Joan of France, Duchess of Bourbon

For other uses, see Joan of Valois (disambiguation).

Joan of France
Duchess consort of Bourbon
Tenure	4 December 1456 - 4 May 1482
Born	4 May 1435
Died	1482 (aged 46–47)
Spouse	John II, Duke of Bourbon
House	Valois
Father	Charles VII of France
Mother	Marie of Anjou
Religion	Catholic

Joan of France, Duchess of Bourbon (French: Jeanne de Valois; 4 May 1435 – 1482), also known as Joan of Valois, was the seventh child and fourth daughter of Charles VII of France and Marie of Anjou. She was the original owner of the book of hours of Joan of France, now held in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, which is classified as a national treasure of France.^[1]

Book of hours of Joan of France

The book of hours, known by medieval scholars as livre d'heures de Jeanne de France, was given by King Charles VII to his daughter Joan to celebrate the occasion of her marriage to John II, Duke of Bourbon in 1452.^[1] The coat of arms of Joan of France appears on seven pages (including the cover) within the tome, alongside miniatures and decorations in the margins.^[2]

Life

Born into the House of Valois, a Cadet branch of the Capetian Dynasty, Joan of France was the second daughter of King Charles VII of France and Marie of Anjou.^[3][4] Her parents were second cousins and both great-grandchildren of King John II of France.^[5]

The coat of arms of Joan of France painted in the 15th-century Book of Hours of Joan of France.

Joan's paternal grandfather was King Charles VI of France, referred as "Charles the Mad" due to his history of psychotic episodes.^[6]

Joan's maternal grandmother was Yolande of Aragon, Duchess of Anjou, who played a significant role in the power struggles between England and France. Most notably, she influenced the financing of Joan of Arc's army in 1429 which helped tip the balance in favour of the French.^[7]

In 1447, she married John II, Duke of Bourbon, at Château de Moulins; however they had no surviving children.^[3]

References

1. "Horae ad usum parisiensem [known as Hours of Joan of France]". archivesetmanuscrits.bnf.fr (in Latin). 1452.
2. Marrow, James; Durrieu, Paul; Châtelet, Albert; Chatelet, Albert (1968). "Heures de Turin. Quarante-cinq feuillets à peintures provenant des Très Belles Heures de Jean de France, duc de Berry". The Art Bulletin. 50 (2): 203. doi:10.2307/3048537. ISSN 0004-3079. JSTOR 3048537.
3. Morrison & Hedeman 2010, p. 5.
4. Debris, Cyrille (2005). "Tu Felix Austria, nube" la dynastie de Habsbourg et sa politique matrimoniale à la fin du Moyen Age (XIIIe–XVIe siècles) (in French). Brepols.
5. Ashdown-Hill, John (2016). The Private Life of Edward IV. Amberley Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4456-5245-0 OL 28605946M.
6. Earenfight, Theresa (2013). Queenship in Medieval Europe. Palgrave Macmillan.
7. Rohr, Zita Eva (2016). Yolande of Aragon (1381-1442). Family and Power: The Reverse of the Tapestry. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-137-49912-7

Sources

• Morrison, Elizabeth; Hedeman, Anne Dawson (2010). Imagining the Past in France: History in Manuscript Painting, 1250-1500. J. Paul Getty Museum.

Further reading

• Media related to Heures de Jeanne de France - BNF NAL3244 at Wikimedia Commons.
• Digitisation of the entire book.