JEANNE OF BURGUNDY

. Two women named Jeanne of Burgundy, both born in the 1290s, reigned as queens of France in the first half of the 14th century. The older Jeanne was the daughter of Mahaut of Artois, a second cousin of Philip IV, and of Otto IV, count of Burgundy. In 1306, she married the king’s second son, who ascended the throne ten years later as Philip V. Two of their children, both daughters, lived to adulthood. The older, another Jeanne, married Eudes IV, duke of Burgundy, and the younger, Marguerite, married Louis I of Flanders. Mahaut’s title to the county of Artois was hotly contested, and Jeanne’s husband, daughters, and sons-in-law became involved in this dispute, which split the French royal family. Queen Jeanne died in 1330 at about the age of forty, the year after she had succeeded her mother as countess of Artois.

Jeanne’s rival in Artois, her cousin Robert, was a close friend of Charles IV (r. 132228) and Philip VI (r. 1328-50), but Philip finally broke with Robert after Jeanne’s death,

When the county passed to her daughter, the duchess of Burgundy. Philip was extremely close to Eudes IV of Burgundy, who was his brother-in-law. Eudes’s sister was the second Jeanne of Burgundy (a granddaughter of St. Louis through her mother, Agnes), who had married Philip of Valois in 1313. After Philip became king in 1328, the queen was a highly influential figure in royal politics. She and Philip corresponded frequently when they were separated, and he delegated important authority to her.

Devoted to all that was Burgundian, Jeanne is said to have strongly disliked people from northwestern France, especially Normans. For much of Philip VI’s reign, Burgundians had considerable influence at court, while men of the west were seriously underrepresented. The disaffection of the northern and western nobility, a significant political factor in the reigns of Philip VI and John II, may have been related to the influence that this remarkable queen was able to exert on the policies of her husband and the attitudes of her son.

John Bell Henneman, Jr.

[See also: BURGUNDY (genealogical table); PHILIP VI]

Gazelles, Raymond. La societe politique et la arise de la royaute sous Philippe de Valois. Paris:

Argences, 1958.