Joan of Acre

Encyclopedia : J : JO : JOA : Joan of Acre

---

English Royalty
Angevin>House of Plantagenet

Henry II Children    William, Count of Poitiers Henry, Count of Anjou Richard I Geoffrey, Duke of Brittany John Matilda, Duchess of Saxony Leonora, Queen of Castile Joan, Queen of Sicily Richard I John Children Henry III Richard, Earl of Cornwall    Joan of England, Queen of Scotland Isabella, Holy Roman Empress Eleanor, Countess of Leicester Henry III Children Edward I Margaret, Queen of Scotland Beatrice, Duchess of Brittany Edmund, Earl of Lancaster Edward I Children    Joan of England, Countess of Gloucester    Alphonso, Earl of Chester Edward II Thomas, Earl of Norfolk Edmund, Earl of Kent Edward II Children Edward III John, Earl of Cornwall Eleanor, Duchess of Gueldres and Zutphen Joan, Queen of Scotland Edward III Children Edward, Prince of Wales Lionel, Duke of Clarence John, Duke of Lancaster Edmund, Duke of York Thomas, Duke of Gloucester    Joan of England    Isabella of England Grandchildren Richard II     Philippa, Countess of Ulster     Philippa of Lancaster     Elizabeth of Lancaster Henry IV     Catherine of Lancaster Edward, Duke of York Richard, Earl of Cambridge     Constance of York     Anne of Gloucester Richard II

Joan of Acre (May 1271 – April 7, 1307) was a daughter of King Edward I of England and his first wife, Eleanor of Castile (1241-1290).

Joan got her name from her birthplace, Akko (Acre), Hazofan, Palestine. It differentiates her from an earlier Joan born to the couple, who died in infancy. Joan of Acre was born while her parents were traveling to the Middle East on the Ninth Crusade. At least part of her childhood she spent in France with her maternal grandmother, Jeanne de Dammartin, Countess of Ponthieu. She was betrothed as a child to Hartman, son of King Rudolph I of Germany, but he died in 1282 after drowning in the Rhine.

In 1290, at Westminster Abbey, Joan married Gilbert de Clare, 7th Earl of Hertford. He was nearly thirty years her senior. Their four children were:

1. Gilbert de Clare, 8th Earl of Hertford
2. Eleanor de Clare
3. Margaret de Clare
4. Elizabeth de Clare

Following her husband's death in 1295, Joan clandestinely married Ralph de Monthermer, 1st Baron Monthermer, a knight in her household, in 1297. Her father, King Edward I, was enraged by this lowly second marriage, especially since he was arranging a marriage for her to an Italian nobleman. He had Monthermer thrown in prison, and Joan had to plead for the release of her husband. According to the St. Albans chronicler, she told her father, "No one sees anything wrong if a great earl marries a poor and lowly woman. Why should there be anything wrong if a countess marries a young and promising man?" At last her father relented, released Monthermer from prison in August 1297, and allowed him to hold the title of Earl of Gloucester and Hereford during Joan's lifetime. Monthermer and Joan had four children:

1. Mary de Monthermer, born October 1297. In 1306 her grandfather King Edward I arranged for her to wed Duncan Macduff, 8th Earl of Fife.
2. Joan de Monthermer, born 1299, became a nun at Amesbury.
3. Thomas de Monthermer, 2nd Baron Monthermer, born 1301.
4. Edward de Monthermer, born 1304 and died 1339. He fought in the Scottish campaign in 1335, but spent much of his life in service to his half-sister Elizabeth, who provided for him during his last illness and buried him next to their mother.

Joan died in childbirth in 1307 at the manor of Clare in Suffolk, England, a family possession, and was buried at the Augustinian priory there. Her child was stillborn. Miracles were said to occur at her grave, especially the healing of toothache, back pain, and fever.

Sources

• Costain, Thomas. A History of the Plantagenets, Vol III.
• Underhill, Frances A. For Her Good Estate, 1999.

 

---

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

Search Titles

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

X

Y

Z

?