Jeanne de Dammartin, Countess of Ponthieu

Female 1220 - 1279  (~ 59 years)


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  • Name Jeanne de Dammartin 
    Suffix Countess of Ponthieu 
    Birth 0___ 1220  Dammartin-en-Goele, Seine-et-Marne, France Find all individuals with events at this location  [1, 2
    Gender Female 
    Death 16 Mar 1279  Abbeville, Somme, France Find all individuals with events at this location  [1, 2
    Person ID I43967  The Hennessee Family
    Last Modified 1 Feb 2016 

    Family Fernando III, King of Castile and Leon,   b. 5 Aug 1201, Castile, Spain Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 30 May 1252, Seville, Spain Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 50 years) 
    Marriage 0___ 1237  [1, 2, 3
    Children 
     1. Eleanor de Castile, Queen of England,   b. 0___ 1241, Burgos, Segovia, Castile, Spain Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 28 Nov 1290, Hardby, Nottinghamshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location (Age ~ 49 years)
    Family ID F16003  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 30 Apr 2023 

  • Event Map
    Link to Google MapsBirth - 0___ 1220 - Dammartin-en-Goele, Seine-et-Marne, France Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsDeath - 16 Mar 1279 - Abbeville, Somme, France Link to Google Earth
     = Link to Google Earth 

  • Notes 
    • Joan of Dammartin (French: Jeanne de Dammartin; c. 1220[1] – 16 March 1279) was Queen consort of Castile and Leâon (1252), suo jure Countess of Ponthieu (1251–1279) and Aumale (1237–1279). Her daughter, the English queen Eleanor of Castile, was her successor in Ponthieu. Her son and co-ruler in Aumale, Ferdinand II, Count of Aumale, predeceased her, so she was succeeded by her grandson John I, Count of Aumale, deceased at the Battle of Courtrai, 11 July 1302.

      Family

      Joan was the eldest daughter of Simon of Dammartin, Count of Ponthieu (1180- 21 September 1239) and his wife Marie of Ponthieu, Countess of Montreuil (17 April 1199- 1251). Her paternal grandparents were Alberic II, Count de Dammartin and Mahaut de Clermont, daughter of Renaud de Clermont, Count of Clermont-en-Beauvaisis, and Clâemence de Bar.[2] Her maternal grandparents were William IV of Ponthieu and Alys, Countess of the Vexin, daughter of Louis VII of France and Constance of Castile.

      Henry III of England

      After secret negotiations were undertaken in 1234, it was agreed that Joan would marry King Henry III of England. This marriage would have been politically unacceptable to the French, however, since Joan stood to inherit not only her mother's county of Ponthieu but also the county of Aumale that was vested in her father's family. Ponthieu bordered on the duchy of Normandy, and Aumale lay within Normandy itself. The French king Philip Augustus had seized Normandy from King John of England as recently as 1205, and Philip's heirs could not risk the English monarchy recovering any land in that area, since it might allow the Plantagenets to re-establish control in Normandy.

      As it happened, Joan's father Simon had become involved in a conspiracy of northern French noblemen against Philip Augustus and to win pardon from Philip's son Louis VIII, Simon—who had only daughters—was compelled to promise that he would marry off neither of his two eldest daughters without the permission of the king of France. In 1235, the queen-regent of France, Blanche of Castile, invoked that promise on behalf of her son, King Louis IX of France, and threatened to deprive Simon of all his lands if Joan married Henry III.[citation needed] Blanch also petitioned the Pope to deny the marriage based on consanguinity. He agreed, denying the dispensation which Henry had sought and paid for. Henry therefore abandoned the project for his marriage to Joan and in January 1236 married instead Eleanor of Provence, the sister of Louis IX's wife.

      Queen of Castile

      In November 1235, Blanche of Castile's nephew, King Ferdinand III of Castile, lost his wife, Elisabeth of Hohenstaufen, and Blanche's sister Berengaria of Castile, Ferdinand's mother, was concerned that her widowed son might involve himself in liaisons that were unsuited to his dignity as king. Berengaria determined to find Ferdinand another wife, and her sister Blanche suggested Joan of Dammartin, whose marriage to the king of Castile would keep her inheritance from falling into hostile hands.[3] In October 1237, at the age of about seventeen, Joan and Ferdinand were married in Burgos. Since Ferdinand already had seven sons from his first marriage to Elisabeth of Hohenstaufen, there was little chance of Ponthieu being absorbed by Castile.

      They had four sons and one daughter:

      Ferdinand II, Count of Aumale (1239–ca 1265) m. (after 1256) Laure de Montfort, Lady of Espernon (d before 08.1270), and had issue:
      Eleanor of Castile, Countess of Ponthieu, who married king Edward I of England and had issue
      Louis (1243–ca 1275), who married Juana de Manzanedo, Lady of Gaton, and had issue
      Simon (1244), died young and buried in a monastery in Toledo
      John (1246), died young and buried at the cathedral in Câordoba
      She accompanied Ferdinand to Andalucia and lived with him in the army camp as he besieged Seville in 1248.[4]

      Upon her mother's death in 1251, Joan succeeded as Countess of Ponthieu and Montreuil, which she held in her own right.

      After Ferdinand III died in 1252, Joan did not enjoy a cordial relationship with his heir, her stepson Alfonso X of Castile, with whom she quarreled over the lands and income she should have received as dowager queen of Castile. Sometime in 1253, she became the ally and supporter of another of her stepsons, Henry of Castile, who also felt Alfonso had not allowed him all the wealth their father had meant him to have. Joan unwisely attended secret meetings with Henry and his supporters, and it was rumored that she and Henry were lovers. This further strained her relations with Alfonso and in 1254, shortly before her daughter Eleanor was to marry Edward of England, Joan and her eldest son Ferdinand left Castile and returned to her native Ponthieu. [2]

  • Sources 
    1. [S7974] "Robert Ferrers, Jr. Abt 1341 - 1381" Pedigree-Ahnentafel, http://www.ourfamilyhistories.org/ahnentafel.php?personID=I52.

    2. [S8994] "Joan of Dammartin (French: Jeanne de Dammartin; c. 1220[1] - 16 March 1279)" biography, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J.

    3. [S8993] "Eleanor of Castile (1241-1290)" biography,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor_of_Castile, updated February 1, 2016 by.