Joanna, Duchess Of Brabant
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Joanna (24 June 1322 – 1 December 1406) was a ruling duchess of Brabant from 1355 until her death. She was duchess of Brabant until the occupation of the
duchy A duchy, also called a dukedom, is a country, territory, fiefdom, fief, or domain ruled by a duke or duchess, a ruler hierarchically second to the king or Queen regnant, queen in Western European tradition. There once existed an important differe ...
by her brother-in-law Louis II of Flanders. Following her death, the rights to the duchy of Brabant passed to her great-nephew Anthony of Burgundy.


Life

Joanna was born 24 June 1322, the daughter of
John III, Duke of Brabant John III (; 1300 – 5 December 1355) was Duke of Brabant, Duke of Lothier, Lothier (1312–1355) and List of rulers of Limburg, Limburg (1312–1347 then 1349–1355), the last Brabant male to rule them. Biography John was the son of John II, ...
and Marie d'Évreux. Her first marriage, in 1334, was to William II, Count of Hainaut (1307–1345), who subsequently died in battle and their only son William died young, thus foiling the project of unifying their territories. Joanna's second marriage was to Wenceslaus of Luxemburg. The famous document, the foundation of the rule of law in Brabant called the '' Blijde Inkomst'' ("Joyous Entry"), was arrived at in January 1356, in order to assure Joanna and her consort peaceable entry into their capital and to settle the inheritance of the
Duchy of Brabant The Duchy of Brabant, a Imperial State, state of the Holy Roman Empire, was established in 1183. It developed from the Landgraviate of Brabant of 1085–1183, and formed the heart of the historic Low Countries. The Duchy comprised part of the Bu ...
on her "natural heirs", who were Joanna's sisters, they being more acceptable to the burghers of Brabant than rule by the
House of Luxembourg The House of Luxembourg (; ; ) or Luxembourg dynasty was a royal family of the Holy Roman Empire in the Late Middle Ages, whose members between 1308 and 1437 ruled as kings of Germany and Holy Roman emperors as well as kings of Bohemia, List of r ...
. The document was seen as a dead letter, followed by a military incursion in 1356 into Brabant by Louis II of Flanders, who had married
Margaret Margaret is a feminine given name, which means "pearl". It is of Latin origin, via Ancient Greek and ultimately from Iranian languages, Old Iranian. It has been an English language, English name since the 11th century, and remained popular thro ...
, Joanna's younger sister, and considered himself Duke of Brabant by right of his wife. With the Duchy overrun by Louis' forces, Joanna and Wencelaus signed the humiliating Treaty of Ath, which ceded Mechelen and Antwerp to Louis. By August 1356 Joanna and Wencelaus had called upon the Emperor, Charles IV to support them by force of arms. Charles met at
Maastricht Maastricht ( , , ; ; ; ) is a city and a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. It is the capital city, capital and largest city of the province of Limburg (Netherlands), Limburg. Maastricht is loca ...
with the parties concerned, including representatives of the towns, and all agreed to nullify certain terms of the ''Blijde Inkomst'', to satisfy the
Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...
dynasty. The duchy continued to deteriorate with Wencelaus's defeat and capture at the battle of Baesweiler in 1371. On Joanna's death, by agreement the Duchy passed to her great-nephew
Antoine Antoine is a French language, French given name (from the Latin ''Antonius'' meaning 'highly praise-worthy') that is a variant of Danton (name), Danton, Titouan, D'Anton and Antonin. The name is most common in France, Switzerland, Belgium, Canada ...
, the second son of her niece
Margaret III, Countess of Flanders Margaret III (13 April 1350 – 16/21 March 1405) was a ruling Countess of Flanders, Countess of Artois, and Countess of Auvergne and Boulogne between 1384 and 1405. She was the last ruler of Flanders of the House of Dampierre. She was al ...
.


Tomb

Her tomb was erected in the Carmelite church in Brussels in the late 1450s; it was paid for in 1459 by her sister's great-grandson,
Philip the Good Philip III the Good (; ; 31 July 1396 – 15 June 1467) ruled as Duke of Burgundy from 1419 until his death in 1467. He was a member of a cadet line of the Valois dynasty, to which all 15th-century kings of France belonged. During his reign, ...
. Though it was destroyed in the course of the
French Revolutionary Wars The French Revolutionary Wars () were a series of sweeping military conflicts resulting from the French Revolution that lasted from 1792 until 1802. They pitted French First Republic, France against Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain, Habsb ...
, its appearance has been reconstructed from drawings and descriptions by Lorne Campbell, who concluded that the tomb was an afterthought, providing an inexpensive piece of propaganda for Philip's dynastic rights.Philip's position is outlined in Robert Stein "Philip the Good and the German Empire. The legitimation of the Burgundian succession to the German principalities", ''Centre Européen d'Etudes Bourguignonnes'' 36, 1996.


See also

* Dukes of Brabant family tree


References


Sources

* * Campbell, Lorne. "The Tomb of Joanna, Duchess of Brabant". ''Renaissance Studies'', volume 2, no. 2, 1988. * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Brabant, Joanna, Duchess of 1322 births 1406 deaths 14th-century dukes of Brabant 15th-century dukes of Brabant 14th-century countesses regnant 15th-century women monarchs 14th-century women from the Holy Roman Empire 15th-century women from the Holy Roman Empire 14th-century dukes of Limburg 15th-century dukes of Limburg Dukes of Luxembourg Duchesses regnant Countesses of Luxembourg Countesses of Holland Countesses of Hainaut
Joanna Joanna is a feminine given name deriving from from . Variants in English include Joan, Joann, Joanne, and Johanna. Other forms of the name in English are Jan, Jane, Janet, Janice, Jean, and Jeanne. The earliest recorded occurrence of th ...
es:Juana de Brabante#top