Miniseries Two: The Capetian Miracle Ends

The Capetian Miracle Ends  

Before we start today’s episode I just wanted to say Thank You. TO everyone who has downloaded and listened I am grateful. I you have time please leave a review on iTunes or your favourite podcasting service, the show should be on everyone except Google, and I’m working on that one. Join me on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter and share the show with any friends who might like it. Also, I’m recovering from Covid, I’m vaccinated a boosted, so it’s much easier than it would have been otherwise. Just be aware I may sound a little stuffy. I hope it’s not too distracting. Now on to the Capetian Mess.

For our second mini-series we move forward two centuries. We’ll come back, I promise, I really want to discuss Henry II’s heirs, but I need a break from the English. So we’re going to Paris, the court of Philip the IV or the Fair (as in handsome, not evenhanded). It is now March, 1314, over the last seven years Philip has been suppressing the Poor Fellow Soldier of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon. Today, the 11th or 18th of the month, depending on sources he will execute Jacques de Molay, the leader of this religious order, and be cursed. Within two months his co-conspirator, Pope Clement V, will die, in less than a year his family will fall apart, and within three years the longest unbroken chain of direct father-to-son royal inheritance will end. Within 14 years none of his descendants will rule France. It will be twelve generation before they do again (though they will continue to rule in England through his daughter, and will rule in Spain within eight generations).

I may be joking about curses being real, while there are records of de Molay cursing the king, I for one don’t buy the curse theory, but it makes for an enjoyable opening, the Poor Fellow Soldiers…, or the Knights Templar as every called them are an easy group to blame. More likely the stress of events over the next year will lead to Philip’s early death, the Pope’s death is equally explained by stress and natural causes. The disintegration of his family can be attributed to poor marriage choices for two of his sons on his and their mother-in-law’s insistence. And finally, the end of his line ruling can be blamed on a lack of medical care in a much less advanced time when infant mortality was not uncommon and diseases took out even the healthy. 

Before I get too far ahead of myself I should introduce this series’ passed. They are Joan II, Queen of Navarre (but not France, and that’s what we’re focusing on). Her cousins, Joan III countess of Burgundy and Blanche of France, duchess of Oreleans will share an episode. And finally, the she-wolf herself, Isabella of France, Queen of England. The first three are the oldest surviving children of Philip the Fair’s three sons, the final is his only daughter, the widow of Edward II and mother of Edward III of England. 

Now, before anyone says it, yes, technically all monarchs of France, save the Boniparts, are Capetians. They’re just cadet branches, descended from younger surviving sons of the main line. But the death of John I or Jean le Postume (Post-um) on November 20th 1316 brought direct father-to-son succession from Hugh Capet to an end. 

How do these four women fit into the part of our Passed? Well, first they were each legitimate or declared legitimate, I’ll come back to this a few times, heirs to a previous king. Because the Capetians were worse than the Normans with using the same selection of names (tradition was to name an oldest son after his grandfather and a second son after his father, hence the high number of Philips and Louis in the family), I will need to go over who people are before we even start, I do apologise, because this is actually the easy part of naming everyone. First is the paterfamilis, Philip IV or the Fair, which is what I will refer to him as (king from 1285-1314). The French royal family had been described as very beautiful since at least Louis IX two generations earlier, all four of Philip’s surviving children were considered exceptionally beautiful. Philip himself was also described as almost statue-like, devoutly religious, and very close to his wife and children. His wife, whom he was devoted to, having no known illegitimate children, was Joan I Queen of Navarre. His children, in order were Louis X or Quarrelsome (king from 1314-1316), the father of our first Passed, Joan II. Philip V or the Tall (king from 1316-1322), the father of our second Passed Joan III, Charles IV or the Fair (king from 1322-1328), the father of our third Passed Blanche, and finally Isabella, our fourth Passed. So, these women have a clear link to a previous monarch, they’re each the oldest or only surviving child, why were they passed over? 

This first episode has it all, beautiful people, religious arguments, and sex scandals. This one would probably have killed any king. I think even Henry VIII would have been at risk of death. Enter the second great scandal of Philip the Fair’s reign, the Tour de Nesle Affair. Philip’s sons, Louis, Philip and Charles were all married to women with ‘of Burgundy’ in their names. Louis wife was Margaret of Burgundy, daughter of the Duke of Burgundy; Margaret was Joan II mother. Philip’s wife was Joan of Burgundy, daughter of the Count of Burgundy; Joan III was her daughter, and Charles was married to her younger sister, Blanche of Burgundy, she does not have any surviving children. In case you’re curious the county and the duchy of Burgundy are geographically distinct areas that share a border. I will be posting a family tree on Facebook to help. I’ll be honest, every time I read about this Affair I’m rather shocked, this would be a sex scandal in this day, I can only imagine what it would have been like in the fourteenth century. In 1314 Philip the Fair was informed of something unsettling by his daughter during her visit to France. A year earlier in England she noticed that purses she had gifted two of her sisters-in-law, Margaret and Blanche, were on the persons of two visiting French knights, brothers Walter and Philip of Aunay (Un-e). She may have found it odd that such a personal gift had been passed on to men of much lower rank. 

