Blanche of Castile
Encyclopedia
Blanche of Castile was a Queen consort of France as the wife of Louis VIII
Louis VIII of France
Louis VIII the Lion 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 Augustus and Isabelle of Hainaut. He was also Count of Artois, inheriting the county from his mother, from 1190–1226...

. She acted as regent
Regent
A regent, from the Latin regens "one who reigns", is a person selected to act as head of state because the ruler is a minor, not present, or debilitated. Currently there are only two ruling Regencies in the world, sovereign Liechtenstein and the Malaysian constitutive state of Terengganu...

 twice during the reign of her son, Louis IX
Louis IX of France
Louis IX , 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...

.

She was born in Palencia
Palencia
Palencia is a city south of Tierra de Campos, in north-northwest Spain, the capital of the province of Palencia in the autonomous community of Castile-Leon...

, Spain, 1188, the third daughter of Alfonso VIII
Alfonso VIII of Castile
Alfonso VIII , called the Noble or el de las Navas, was the King of Castile from 1158 to his death and King of Toledo. He is most remembered for his part in the Reconquista and the downfall of the Almohad Caliphate...

, king of Castile, and Eleanor of England. Eleanor was a daughter of Henry II of England
Henry II of England
Henry II ruled as King of England , Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Count of Nantes, Lord of Ireland and, at various times, controlled parts of Wales, Scotland and western France. Henry, the great-grandson of William the Conqueror, was the...

 and Eleanor of Aquitaine
Eleanor of Aquitaine
Eleanor of Aquitaine was one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in Western Europe during the High Middle Ages. As well as being Duchess of Aquitaine in her own right, she was queen consort of France and of England...

.

Early life

In her youth, she visited the Abbey of Santa María la Real de Las Huelgas, founded by her father, several times. Later in life, she would establish Cisterian abbeys and would be buried in one eventually.

In consequence of the Treaty of Le Goulet
Treaty of Le Goulet
The Treaty of Le Goulet was signed by the kings John of England and Philip II of France in May 1200 and meant to settle once and for all the claims the Norman kings of England had as Norman dukes on French lands...

 between Philip Augustus
Philip II of France
Philip II Augustus was the King of France from 1180 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 his third wife, Adela of Champagne...

 and John of England
John of England
John , also known as John Lackland , was King of England from 6 April 1199 until his death...

, Blanche's sister Urraca was betrothed to Philip's son, Louis. Their grandmother Eleanor of Aquitaine
Eleanor of Aquitaine
Eleanor of Aquitaine was one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in Western Europe during the High Middle Ages. As well as being Duchess of Aquitaine in her own right, she was queen consort of France and of England...

, upon getting acquainted with 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
Pyrenees
The Pyrenees is a range of mountains in southwest Europe that forms a natural border between France and Spain...

 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
Issoudun
Issoudun is a commune in the Indre department in central France. It is also referred to as Issoundun, which is the ancient name.-History:...

 and Graçay
Graçay
Graçay is a commune in the Cher department in the Centre region of France.-Geography:It is a farming area comprising the small town and several hamlets, on the right bank of the Fouzon river, situated some southwest of Vierzon at the junction of the D68, D19, D83 and D922 roads...

, together with those that André de Chauvigny
André de Chauvigny
Andre de Chauvigny was a Poitevin knight in the service of Richard I of England. He was the second son of Pierre-Hélie of Chauvigny and Haois of Châtellerault. Haois was the great-aunt of King Richard making Andrew and Richard relatives.-Richard the Lion-Hearted:Pierre-Hélie served the bishops of...

, lord of Châteauroux, held in Berry
Berry (province)
Berry is a region located in the center of France. It was a province of France until the provinces were replaced by départements on 4 March 1790....

, of the English crown. The marriage was celebrated the next day, at Port-Mort
Port-Mort
Port-Mort is a commune in the Eure department in Haute-Normandie in northern France.-Population:-External links:*...

 on the right bank of the Seine
Seine
The Seine is a -long river and an important commercial waterway within the Paris Basin in the north of France. It rises at Saint-Seine near Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plateau, flowing through Paris and into the English Channel at Le Havre . It is navigable by ocean-going vessels...

, in John's domains, as those of Philip lay under an interdict
Interdict
The term Interdict may refer to:* Court order enforcing or prohibiting a certain action* Injunction, such as a restraining order...

.

The marriage was only consummated after a few years, and Blanche bore her first child in 1205.

During the English baron's rebellion of 1215-16 against King John, it was Blanche's English ancestry as granddaughter to Henry II
Henry II of England
Henry II ruled as King of England , Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Count of Nantes, Lord of Ireland and, at various times, controlled parts of Wales, Scotland and western France. Henry, the great-grandson of William the Conqueror, was the...

