ISABELLA OF FRANCE

born 1292 died Aug. 23, 1358 queen consort of Edward II of England, who played a principal part in the deposition of the King in 1327. The daughter of Philip IV the Fair of France, Isabella was married to Edward on Jan. 25, 1308, at Boulogne. Isabella's first interventions in politics were conciliatory. During the height of the influence of the King's favourite Piers Gaveston and after Gaveston's murder in 1312, she attempted to promote peace between Edward and the barons. In the 1320s, however, Edward's new favourites, the Despensers, aroused her antagonism. Isabella sailed for France in 1325 to settle a long-standing dispute over Gascony. Joined there by her son, the future Edward III, she announced her refusal to return to England until the Despensers were removed from court. She became the mistress of Roger Mortimer of Wigmore and with Mortimer and other baronial exiles crossed to Essex in 1326 and routed the forces of Edward and the Despensers. After the accession of Edward III (1327) Isabella and Mortimer enjoyed a brief period of influence until 1330 when the young king asserted his independence by the arrest and execution of Mortimer. Isabella was sent into retirement. In her old age she joined an order of nuns, the Poor Clares.