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Joan of Navarre has the distinction of being the only English queen to ever be punished for witchcraft. Joan was disliked in England during her time as queen and was heavily criticised for her foreign birth. During the reign of her stepson, Henry V, her reputation took a dramatic turn for the worse when she was accused of plotting to murder the king through sorcery and spent several years in prison. Little evidence was ever presented to explain Joan’s arrest and, as the example of Joan’s stepdaughter-in-law Eleanor Cobham shows, an accusation of witchcraft was a convenient way of attacking a royal woman in the fifteenth century. Joan was certainly no witch but, as a foreigner in a troubled period, she was an easy target, just as her predecessors, such as Eleanor of Provence and Isabella of France had found. For a woman to be accused of witchcraft was for her also to lose her place in society. Joan of Navarre’s reputation has never been able to shake off the stigma of the charges against her and it is clear that they were used as an easy way of robbing her of her property. Henry V, the architect of Joan’s misfortunes, would have known the power that his accusations of witchcraft could have and Joan, as a woman and a foreigner, was his helpless victim. When he was overcome with remorse at the treatment of the queen, it was already too late. As earlier queens had found, a tarnished name is difficult to lose.
To modern eyes, the charges against Joan appear to have been unprovoked but she may already have had a sinister reputation by association. Her father Charles the Bad, King of Navarre, was known across Europe for his unsuitable behaviour. Charles was the son of the dispossessed heiress of France, Jeanne of Navarre; as such he had political ambitions towards that country. It is possible that his wife, Joan of France, was offered to him as a way of neutralising his claim but if so the policy failed.1 Joan of Navarre was born in 1368 in Normandy and had a turbulent childhood.2 In 1381, Charles was once again at war with France, and Joan and her two elder brothers were lodged in one of Charles’s castles in Normandy.3 The regents of France, exasperated by Charles’s behaviour, captured Joan with her brothers and took them to Paris as surety for their father’s good behaviour.
Joan must have been shocked to find herself a hostage but the terms of her captivity are unlikely to have been onerous. The regents of France were Joan’s maternal uncles and it is likely that they treated Joan and her brothers kindly. Despite this, Charles was anxious for the return of his children and attempted to poison the regents. This only increased French anger towards Charles and it was only through the intervention of the King of Castile that she and her brothers were released.4 Joan’s feelings on her captivity and release are unclear. Given the uncertainty of life as the daughter of Charles the Bad she may have missed her stable life in Paris.
Soon after Joan’s release, Charles opened negotiations to marry her to John IV, Duke of Brittany. John IV’s second wife, Joan Holland, had died in 1384 and he urgently needed an heir for his duchy. In June 1386 Breton envoys arrived in Navarre to fetch Joan and she sailed for Brittany immediately afterwards, marrying Duke John at Saille on 11 September.5 Joan must have been apprehensive about her marriage to the middle-aged Duke. However she seems to have consented to the match and it proved to be a happy union. Joan’s father promised a generous dowry of 120,000 gold livres, although his early death meant that much of this was never paid. True to his tainted reputation, Charles the Bad suffered a particularly horrifying death in 1387. Suffering from paralysis to his limbs through some ailment, Charles tried to effect a cure by being wrapped from head to toe in bandages. Immobilised in this way, Charles was unable to save himself when a careless servant allowed a candle to ignite the bandages, causing the king to burn to death.6Many of Charles’s contemporaries probably saw this as divine judgement for Charles’s sinister life, although Joan’s feelings are not recorded. Joan’s time after her marriage was, in any event, taken up with childbearing and, in 1389, she provided an heir to the duchy, as well as bearing six other children during her marriage
John IV had always had strong links with England and he visited the country in April 1398.7 It is possible that Joan accompanied him on this visit and if so she would have come into contact with Richard II’s cousin, Henry Bolingbroke. Joan and Henry certainly met at some point during her first marriage. Henry also spent time in Brittany during his exile in 1399 and is again likely to have spent some time with Joan.8 No evidence survives of Joan and Henry’s meetings with each other but it is likely that there was a mutual attraction. It is unlikely that Joan was ever unfaithful to John but the fact that she and Henry proved so eager to marry suggests something more than just diplomatic relations.
