by Emily McMahon
July 14 2010
What can be said of the fifteenth century woman who almost single-handedly saved France from English dominance? The sainted Joan of Arc comes to mind as the teenaged peasant whose religious visions convinced her to lead France to victory against the English during the second phase of the Hundred Years’ War. Charles VII indeed owed his crown, his entire kingdom to this woman.
Or did he?
Charles indeed had a woman to thank for his lands, his legacy, and even his life. Joan of Arc certainly did her part to inspire and lead a beleaguered France to defeat the English in the Battle of Patay. But it was another woman who used her political connections, her considerable finances, and her political savvy to enable to House of Valois to remain in power in the 1420s. This woman was Charles’s eventual mother-in-law Yolande, a princess who claimed to be queen of her homeland of Aragon and three other puppet kingdoms but ruled none at all. Instead, she played a large part in saving France from English rule.
Yolande was the daughter and only surviving child of John I of Aragon and his second wife, Violant of Bar. None of Yolande’s many brothers survived childhood. Her only surviving half-sibling, Joanna, claimed the throne of Aragon. In 1395 John’s brother Martin succeeded him due to the Aragonese preference for male rulers. Ironically, Aragon was again lean for male heirs when Martin died without surviving children.
Yolande’s mother was an educated and cultured woman. During her tenure as queen, French writers and Provencal troubadours flocked to the court of Aragon. John trusted Violant to rule as regent during his frequent bouts of ill health. Violant could do little about Aragon’s terrible financial situation, but she did provide Yolande with the best possible education.
John had worked to develop an alliance with France, supporting the Avignon Popes during the Western Schism. This alliance and Violant’s French roots helped secure Yolande a marriage with Louis II of Anjou, a distant cousin. Before their marriage in 1400, Louis battled for and won the throne of Naples, but he was ousted as king shortly before the marriage. Louis fought for the Neapolitan crown until his death in 1417.
Meanwhile, Yolande was pursuing a claim to a realm of her own. John I died in 1396 and was succeeded by his younger brother, Martin. Yolande’s older sister Joan, Countess of Foix, claimed the throne of Aragon after Martin’s death in 1410. Joan’s husband Matthew invaded Aragon in his wife’s name, but he was quickly subdued. In any case, Joan died without surviving issue.
After two years without a monarch, the Diets of Aragon were forced to decide between multiple claimants. There were several candidates for the Aragonese throne beside Joan. Martin had several nephews and male cousins who were in the running, as well as a legitimized bastard grandson. Yolande proposed her son Louis for the throne, considering her claim through her father to be the strongest. Through a vote from various representatives of the Diet (and through military force), Ferdinand of Castile eventually took the Aragonese throne. Although Ferdinand’s claim was also through the female line, Yolande and Louis could not match Ferdinand in military power.
Yolande chose her next political battles closer to home. The Duchy of Anjou was threatened after the Battle of Agincourt when the English held a good deal of territory in northern France. Louis II and Yolande were devoted Orleanist supporters in steadfast opposition against Burgundian forces. Yolande became a widow in 1417 after Louis II’s death. At 33, Yolande served as regent for the 14-year-old Louis III.
Meanwhile, France was in an open civil war as the mentally unstable Charles VI was unable to intervene. An alliance between the Duchy of Burgundy, England, and the French queen (Isabeau of Bavaria, Charles’s wife) endangered the succession of Dauphin Charles.
This fifth son of Charles VI and Isabeau had unexpectedly become Dauphin in 1417 after the deaths of his four older brothers. The Dauphin had been under Yolande’s occasional care since 1413. However, Isabeau herself declared Charles a product of one of her extramarital affairs and hence not the true Dauphin. Charles’s possible involvement in the assassination of John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, further soiled his reputation. The Dukes of Orleans and Bourbon, Charles’s uncles, and strongest supporters, were prisoners of the English. Although Charles took a firm stand against the English and Burgundians, he eventually realized he was outmatched in military power and general support. In panic, Charles sought permanent refuge with Yolande in 1421, fleeing to her possessions in southern France.
Yolande, now claiming to be Queen of Aragon, Sicily, Naples, and Jerusalem, took Charles in with open arms. She married Charles to her daughter Marie in 1422 and kept him away from various French, Burgundian, and English forces who were clamoring for his head. Yolande challenged Isabeau’s demands that Charles be returned to the French court and managed to convince Charles VI to recognize the Dauphin as Lieutenant-General of the Kingdom, which removed Isabeau from a regency role. Yolande also managed to convince the Bretons to abandon their alliance with England around this time, giving the Orleanists some real military and financial support. Yolande married two of her children to royalty of Brittany and Lorraine, gaining alliances for the Valois cause in both areas.
Yolande was also instrumental in befriending several mistresses of important French leaders and using them as spies. The establishment of a Breton constable in France furthered support for Charles’s cause.
Perhaps Yolande’s most notable contribution to the restoration of the House of Valois was her early and longstanding support of Joan of Arc. Yolande provided the financing of Joan’s mission to provide relief to in Orleans in early 1429. After the French victory in the Battle of Patay at the height of Joan’s power and leadership, Charles was finally crowned King of France (as Charles VII) at Reims in July 1429. Yolande’s final success in establishing the Valois-Anjou leadership in France was the appointment of her youngest son, Charles, as chief advisor to Charles VII.
Yolande died in 1442, but not before firmly establishing her descendants smack in the middle of the events of late medieval Europe. Yolande’s similarly politically astute granddaughter, Margaret of Anjou, had control of England much in the same was as Yolande had of France. Another granddaughter, Magdalena of Valois, served successfully as the regent of Navarre for both of her children. It is through Magdalena that Yolande’s line returned to the French throne in 1589 after it initially died out in 1498.
Had Yolande not stepped in to protect and preserve the House of Valois in the early part of the fifteenth century, France would have likely fallen largely under English rule. Although much of the credit and romance of France’s salvation goes to Joan of Arc, it was Yolande who used her connections and political acumen to keep the House of Valois on the French throne. Yolande’s successes are indeed considerable – especially for a queen who never truly ruled her own kingdom.