(ca. 1200-1244). Countess of Flanders and Hainaut. The older daughter and successor of Baudouin IX of Flanders and emperor of Constantinople, Jeanne became countess when her father died on crusade in 1205/06. Philip II Augustus of France used her long minority to remove much of the threat that he had perceived from Flemish power. The regency lasted until Jeanne was married at Paris in 1212 to Ferrand of Portugal. Allegedly to counteract English influence in Flanders, the crown prince Louis occupied Aire and Saint-Omer before Jeanne and Ferrand were permitted to assume their inheritance. Ferrand quickly allied with the pro-English party in Flanders but was captured by the French at Bouvines (July 27, 1214) and kept in prison until 1227. Jeanne was forced to accept the control of a group of Francophile Flemish nobles. There was some easing of tensions in the 1220s; but to gain the release of Ferrand, to whom she seems genuinely to have been attached, Jeanne had to agree to the Treaty of Melun (1226), which provided an enormous indemnity and subordinated the counts of Flanders to the French crown. Ferrand fought the nobles who had caused his wife trouble during his captivity and forced the count of Holland to do homage to Flanders for Zeeland west of the Scheldt. He died in 1233, and his infant daughter did not live to maturity. In 1237, Jeanne married Thomas of Savoy. She died on December 5, 1244, and was succeeded in Hainaut and Flanders by her sister Marguerite.
David M. Nicholas
[See also: FERRAND OF PORTUGAL; GHENT]
De Hemptinne, Th. “Vlaanderen en Henegouwen onder de erfgenamen van de Boudewijns, 10701244.” In Algemene Geschiedenis der Nederlanden. 2nd ed., Vol. 2, pp. 372-98.
Luykx, Theo. Johanna van Constantinopel, fgravin van Vlaanderen en Henegouwen. Antwerp: Staandard-Boekhandel, 1946.
World History
