Isabeau (* c. 1295, † 22 August 1358) was the only surviving daughter of the French king Philippe IV and Jeanne de Navarre. Her year of birth is only assumed to be 1295. As early as 1303 at the Peace of Paris, her father and Edward I agreed on a marriage with Edward, the heir to the English throne, who was already King of England at the time of the wedding on 25 January 1308 in Boulogne. Contemporaries described Isabella as a very beautiful, charming and intelligent woman. At first she hardly interested her husband, presumably because she was not much older than 12 at the time, suggesting a later consummation of the marriage. Isabella gave birth to her first child four years later; Edward II had previously fathered at least one illegitimate son.1
It is not known how Isabella reacted to the royal favourite, Piers Gaveston. Philippe IV intervened soon after the wedding with Edward II, whom he felt was not treating Isabella properly. Although this intervention had the desired effect, Gaveston’s dominance remained untouched. He probably ignored the queen at best, and she never let it come to a confrontation with him or her husband. In the conflict between the king and the opposition of the nobility, she always supported Edward II, who was delighted with the birth of the heir to the throne, Prince Edward in 1312. The relationship between Isabella and her husband became closer after Gaveston’s death.
In the years to come, the queen led the typical life of a medieval ruler without any significant discord with her husband. By 1321 she had three more children. In 1318 Hugh Despenser became Lord Chamberlain of the royal household and in a very short time the king’s closest confidant.
Unlike Gaveston, Despenser did everything he could to destroy Edward II’s marriage. He was supported in this by a massive deterioration in Anglo-French relations. Isabella’s brother Charles IV demanded that his brother-in-law pay homage for the English fiefs in France, but Edward II did not comply. In 1324 the situation escalated and France occupied Gascony. Isabella was immediately declared an enemy. All French nobles who had come with her to the English court had to leave the country. All the queen’s possessions were confiscated, leaving her with no financial resources. Despenser even persuaded the king to ask the Pope to annul the marriage. In the meantime, Charles IV offered to vacate all the occupied territories if Edward II would make his son Duke of Aquitaine and he would come to France with his mother to take the oath of liege. Thus, on 9 March 1325, Isabella sailed to France, where she was lovingly received by her brother Charles IV. Prince Edward followed her in September. Of course, it was assumed in England that both would return after concluding a treaty and paying homage, but Isabella thought nothing of it. She refused her and her son’s return until Edward II had disengaged from Despenser. A queen who refused to return to her country was a security risk, a consort who defied her husband’s will was unthinkable. In the Middle Ages, women were considered the property of their husbands and were not to leave them, no matter how badly they treated them. Isabella’s decision was courageous, but she could only afford it because she had extensive backing – again contrary to all the prevailing conventions of the time. Her brother, the church and the people supported her. Edward II probably no longer understood the world because of this development. This assistance was not altruistic. All the nobles who had fled to the continent from Despenser hoped Isabella would either depose the hated minion or legitimise a possible military strike against the English king. Charles IV saw in the dispute a chance to win Gascony for France, but a French army fighting in England against the king would have received no help from the English. France’s king found another solution with his sister, in which her cousin Jeanne de Valois played an important role. She was married to the important Count Willem I of Holland, Zeeland and Hainault, where Roger Mortimer had been trying to raise an army against Edward II since his escape from the Tower. In December 1325, Jeanne came to Paris for her father’s funeral. Together with Charles IV and Isabella, she decided that an invasion of England should be led from her husband’s territory. At the same time, Mortimer met the English queen again and the two began an affair that was known about in England and France by the spring of 1326 at the latest. In the summer, Isabella travelled to Hainault, where she concluded a treaty with Count Wilelm which, among other things, provided for the marriage of his daughter Philippa to Prince Edward. In the autumn she sailed with an army to England, where she met no significant resistance. Edward II and Despenser were so unpopular that even the execution of the favourite and the deposition of the king were accepted.
Edward II died unexpectedly, a few months after his son had been crowned Edward III. Isabella took over the regency for her minor son. Mortimer had no official function in this, but the affair between the two continued. In 1328 Charles IV died without male descendants. Although England had accepted the succession of his cousin Philippe de Valois for the time being, Isabella speculated on the French crown for her son. In return, she concluded a highly unpopular peace with Scotland in the same year. The general discontent provided a good breeding ground for a conspiracy involving leading nobles, including the Earl of Kent, a half-brother of Edward II. With Kent’s execution, Isabella and Mortimer squandered their last sympathies. In the autumn of 1330 Edward III had Mortimer arrested. Isabella intervened in his favour with her son, who had never harboured much sympathy for her lover. Mortimer was executed, the Queen Mother only mentioned, if at all, as an innocent victim of his machinations. She had to withdraw completely from politics, but kept her estates and income. She continued to take part in court life, received regular visits from her son and maintained good relations with her children and grandchildren until her death in 1358.
Edward II
Isabella is deprived of her traditional roles as wife and lover by Edward II, so she takes refuge in the male game of politics and intrigue.2 Her address to the troops (15,1-14) is one of the rare examples of Marlowean rhetoric in women 3 Even when Mortimer interrupts her by saying that fighters must not speak so emotionally, she is more intelligent than her opponents and allies, all of whom she outlives. Only in her assessment of her son does she make a mistake. Isabella is the first woman on the Elizabethan stage who corresponds to the Machiavellian type. Her "masculine" qualities such as assertiveness, resourcefulness and determination make her a true queen. At a time when it was still debated whether women had souls, Marlowe achieved a remarkable achievement in creating Isabella.4 Isabella is at her strongest when she succeeds in persuading Mortimer to recall Gaveston from Ireland. This moment of intimacy, in which Marlowe cleverly exploits the stage space, allows her two options through which she can only emerge a winner. By facilitating the return of his favourite, she regains her husband’s favour. However, should Edward II refuse to give her his affection, there would still be the plan to assassinate Gaveston. A murder for which the king would probably blame Mortimer rather than Isabella. And should Mortimer actually rise up against Edward II as well, the Queen would have little to fear from him5