Blanche of Castile

Spanish-born queen of France (r. 1223-1252)

• Born: March 4, 1188
• Birthplace: Palencia, Castile (now in Spain)
• Died: November 26 or 27, 1252
• Place of death: Paris, France

Blanche of Castile helped to consolidate French royal authority and power in the thirteenth century in the face of baronial revolt and English royal claims to territory in France.

Early Life

Blanche of Castile (ka-STEEL) was born to King Alfonso VIII and Queen Eleanor. Blanche was their third daughter and, through her mother, the granddaughter of Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine. She spent her childhood at her parents’ court, which was reputed to be both cultivated and entertaining. It was also consumed by the threat posed by the Muslim forces in the Iberian Peninsula, and Blanche’s father was active in the military struggle against them.

Life’s Work

It was through the agency of her grandmother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, queen of England, that Blanche was engaged to marry the heir to the French throne, Louis, son of Philip II. Blanche was twelve years old when her grandmother took her to France to marry Louis. The ceremony took place soon thereafter, on May 23, 1200.

Blanche was to remain in France for the rest of her long life. This marital strategy placed Blanche a descendant of the Plantagenets in line to share the French throne with the Capetian heir Louis and provided some grounds for the Capetians to claim the English throne as Blanche’s inheritance should Eleanor of Aquitaine’s own royal English sons fail in issue. Thus would Plantagenet blood have a role in the future.

Whatever designs may have prompted her grandmother to arrange the marriage, after the event Blanche assumed the goals and ambitions of the Capetians as her own. Safeguarding her new family’s interests preoccupied her for the rest of her life. As the historian Robert Fawtier argued, “To all intents and purposes,” Blanche “may be counted among the kings of France.” From the death of her husband, Louis VIII, in 1226 until her own death in 1252, Blanche had ample opportunity to prove her mettle as a ruler. In 1226, her son, Louis IX, was a minor. Louis VIII, knowing he was dying, designated Blanche to serve as ruler during their son’s minority. Blanche had worked tirelessly to gather French baronial support for her husband’s excursion to England, proving not only her dedication to French royal interests but also her ability to deal confidently with the great barons in urging them to fulfill their responsibilities to the Crown. Louis IX relied heavily on his mother’s judgment not only during his minority but also after he assumed power. She accompanied him in council meetings and met officially with foreign ambassadors. She guided him in matters of policy, piety, and justice. When he left on the Seventh Crusade in 1248, Louis IX officially put the reins of power in Blanche’s hands; he returned to France only when he heard of her death. The two kings’ confidence in Blanche was not misplaced.

During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the French monarchy faced a major challenge to its power and authority from the great nobility. The latter wished to increase their own power in their territories and assert their independence of the Crown. Shifting alliances and coalitions of the hostile French nobility against the Capetians were a constant threat. The kings of England also claimed territory in France: Normandy, Anjou, and Gascony. At times, they also put forth claims to the French throne. The French barons and the English monarchs often joined forces against the French crown in pursuit of their respective ends. In meeting these challenges, the French monarchs consolidated the power of the Crown. Blanche had witnessed the glorious successes of Philip II and her husband against the English and their allies, culminating in the Battle of Bouvines in 1214. In addition, Louis VIII, acting on behalf of the Papacy against the Cathar (Albigensian) heretics, brought the unruly southern region of Languedoc under control just before his death. By the time of Louis VIII’s death in 1226, the Crown had acquired a dominant position over the nobility, territories, and resources of France.

During Blanche’s rule, however, the Crown’s hard-won gains were tested. The same lords who had been subdued or their descendants, including those of the English kings, would attempt to revive their previous power and independence in France. Historians agree that the combination of forces arrayed against the French crown at this time was one of the fiercest challenges faced by any French ruler. Blanche, however, proved equal to the situation. She demonstrated determination, courage, a formidable intelligence, and the ability to take decisive action to safeguard her family and the Crown. She used every means at her disposal: outright conquest of territory that could then be added to the Crown lands, military action against coalitions, strategic marriages, gifts, favors, and alliances with the communes, which had their own reasons for preferring royal over baronial control. She demonstrated her grasp of policy especially in the use of marriages and other favors. She appeased some disgruntled noblemen by arranging their marriages, or those of their successors, to heiresses with the promise of secure riches and territory. She also arranged several marriages between the heiresses of French fiefs and her own kinsmen. Thus did she secure the loyalty of those regions.

Blanche’s mercy toward former enemies also gained her adherents. Flanders was notoriously problematic for the French crown in this period. Blanche used the occasion of Louis IX’s coronation to release its count, Ferrand of Portugal, from prison, a move that gained his support for the Crown. As these examples demonstrate, Blanche did not attempt to destroy the nobles or their ability to govern in their own territories. Instead, she wanted to secure their loyalty to the Crown, their recognition of their military responsibilities to support the Crown and the whole realm of France, and their recognition of the Crown’s ultimate suzerainty over the realm. Thus, Blanche sought the feudal solution to the problem of royal government: to create a feudal monarchy over the whole realm. In this, she continued the policies of her father-in-law and husband. When she died at the age of sixty-four, she left her son an orderly state. She had not merely maintained the gains of the previous rulers of France, but had improved on them.