 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
Henry III of England
Henry III was the son and successor of John as King of England, reigning for 56 years from 1216 until his death. His contemporaries knew him as Henry of Winchester. He was the first child king in England since the reign of Æthelred the Unready...

.

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. She established herself at Calais
Calais
Calais is a town in Northern France in the department of Pas-de-Calais, of which it is a sub-prefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's capital is its third-largest city of Arras....

 and organized two fleets, one of which was commanded by Eustace the Monk
Eustace the Monk
Eustace the Monk was a mercenary and pirate, in the tradition of medieval outlaws.-Early life:Eustace was born a younger son of Baudoin Busket, a lord of the county of Boulogne...

, and an army under Robert of Courtenay
Robert of Courtenay
Robert of Courtenay , emperor of the Latin Empire, or of Constantinople, was a younger son of the emperor Peter II of Courtenay, and a descendant of the French king, Louis VI, while his mother Yolanda of Flanders was a sister of Baldwin and Henry of Flanders, the first and second emperors of the...

. With French forces defeated at Lincoln
Lincoln, Lincolnshire
Lincoln is a cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England.The non-metropolitan district of Lincoln has a population of 85,595; the 2001 census gave the entire area of Lincoln a population of 120,779....

 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
Sandwich, Kent
Sandwich is a historic town and civil parish on the River Stour in the Non-metropolitan district of Dover, within the ceremonial county of Kent, south-east England. It has a population of 6,800....

 and Louis was forced to sue for peace.

Regency

Upon his death in November 1226, he left Blanche, by then 38, regent
Regent
A regent, from the Latin regens "one who reigns", is a person selected to act as head of state because the ruler is a minor, not present, or debilitated. Currently there are only two ruling Regencies in the world, sovereign Liechtenstein and the Malaysian constitutive state of Terengganu...

 and guardian of his children. Of her twelve or thirteen children, six had died, and Louis, the heir — afterwards the sainted Louis IX
Louis IX of France
Louis IX , 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...

 — was but twelve years old. She had him crowned within a month of his father's death in Reims
Reims
Reims , a city in the Champagne-Ardenne region of France, lies east-northeast of Paris. Founded by the Gauls, it became a major city during the period of the Roman Empire....

 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. A 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
Battle of Bouvines
The Battle of Bouvines, 27 July 1214, was a conclusive medieval battle ending the twelve year old Angevin-Flanders War that was important to the early development of both the French state by confirming the French crown's sovereignty over the Angevin lands of Brittany and Normandy.Philip Augustus of...

. She also ceded land and castles to Philip Hurepel, son of Philip II and his controversial wife Agnes of Merania
Agnes of Merania
Agnes Maria of Andechs-Merania , queen of France, was the daughter of Bertold IV , who was Count of Andechs, a castle and territory near Ammersee, Bavaria and from 1183 duke of Merania . Her mother was Agnes of Rochlitz...

. Still, Blanche had to break up a league of the barons (1226), and helped by Theobald IV of Champagne
Theobald I of Navarre
Theobald I , called the Troubadour, the Chansonnier, and the Posthumous, was Count of Champagne from birth and King of Navarre from 1234...

 and the papal legate to France, Romano Bonaventura
Romano Bonaventura
Romano Bonaventura was a Catholic Christian prelate, Cardinal deacon of Sant'Angelo in Pescheria, his titulus , bishop of Porto-Santa Rufina , a cardinal-legate to the court of France....

, 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
Henry III of England
Henry III was the son and successor of John as King of England, reigning for 56 years from 1216 until his death. His contemporaries knew him as Henry of Winchester. He was the first child king in England since the reign of Æthelred the Unready...

. One of the barons tried to kidnap Louis. He took refuge in a castle and the people of Paris rode to his rescue.

In 1229, she was responsible for the Treaty of Paris
Treaty of Paris (1229)
The Treaty of Paris was signed on April 12, 1229 between Raymond VII of Toulouse and Louis IX of France. Louis was still a minor and it was his mother Blanche of Castile who had been responsible for the treaty. The agreement officially ended the Albigensian Crusade in which Raymond conceded defeat...

, in which Raymond VII, Count of Toulouse, submitted to Louis. By it his daughter and heir Joan
Joan, Countess of Toulouse
Joan was Countess of Toulouse from 1249 through 1271. Her father was Raymond VII, Count of Toulouse. She married Alfonso, Count of Poitou in 1237 as the Treaty of Paris had stipulated she marry a brother to King Louis. On her father's death she became the countess....

 was forced to marry Blanche's son, Alfonso. It also meant the end of the Albigensian Crusade
Albigensian Crusade
The Albigensian Crusade or Cathar Crusade was a 20-year military campaign initiated by the Catholic Church to eliminate Catharism in Languedoc...

