Philippa of Hainaut

Philip of Hainaut (Middle French: Philippe de Hainaut, 24 June 1314 – 15 August 1369) was Queen of England as wife of King Edward III.

Edward promised in 1326 to marry her within the next two years. They were married, first by proxy, when Edward commissioned the Bishop of Coventry "to marry her in his name" at Valenciennes (second largest city in the county of Hainaut) in October 1327. The marriage was formally celebrated at York Minster on 24 January 1328, some months after Edward's accession to the throne of England. In August 1328, he also settled her wife's dowry. Philippa acted as regent in 1346, when her husband was absent from her kingdom, and she also often accompanied him on his expeditions to Scotland, France and Flanders. Philippe was very popular among the English people for her kindness and compassion, which were demonstrated in 1347 when she convinced King Edward to save the lives of the burgesses of Calais. This popularity helped maintain peace in England during Edward's long reign.The eldest of her fourteen children was Edward, the Black Prince, who became a renowned military leader. Felipa died at the age of fifty-five, apparently from edema. The Queen's College (Oxford) was founded in her honor.

Early years

Philippe was born in Valenciennes, in the county of Hainaut, in the Netherlands, daughter of William I, Count of Hainaut, and Joan of Valois, Countess of Hainaut, granddaughter of Philip III of France. She was one of the eight sons and the second of five daughters. Her older sister Margaret married the German king Louis IV in 1324. In 1345, she succeeded her brother William II, Count of Hainaut, after he fell in battle. The earldoms of William of Zealand and Holland, as well as the lordship of Frieze, were transferred to Margaret after the agreement between Philippa and her sister. Edward III of England, however, in 1364-65, on behalf of his wife Philippa, He demanded the return of Hainaut and other inheritances that had been given to the dukes of Bavaria-Straubing. He was not successful, as it was customary in these regions to favor male heirs.

Engagement to Edward III of England

King Edward II of England had decided that an alliance with Flanders would benefit England and sent Bishop Stapledon of Exeter to the continent as ambassador. On his journey, he traveled through the county of Hainaut to meet the daughters of Earl William of Hainaut, to determine which daughter would be most suitable as a bride for Prince Edward. The bishop's report to the king describes one of the earl's daughters in detail. A later entry says that it describes Felipa as a girl, but historian Ian Mortimer argues that it is actually a description of her older sister Margaret. The description read:

The lady we saw doesn't have the common hair, between blue-black and brown. His head is well defined. Its high and wide front, and something outstanding. His face narrows between his eyes, and the bottom of his face is even narrower and thinner than his forehead. His eyes are black and deep brown. Its nose is quite smooth and uniform, except it is something wide at the tip and also flattened, and yet it is not a glitter. His nostrils are also wide, his mouth quite wide. His lips are full, and especially the lower lip. Their teeth that have fallen and grown again are quite white, but the others are not so white. The lower teeth are projected a little beyond the top; but it is not noted much. His ears and his chin are pretty nice. His neck, his shoulders, and his whole body are well proportioned and have nothing; and nothing is wrong as far as a man can see. Moreover, it is brown of skin everywhere, and much like his father; and in all things it is quite pleasant, as it seems to us. And the maiden will be nine years old on the day of St.John next to come, as her mother says. It is not too high or too low for such an age; it is of good porte, and well educated in all that refers to its rank, and very esteemed and well loved by his father and mother and for all his servitude, to the extent that we were able to investigate and learn the truth.

Four years later, Philippa was betrothed to Prince Edward when, in the summer of 1326, Queen Elizabeth arrived at the court of Hainaut seeking help from Count William to depose King Edward. Prince Edward had accompanied his mother to Hainaut, who had arranged the betrothal in exchange for the earl's help. As the couple were second cousins, a papal dispensation was required which was sent by Pope John XXII from Avignon in September 1327. Philippa and her entourage arrived in England in December 1327 escorted by her uncle John of Hainaut.. On December 23 she arrived in London, receiving an "enthusiastic welcome."

Queen of England

Felipa married Eduardo in York Cathedral, on January 24, 1328, eleven months after his ascension to the throne; Although, the factors of the kingdom were their mother, the widow Queen Isabel and her greedy lover Roger Mortimer, first count of March, who acted together as their regents. Shortly after their marriage the couple retired to the Woodstock Palace in Oxfordshire. Unlike many of the previous queens, he did not take foreigners to the Court or imposed any custom of his country. As Isabel did not want to give up her own status, Felipa's coronation was postponed for two years. Finally, Reina was crowned on March 4, 1330 in Westminster Abbey, when she was already pregnant with almost six months, so that she gave birth to her first child, Eduardo, in June just nine days before her sixteenth birthday birthday. In October 1330, King Eduardo began his government when he launched an attack and ordered his mother and Mortimer's arrest. Shortly after, the latter was executed for betrayal, and Queen Widow Isabel was sent to Rising Castle in Norfolk, where he spent several years under house arrest, but with her privileges and freedom of movement that her son returned. He accompanied her husband in her expeditions to Scotland (1333) and the European continent in her first campaigns of the one hundred years, Flanders (1338-1340), being acclaimed by her great generosity and compassion. He went down in history as that queen of noble and warm heart that he asked her husband to forgive the bourgeois of Calais, whom the king intended to execute to punish them for their rebellion. This episode, as most of what is known about this queen, is due to the chronicler Jean Froissart, who was part of his cut and described in his own terms the chivalrous rebirth of the time, called by Johan Huizinga the Autumn of the Middle Ages. He acted as regent of England during the absence of her husband in 1346. Before a Scottish invasion, she brought together the English army and faced the Scots in a successful battle near Newcastle: she led the English soldiers on horseback before the battle, what resulted in an English victory and the Scottish king was taken prison which is currently in the National Library of Paris.

last years and death

He had fourteen children, of whom nine survived. Three of them perished of the Black Death in 1348. On 15 August 1369, Philippa died of edema at Windsor Castle at the age of fifty-five. She was held a state funeral six months later, on 29 January 1370, and she was buried in Westminster Abbey. Her tomb was placed on the northeast side of Edward the Confessor's chapel and on the opposite side of her husband's grandparents, Edward I and Eleanor of Castile, and great-grandfather Henry III. Her alabaster effigy of her was beautifully executed by the sculptor Jean de Liège. Eight years later Edward III died and was buried next to Philippa. By all accounts, her marriage, which lasted forty years, had been happy.