Blanche was also known for her piety. Perhaps the greatest legacy of that quality she left to France was her son Louis IX, who was later canonized. His celebrated character, so deeply informed by a sense of piety, developed in an environment congenial to religious sensibility. Blanche was responsible for that environment as she consciously surrounded herself and her growing children with individuals she regarded as properly religious. In Blanche’s mind, piety and politics should be practiced together. Although she was untiring in her efforts to consolidate royal rule, she was consistent in attempting to make that rule a principled one. One of the most famous remarks attributed to Blanche is found in Jean de Joinville’s chronicle of the reign of Louis IX (Livre des saintes paroles et des bons faiz nostre roy saint Looys, 1309; The Life of Saint Louis, 1955). There she is reported to have said that she preferred to see her son dead than in mortal sin.

She also set an example of substantial and sustained royal patronage to certain religious houses. It appears that some of the religious donations often assumed to derive from Louis’s hand should be attributed to Blanche instead. She favored the Cistercians and founded and built the abbey of Royaumont around 1228. Several members of the royal family were subsequently buried there. Blanche’s own burial place was in Maubuisson, one of the two Cistercian convents she founded. In the light of the Cistercian hostility to women who took religious vows, even those belonging to its own order, Blanche’s decision to found these convents suggests that she wished to use her patronage to criticize those who would deny women an active role outside the family and home. After she became ill in 1252, Blanche expressed a wish to take vows and enter the convent of Maubuisson. Her death came too soon for that.

Blanche’s piety did not, however, prevent her from upholding the rights of the Crown to judge in matters that concerned the Church. The papal reform movement had attempted to further papal and clerical jurisdiction over ecclesiastical lands and personnel throughout Europe. Ecclesiastical claims often brought Church officials into conflict with temporal rulers. However, Blanche as did many other rulers countered these claims with a growing sense that all cases in the realm involving justice concerned the Crown and that royal jurisdiction overrode ecclesiastical jurisdiction. She and her son successfully assumed the right to settle a dispute between the townspeople of the episcopal city of Beauvais and the city’s ecclesiastical governors. Just before her death, during her son’s absence, Blanche tried to prevent the chapter of Notre-Dame de Paris from exacting heavy fees from its serfs. She tried to force the case into the royal courts but, in this case, was unsuccessful. After her death it was ruled that the Crown’s jurisdiction did not extend to cover the chapter’s treatment of its serfs.

Blanche’s personal and emotional life seems, by all accounts, to have been as fulfilling and remarkable as her public role. Her childhood was blessed by the close and exemplary marriage of her parents. Her own marriage to Louis VIII was observed to be close, devoted, and companionable on both sides. She was devoted to her children, especially to the royal heir, Louis IX. Some resented her influence over Louis IX and her demands on his attention. Famously, Joinville portrayed Blanche as bitterly jealous of Louis’s wife, Queen Margaret, and any time he spent with her. Such feelings on Blanche’s part are not unimaginable. However, she never swerved from her political goals because of them. Her popular reputation at the time of her death was high, and her death was met by a public outpouring of grief. Throughout her life, she directed her considerable energy, spirit, and intelligence to great personal and public deeds. She faced extraordinary challenges both personal and political and rose to each occasion.

Significance

Blanche’s historical significance is important in both French and European contexts. She preserved the French crown and the Capetian Dynasty at a critical time. She understood and carried on the goals of royal government as previous Capetian rulers had defined them. In doing so, she was engaged in the same process as many other European rulers, that of asserting royal domination over the great territorial barons. Thus, she participated in one of the great turning points of European Medieval History/Middle Ages and must be seen as one of the architects of the European state at its early stages.

The Capetians

Reign

• Ruler

987-996

• Hugh Capet

996-1031

• Robert II the Pious

1031-1060

• Henry I

1060-1108

• Philip I the Fair

1108-1137

• Louis VI the Fat

1137-1179

• Louis VII the Younger (with Eleanor of Aquitaine, r. 1137-1180)

1179-1223

• Philip II Augustus

1223-1226

• Louis VIII the Lion

1223-1252

• Blanche of Castile (both queen and regent)

1226-1270

• Louis IX (Saint Louis)

1271-1285

• Philip III the Bold

1285-1314

• Philip IV the Fair

1314-1316

• Louis X the Stubborn

1316

• Philip, brother of Louis X (regent before birth of John I and during his short life)

1316

• John I the Posthumous

1316-1322

• Philip V the Tall

1322-1328

• Charles IV the Fair

Bibliography

Fawtier, Robert. The Capetian Kings of France: Monarchy and Nation, 987-1328. Translated by Lionel Butler and R. J. Adam. London: Macmillan, 1960. Looks at the entire period of Capetian rule in France, devoting a section to the period of Blanche’s activity. The author is emphatic about Blanche’s historical significance.

Hallam, Elizabeth M., and Judith Everard. Capetian France, 987-1328. 2d ed. New York: Longman, 2001. This excellent scholarly book is firmly grounded on the most basic and practical aspects of the Capetian era. The author agrees with Fawtier on Blanche’s significance, but the coverage of Blanche in this text is more extensive. Includes maps, genealogical tables, and a bibliography.

McCash, June Hall, ed. The Cultural Patronage of Medieval Women. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1996. A historical overview of medieval women who were cultural benefactors. Includes a chapter on Blanche. Also offers an extensive bibliography and an index.

Pernoud, Régine. Blanche of Castile. Translated by Henry Noel. London: Collins, 1975. A full-length study of Blanche based on a wide range of primary documents. Also provides substantial contextual material on Blanche’s historical significance. Includes family charts, illustrations, and a bibliography.

Poulet, Andre. “Capetian Women and the Regency: The Genesis of a Vocation.” In Medieval Queenship, edited by J. C. Parsons. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1993. Provides material for comparing and contrasting women rulers of the Capetian Dynasty.