Twice Royal, Utterly Shamed
Joan of France was not only the sister of King Charles VIII of France, she was also married to her brother’s successor, King Louis XIII. But this was no blessing. Manipulated, mistreated, and infamously discarded, Joan’s brief reign as Queen of France reads more like a Tudor nightmare than a French romance—but at the very least, Joan got the last laugh.
1. Her Royalty Ran Deep
Despite her ignominious end, Joan of France’s family background was as promising as it gets. Born in April 1464, her father was the cunning “Spider” King Louis XI of France, and her mother was his second wife Charlotte of Savoy. However, Joan’s luxurious birth also came with a bare-faced tragedy.
Unknown authorUnknown author, Wikimedia Commons
2. Her Family Was Haunted
Although her mother had eight children total, only Joan, her older sister Anne, and her future brother Charles survived into adulthood. More than that, at the time of Joan’s birth the royal family had suffered through three infant deaths, including two prized male heirs—and now they had had two daughters.
It was a less than ideal proposition for a country who only legally recognized male rulers. That wasn’t all.
3. She Was Sickly
From the moment Joan was born, the royal family knew she was going to be different. She was a sickly infant, and likely had some physical disability. There are reports she had a hump on her back, probably from an abnormal curvature of her spine, and this caused her to grow up to walk with a limp.
Even so, the royal family knew exactly what to do with her.
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4. Her Father Had Big Plans
With heirs of any description in short supply in the French court, Joan was a very hot commodity on the marriage market. Directly after her birth, Joan’s father King Louis XI brokered an agreement that had her marrying his two-year-old second cousin, Louis, who would shortly become the Duke of Orleans. But the king had extremely ulterior motives.
AnonymousUnknown author, Wikimedia Commons
5. Her Father Was Cunning
Since Joan was a close relative of her betrothed Louis, you might think that the king was simply trying to keep the power in the family. The opposite was true: The young Louis actually came from a pesky offshoot branch of the family, the House of Valois, that the royals didn’t want seizing power. The king’s real reasons were much more disturbing.
Miscellaneous Items in High Demand, PPOC, Library of Congress, Wikimedia Commons
6. She Was Part Of A Cruel Plan
Because of her disability, the royal family assumed that Joan would be sterile. As such, her father thought she would make the perfect wife for Louis, since, try as they might, she would never give him any heirs to rival the throne. The young Louis, however, had other ideas.
7. Her Betrothed Didn’t Want Her
When Louis was old enough to understand his betrothal and situation, he did not take it kindly. A young prince full of ambition, Louis was incensed at what he thought of as more an imprisonment than a marriage. Nonetheless, as a subject of the king, he had about as much say in it as poor Joan herself did. All he could do was sit and hope something changed.
8. She Was Educated
During this time, Joan had some of the most formative years of her life. As a young girl, she was often the ward of Baron Francois de Linieres and his wife Anne de Culan. They taught her poetry, math, and other accomplishments, and Joan took to these studies instantly. But she was also learning more consequential lessons.
9. She Was Obsessed
Joan’s caretakers were also more-than-usually devout Catholics, and they instilled in her the importance of faith. Before long, Joan had her own personal confessor, and spent long periods of time praying in chapels. In the end, this faith would change her life—but it wouldn’t change her marital fate.
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10. She Got Unlucky
Betrothal agreements like the one Joan and Louis had were made all the time in 15th-century France, and many of them were broken just as frequently. Unfortunately for them, this one stuck: In 1473, a nine-year-old Joan drew ever closer to her fate when her father signed her marriage contract to Louis, making it more likely for the match to go through.
If Louis was crossing his fingers for it to fall apart, he ended up disappointed.
11. She Was A Tween Bride
In 1476, when she was 12 years old, Joan was officially married to the teenage Louis, Duke of Orleans, in the idyllic French town of Montrichard. It was the culmination of years of her father’s plotting, and was supposed to shut down the cadet branch of the House of Valois for good. The best laid plans…
12. Her Husband Ignored Her
Joan’s marriage to Louis started out badly and kept on going. Louis lavished exactly zero attention on his wife, treating her like the burden he thought she was. In their first seven years of marriage, they had—according to plan—no children together, and Joan lived a chilly existence in her marital home. Then it got even worse.
13. Her Brother Came To The Throne
In 1483, Joan’s world changed once more. That year, her father passed and her brother, now King Charles VIII, came to the throne at just 13 years old. As he was still young and vulnerable, their older sister Anne acted as regent, with an assist from their mother Charlotte of Savoy.
