Yolande of Dreux, Queen of Scotland

Yolande of Dreux

Blasons

Yolande of Dreux (1263 – 2 August 1322) was Countess of Montfort in her own right and Queen consort of the Kingdom of Scotland. She was the daughter of Robert IV, Count of Dreux, and Beatrice, Countess of Montfort.

Life

Yolande belonged to the Capetian dynasty and had close ties to other prominent noble families. Her father was a patrilineal descendant of King Louis VI of France, her paternal grandmother Marie de Bourbon was a cousin of Guy of Dampierre, Count of Flanders, while her mother Beatrice was the only child of Count John I of Montfort-l'Amaury and his wife Jeanne, Dame de Chateaudun. Yolande succeeded her mother as suo iure Countess of Montfort.

Yolande was the second wife of Alexander III, King of Scots, who married the young Frenchwoman in search of an heir following the death of the last surviving child of his marriage to Margaret, daughter of Henry III of England, also named Alexander. As well as being intended to provide an heir for the kingdom of Scots, Alexander's marriage to the French Yolande represented a move to distance Alexander from his neighbour Edward I of England and to emphasise Scots independence. Yolande was related to her husband Alexander III, since both shared the same ancestors in the french noble houses of Coucy and of Dreux.

The marriage was celebrated on 15 October 1285 at Jedburgh Abbey. King Alexander died on either 18 March or 19 March 1286, from a fall from his horse, while riding from his court at Edinburgh to join Yolande at Kinghorn. It appears that by this time the Queen was believed to be pregnant with the expected heir, and Guardians were elected to govern the kingdom by a parliament held at Scone, Perth and Kinross on 2 April or 28 April 1286.

It is unclear what happened to her pregnancy, most likely she had a miscarriage. However by one account the Guardians gathered at Clackmannan of Saint Catherine's Day — 25 November 1286 — to witness the birth, but the child was stillborn, or just possibly she had a phantom pregnancy, and according to one dubious English account she was faking pregnancy.

Family

Yolande's second marriage, in 1292, to Arthur II, Duke of Brittany, was longer lasting and produced issue. Yolande and Arthur had at least six children:

• John, born c. 1294, later Count of Montfort
• Béatrix, born c. 1295, married Guy X of Laval
• Jeanne, born c. 1296, married Robert, son of Robert III of Flanders
• Alix, (Alice) , born c. 1297–1377, married Bouchard VI of Vendôme
• Blanche, born c. 1300, died young
• Marie, born c. 1302, entered a convent

Arthur died in 1312, being succeeded by his son John, born of his first marriage and not to be confused with his son by Yolande named John. Yolande survived Arthur, dying on 2 August 1330. Her county of Montfort passed to her son John, who would later unsuccessfully fight for his claim to his father's Duchy in the Breton War of Succession.

Ancestry

Family of Yolande of Dreux, Queen of Scotland

16. Robert II, Count of Dreux 8. Robert III, Count of Dreux 17. Youlande de Coucy 4. John I, Count of Dreux 18. Thomas de Saint-Valéry 9. Aenor of Saint-Valéry 19. Adela de Ponthieu, Dame de Saint-Aubin 2. Robert IV, Count of Dreux 20. Guy II de Dampierre 10. Archambaud VIII of Bourbon 21. Matilda I of Bourbon 5. Marie of Bourbon 22. Archambaud de Montluçon 11. Béatrice de Montluçon 1. Yolande of Dreux 24. Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester 12. Amaury VI de Montfort 25. Alix de Montmorency 6. Jean I de Montfort 26. André Guigues VI, Dauphin of Viennois 13. Beatrice of Burgundy 27. Beatrix de Sabran 3. Beatrice, Countess of Montfort 28. Geoffrey VI, Viscount of Chateaudun 14. Geoffrey VI, Viscount de Chateaudun 29. Alix de Fréteval 7. Jeanne, Dame de Chateaudun 30. William des Roches, Seneschal of Anjou 15. Clémence des Roches 31. Marguerite de Sablé

References

• Duncan, A.A.M., The Kingship of the Scots 842–1292: Succession and Independence. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 2002. ISBN 0-7486-1626-8
• Macdougall, Norman, "L'Écosse à la fin du XIIIe sieclè: un royaume menacé" in James Laidlaw (ed.) The Auld Alliance: France and Scotland over 700 Years. Edinburgh University, Edinburgh, 1999. ISBN 0-9534945-0-0