Joanna, Duchess of Brabant

Joanna
Duchess of Brabant Duchess of Lothier Duchess of Limburg
Spouse(s)	William IV, Count of Holland Wenceslaus I, Duke of Luxembourg
Detail Titles and styles The Duchess of Brabant, Lothier and Limburg
Noble family	House of Reginar
Father	John III, Duke of Brabant
Mother	Marie d'Évreux
Born	24 June 1322
Died	1 November 1406

Joanna, Duchess of Brabant (24 June 1322 – 1 November 1406), also known as Jeanne, was the heiress of Duke John III, who died in Brussels, December 5, 1355. Her mother was Marie d'Évreux.

Family

Joanna's maternal grandparents were Louis d'Évreux and his wife, Margaret of Artois. Her paternal grandparents were John II, Duke of Brabant and his wife Margaret of England. Margaret of England was a daughter of Edward I of England and his first wife Eleanor of Castile.

Joanna was the eldest child born to her parents. Only herself and two other sister, Margaret and Marie lived to adulthood; her three younger brothers died in childhood.

Life

Joanna's first marriage, in 1334, was to William IV, Count of Holland (1307–1345), who subsequently died in battle and their only son William died young, thus foiling that project of unifying their territories.

Her second marriage was to Wenceslaus of Luxemburg. The famous document, the foundation of the rule of law in Brabant called the Blijde Inkomst ("Joyous Entry"), was arrived at in January 1356, in order to assure Joanna and her consort peacable entry into their capital and to settle the inheritance of the Duchy of Brabant on her "natural heirs", who were Joanna's sisters, they being more acceptable to the burghers of Brabant than rule by the House of Luxembourg.

As events transpired, the document was a dead letter, with the military incursion into Brabant of the Count of Flanders, Louis II, who had married Margaret, Joanna's younger sister, and considered himself Duke of Brabant by right of his wife. By August 1356 Joanna and Wencelaus had called upon the Emperor, Charles IV to support them by force of arms. Charles met at Maastricht with the parties concerned, including representatives of the towns, and all agreed to nullify certain terms of the Blijde Inkomst, to satisfy the Luxembourg dynasty.

On Joanna's death, by agreement the Duchy passed to her great-nephew Antoine de Valois, the second son of her sister's daughter Margaret de Dampierre, Countess of Flanders, who had married Philip II, Duke of Burgundy.

Her tomb was not erected in the Carmelite church in Brussels until the late 1450s; it was paid for in 1459 by her descendant, duke Philip the Good of Burgundy. Though it was destroyed in the course of the French Revolutionary Wars, its appearance has been reconstructed from drawings and descriptions by Lorne Campbell, who concluded that the tomb was an afterthought, providing an inexpensive piece of propaganda for Philip's dynastic rights.

Ancestors

Joanna's ancestors in three generations

Joanna, Duchess of Brabant	Father: John III, Duke of Brabant	Paternal Grandfather: John II, Duke of Brabant	Paternal Great-Grandfather: John I, Duke of Brabant
			Paternal Great-grandmother: Margaret of Flanders
		Paternal Grandmother: Margaret of England	Paternal Great-Grandfather: Edward I of England
			Paternal Great-Grandmother: Eleanor of Castile
	Mother: Marie d'Évreux	Maternal Grandfather: Louis d'Évreux	Maternal Great-Grandfather: Philip III of France
			Maternal Great-Grandmother: Maria of Brabant
		Maternal Grandmother: Margaret of Artois	Maternal Great-grandfather: Philip of Artois
			Maternal Great-Grandmother: Blanche of Brittany

See also

• Dukes of Brabant family tree

Notes

Regnal titles
Preceded by John III, Duke of Brabant	Duchess of Brabant, Lothier and Limburg 1355–1406	Succeeded by Anthony