de France jusqu'à la fin du xiiie siècle
8. Ainsworth, Peter. (2006) Representing Royalty: Kings, Queens and Captains in Some Early Fifteenth Century Manuscripts of Froissart's Chroniques. in Kooper (ed) 2006.

Bibliography

• Rodrigo Estevan, María Luz (2009). "Los testamentos de Jaime I: Repartos territoriales y turbulencias políticas". Cuadernos, Centro de Estudios de Monzón y Cinca Media (in Spanish) (35): 61–90. ISSN 1133-3790.
• Zurita, Jerónimo. Ángel Canellas López; e-edition by José Javier Iso (Coord.), María Isabel Yagüe, and Pilar Rivero (original work dated 1562-1580), ed. Anales de Aragón (PDF) (in Spanish). Exma. Diputación de Zaragoza, «Institución Fernando el Católico».