Isabelle de Meulan, Dame de Mayenne, Dame de Craon (c. 1148 – 10 May 1220) was a French noblewoman, being the daughter of Waleran de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Worcester

Waleran de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Worcester

Waleran de Beaumont, Count of Meulan, 1st Earl of Worcester , was the son of Robert de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Leicester and Elizabeth de Vermandois, and the twin brother of Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Leicester...

, Count of Meulan. Isabelle married twice; firstly to Geoffroy, Seigneur de Mayenne, and secondly to Maurice II, Sire de Craon

Craon family

The Craon family was a French noble house, known to date back to the 11th century. Its most famous member is Pierre de Craon, and its last representative governed Burgundy for a time under Louis XI, after the death of Charles le Téméraire. When the Craon family died out, the Beauvau family took...

. Her eldest son Juhel III de Mayenne was a celebrated Crusader

Crusades

The Crusades were a series of religious wars, blessed by the Pope and the Catholic Church with the main goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem...

.

Family

Isabelle was born in about 1148, the eldest daughter of Waleran de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Worcester, Count of Meulan, and Agnès de Montfort, Dame de Gournay-sur-Marne. She had six brothers and two younger sisters. Her father was a powerful Norman magnate with much wealth and political influence. Her paternal grandparents were Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Leicester

Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Leicester

Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Leicester was Justiciar of England 1155–1168.The surname "de Beaumont" is given him by genealogists. The only known contemporary surname applied to him is "Robert son of Count Robert"...

 and Elisabeth de Vermandois, and her maternal grandparents were Amaury III de Montfort

Amaury III of Montfort

Amaury III de Montfort was seigneur de Montfort l'Amaury from 1101 to 1137 and comte d'Évreux from 1118 to 1137. He was the son of Simon I, seigneur de Montfort, and his wife Agnès d'Évreux.- Marriages and children :...

, Count of Evreux, and Agnès de Garlande, daughter of Anseau de Garlande, Count of Rochefort, and Beatrice de Montlhery.

Marriages and issue

In 1161 Isabelle married her first husband. He was Geoffroy, Seigneur de Mayenne whose first wife Constance of Brittany had died in 1148, leaving him with one daughter, Mathilde. Together Geoffroy and Isabelle had two children:

• Clémence de Mayenne (died before 1209), married Robert de Sablé
  Robert de Sablé
  Robert de Sablé was the Grand Master of the Knights Templar from 1191 to 1193 and Lord of Cyprus from 1191 to 1192.- Personal life :No exact record of his birth date exists, but it is believed he was relatively old at the time of his death. He was born to a respected military family in Anjou and...
  
  , Grand Master of the Knights Templar
  Knights Templar
  The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon , commonly known as the Knights Templar, the Order of the Temple or simply as Templars, were among the most famous of the Western Christian military orders...
  
  , by whom she had three children including Marguerite de Sablé
  Marguerite de Sablé
  Marguerite de Sablé, Dame de Sablé , was a French noblewoman and one of the wealthiest heiresses in the counties of Anjou and Maine...
  
  , Dame de Sablé.
• Juhel III, Seigneur de Mayenne (1168 – 12 April 1220), married Gervaise de Vitré, by whom he had three children. A celebrated Crusader, he was killed in battle in 1220 at the age of fifty-two.

Geoffroy died in 1169. Isabelle, aged about twenty-two, married secondly in 1170 Maurice II, Sire de Craon, the son of Hughes I, Sire de Craon. Together they had seven children:

• Avoise de Craon (died 1230), married Guy of Laval and Yves Le Franc.
• Maurice III, Sire de Craon (died after 1224), married and fathered two sons.
• Pierre de Craon (died before 1206)
• Philippe de Craon (died young)
• Amaury I, Sire de Craon (1175–1226), married Jeanne des Roches
  Jeanne des Roches
  Jeanne des Roches, Dame de Sablé, de La Suze, de Briollay, de Mayet, de Loupeland, de Chateauneuf-sur-Sarte, de Genneteil, de Precigné, de Agon, and de Craon was a wealthy French noblewoman and heiress. She was also the suo jure seneschal of Anjou, which she had inherited from her father,...
  
  , the daughter of his half-niece, Marguerite de Sablé, by whom he had three children including Isabelle de Craon
  Isabelle de Craon
  Isabelle de Craon, Dame de Fougères , was a French noblewoman, being the daughter of Amaury I, Sire de Craon, a wealthy baron who was the possessor of many lordships in Anjou and Maine...
  
  . This meant that Isabelle de Meulan's daughter-in-law was also her great-granddaughter.
• Constance de Craon, a nun at the Abbey of Clarei
• Agnes de Craon

Isabelle was appointed guardian of Maurice's lands and their children when he left for Jerusalem on Crusade. The Gesta Guillelm Majoris Andegavensis Episcopi names Isabelle among those present at the burial of the Bishop Guillaume on an unknown date during the reign of King Philip II of France

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...

.

Her husband died 12 July 1196. Isabelle herself died on 10 May 1220 at the age of about seventy-two years. Her death occurred just a month after the death in battle of her eldest son, Juhel. She was buried in Savigny.

Ancestry