Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Isabella (1332-1379)
ISABELLA (1332–1379), eldest daughter of Edward III and his queen Philippa, was born at Woodstock on 16 June 1332. In June 1335 her father made an unsuccessful attempt to arrange a marriage between her and Peter, son of Alfonso XI of Castile, who was afterwards betrothed to her younger sister Joanna (Fœdera, ii. 910). Negotiations were opened in November 1338 for a marriage between Isabella and Louis, son of Louis, count of Flanders, in place of her sister Joanna, whose name had been submitted in 1337 (ib. pp. 967, 998, 1063). This marriage was pressed by Edward through 1339 and 1340, but as the count was allied with France, while Edward was on friendly terms with the count's rebellious subjects, the proposals came to nothing. A new match with the son of John III, duke of Brabant, was planned for Isabella in 1344, and application was made to the pope for a dispensation, for the parties were within the prohibited degrees (ib. iii. 25). But after the murder of Edward's ally, Van Arteveld, the chief towns of Flanders sent deputies to the English king to suggest, along with other matters, that the scheme for a marriage between their count's son and Isabella should be renewed (Froissart, i. 207). The count fell at Crecy, and neither Edward's ambassadors nor the Flemings could induce the young count Louis, who was under the influence of Philip of France, to consent to marry Isabella. He defended his refusal by alleging that Isabella's father Edward had slain his father. His Flemish subjects punished his resistance to the match by placing him under restraint, and he soon thought it politic to appear to yield. Isabella's wedding clothes were provided (Green), and she was taken by her father and mother to Bergues, near Dunkerque, where on 1 March 1347 they were met by Louis and the Flemish burgomasters; Edward protested that he had had no hand in the last count's death, and Louis solemnly promised to marry Isabella within the fortnight after the coming Easter, agreeing to assign her as dower Ponthieu and Montreuil, or a certain compensation until such time as he should have peaceable possession of them, and ten thousand livres a year, while the king settled a sum of money on his daughter (Froissart, i. 258; Fœdera, iii. 111, 112). On the 28th, however, Louis escaped from his keepers, took refuge in France, and soon afterwards married Margaret of Brabant.
Isabella had been reared in luxury, and after her father's return to England in the autumn of 1347 shared in all the gaieties and splendours of the court (Green). In February 1349 Edward proposed her in marriage to Charles IV, the king of the Romans, then a widower. The scheme failed, and in May 1351 Edward published his consent to her marriage with Bernard, eldest son of the lord of Albret, promising to settle on her a revenue of one thousand marks and to give her four thousand marks as her portion (Fœdera, iii. 218). On 15 Nov. five ships were ordered to take her to Gascony. The marriage never took place, and Edward satisfied certain claims of the lord of Albret by other means. In March 1355 Edward assigned Isabella the custody of the alien priory of Burstall in Yorkshire, and gave her other grants. She seems to have been extravagant, like the rest of the court, and incurred heavy debts. On 29 Sept. 1358 the king settled on her an income of one thousand marks a year, and gave her the revenues proceeding from the lands in England belonging to the abbey of Fontevraud (Green).
On 27 July 1365, when Isabella had just completed her thirty-third year, she married at Windsor Ingelram or Enguerraud VII, lord of Coucy, son of Enguerraud VI (d 1347) and Catharine, daughter of Leopold I, duke of Austria (d 1327), by his wife Catharine, daughter of Amadeus V, count of Savoy. Enguerraud, who was then twenty-seven, was residing at the court of Edward III as a hostage; his grace and valour had made him a favourite with the king, who had granted him lands in the north of England, which he claimed in virtue of the marriage of Enguerraud V with Christina, niece of John de Baliol (1249–1315) [q. v.] He was released at his marriage from his pledges as a hostage, and in November Isabella accompanied her husband to Coucy. In April 1366 she bore a daughter named Mary, and soon afterwards visited England with her husband, who was created earl of Bedford in May. In 1367 she bore another daughter named Philippa, at Eltham, and in July returned to France. On the eve of the renewal of the war between England and France in 1368, Enguerraud, unwilling either to break with his father-in-law or to fight against his lord the French king, went to Italy and served in the wars of Urban V and Gregory XI against the Visconti. During his absence Isabella resided in England. She met her husband at Saint-Gobain on his return after about six years' absence, but came back to England while he made his campaign in Aargau and Alsace in 1375 against Leopold II of Austria. She met him on his return in January 1376, and accompanied him to England. He had, however, promised to uphold the cause of the French king, and after staying for a while at the English court, where he and his wife were received joyfully, he left her and returned to France, allowing her younger daughter to remain with her, and keeping the elder with him in France, where she had been brought up. Subsequently Enguerraud renounced his homage to the English king, and his lands in England were forfeited. In March 1379 Richard II provided out of those lands for the maintenance of his aunt, Isabella (Fœdera, iv. 60). She died a few months later, and was buried in the church of the Grey Friars in London. Her effigy, is on her father's tomb in Westminster Abbey. Her elder daughter, Mary, married Henry, son of Robert, duke of Bar; her younger, Philippa, married Robert de Vere, earl of Oxford.
[Mrs. Green, in Lives of the Princesses, iii. 164–221, gives a full account of Isabella's life, drawn mainly from manuscript records; Rymer's Fœdera, iii. passim, iv. 60 (Record edit.); Froissart, i. 257–9, 603, 703, 706, ed. Buchon; Duchesne's Histoire des Maisons de Guisnes … Coucy, &c., pp. 265, 415; L'Art de Vérifier les Dates, xii. 357; Chron. Angliæ, pp. 4, 56 (Rolls Ser.); Dugdale's Baronage, i. 61.]