Joan of Évreux (french: Jeanne d'Évreux; 1310 – 4 March 1371) was

Queen of France This is a list of the women who were queens or empresses as wives of French monarchs from the 843 Treaty of Verdun, which gave rise to West Francia, until 1870, when the Third Republic was declared. Living wives of reigning monarchs technica ...

and

Navarre Navarre (; es, Navarra ; eu, Nafarroa ), officially the Chartered Community of Navarre ( es, Comunidad Foral de Navarra, links=no ; eu, Nafarroako Foru Komunitatea, links=no ), is a foral autonomous community and province in northern Spain, ...

as the third wife of King Charles IV of France.

Life

She was the daughter of

Louis, Count of Évreux Louis of Évreux (3 May 1276 – 19 May 1319, Paris) was a prince, the only son of King Philip III of France and his second wife Maria of Brabant, and thus a half-brother of King Philip IV of France. Louis had a quiet and reflective personality a ...

and

Margaret of Artois Margaret of Artois (1285–1311) was the eldest child of Philip of Artois and his wife, Blanche of Brittany. She was a member of the House of Artois. She was married to Louis d'Évreux. By her marriage, Margaret was Countess of Évreux. Margaret ...

. Because Joan was Charles's first cousin, the couple required papal permission to marry, which they obtained from

Pope John XXII Pope John XXII ( la, Ioannes PP. XXII; 1244 – 4 December 1334), born Jacques Duèze (or d'Euse), was head of the Catholic Church from 7 August 1316 to his death in December 1334. He was the second and longest-reigning Avignon Pope, elected by ...

. They had three daughters, Jeanne, Marie and Blanche, who were unable to inherit the throne under principles of

Salic law The Salic law ( or ; la, Lex salica), also called the was the ancient Frankish civil law code compiled around AD 500 by the first Frankish King, Clovis. The written text is in Latin and contains some of the earliest known instances of Old Du ...

. The royal couple's lack of sons caused the end of the direct line of the

Capetian dynasty The Capetian dynasty (; french: Capétiens), also known as the House of France, is a dynasty of Frankish origin, and a branch of the Robertians. It is among the largest and oldest royal houses in Europe and the world, and consists of Hugh Cape ...

. Joan died on 4 March 1371 in her

château A château (; plural: châteaux) is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor, or a fine country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally, and still most frequently, in French-speaking regions. Nowaday ...

at Brie-Comte-Robert, in the

Île-de-France , timezone1 = CET , utc_offset1 = +01:00 , timezone1_DST = CEST , utc_offset1_DST = +02:00 , blank_name_sec1 = Gross regional product , blank_info_sec1 = Ranked 1st , bla ...

region, some twenty miles southeast of Paris. She was buried at the

Basilica of St Denis The Basilica of Saint-Denis (french: Basilique royale de Saint-Denis, links=no, now formally known as the ) is a large former medieval abbey church and present cathedral in the commune of Saint-Denis, a northern suburb of Paris. The building ...

, the necropolis of the Kings of France.

Legacy

Two of Joan's remarkable possessions survive: her

book of hours The book of hours is a Christian devotional book used to pray the canonical hours. The use of a book of hours was especially popular in the Middle Ages and as a result, they are the most common type of surviving medieval illuminated manuscrip ...

and a statue of the

Virgin and Child In art, a Madonna () is a representation of Mary, either alone or with her child Jesus. These images are central icons for both the Catholic and Orthodox churches. The word is (archaic). The Madonna and Child type is very prevalent in ...

. The ''Book of Hours'', known as the ''

Hours of Jeanne d'Evreux The Hours of Jeanne d'Evreux is an illuminated book of hours in the Gothic style. According to the usual account, it was created between 1324 and 1328 by Jean Pucelle for Jeanne d'Evreux, the third wife of Charles IV of France. It was sold in 195 ...

,'' is in The Cloisters collection of the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

in New York. It was commissioned from the artist

Jean Pucelle Jean Pucelle (c. 1300 – 1355; active c. 1320–1350) was a Parisian Gothic-era manuscript illuminator who excelled in the invention of drolleries as well as traditional iconography. He is considered one of the best miniaturists of ...

between 1324 and 1328, probably as a gift from her husband. The book contains the usual prayers of the

canonical hours In the practice of Christianity, canonical hours mark the divisions of the day in terms of fixed times of prayer at regular intervals. A book of hours, chiefly a breviary, normally contains a version of, or selection from, such prayers. In ...

as arranged for the laity along with the notable inclusion of the office dedicated to St Louis, her great-grandfather. The small statue of the Virgin and Child (

gilded silver Silver-gilt or gilded/gilt silver, sometimes known in American English by the French term vermeil, is silver (either pure or sterling) which has been gilded with gold. Most large objects made in goldsmithing that appear to be gold are actually ...

and enamel, 69 cm high), which Jeanne left to the monastery of St Denis outside Paris, is in the Louvre Museum.

References

Sources

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External links

The Hours of Jeanne d'Evreux at the Cloisters
, - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Devreux, Jeanne 1310 births 1371 deaths French queens consort Navarrese royal consorts Countesses of Champagne House of Évreux Burials at the Basilica of Saint-Denis 14th-century French people 14th-century French women