For Joan, it was a moment of family pride. For her husband, it was time to strike.
anonymous / After Jean Perreal, Wikimedia Commons
14. Her Husband Turned Traitor
In the end, Joan’s father had been right to worry about her husband’s branch of the family. No sooner did Charles take the throne than Louis, knowing the French throne was at its weakest point, began military campaigns against the kingdom. Suddenly, Joan was on the enemy’s side against her brother.
Francesco Granacci, Wikimedia Commons
15. She Forgave Him Everything
Lasting three long years from 1485 to 1488, Louis fought the so-called “Mad War” against King Charles VIII as well as Anne of France. But there was a twist. Joan, pious and devoted, was willingly on her husband’s side, and seemed to believe him to be admirably fighting for what he thought was right. If she only knew.
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16. He Betrayed Her
While Louis tirelessly fought Joan’s siblings on the other side of the throne, he also managed to carve out enough time for himself to father an illegitimate son, Michel du Bussy, whom he later made Bishop of Bourges. Still, this straying from the marriage bed didn’t shake Joan’s faith in her husband.
Then in 1488, Louis stopped being able to do much of anything at all.
17. He Was Imprisoned
As you might imagine from the name “Mad War,” Louis’ onslaught of King Charles VIII’s kingdom was doomed from the start, and five years in he suffered a brutal defeat in the Battle of Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier. The consequences were chilling. Joan’s brother Charles took Louis captive, hoping some time imprisoned would cool their wayward relative’s ambitions.
Once more, Joan’s reaction might surprise you.
Paul Lehugeur, Wikimedia Commons
18. She Stood By Him
Not even defeat and imprisonment could make Joan think twice about her devotion to Louis. For years, she campaigned to free him, and made sure as best she could that her brother was treating him well. More than that, she even acted as Louis’ proxy in the administration of his lands, making sure he would return to a well-kept realm. Louis, of course, would repay her with betrayal.
19. She Took Him Back
In 1491, Joan got her dearest wish: Her husband finally got free of his imprisonment. In fact, he even seemed to get back in the good graces of the French throne, winning a pardon three years after his release and soon going on campaign with King Charles in Italy.
But by then, the French kingdom was in a different kind of peril.
Unknown authorUnknown author, Wikimedia Commons
20. The Royal Family Was In Trouble
At the time, Joan’s brother King Charles was married to the feisty Anne of Brittany, the heiress to the currently independent duchy of Brittany. Nonetheless, the couple were experiencing the trouble that had plagued the royal family for generations: They couldn’t manage to have a healthy male heir. Indeed, they couldn’t manage to have any heirs at all.
Still, both were still relatively young and had time yet to keep trying. Or, so everyone thought.
Jean Bourdichon, Wikimedia Commons
21. Her Brother Met A Sudden End
In 1498, Joan got horrific news. Her brother Charles had perished in a seemingly freak accident after hitting his head on the top of a door frame, sending him into a fatal coma. Although some historians believe Charles must have had another illness, potentially syphilis, which had given him severe brain damage, the truth remained: France needed a new king.
Jan Mostaert, Wikimedia Commons
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22. Her Husband Became King
Charles’s death sent a shock throughout France, but perhaps no one was as stunned as Joan’s husband Louis. That’s because, given that Charles had no heirs, the throne was now passing to Louis and the House of Valois.
In the end, all the machinations of Joan’s family had led to nothing. It produced a crisis of Tudor proportions.
23. She Had Royal Competition
Louis now ascended the throne as King Louis XII, and Joan became the Queen Consort of France. But there was one enormous issue. The late King Charles had stipulated in his marriage contract that if he died without an heir, Anne of Brittany would be obligated to marry his successor. That way, France could keep her ancestral home of Brittany in its grasp.
Of course, you’d think this agreement would be null, since the new King Louis XII was already married to Joan. Well, you’d be wrong.
Jan Mostaert, Wikimedia Commons
24. He Wanted To Get Rid Of Her
Married or not, King Louis XII very much wanted to scoop up the newly available bride and marry her. So, what could he do except viciously turn on his wife? In no time at all, Louis had applied to the papacy for an annulment of his marriage to Joan so that he could be free to marry Anne.
If this sounds like Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon before Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, well, it was actually a lot worse than that.
