ISABELLA
TRAITOR • ADULTERER • MURDERER
One of the most notorious figures in English history, Isabella of France has been described as a ‘shadow queen’, a ‘rebel queen’ and the ‘She-Wolf of France’. The only queen to have rebelled against her husband, Isabella lived in a time when female power was viewed as a threat – and she was willing to do whatever it took to fight for what was rightfully hers.
Isabella was born in Paris around 1295, the daughter of King Philip IV of France and Queen Joan I of Navarre. Like all royal princesses, she was a political pawn raised with the expectation that her marriage would secure a foreign alliance. In 1299, when Isabella was three or four, it was decided she would marry Edward of Caernarfon, King Edward I of England’s heir. The betrothal was part of the Treaty of Montreuil, a peace agreement between the two countries.
The marriage took place in Boulogne on 25 January 1308, with Edward travelling across the English Channel for the ceremony. At just 12 years old, Isabella was still a child while her new husband – who had succeeded his late father as king the previous year – was around 11 years her senior. As a wedding gift, Edward gave his young bride a richly illuminated psalter, which included a depiction of a queen (most likely Isabella herself) kneeling between the coats of arms of England and France.
Exactly one month after their wedding, the newlywed couple were crowned together in a joint coronation ceremony held at Westminster Abbey. Isabella had been raised to be the queen of England and the coronation should have been a joyous occasion. Yet there was one person whose presence likely soured this moment for the new queen. His name? Piers Gaveston, 1st Earl of Cornwall.
“EDWARD’S TREATMENT OF ISABELLA AT THE CORONATION, JUST ONE MONTH INTO THEIR REIGN, WAS