Philip the Fair is often portrayed in movies, books, and TV series as ruthless and cold, but most contemporary descriptions point towards a very proper, stoic man, who was aiming to emulate his grandfather, Saint Louis or Louis IX. He had arranged his children’s marriages in a way that would be expected at the time, for security, territorial claims, treaties, or military protection. His own marriage was arranged via a treaty and was deeply successful, he’s said to have morned his wife’s passing greatly and did not remarry despite only being 37 when she died. He also didn’t want to bring scandal to his daughter-in-laws if there was a mistake, but the news would have been deeply upsetting. He placed the knights under surveillance. When he had enough proof to act his did so swiftly. Margaret and Blanche had been found to be consorting with the knights, drinking and eating with them in private within the guard tower on the Seine, the Tour de Nesle. the knights were arrested and confessed under brutal torture, I’m not going to go into the details. Philip had Margaret and Blanche arrested on the ground of infidelity and his third daughter-in-law, Joan, arrested on the grounds that she knew and did nothing to stop it or inform him. All three were imprisoned at Chateau Gaillard. 

During my research for this I read a very interesting book, aptly titled ‘The Romance of Adultery’ by Peggy McCracken. She points to this affair as the cause for the ending of courtly romance stories about affairs between knights and princess or queens. Up until this time these stories were not uncommon in the popular literature of various courts, Dr. McCracken points out the these stories avoided having a product come about from the knight and the queens relationship. After all, the king having an affair is a personal issue, the queen having an affair is a matter for the state, because any children the queen has are a possession of the state. You may be able to see the implications, there were plenty of stories before this, Arthur’s court, Tristan and Isolt, where the queen has an affair with a knight, but the consequences are either mild or none. This was not a fairy tale and none of the bad-actors would make it out of this well, and there was a small, tangible consequence. The knights had admitted the affairs had begun three years prior, sometime in 1311, which was very unfortunate for one of our passed, Margaret’s daughter Joan II was born in January 1312. It put her legitimacy under a shadow. I’ll discuss this more in her episode of course. In addition to having to deal with the embarrassment of being publicly cockold, neither Louis nor Charles could have their marriage annulled. A new pope hadn’t been elected yet, and wouldn’t be for another two years. 

This obviously isn’t the first or last time a queen or princess would be accused of having an affair. Elinor of Aquitain and Melisandne of Jerusalem, mentioned in our last series, were both accused of having affairs, the former possibly as a feeble attempt to suggest an annulment from Louis VII, the latter had her own husband encourage those that would suggest it in a power grab (yes, that would be Matilda’s father-in-law). And we’ve all heard of Henry VIII accusing two of his wives, one wrongly, and one slightly more factually, of adultery. But in this case there was clear evidence and even modern historians are very confident that the accused are guilty of these crimes. For a man of Philip the Fair’s character this would have been shocking. Add to that his recent suppression of the Templars, his ongoing arguments with the Papacy, it’s no surprise his health was probably declining. In November 1314 he suffered a stroke while hunting. He died on the 29th of November 1314, his son Louis X succeed him. 

Louis was a very different man from his father. The sobriquet ‘The Quarrlesome’ wasn’t one of those jokes where one is given and nickname that is the opposite of their actual size or personality, he was a truly difficult man. Prior to her imprisonment he and Margaret had not had a particularly good relationship. Louis first love was real tennis, an older and indoor form of lawn tennis. To be clear, real tennis is still played, it’s just not as popular as lawn tennis. Real tennis will be to the French royals as the New Forest was to the Normans. Louis and Margaret had been married for seven years before the birth of their only child, Joan, our first subject. As I’ve mentioned her legitimacy was questioned, but Louis did claim her as his own. Due to the interregnum between popes Louis was unable to get his marriage annulled, his solution was cruel and effective, he likely had her strangled in her prison. There is a possibility that she died due to illness, as being stuck in a damp, dirty cell with no sunlight and poor food is likely to cause. This is what killed Blanche, Charles’ wife. However Margaret died Louis quickly married Clementia of Hungry. Clementia was about four months pregnant when Louis died in 1316, after a possibly, too strenuous game of real tennis, he was 26. Philip, Louis’ brother was declared regent while awaiting the birth of the next royal child. A daughter would make Joan queen, a son would displace her and become king.