25. They Had A Fatal Flaw
Louis might have expected he had a cut and dry case, and that he could send his devoted wife away before she could blink. After all, he and Joan were closely related, meaning he could ask to have the marriage annulled due to consanguinity, an extremely common reason for dissolution at the time. But this hit a snag.
26. He Couldn’t Prove It
King Louis XII was stymied in this defense by the lack of paper evidence at the time. Although people could testify the pair were closely related, Louis worried he couldn’t prove it to the courts because he didn’t have any documents. He even wanted to claim he was below the legal age of consent (which was 14) when he married Joan…only, no one could pinpoint when he was born, and thus how old he was on the day of his marriage.
With all these avenues closed to him, King Louis took the nuclear option.
27. He Humiliated Her
In front of the judges, Joan’s husband made a heartbreaking accusation. He quite literally argued that her physical disability had made it so he’d never been able to physically consummate the union in all the years Joan had been his queen, implying that she was either too ugly for him to do the deed, too physically incapable, or both. To support this, he talked of her “deformities” in great detail.
He didn’t stop there, either.
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28. He Invoked Witchcraft
As if it weren’t enough to scorn his wife in front of the papal court, Louis also claimed that when he had tried anything with Joan, his performance had been affected by…witchcraft. Joan fought against this, arguing that if he was so impeded by sorcery, how did he know he hadn’t consummated anything with her? That wasn’t the only way she hit him where it hurt.
29. She Fought Back
Joan had been the perfect 15th-century wife up to this point, supporting Louis even when he didn’t deserve it. The trial showed a new side of her. She knew she was the king’s lawful wife, and she didn’t submit meekly to his accusations. She gathered witnesses of her own to prove her own points—and their testimony was scandalous.
30. She Made A Sharp Comeback
Against the charge that Louis had never consummated the royal union, Joan produced courtiers who testified that they’d heard Louis boasting about lying with “my wife three or four times during the night”. Hearsay it might have been, but it showed that Louis’ narrative had changed a lot since Anne of Brittany suddenly became single.
There were more twists to come.
Universal History Archive, Getty Images
31. She Was Poised To Win
To anyone watching the proceedings, Joan of France had an airtight defense, while Louis had almost no solid evidence on his side, at least under the time’s legal standards. It should have been an easy win for the Queen Consort, allowing her to go back to the life she’d been pushed into in the first place…except for one thing.
32. The Pope Was Against Her
The papacy, which was hearing the case, was firmly in Louis’ pocket, and had a political bias to give the King of France what he wanted. The ironic thing was, nothing Louis brought before the court to this point was convincing enough for even them to grant the annulment. Instead, they came up with another, equally bogus idea.
33. She Lost Everything
Months after Charles VIII’s death, Pope Alexander VI finally gave Louis his annulment—on the grounds that he had been forced to marry Joan, and so the union wasn’t valid. It was shaky reasoning at best, and when all was said and done, people called it "one of the seamiest lawsuits of the age".
Joan knew she’d been cheated—and she wasn’t the only one.
Cristofano dell'Altissimo, Wikimedia Commons
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34. Even Her Rival Wasn’t Happy
As the trial had gone on, Louis’ would-be bride Anne of Brittany had waited anxiously in the wings, hoping that he would lose and she could go on her way. When he won instead and she was forced to marry him, Anne made a contemptuous show of bringing two beds with her when she moved in, just to make it clear she did not intend to happily share his marital bed.
Joan’s revenge was more understated, but no less cutting.
35. She Didn’t Take It Lying Down
Joan was a placid woman, but make no mistake, she was infuriated at the ruling. Her response was perfectly petty. Still playing the dutiful wife, she gave in to the Pope’s annulment, but added that she would pray for her ex-husband.
It was a “bless your heart” that spoke multitudes, but Louis didn’t leave her completely high and dry. Just mostly.
Fototeca Storica Nazionale, Getty Images
36. She Got A New Title
As an inadequate apology for all the torment he’d put her through, King Louis gave Joan the title of “Duchess of Berry”. It was a title closely connected to his lineage, sure, but it definitely didn’t have quite the same ring as “Queen Consort”. It was also something of a monkey’s paw.
37. He All But Banished Her
As part of her title of Duchess of Berry, Joan now ruled over the lands of said duchy, including its sleepy capital Bourges. Accordingly, she was expected to take up residence there to better administrate—which meant she would be out of the way of Louis and his new queen Anne in the center of the French court.
