Joan (1220 – 25 August 1271) was Countess of Toulouse from 1249 until her death. She was the only child of

Raymond VII, Count of Toulouse Raymond VII (July 1197 – 27 September 1249) was Count of Toulouse, Duke of Narbonne and Marquis of Provence from 1222 until his death. Family and marriages Raymond was born at the Château de Beaucaire, the son of Raymond VI of Toulouse a ...

by his first wife

Sancha of Aragon Sancha of Aragon (1478 in Gaeta – 1506 in Naples), or Sancia of Aragon, was an illegitimate daughter of King Alfonso II of Naples and his mistress Trogia Gazzella. In 1494, she was married to Gioffre Borgia, youngest son of Pope Alexander VI. ...

Biography

Joan was born at the Castle of Corneto near

Siena Siena ( , ; traditionally spelled Sienna in English; ) is a city in Tuscany, in central Italy, and the capital of the province of Siena. It is the twelfth most populated city in the region by number of inhabitants, with a population of 52,991 ...

. In 1225, aged five, Joan was betrothed to

Hugh Hugh is the English-language variant of the masculine given name , itself the Old French variant of '' Hugo (name)">Hugo'', a short form of Continental Germanic Germanic name">given names beginning in the element "mind, spirit" (Old English ). ...

, eldest son and heir of

Hugh X of Lusignan Hugh X de Lusignan or Hugh V of La Marche (c. 1183 – c. 5 June 1249, Angoulême) was Seigneur de Lusignan and Count of La Marche in November 1219 and was Count of Angoulême by marriage. He was the son of Hugh IX. Background Hugh's fathe ...

and

Isabella Isabella may refer to: People and fictional characters * Isabella (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Isabella (surname), including a list of people Places United States * Isabella, Alabama, an unincorpo ...

, Countess of Angoulême and Dowager Queen of England. However, the engagement was soon broken. One of the conditions of the Treaty of Paris, signed on 12 April 1229, stipulated that Joan was to be married to

Alphonse, Count of Poitiers Alphonse (11 November 122021 August 1271) was the Count of Poitou from 1225 and Count of Toulouse (as such called Alphonse II) from 1249. As count of Toulouse, he also governed the Marquisate of Provence. Birth and early life Born at Poissy, ...

and brother of King

Louis IX of France Louis IX (25 April 1214 – 25 August 1270), also known as Saint Louis, was King of France from 1226 until his death in 1270. He is widely recognized as the most distinguished of the Direct Capetians. Following the death of his father, Louis VI ...

, and a Papal dispensation for their 4th degree of consanguinity is dated on 26 June of that year. Jeanne Toulouse

After the confirmation of his betrothal, Joan was thereafter brought up at the French royal court. She was thereby not a part of the Occitanian culture, felt no sympathy for the

Albigensians Catharism ( ; from the , "the pure ones") was a Christian quasi-dualist and pseudo-Gnostic movement which thrived in Southern Europe, particularly in northern Italy and southern France, between the 12th and 14th centuries. Denounced as a her ...

and did nothing to prevent the hunt of them issued by the

Inquisition The Inquisition was a Catholic Inquisitorial system#History, judicial procedure where the Ecclesiastical court, ecclesiastical judges could initiate, investigate and try cases in their jurisdiction. Popularly it became the name for various med ...

. The date of the formal marriage is not confirmed; both 1234 and 1241 have been suggested, but the former is considered more likely. The couple had no issue. Joan accompanied her spouse on both the

Seventh Crusade The Seventh Crusade (1248–1254) was the first of the two Crusades led by Louis IX of France. Also known as the Crusade of Louis IX to the Holy Land, it aimed to reclaim the Holy Land by attacking Egypt, the main seat of Muslim power in the Nea ...

in 1249 and the

Eighth Crusade The Eighth Crusade was the second Crusade launched by Louis IX of France, this one against the Hafsid dynasty in Tunisia in 1270. It is also known as the Crusade of Louis IX Against Tunis or the Second Crusade of Louis. The Crusade did not see an ...

in 1270. In 1249, her father died, and she succeeded him as ruler of Toulouse with her spouse as co-ruler. Her mother-in-law installed a governor for them until their return to France. The couple took control over their lands in October 1250, and made their official entrance as Countess and Count of Toulouse in May 1251. After this, they confirmed the governor in his authority and left again. They seldom visited their lands. Joan (who died four days after Alphonse) had attempted to dispose of some of her inherited lands in her will. Joan was the only surviving child and heiress of Raymond VII, Count of Toulouse, Duke of Narbonne, and Marquis of Provence, so under Provençal and French law, the lands should have gone to her nearest male relative; however, in this case the closest relative was a female, Philippa de Lomagne (daughter of Marie d'Anduze, in turn eldest daughter of Pierre Bermond VI d'Anduze, eldest son of

Constance of Toulouse Constance of Toulouse was the daughter of Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse and his second wife Beatrice of Béziers. She first married Sancho VII of Navarre Sancho VII (; 11577 April 1234) called the Strong (, ) was King of Navarre from 1194 ...

, eldest half-sister of Raymond VII). In her will dated 23 June 1270, Joan declared Philippa as her universal heiress. However, her will was invalidated by the Parlement in 1274.Elizabeth M. Hallam: ''Capetian France, 987-1328'', 1980, p. 158. One specific bequest in Alphonse's will, giving his wife's lands in the

Comtat Venaissin The (; ; 'County of Venaissin'), often called the for short, was a part of the Papal States from 1274 to 1791, in what is now the region of Southern France. The region was an enclave within the Kingdom of France, comprising the area aroun ...

to the

Holy See The Holy See (, ; ), also called the See of Rome, the Petrine See or the Apostolic See, is the central governing body of the Catholic Church and Vatican City. It encompasses the office of the pope as the Bishops in the Catholic Church, bishop ...

, was allowed, and it became a

Papal territory The Papal States ( ; ; ), officially the State of the Church, were a conglomeration of territories on the Italian peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope from 756 to 1870. They were among the major states of Italy from the 8th c ...

, a status that it retained until 1791.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Joan Counts of Toulouse 1220 births 1271 deaths 13th-century countesses regnant Christians of the Seventh Crusade Christians of the Eighth Crusade