Joanna of Bourbon

Born in the Château de Vincennes, Joanna was a daughter of Peter I, Duke of Bourbon, and Isabella of Valois,^[1] a half-sister of Philip VI of France.

From October 1340 through at least 1343, negotiations and treaties were made for Joanna to marry Amadeus VI, Count of Savoy.^[2] The goal was to bring Savoy more closely into French influence.^[2] Following this, she was betrothed to Humbert, Dauphin of Viennois, which also fell through.^[3]

On 8 April 1350, Joanna married her cousin, the future Charles V of France, at Tain-l'Hermitage.^[1] Since they were first cousins once removed, their marriage required a papal dispensation.^[1] Born thirteen days apart, they both were 12 years old. When Charles ascended the throne in 1364, Joanna became queen of France.

Queen Joanna and Charles V had a somewhat strained relationship during his tenure as dauphin because of his infidelity with Biette de Cassinel, but their relationship improved after he became King, and reportedly, he sometimes confided in her on political and cultural issues and relied on her advice.^[4] According to tradition, Joanna was rumored to have taken the poet Hippolyte de Saint-Alphon [fr] for a lover, who was the biological father of the short-lived child she had in 1366.^[4]

Queen Joanna was described as mentally fragile, and after the birth of her son Louis in 1373, she suffered a complete mental breakdown.^[5] This deeply worried Charles V, who made a pilgrimage and offered many prayers for her recovery.^[5] When she did recover and regained her normal state of mind in 1373, Charles V appointed her legal guardian and regent of France should he die when his son and heir was still a minor.^[5]

Joanna died at the royal residence Hôtel Saint-Pol in Paris, on 6 February 1378 three days after her 40th birthday, and two days after the birth of her youngest child, Catherine.^[1] Froissart^[6] recorded that Joanna took a bath against her physicians' advice. Soon after, she went into labour and died two days after giving birth. The king was devastated. Her heart was buried in the Cordeliers Convent and her entrails in the Couvent des Célestins. The Couvent des Célestins in Paris was the most important royal necropolis after the Basilica of St Denis. The rest of her remains were then placed at Saint-Denis.

Joanna and Charles had eight^[1] or nine^[7] children. Two of them reached adulthood:

1. Joanna (end September 1357^[a] – 21 October 1360, Saint Antoine-des-Champs Abbey, Paris^[b]), interred at Saint-Antoine-des-Champs Abbey.
2. Bonne (1358 – 7 November 1360, Palais Royal, Paris^[c]), interred beside her older sister.^[d]
3. Joanna (Château de Vincennes, 6 June 1366^[e] – 21 December 1366, Hôtel de Saint-Pol, Paris^[f]), interred at Saint Denis Basilica.
4. Charles VI (3 December 1368 – 22 October 1422), King of France.^[14]
5. Marie (Paris, 27 February 1370 – June 1377, Paris).
6. Louis (13 March 1372 – 23 November 1407), Duke of Orléans.^[14]
7. Isabella (Paris, 24 July 1373 – 23 February 1378, Paris).
8. John (1374/76 – died young).^[g]
9. Catherine (Paris, 4 February 1378 – November 1388, buried at Abbaye De Maubuisson, France), m. John of Berry, Count of Montpensier (son of John, Duke of Berry).^[15]

• Cox, Eugene L. (1967). The Green Count of Savoy. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. p. 57. LCCN 67-11030.
• Delachenal, Roland (1910). Chronique des règnes de Jean II et de Charles V: 1364-1380 (in French). Paris: H. Laurens. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
• Guicciardini, Francesco (1969). The History of Italy. Translated by Alexander, Sidney. Princeton University Press.
• Hand, Joni M. (2013). Women, Manuscripts and Identity in Northern Europe, 1350-1550. Ashgate Publishing.
• Keane, Marguerite (2016). Material Culture and Queenship in 14th-century France: The Testament of Blanche of Navarre (1331–1398). Brill.
• Le Laboureur, Jean (1663). Histoire De Charles VI. Roy de France (in French). Paris: Billaine.
• Petit, Ernest [in French] (1905). Histoire des ducs de Bourgogne de la race Capétienne (in French). Paris: Libraire Le Chevalier.
• Raunié, Émile (1890). Épitaphier du vieux Paris (in French). Paris: Impr. nationale. OCLC 910306761. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
• Tuchman, Barbara W. (2011). A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century. Random House Publishing Group.

  Media related to Joanna of Bourbon at Wikimedia Commons