A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Isabella of France
ISABELLA OF FRANCE,
Youngest child of Louis the Eighth and Blanche of Castile, was born in 1224. She was early celebrated for her beauty, learning, and piety. She refused every offer of marriage, even that of the son of the Emperor Ferdinand, and declared her intention to devote herself wholly to religion. The pope, at her mother's request, wrote to dissuade her from doing this; but her answer to his letter was so full of humility,. piety, and reason, that both he and Blanche were obliged to yield. She founded the monastery of Longchamp about 1260, though she never withdrew entirely from the world, or joined any religious order. Towards the end of her life she observed the most rigorous silence, to expiate for all the idle words she had spoken in her youth. She died February 12th., 1269, at the age of forty-five. For a long time it was believed that miracles were performed at her tomb.