Joan II, Countess of Burgundy


Joan II, Countess of Burgundy, was Queen of France by marriage to Philip V of France, and ruling Countess of Burgundy and Countess of Artois. She was the eldest daughter and heiress of Otto IV, Count of Burgundy, and Mahaut, Countess of Artois.

Biography

In the beginning of 1314, Joan's sister Blanche and her sister-in-law Margaret were convicted of adultery with two knights, upon the testimony of their sister-in-law Isabella, in the Tour de Nesle Affair. Joan was thought to have known of the affairs, and was placed under house arrest at Dourdan as punishment. She continued to protest her innocence, as did her husband, who had refused to repudiate her, and by 1315 – through the influence of her mother and husband – her name had been cleared by the Paris Parlement, and she was allowed to return to court.

Queen

With the death of King John I of France, her husband became King Philip V of France; Joan became queen consort. She was crowned with her husband at Reims on 9 January 1317.

Countess of Burgundy and Artois

Her father, the Count of Burgundy, died in 1302, and his titles were inherited by his only legitimate son, Robert. Upon Robert's death in 1315, the County of Burgundy was inherited by Joan. In 1329, she inherited her mother's County of Artois.
After her husband's death, Joan lived in her own domains. The death of her spouse dealt her a devastating blow from which she never recovered, sinking into a deep depression for the rest of her life. After her beloved sister died in 1326, she was said to be "so sorrowful as never before she had been."

Death

She died at Roye-en-Artois, on 21 January 1330, and was buried in Saint-Denis beside her husband. Her titles were inherited by her eldest daughter, Joan III, who had married Odo IV, Duke of Burgundy, in 1318. With Joan II's death, the County and Duchy of Burgundy became united through this marriage. The Counties of Burgundy and Artois were eventually inherited by her younger daughter Margaret in 1361.
Joan left provision in her will for the founding of a college in Paris; it was named Collège de Bourgogne, "Burgundy College."

Issue

With Philip V of France:
  1. Joan, Countess of Burgundy and Artois in her own right and wife of Odo IV, Duke of Burgundy
  2. Margaret, wife of Louis I of Flanders. Countess of Burgundy and Artois in her own right.
  3. Isabelle, wife of Guigues VIII de La Tour du Pin, Dauphin de Viennois.
  4. Blanche, a nun.
  5. Philip.

    In fiction

Joan is a character in Les Rois maudits, a series of French historical novels by Maurice Druon. She was portrayed by in the 1972 French miniseries adaptation of the series, and by Julie Depardieu in the 2005 adaptation.

Ancestry