Lady Joan Beaufort, Queen of Scots

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2017

Lady Joan Beaufort, Queen of Scots; Credit – Wikipedia

Lady Joan Beaufort, the wife of James I, King of Scots, was born around 1404 in England. She was the third of the six children and the first of the two daughters of John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset and Margaret Holland. Her mother was the daughter of Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent, the eldest son of Joan, 4th Countess of Kent, known as “The Fair Maid of Kent” from her first marriage to Thomas Holland, 1st Earl of Kent, 2nd Baron Holland. Joan of Kent later married Edward, Prince of Wales (the Black Prince), the eldest son of King Edward III of England, and was the mother of King Richard II of England.

Joan Beaufort’s father John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset was the eldest of the four children of John of Gaunt, son of King Edward III, and his mistress Katherine Swynford. Their children were given the surname “Beaufort” after a former French possession of John of Gaunt. John of Gaunt and Katherine Swynford married on January 13, 1396, at Lincoln Cathedral in England. After the marriage of John and Katherine, their four children were legitimized by both King Richard II of England and Pope Boniface IX. After John of Gaunt’s eldest son from his first marriage to Blanche of Lancaster deposed his first cousin King Richard II in 1399, the new King Henry IV inserted a phrase excepta regali dignitate (“except royal status”) in the documents that had legitimized his Beaufort half-siblings which barred them from the throne.

Joan had five siblings:

Joan met her husband James I, King of Scots during his long captivity in England. After the probable murder of his elder son by an uncle, Robert III, King of Scots sent his only surviving son James to France for his safety. However, the ship 12-year-old James was sailing on was captured on March 22, 1406, by English pirates who delivered James to King Henry IV of England. Robert III died a month later and James, who was nominally King of Scots, spent the first eighteen years of his reign in captivity. As Joan was related to the English royal family, she was often at court. Joan is said to be the inspiration for The Kingis Quair  (“The King’s Book”), a poem supposedly written by James after he looked out a window and saw Joan in the garden.

James I, King of Scots; Credit – Wikipedia

Although there may have been an attraction between Joan and James, their marriage was political as it was a condition for James’ release from captivity. Joan was well-connected. She was a great-granddaughter of King Edward III, a first cousin once removed of King Richard II, a niece of King Henry IV, and a first cousin of King Henry V. Her paternal uncle Henry Beaufort was a Cardinal, Bishop of Winchester and Chancellor of England. The English considered a marriage to a Beaufort gave the Scots an alliance with the English instead of the French. Joan’s dowry of £6,000 was subtracted from James’ ransom of £40,000. The couple was married on February 12, 1424, at St. Mary Overie Church, now known as Southwark Cathedral in Southwark, London, England. James was released from his long captivity on March 28, 1424, and the couple traveled to Scotland. On May 21, 1424, James and Joan were crowned King and Queen of Scots at Scone Abbey by Henry Wardlaw, Bishop of St. Andrews.

Joan and James I, King of Scots had eight children:

Upon returning to Scotland after an absence of 18 years, James found that Scotland was in horrible condition, with much poverty and lawlessness. He vigorously set about transforming his kingdom and made many enemies. There were still doubts about the validity of the first marriage of James’ grandfather Robert II, and this raised questions about James’ own right to the throne of Scotland. James found himself facing challenges from descendants of his grandfather’s second marriage.

On February 20, 1437, plotters supporting the claim to the throne of Walter Stewart, Earl of Atholl, a son of Robert II’s second marriage, broke into the Blackfriars Priory in Perth, Scotland where James and Joan were staying. The conspirators reached the couple’s bedroom where Joan tried to protect James but was wounded. James then tried to escape via an underground passage but was cornered and hacked to death by Sir Robert Graham.  There was no strong support for the conspiracy and James’ assassins were soon captured and brutally executed.

Joan herself had been a target of her husband’s killers, and although wounded, she escaped, took custody of her 6-year old son King James II, and declared a regency. The idea of having Scotland ruled by an Englishwoman was not popular. Three months later, King James II’s first cousin, Archibald Douglas, 5th Earl of Douglas, was proclaimed regent, a position he held until his death two years later. On September 21, 1439, Joan married Sir James Stewart, known as the Black Knight of Lorne. The Stewarts of Lorne were trusted supporters of Archibald Douglas, 5th Earl of Douglas, the young king’s regent, and their power greatly increased while the Douglas family controlled Scotland. However, this all changed with the death of Archibald Douglas, 5th Earl of Douglas.

After Douglas’ death, the power of the regency was shared uneasily by William Crichton, 1st Lord Crichton, Lord Chancellor of Scotland, and Sir Alexander Livingston of Callendar, who was the custodian of the young King James II as the warden of Stirling Castle.  As a result, Joan’s second husband Sir James Stewart and his Douglas allies planned to abduct the young James II who was being held by Livingston at Stirling Castle. However, Livingston placed Joan and her new husband under house arrest at Stirling Castle. They were only released by making a formal agreement to relinquish custody of King James II in favor of Livingston, by giving up Joan’s dowry for her son’s maintenance, and agreeing that Livingston’s actions were only to ensure the king’s safety. From then on, Joan had no participation in matters of state.

Joan and Sir James Stewart, the Black Knight of Lorne had three sons:

In November 1444, Joan was besieged at Dunbar Castle by William Douglas, 8th Earl of Douglas from the Black Douglas faction, who may have had the blessing of King James II. Joan was under the protection of James Douglas, 3rd Earl of Angus from the Red Douglas faction and Sir Adam Hepburn of Hailes, the custodian of Dunbar Castle. Supplies from the nearby Red Douglas stronghold of Tantallon Castle were likely shipped in via a hidden passage to maintain the garrison at Dunbar Castle. However, after a ten-month siege, Joan died on July 15, 1445, at around 41 years of age and Dunbar Castle was turned over to the Black Douglas faction.

Joan was buried beside her first husband James I, King of Scots in the Carthusian Charterhouse of Perth, which he had founded. On May 11, 1559, following a sermon by John Knox, a leader of the Scottish Reformation and the founder of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, the Carthusian Charterhouse in Perth was attacked by a mob of Protestant reformers. Everything was destroyed including the royal tombs and remains.

A monument marking the site of the Charterhouse; Photo Credit – By kim traynor, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29398897

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Works Cited

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