The Capetians had been lucky, truly lucky, in two ways. First, only father-to-son succession for 300 years, the longest of any recorded royal line. And Second, minimal regencies for under-age kings. There had only been two minorities: Philip I, the Amorous, who reigned from 1060-1108 was eight upon his ascension. His mother, Anne of Kiev acted has his regent for the first years of his reign, after which his uncle by marriage, Baldwin V of Flanders took over until Philip reached 14 (yes, this Baldwin is WIlliam the Bastard’s father-in-law and the grandfather of first Passed subject, Robert Curthose). Philip I ruled before the centralisation of royal power and spent a lot of his reign battling with his barons. The second minority is that of Louis IX, probably the most famous French Louis until the Sun King. He’s usually referred to as Saint Louis, yes, the city of Saint Louis is named after him. He became king in 1226 at the age 12. His mother, Blanche of Castile acted as his regent until approximately 1234, she was his closest advisor and acted as his regent again when he was on the seventh crusade. She died while he was in the holy land in 1252. To call Blanche a capable leader in her own right would be an understatement. Her military prowess, diplomatic capacity, and forward thinking helped further French royal interests and consolidated control over territory. Her death was devastating to Louis and the country, much like her great grandmother, the Empress Matilda, and her grandmother, Elinor of Aquitain, she shows that women were more than capable of military and political leadership even if they might not have been able to join men on the field of battle (at least not in the 13th century). 

While women are perfectly capable of leading, Joan II, Joan III, Blanche, and Isabella would never get the chance to rule France, instead the crown would first go to Philip V, then Charles IV, before going to the Valois  line in the person of Philip VI, why? Well, there are simple answers: sexism, greed, and ageism, but the story behind them are where things get interesting. All ruling families have a story, so before moving on to our Passed I feel that I should discuss the Capetians in a little more detail. While they were almost unbelievably lucky, their claims to legitimacy and power would be laughable after Joan II of Navarre was passed over in favour of her uncle. Please do bare with me here, there will be a bit of genealogy, which while interesting, is often a dry subject. 

In 987 Hugh Capet was ‘elected’ king of the Franks. His election, like those by the Witan I discussed in our first series, was by the noblemen of France, or more precisely Paris. His election is the foundation point of the Capetian dynasty. Prior to this he would have been considered a member of the Robertian dynasty, one of the three post-Roman dynasties to rule the Franks. Wait, three you say, Veronica, you mean two? Nope, three. While the Merovingians and Carolingians are easily remembered, thanks to pop-culture for the former and Charlemagne for the latter, the Robertians are often overlooked. 

Briefly, the Merovingians ruled most of the area of modern France, parts of modern Germany, and parts of modern Spain from the 500s to 751. They were known for having long hair and claiming decent from a sea monster (yes, a sea monster). Probably their most famous ruler was Clovis I, who converted to Christianity and in doing so began the conversion of all of France. The Merovingians practiced partible inheritance which meant that through each generation the kingdom was divided among legitimate sons of its rulers. While each minor king would rule his own area the kingdom was seen as one political unit that would unite as needed to see of invaders. This form of inheritance is problematic in centralising a state, if each son expects an equal share to his brother then centralisation is next to impossible. Towards the end of the dynasty’s time in leadership the true power became the Mayor of the Palace. This position is often compared to a modern prime minister working within a constitutional monarchy, not unlike Australia or England today, but is probably most similar to the shogunate period of Japanese history, where the military leader was not the emperor but the shogun, however the emperor was still needed for legitimacy. The final three Mayors of the Palace during the Merovingian period were the three that would bring their rule to an end. Charles Martel, who basically managed the territories of the Merovingians from 718-741 is also the founder of the Carolingian dynasty. He was born (illegitimately I might add) into the Pippinid dynasty, but through impressive political manoeuvring was able to consolidate power while keeping the final three Merovingian kings as figure heads. After his death in 741 his two oldest sons, Carloman and Pepin the short would each rule half of the territory of the Franks as Mayors of the palace until November of 751 when Pepin the Short would, with the assistance of the pope, peacefully overthrow Childeric III, and become the first Carolingian king. Childeric and his son had their hair cut, it was the dynasty’s thing, and were placed into a monastery, which is a much more peaceful way to end their reign than many others have had. For the purposes of linking this to a few thoughts on this series’ Passed, all Merovingian rulers were male and therefore kings. All were sons (both legitimate and natural) brothers or nephews of previous kings with one exception, Childebret the Adopted. Childebret was the biological son of Grimoald the Elder, a member of the Pippinids, the precursor to the Carolingians, who was the Mayor of the Palace from 643-657. Why do I bring up this one king in relation to our Passed, well this king and his father while not passing on the throne do have something to do with the Carolingian claim to power, Grimoald’s sister, Saint Begga, is the grandmother of Charles Martel. So, previous kingship being shown through a female line, which we will see again in two interesting upcoming cases.