Children

Felipa and Eduardo had thirteen children, five of whom lived to adulthood and the rivalry between their numerous descendants during the 15th century< /span>, gave rise to the long and bloody dynastic wars known as the Wars of the Roses.

Name	Birth	Death	Notes
Edward, the black prince	15 June 1330 Woodstock Palace, Oxfordshire	8 June 1376	Married with his cousin Joan of Kent on October 10, 1361; Sons (Ricardo II of England).
Isabel	16 June 1332 Woodstock Palace, Oxfordshire	April 1379 or 17 June/5 October 1382	Married with Enguerrand VII de Coucy, 1.♪ Count of Bedford on 27 July 1365; with children.
Juana	19 December 1333 or 28 January 1334 Tower of London	1 July 1348	Committed with Pedro I of Castile but died of the black plague during the trip to Castile before the marriage could take place. Peter's two daughters of his union with Mary of Padilla would later marry the younger brothers of Joan, John and Edmundo.
William of Hatfield	16 February 1337 Hatfield (South Yorkshire)	before 3 March 1337	He died shortly after his birth. Buried in the York Cathedral.
Leonel of Antwerp	29 November 1338 Antwerp	7 October 1368	Married with (1) Isabel de Burgh in 1352; With children. Married with (2) Violante Visconti on May 28, 1368; No children.
Juan de Gante, first Duke of Lancaster	6 March 1340 Ghent	3 February 1399	Married with (1) Lancaster White on May 19, 1359; With children (Enrique IV of England). Married with (2) Infanta Constanza de Castilla in 1371; With children. Married with (3) Catherine of Roet-Swynford (his lover) in 1396; With children. The Duke of Beaufort continues in the male line today.
Edmundo de Langley first Duke of York	5 June 1341 Kings Langley, Hertfordshire	1 August 1402	Married with (1) Infanta Isabel de Castilla sister of the second wife of Juan de Ghent; with children. Married with (2) Juana Holland (first second) in 1392. No children.
White	March 1342 Tower of London		He died shortly after his birth. Buried in Westminster Abbey.
Mary	10 October 1344 Archbishop of Waltham, Hampshire	September of 1361	Married with John V of Brittany on July 3, 1361; No children.
Margarita	20 July 1346 Windsor	1 October/25 December 1361	Married to Juan Hastings, 2nd count of Pembroke on May 13, 1359; without children.
Thomas Windsor	Summer 1347 Windsor	September of 1348	He died in the childhood of the plague. Buried in the church of King's Langley, Hertfordshire
Guillermo de Windsor	before 24 June 1348 Windsor	before 5 September 1348	Buried at Westminster Abbey.
Thomas Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester	7 January 1355 Woodstock Palace, Oxfordshire	8/9 September 1397	Married with Leonor de Bohun in 1376; with children.

Legacy

The Queen's College (Oxford) is named after him. It was founded in 1341 by one of her chaplains, Robert de Eglesfield, in her honour. Philippa is a character in The Cursed Kings, a series of French historical novels by Maurice Druon. She was portrayed by Françoise Burgi in the 1972 French miniseries adaptation, and by Marie de Villepin in the 2005 adaptation.

Ancestors

16. Bouchard de Avesnes

8. Juan I de Avesnes

17. Margaret of Constantinople

4. Juan I de Henao

18. Florencio IV of the Netherlands

9. Adelaide de Holland

19. Matilde de Brabante

2. Guillermo I de Henao

20. Waleran III of Limburg

10. Enrique V de Luxembourg

21. Ermesinda I of Luxembourg

5. Felipa de Luxembourg

22. Henry II de Bar

11. Margarita de Bar

23. Felipa de Dreux

1. Felipa de Henao

24. Louis IX of France

12. Philip III of France

25. Margarita de Provenza

6. Carlos de Valois

26. Jaime I de Aragón

13. Isabel de Aragón

27. Violante de Hungary

3. Juana de Valois, Countess of Henao

28. Carlos de Anjou

14. Carlos II de Anjou

29. Beatriz de Provenza

7. Margarita de Anjou-Sicilia

30. Esteban V de Hungary

15. Mary of Hungary

31. Isabel la Cumana

Sources

• Salmonson, Jessica Amanda (1991). The Encyclopedia of Amazons. Paragon House. page 212. ISBN 1-55778-420-5
• Weir, Alison (1999). The Bodley Head London, UK, ed. Britain's Royal Family: A Complete Genealogy. ISBN 0-7126-7448-9. pages 92.
• Ashley, Mike (2002). Carroll & Graf, ed. British Kings & Queens. ISBN 0-7867-1104-3. pages 185 & 186.
• Sury, Geoffroy G., « Bayern Straubing Hennegau: La Maison de Bavière en Hainaut, XIVe – XVe s. », (2nd Ed.), Geoffroy G. Sury, Edit., Brussels, 2010. pp. 55, 66 & 128.
• Arnold, Margot. Queen Consorts of England: The Power Behind the Throne. New York: Facts On File, 1993.