John, King of England
This monarch was b. 24 Dec. 1160, and crowned 27 May 1199. He m. 1st, Avisa, the dau. and rich heiress of William, Earl of Gloucester, who was son of Robert de Mellent, natural son of King Henry the First, but this lady was subsequently divorced, in order to marry Isabella, dau. and heir of Aymer Taillefer, Count of Angoulême, by Alice, his wife, dau. of Peter, Lord of Courtnay, 5th son of Lewis Le Gros, King of France.
By maternal descent, Isabella thus shared the blood of the Capetian sovereigns, and from her father she inherited the beautiful province of the Angoumois, situated in the very heart of Aquitaine. Her marriage to John of England was solemnized at Bordeaux, in 1200, and its issue consisted of two sons, and three daus., viz.
i. HENRY, who ascended the throne as third of his name.
ii. Richard, Duke of Cornwall, b. in 1208, created in 1225 Earl of Poictiers, and elected King of the Romans in 1256. He m. 1st, Isabel, dau. of William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke, and widow of Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester, and, by her, was father of
Henry, b. in 1235, who was slain by Guy and Simon, sons of Simon, Earl of Leicester.
The King of the Romans m. 2ndly, Sancha, dau. and coheir of Raymond Berenger, Count of Provence, and by her had
Edmund, Earl of Cornwall, who m. Margaret, dau. of Robert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester, but d.s.p.
Richard, slain at the siege of Kenwick, in 1296.
The King of the Romans m. 3rdly, Beatrice, niece of Conrad, Elector of Cologne, but by her he had no issue.
Of his illegitimate children, the eldest, Richard de Cornwall, was patriarch of the Cornwalls, Barons of Burford, in Shropshire.
iii. Joan, m, Alexander II. King of Scotland, but d.s.p.
iv. Eleanora, who m. 1st, William, Earl of Pembroke, and 2ndly, Simon Montfort, Earl of Leicester, and had issue only by the latter, who was slain at Evesham, in 1265, viz:
1. Henry, who fell at Evesham, leading the van of the Baronial army.
2. Simon, Earl of Bigoore, ancestor of the Montforts of France.
3. Guy, who is said to have become Earl of Angleria, in Italy, the heir progenitor of the Montforts of Norway, and of the Counts of Campobachi, of Naples.
4. Richard, who is stated to have remained in England in privacy, under the name of Wellsburne.
5. Eleanor, m. 3 Oct. 1271, to Llewelyn ap Griffith, King of North Wales, and d. in 1280, leaving an only dau. and heiress, the Princess Catharine.
v. Isabella, b. 1214, m. Frederick II. Emperor of Germany, and had two daughters,
1. Margaret, wife of Albert Degener, Llangrave of Thuringia, and Margrave of Misma, by whom she was mother of FREDERICK, Margrave of Meissen and Thuringia, direct ancestor of the Royal House of Saxe, and of H.R.H. Prince ALBERT, (see the Royal Descent of the House of SAXE GOTHIA.)
2. Agnes, m, to Conrad, of Thuringia.
After the death of King John, Isabella retired to her native city of’ Angoulême, and in about three years after, according to Matthew of Westminster, “took to her husband her former spouse,* Hugh le Brun, Count of Marche,” and d. in 1246, leaving by him several sons, of whom the eldest, Hugh de Lusignan, succeeded his father as Count de la Marche and Angouléme.
* This expression refers to the fact of Isabella’s betrothment to the Count of March, before her marriage with King John.