Don’t worry, I’m not going to ignore the other great dynasty of France. Pepin the Short would consolidate power and pass Frankish territory on to his two sons, following the previous dynasty’s partible inheritance. These two sons would get to the point of going to war against each other for total rule of Frankish territories. His younger son, Carloman I would die young, leaving behind two young sons who would eventually be lost to history. Pepin’s older son is Charles the Great or Charlemagne, the man who would unite almost all Frankish, German, and Italian territory and would come the closest to controlling all of Europe since the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Charlemagne, much like his father was pressured to divide his territory by his nobles. They thought is was unfair to deny a son his rightful inheritance, at least in their traditions. There was one problem, the title of emperor could only be passed on to one son, it was indivisible. Charlemagne got lucky, in the worst way possible, only one of his sons, Louis the Pious survived into adulthood.  Louis was able to divide his kingdom, in a way that will look familiar to us today. The Western Kingdom will be controlled by mainly Carolingians until the crowning of Hugh Capet. The Middle Kingdom will eventually be divided with parts joining France, parts Italy, and parts going to Germany. Finally, the Eastern Kingdom will begin forming Germany. For this series we’re only interested in the rulers of the Western Kingdom (don’t come at me people who know where Burgundy is). 

Decent from Charlemagne was a big deal throughout the medieval period, it probably still is today among certain circles. William the Bastard had to persuade Matilda of Flanders to marry him in spite of his illegitimacy, his reason for even attempting this were mainly based on her being a descendent of Charlemagne and an overall amazing woman. Her Carolingian six times great grandmother, Judith of Flanders, had been one of the few Carolingian princesses who was not sent to a convent, Hugh Capet’s grandmothers were two others. Hugh Capet and his descendants until Philip V would make note of their descent from Charlemagne when appropriate (or when they needed to show off). This all but stopped with Philip V’s crowning because their decent was through women, and by denying power to those who descended from female lines they now traced their legitimacy and power only through Hugh Capet. 

Hugh Capet, much like Pepin the Short benefited both from his own political acumen and that of his father. Hugh the Great had been the Duke of the Franks and the Count of Paris, two titles that were not dissimilar to Mayor of the Palace, and parallels can be drawn between Hugh the Great and Charles Martel. Both used their power behind the throne to help their children rise to positions of power even higher than their own. Their sons would found dynasties that would last for generations and control large areas of Europe. They were both brilliant military leaders. Hugh Capet, unlike Pepin benefited, oddly, from having only one son. His kingdom didn’t need to be divided and his son, Robert II (probably a well chosen name pointing back to Robert I, Hugh Capet’s grandfather who had been elected king in 922 as one of three Robertian kings) was able to set up a single kingly-succession. This did require Robert II to promise a younger son the Duchy of Burgundy, which will come up a few times in this mini-series, and caused said younger son to rebel against his older brother until the duchy was granted. 

Now, I’ve brought up the Robertians a few time, the family takes its name from Robert the Strong, the grandfather of Hugh the Great, two of his sons will be king and his granddaughter will be queen consort. During the Carolingian period there were two depositions of Carolingian kings, Charles III, the fat, and Charles III, the Simple, yes, they have the same regnal number, Charles the fat wasn’t always counted in lists of French rulers. Charles the fat was deposed in favour of Odo or Eudes, the first Robertian king. He ruled for almost ten years and was a respected military leader. After his death the nobility supported Charles the Simple (originally meant to convey his forthright nature, later used to insult his intelligence and sanity towards the end of his reign), a Carolingian, as king. This Charles by the way is the one who would sign the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte with Rollo, the first Norman count, the ancestor of William the Bastard featured in the last series. Charles was overthrown by his nobles in favour of Odo’s younger brother, Robert I. Robert was succeeded by his son-in-law Rudolph or Raoul, the last Robertian king. I do find it interesting that a son-in-law was included, because that would again be inheritance through a female line. I will get into more detail regarding the last Carolingian kings in a later mini-series because many of their children or grandchildren were Passed when Hugh Capet became king of the Franks. 

Through just short look at Frankish royal history it’s easy to see that women, while not able to rule, were not stopped from passing on their claims, so what went wrong when it was Joan II of Navarre’s turn? Please join me next week as I share Joan’s story, explain why she would never rule, at least in France, and start the tale of why France would both never have a female king, nor a female-line king. See you next week.