.

At the cost of some of the crown's influence in Poitou
Poitou
Poitou was a province of west-central France whose capital city was Poitiers.The region of Poitou was called Thifalia in the sixth century....

, Blanche managed to keep the English Queen mother
Queen mother
Queen Mother is a title or position reserved for a widowed queen consort whose son or daughter from that marriage is the reigning monarch. The term has been used in English since at least 1577...

 Isabelle, Countess of Angoulême
Isabella of Angoulême
Isabella of Angoulême was queen consort of England as the second wife of King John from 1200 until John's death in 1216. They had five children by the king including his heir, later Henry III...

 and her second husband Hugh X of Lusignan
Hugh X of Lusignan
Hugh X de Lusignan, Hugh V of La Marche or Hugh I of Angoulême or Hugues X & V & I de Lusignan succeeded his father Hugh IX as Seigneur de Lusignan and Count of La Marche in November, 1219 and was Count of Angoulême by marriage.Hugh X de Lusignan was betrothed to marry 12 year-old Isabel of...

 from supporting the English side. Pierre Mauclerc
Peter I, Duke of Brittany
Pierre Mauclerc , also known as Peter of Dreux or Pierre de Dreux, was duke of Brittany jure uxoris from 1213 to 1221, then regent of the duchy from 1221 to 1237 as well as Earl of Richmond from 1219 to 1235.-Biography:He was the second son of Robert II, Count of Dreux...

 did support the English and Brittany rebelled against the crown in 1230. Blanche organized a surprise attack in the winter. She accompanied the army herself and helped collect wood to keep the soldiers warm. The rebellion was put down, which added to the growing prestige of Blanche and Louis.

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

There was also an end to the calumnies circulated against her, accusing her of fornication with Count Theobald IV of Champagne and Romano Bonaventura. These rumors were based on the poetical homage rendered her by the former and the prolonged stay in Paris of the latter.

Queen Mother

After Louis came of age, in 1234, aged 20, her influence upon him may still be traced. The same year, he was married, and Blanche became Queen mother. Louis married Margaret of Provence, who was the eldest of the four daughters of Ramon, count of Provence
Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Provence
Ramon Berenguer IV , Count of Provence and Forcalquier, was the son of Alfonso II of Provence and Garsenda of Sabran, heiress of Forcalquier. After his father's death , Ramon was imprisoned in the castle of Monzón, in Aragon until he was able to escape in 1219 and claim his inheritance. He was a...

, and Beatrice of Savoy
Beatrice of Savoy
Beatrice of Savoy was the daughter of Thomas I of Savoy and Margaret of Geneva. She was Countess consort of Provence by her marriage to Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Provence.-Family:...

.

She did not have a good relationship with her daughter-in-law Margaret of Provence, perhaps due to the strong relationship she had with her son. Jean de Joinville
Jean de Joinville
Jean de Joinville was one of the great chroniclers of medieval France.Son of Simon de Joinville and Beatrice d'Auxonne, he belonged to a noble family from Champagne. He received an education befitting a young noble at the court of Theobald IV, count of Champagne: reading, writing, and the...

 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. 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
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...

, 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
Talmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....

 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
Eighth Crusade
The Eighth Crusade was a crusade launched by Louis IX, King of France, in 1270. The Eighth Crusade is sometimes counted as the Seventh, if the Fifth and Sixth Crusades of Frederick II are counted as a single 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
Melun
Melun is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. Located in the south-eastern suburbs of Paris, Melun is the capital of the department, as the seat of an arrondissement...

 in November 1252, and was taken to Paris, but lived only a few days. She was buried at Maubuisson Abbey
Maubuisson Abbey
The Maubuisson Abbey was a French monastery, suppressed at the time of the French Revolution.-History:The abbey was established by Blanche of Castile. At the end of her life, she withdrew in the abbey and died there in 1252. The abbey thrived financially under royal patronage until the Hundred...

, which had been established by her. Louis only 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 which 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

  1. Blanche (1205–1206).
  2. Agnes (b. and d. 1207).
  3. Philip (9 September 1209 – July 1218), married (or only betrothed) in 1217 to Agnes of Donzy.
  4. Alphonse (b. and d. Lorrez-le-Bocage, 23 January 1213).
  5. John (b. and d. Lorrez-le-Bocage, 23 January 1213), twin of Alphonse.
  6. Louis IX
    Louis IX of France
    Louis IX , 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...

     (Poissy, 25 April 1214 – 25 August 1270, Tunis), King of France as successor to his father.
  7. Robert
    Robert I of Artois
    Robert I , called the Good, was the first Count of Artois, the fifth son of Louis VIII of France and Blanche of Castile.-Life:...

