The Tour de Nesle Affair: Conclusion.

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Kingdom of France, Margaret of Burgundy, Philip IV of France, Philip the Fair, Philip V of France, Pope Clement V, Pope John XII, The Tour de Nesle, The Tour de Nesle affair

Due to the gap in the papacy between the death of Clement V in 1314 and the election of John XXII in 1316, Margaret’s marriage to Louis could not be annulled, and she was imprisoned in an underground cell at Château Gaillard castle. Louis succeeded to the throne later that year after the death of Philippe IV, being officially crowned in August 1315. Margaret, however, was still alive but promptly died under suspicious circumstances, possibly murdered, on August 14, whilst still imprisoned. Louis remarried five days later to Clementia of Hungary, the niece of Louis’ own uncle and close advisor, Charles of Valois. Louis himself died a year later after falling ill following a challenging game of tennis.

Jeanne was placed under house arrest at Dourdan in the aftermath of the Parlement acquittal amidst suggestions that she might also have been having an adulterous affair herself, but enjoyed the continuing support of her husband, Philippe. Philippe campaigned for her release, which was forthcoming the next year and Jeanne returned to court. It is unclear why Philippe stood by her in the way that he did. One theory has been that he was concerned that if he was to abandon Jeanne, he might also lose Burgundy, which he had gained through their marriage. Another theory suggests that he was in truth very deeply in love with her. With the death after a few days of the baby King Jean I of France, Jeanne served as her husbands, Philippe V, queen consort for several years; after Philippe’s death, she inherited the County of Artois from her mother and finally died in 1330.

Blanche remained in prison at Château Gaillard as well for eight years until 1322, when Charles assumed the throne. Upon becoming king, Charles IV still refused to release Blanche, instead annulling their marriage and having Blanche consigned to a nunnery. Charles remarried immediately afterwards to Marie of Luxembourg; Blanche died the next year, her health broken from the years spent underground.

Aftermath and legacy

The affair badly damaged the reputation of women in senior French circles, contributing to the way that the Salic Law was implemented during subsequent arguments over the succession to the throne. When Louis died unexpectedly in 1316, supporters of his eldest daughter Jeanne found that suspicions hung over her parentage following the scandal and that the French nobility were increasingly cautious over the concept of a woman inheriting the throne – Louis’ brother, Philippe took power instead. Philippe died unexpectedly young as well, and his younger brother Charles did not live long after remarrying after his coronation, similarly dying without male heirs. The interpretation of the Salic Law then placed the French succession in doubt. Despite Philippe of Valois, the son of Charles of Valois, claiming the throne with French noble support, Edward III of England, the son of Isabella was able to press his own case, resulting in the ensuing Hundred Years War (1337–1453).

The affair would also have an impact in European culture. Scholars studying the theme of courtly love have observed that the narratives about adulterous queens die out shortly after the Tour de Nesle scandal, suggesting that they became less acceptable or entertaining after the executions and imprisonments in the French royal family. The story of the affair was used by the French dramatist Alexandre Dumas as the basis for his play La Tour de Nesle in 1832, “a romantic thriller reconstructing medieval crimes on a grand scale”. The Tour de Nesle guard-tower itself was destroyed in 1665. Le Roi de fer (1955), the first novel of Maurice Druon’s seven-volume series Les Rois maudits (The Accursed Kings), describes the affair and the subsequent executions in lurid and imaginative detail.

The Tour de Nesle Affair: Part I.

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Blanche of Burgundy, Charles V of France, Isabella of England, Jeanne of Burgundy, Louis X of France, Margaret of Burgundy, Philip IV of France, Philip of Aunay, Philip V of France, The Tour de Nesle, The Tour de Nesle affair, Walter of Aunay

From the Emperor’s Desk: When posting on the life of King Philippe V of France and Navarre I briefly mentioned The Tour de Nesle affair. Today I am starting a short series on that scandal.

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.

The royal scandal occurred at the end of the difficult reign of Philippe IV, known as “le Bel” (the Fair) because of his good looks. Philippe IV was a strangely unemotional man. The contemporary bishop of Pamiers described him as “neither a man nor a beast, but a statue”; modern historians have noted that he “cultivated a reputation for Christian kingship and showed few weaknesses of the flesh.”

Throughout his reign, Philippe had attempted to build up the authority and prestige of the French crown, raising fresh revenues, creating new institutions of government, engaging in wars against his rivals, and on occasion challenging the authority of the Church. Just before the crisis broke, Philippe had been engaged in the liquidation of the order of the Knights Templar in France. By 1314, however, he was financially overstretched and in an increasingly difficult domestic political situation, and some have suggested that his weakened position contributed to the subsequent royal crisis.

Philippe IV had three sons, Louis, Philippe and Charles. As was customary for the period, all three were married with an eye for political gain. Initially Philippe had intended for Louis to marry Jeanne, the eldest daughter of Otto IV, Count of Burgundy, but in the end chose Margaret, the daughter of Robert II, Duke of Burgundy, in 1305, and arranged for his middle son Philippe to marry Jeanne of Burgundy in 1307. His youngest son Charles married Blanche of Burgundy another of Otto’s daughters, in 1308.

The three marriages had fared differently. The union of Louis and Margaret of Burgundy is considered to have been an unhappy match; Louis, known as “the Quarreler” and “the Headstrong”, is said to have preferred playing real tennis to spending time with the “feisty and shapely” Margaret. Charles, a relatively conservative, “strait-laced” and “stiff-necked” individual, had an unexceptional marriage. Philippe, the future King Philippe V, in contrast, became noted for his unusual generosity to his wife Jeanne; the pair had a considerable number of children in a short space of time and Philip wrote numerous, if formulaic, love letters to his wife over the years.

French Royal Family, depicted in 1315: l-r: Charles and Philippe , Isabella, Philippe IV, Louis, and Charles of Valois. Bibliothèque Nationale de France.

Meanwhile, Philippe IV the Fair married his daughter, Isabella, to Edward II of England in 1308 in an attempt to resolve the tensions of his twin problems of conflict over the contested territories of Gascony and Flanders. Isabella’s marriage proved difficult, largely due to Edward’s intimate relationship with his close friend and possible lover, Piers Gaveston. Isabella looked frequently to her father for help addressing the problems in her English marriage.

Most accounts of the scandal begin with the visit of King Edward II and Queen Isabella of England to the queen’s father in France during 1313. During the visit, Louis and Charles had a satirical puppet show put on for their guests, and after this Isabella had given new embroidered purses both to her brothers and to their wives. Later in the year, Isabella and Edward held a large dinner in London to celebrate their return and Isabella apparently noticed that the purses she had given to her sisters-in-law were now being carried by two Norman knights, Walter of Aunay (also known as Gautier of Aunay) and Philip of Aunay. Isabella reached the conclusion that the pair must have been carrying on an illicit affair with the wives of her brothers Louis and Charles and appears to have informed her father of this during her next visit to France in 1314.

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 Philip 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 Philip IV in 1308. The third sister-in-law, Joan, 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, Edward, and in theory the removal of all three of her sisters-in-law might have made his 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.