Louis was trying to remove her as a piece on the chessboard, but Joan had other ideas.
38. She Got A New Dream
After a forced marriage and then a forced annulment, it would be reasonable to assume that Joan wanted to retire from the public eye and live out the rest of her days in anonymity. She did something very different. Always pious and now free of a husband, she turned her mind to serving the Catholic Church, and she did it in style.
39. She Became A Nun
Joan was still in her early 30s when her annulment to King Louis XI went through, and her small taste of being queen had evidently ignited ambitions in her. After posting up in Bourges, Joan began talking to her spiritual director about becoming a nun. Only, the former queen didn’t just join an Order—she created her own.
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40. She Built Her Own Order
Joan now worked tirelessly to create the Order of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and by the spring of 1500 she already had 11 postulants and thus the basic foundation of the fledgling Order. Her success in this sphere, however, was marked by one final irony.
Bartolome Esteban Murillo, Wikimedia Commons
41. Her Old Enemy Reappeared
Over the next years, Joan managed the growing members of her brainchild and wrote various supporting documents for their mission. One such document, the “Rule of Life,” even had to be officially approved by Pope Alexander VI—the same man who had shadily pushed through her annulment from King Louis XII.
If Joan felt the dark humor, she didn’t show it. She just kept working…until she couldn’t anymore.
42. She Toiled Constantly
The early 1500s were a flurry of activity for Joan and her new Order, with Joan establishing herself officially as a co-founder of the Order, along with her spiritual director, on Pentecost Sunday of 1504. Late that year, in November, Joan publicly committed herself to the Order along with the other postulants.
It was the culmination of everything she had worked for since losing her crown, but it all fell apart from there.
Leonardo da Vinci, Wikimedia Commons
43. She Died Suddenly
In early 1505, fate caught up to Joan of France. Now 40 years old, she seemed run ragged by the trials of her life, and she passed that February. True to who she was now, she wasn’t buried in a royal setting, but rather in the chapel of the Order she had founded.
Only, this wasn’t the last history saw of her.
44. Her Kingdom Fell To Ruin
Joan barely saw the 16th century of France, and that was probably a good thing. By the mid 1500s, her kingdom was embroiled in a brutal war, called the French Wars of Religion, which was fought between the Catholics and the Huguenots, or French protestants.
Yet even though she didn’t live to see this turmoil, Joan was still a part of it.
Francois Dubois 1529-1584, Wikimedia Commons
45. They Dug Up Her Body
On May 27, 1562, Joan suffered one last, cruel indignity. During the religious conflicts, a group of Huguenots, aware of her Catholic and thus opposing faith, targeted her grave and sacked her late-in-life home of Bourges in the process. But when they opened her grave, they made a shocking discovery.
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46. Her Remains Were Bizarrely Intact
Reportedly, when the Huguenots opened the tomb, they found that Joan’s remains were “incorrupt”—that is, they had apparently suffered little to no decomposition, a sign in the Catholic faith of divine intervention. True or not, nothing could save Joan from the Huguenots’ next actions.
Jean Cox (c. 1653-1723), Wikimedia Commons
47. They Burned Her To Ash
Unfortunately, the Huguenots held no beliefs about the holiness of Joan’s “incorrupt” body, and gave her no special treatment. In addition to destroying Bourges, they now also destroyed her remains, burning them along with so much else in the city.
The last note of Joan of France’s legacy could have been this dark, dim note. But then a miracle happened—literally.
48. She Left Miracles In Her Wake
Ever since Joan of France’s swift and premature end, people began reporting strange events. They claimed to see and experience miracles and healing, and attributed this phenomena to the former queen and devout nun.
This, in combination with the supposed incorruptibility of her body, pushed the Catholic Church into a momentous decision.
Jean Perréal, Wikimedia Commons
49. She Became A Saint
In 1631, over 100 years after her death, people still hadn’t forgotten about Joan of France, and wanted to remember her in a more permanent way. That year, the cause of her canonization as a saint began. More than 100 years after that, Pope Benedict XIV beatified her, and in May of 1950 Pope Pius XII officially canonized her as Saint Joan. King Louis who?
Pierre Subleyras, Wikimedia Commons
50. He Got What He Deserved
If it helps to hear, Joan’s former husband appeared to have a much more painful end than the wife he discarded. Although he outlived Joan by a decade—and married again after his second wife Anne of Brittany died—he likely perished from a severe and extremely agonizing case of gout on New Year’s Day, 1515.
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