     (25 September 1216 – 9 February 1250, killed in battle, Manssurah, Egypt)
  8. Philip (2 January 1218–1220).
  9. John Tristan (21 July 1219–1232), Count of Anjou and Maine.
  10. Alphonse
    Alphonse of Toulouse
    Alfonso or Alphonse was the Count of Poitou from 1225 and Count of Toulouse from 1247.-Life:...

     (Poissy, 11 November 1220 – 21 August 1271, Corneto), Count of Poitou and Auvergne, and by marriage, of Toulouse.
  11. Philippe Dagobert (20 February 1222–1232).
  12. Isabelle (14 April 1225 – 23 February 1269).
  13. Charles
    Charles I of Sicily
    Charles I , known also as Charles of Anjou, was the King of Sicily by conquest from 1266, though he had received it as a papal grant in 1262 and was expelled from the island in the aftermath of the Sicilian Vespers of 1282...

     (21 March 1226 – 7 January 1285), Count of Anjou and Maine, by marriage Count of Provence and Folcalquier, and King of Sicily.

Literature

Besides the works of Joinville and William of Nangis, see Élie Berger, "Histoire de Blanche de Castille, reine de France", in Bibliothèque des Ecoles françaises d'Athènes et de Rome
Bibliothèque des Ecoles françaises d'Athènes et de Rome
Bibliothèque des Écoles françaises d'Athènes et de Rome is the name of two series of historical documents, such as the letters of 13th century Popes during the Crusades....

, vol. lxx. (Paris, 1895); Le Nain de Tillemont
Louis-Sébastien Le Nain de Tillemont
Louis-Sébastien Le Nain de Tillemont was a French ecclesiastical historian.He was born in Paris into a wealthy Jansenist family, and was educated at the Petites écoles of Port-Royal, where his historical interests were formed and encouraged...

, "Vie de Saint Louis", ed. by J. de Gaulle for the Société de l'histoire de France
Société de l'histoire de France
The Société de l'histoire de France was established on 21 December 1833 at the instigation of the French minister of Public Instruction, François Guizot, in order to contribute to the renewal of historical scholarship fuelled by a widespread interest in national history, typical of the Romantic...

 (6 vols., 1847–1851); and Paulin Paris, "Nouvelles recherches sur les mœurs de la reine Blanche et de Thibaud", in Cabinet historique (1858).

Blanche and Isabella of Angoulême are the main characters in Jean Plaidy's novel The Battle of the Queens.

In popular culture

An image of Blanche of Castille has been used on the home
Home (sports)
In sports, home is a term referring to both the city and stadium, arena, or field where an athletic team plays games at their venue, whilst when the team plays elsewhere then they are considered the away team. The home term can refer to either the sponsoring institution or the place where it is...

 kit
Rugby union equipment
A traditional rugby union kit consists of a collared jersey , shorts, jockstrap / compression shorts, long rugby socks and boots with studs....

 of French Rugby Union
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

 team Stade Français since the 2008 season.

During the 1950s French restaurateur
Restaurateur
A restaurateur is a person who opens and runs restaurants professionally. Although over time the term has come to describe any person who owns a restaurant, traditionally it refers to a highly skilled professional who is proficient in all aspects of the restaurant business.-Etymology:The word...

 Noël Corbu
Noel Corbu
Noël Corbu is best known as a former restaurateur in the Southern French village of Rennes-le-Château, who from the mid-1950s circulated the story that Bérenger Saunière discovered the treasure of Blanche of Castile....

 claimed that Blanche of Castile had deposited a treasure in Rennes-le-Château
Rennes-le-Château
Rennes-le-Château is a commune in the Aude department in Languedoc in southern France.This small French hilltop village is known internationally, and receives tens of thousands of visitors per year, for being at the center of various conspiracy theories, and for being the location of an alleged...

 that was later discovered by Bérenger Saunière
Bérenger Saunière
François Bérenger Saunière was a Roman Catholic priest in the French village of Rennes-le-Château, in the Aude region, officially from 1885 until he was transferred to another village in 1909 by his bishop, a nomination he declined and subsequently resigned...

 during the late 19th century. This was later utilised by Pierre Plantard
Pierre Plantard
Pierre Athanase Marie Plantard was a French draughtsman, best known for being the principal perpetrator of the Priory of Sion hoax, by which he claimed from the 1960s onwards that he was a Merovingian descendant of Dagobert II and the "Great Monarch" prophesied by Nostradamus.-Surname:Pierre...

 in his development of the Priory of Sion
Priory of Sion
The Prieuré de Sion, translated from French as Priory of Sion, is a name given to multiple groups, both real and fictitious. The most notorious is a fringe fraternal organisation, founded and dissolved in France in 1956 by Pierre Plantard...

 mythology.

External links

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