The Tour de Nesle Affair: Part II.

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Adultery, Charles IV of France, John I of France, Philip IV of France, Philip the Fair, Sandal, The Tour de Nesle affair, Tour de Nesle

Philippe IV placed the knights under surveillance for a period, and the scandal began to take shape. The accusations centred on suggestions that Blanche and Margaret had been drinking, eating and engaging in adultery with Gautier and Philippe of Aunay in the Tour de Nesle over a period time. The Tour de Nesle was an old guard tower in Paris next to the river Seine and had been bought by Philippe IV in 1308. The third sister-in-law, Jeanne , was initially said to have been present on some of these occasions and to have known of the affair; later accusations were extended to have included suggestions that she had also been involved in adultery herself.

Most historians have tended to conclude that the accusations against Blanche and Margaret were probably true, although some are more skeptical. Some accounts have suggested that Isabella’s accusations were politically motivated; she had just given birth to her son, the future King Edward II, and in theory the removal of all three of her sisters-in-law might have made Edward II of England’s accession to the French throne more likely. Others have argued that this seems an unlikely plan, given the normal probability that at least one of the three brothers would have successfully remarried and enjoyed a male heir in the coming years. Some contemporary chroniclers suggested that Philippe IV’s unpopular chamberlain Enguerrand de Marigny might have been responsible for framing the knights and women involved.

Following the period of surveillance, Philippe IV broke the news of the accusations publicly and arrested all involved. There are some suggestions that Walter and Philippe of Aunay attempted to escape to England but in due course both knights were interrogated and tortured by French officials. Both confessed to adultery and were found guilty, therefore, of lèse majesté. Blanche and Margaret were tried before the Paris Parlement and found guilty of adultery. The two women had their heads shaven and were sentenced to life imprisonment. Jeanne was also tried before the Parlement but was found innocent, partially as a result of her husband Philip’s influence.

Impact

The Tour de Nesle scandal led to the imprisonment of Blanche and Margaret, and the execution of their lovers. Having been tortured, the guilty knights Gautier and Philippe were then killed; most histories agree that they were first castrated and then either drawn and quartered or flayed alive, broken on a wheel and then hanged. The episode came as a severe shock to Philippe IV and some suggest that it contributed to his death later that same year. Isabella was criticized by some in France for failing to stand by her sisters-in-law, although this passed with time; Isabella’s own marriage failed catastrophically in due course, with many historians believing that she was responsible for the murder of her husband Edward II in 1327 after Isabella’s seizure of power in England with her lover Roger de Mortimer in 1326.

This date in History: January 3, 1322. Death of Philippe V, King of France and Navarre.

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County of Burgundy, Duchy of Burgundy, Holy Roman Empire, John I of France, Kingdom of France, Louis X of France, Philip the Tall, Philip V of France, Robert II of Burgundy, Salic Law, Tour de Nesle Affair

Philippe V (c. 1293 – January 3, 1322), known as the Tall was King of France and Navarre (as Philippe II). He reigned from 1316 to 1322.

Philippe was born in Lyon, the second son of King Philippe IV of France and Queen Jeanne I of Navarre, the daughter of king Henri I of Navarre and Blanche of Artois. His father granted to him the county of Poitiers in appanage. Modern historians have described Philippe V as a man of “considerable intelligence and sensitivity”, and the “wisest and politically most apt” of Philippe IV’s three sons.

As the second son of king Philippe IV, he was not expected to inherit the kingdom so he was therefore granted an appanage, the County of Poitiers, while his elder brother, Louis X, inherited the throne in 1314. When Louis died in 1316, he left a daughter and a pregnant wife, Clementia of Hungary. There were several potential candidates for the role of regent, including Charles of Valois and Duke Odo IV of Burgundy, but Philippe successfully outmanoeuvred them, being appointed regent himself. Queen Clementia gave birth to a boy, who was proclaimed king as Jean I, but the infant king lived only for five days.

Philippe V, King of France and Navarre

The death of Jean I was unprecedented in the history of the Capetian Kings of France. For the first time, the king of France died without a male heir. The heir to the throne was now a subject of some dispute. Jeanne, the remaining daughter of Louis X by Margaret of Burgundy, was one obvious candidate, but suspicion still hung over her as a result of the scandal in 1314, including concerns over her actual parentage.

Jeanne’s mother, Margaret of Burgundy, the eldest daughter of Robert II, Duke of Burgundy (1248–1306) and Agnes of France (1260–1327), the youngest daughter of Louis IX of France and Margaret of Provence, was involved in the Tour de Nesle Affair. With only his niece between himself and the throne, Philippe engaged in some rapid political negotiations and convinced Charles of Valois, who along with Odo IV was championing Jeanne’s rights, to switch sides and support him instead.

The Tour de Nesle affair was a scandal amongst the French royal family in 1314, during which Margaret, Blanche, and Jeanne, the daughters-in-law of King Philippe IV, were accused of adultery. The accusations were apparently started by Philippe’s daughter, Isabella. The Tour de Nesle was a tower in Paris where much of the adultery was said to have occurred. The scandal led to torture, executions and imprisonments for the princesses’ lovers and the imprisonment of the princesses, with lasting consequences for the final years of the House of Capet.

On February 2 in Paris. Philippe laid down the principle that Jeanne, as a woman, could not inherit the throne of France, and this played heavily upon the fact that he was now the anointed king, and consolidated what some authors have described as his effective “usurpation” of power. The exclusion of women, and later of their male descendants, was later popularized as the Salic law by the Valois monarchy.

Philippe married Countess Jeanne II of Burgundy, the eldest daughter and heiress of Otto IV, Count of Burgundy and Mahaut, Countess of Artois, in 1307. The original plan had been for Louis X to marry Jeanne of Burgundy, but this was altered after Louis was engaged to Margaret of Burgundy, his first cousin once removed. Jeanne of Burgundy and Margaret of Burgundy were from different entities associated with the name Burgundy. Jeanne II was from the medieval County of Burgundy (extant from 982 to 1678) of the Holy Roman Empire, while Margaret was a member of the Duchy of Burgundy, which was a fiefdom of Francia (later the Kingdom of France) since 843.

Modern scholars have found little evidence as to whether the marriage was a happy one, but the pair had a considerable number of children in a short space of time, and Philippe was exceptionally generous to Joan by the standards of the day. Philippe went to great lengths not only to endow Joan with lands and money but to try to ensure that these gifts were irrevocable in the event of his early death. Amongst the various gifts were a palace, villages, additional money for jewels, and her servants and the property of all the Jews in Burgundy, which he gave to Jeanne in 1318.

Philippe V restored somewhat good relations with the County of Flanders, which had entered into open rebellion during his father’s rule, but simultaneously his relations with Edward II of England worsened as the English king, who was also Duke of Guyenne, initially refused to pay him homage. A spontaneous popular crusade started in Normandy in 1320 aiming to liberate Iberia from the Moors. Instead the angry populace marched to the south attacking castles, royal officials, priests, lepers, and Jews.

Philippe V engaged in a series of domestic reforms intended to improve the management of the kingdom. These reforms included the creation of an independent Court of Finances, the standardization of weights and measures, and the establishment of a single currency.

Philippe V died from dysentery in 1322 without a male heir and was succeeded by his younger brother as Charles IV.