John IV died on 1 November 1399. Joan had been an impeccable wife and he entrusted her with the government of Brittany until their son came of age. Joan ruled Brittany well and arranged an impressive inauguration for her son in 1401, an event which ended her regency.9 With the end of her regency, Joan may have felt that her role in Brittany was over. She was still only thirty-three and probably desired a second marriage. In 1399 Henry had become King of England and, at some point, he must have contacted Joan with an offer of marriage. Certainly, by March 1402 negotiations had been opened and on 3 April 1402 Joan’s emissary and Henry underwent a proxy wedding in England.10
Joan had been left wealthy by her first husband and it has often been suggested that Henry’s motive in marrying her was to obtain this wealth. However, Joan seems to have kept personal control over her wealth during her second marriage and Henry did not benefit financially from the match. There may have been a political element in the match on both sides. Henry, as a usurper, needed the foreign contacts that Joan could provide and it is likely that Joan wanted to be a queen.11 The marriage must be considered more than a merely political alliance, however.12 Henry was clearly partial to Joan and remained faithful to her throughout their marriage so attraction is likely to have played a large part in his proposal of marriage. Joan also gave up her children to marry Henry and it seems inconceivable that, as an independent widow, she would do this if she also was not attracted to Henry.
The marriage negotiations were conducted in secret due to the likely unpopularity of the match in Brittany. When news of the proposed marriage became common knowledge the Breton noblemen reacted in anger, fearing that Henry would obtain custody of their duke. Joan was forced to leave all her children, save her two youngest daughters, behind in Brittany.13 Joan and her daughters sailed for England on 13 January 1403, enduring a traumatic crossing that was seen by contemporaries as an evil omen:
As shee crossed the seas for England, her passage was verie dangerous by reason of tempestuous wether, which accident was esteemed ominous in both king Richard’s wives [Henry IV’s unlucky predecessor as king]. The king received her at Winchester, and there having spent some time in devises of pleasures, upon the viith of Februarie the marriage was solemized between them, and upon the xxvith of the same moneth shee was with all ceremonies of state, crowned at Westminster.14
Henry rushed to meet her as soon as he heard that she had landed and Joan must have been pleased at this sign of his affection. She cannot have seen him for over three years and may have worried that neither of them would be as the other expected.
Such worries were in vain. On 8 March 1403 Henry granted Joan a dower of 10,000 marks, the largest dower granted to an English queen up to that time.15 This was probably both a mark of respect for Joan and intended to demonstrate the wealth and stability of the new Lancastrian dynasty. Coupled with her Breton dower, this grant made Joan exceptionally wealthy. She administered this wealth herself and is known to have held councils and conducted her business at Westminster Palace.16 Joan was an adept financial manager who excelled in increasing her wealth – although a less pleasant side of her character emerges in stories of her stripping the estates of children in her wardship.17
Joan appears to have found happiness in the husband and family she acquired through her second marriage and was quickly on good terms with her stepchildren. In spite of this, she was not popular in England and often found herself censured for her links to Brittany and foreign birth. A parliament in 1404 ordered that all foreigners be removed from the royal households, with the exception of Joan’s two daughters.18 Joan, who appears to have tried to conform, complied with this order and was eventually allowed to keep several Bretons in her household. However, in 1406 parliament once again ordered that foreigners be removed from her household and Joan was compelled to send her daughters back to Brittany.19 Joan appears to have accepted all of parliament’s demands, but the loss of her daughters must have hit her hard. She must have quickly realised that she would always be criticised for her birth and her foreign first marriage but these were not things which could be changed. As Eleanor of Provence and Eleanor of Castile had found before her, the circumstances of a queen’s birth could be disadvantageous.
Throughout Joan’s time in England, attacks were also made on her for her partiality to foreigners. Joan certainly did seek to promote Bretons who visited England and in February 1404 her son Arthur was granted the earldom of Richmond.20 It was also at Joan’s request in 1405 that Henry IV ordered the release of all Breton prisoners in England without ransom.21 Joan actively promoted peace between England and Brittany; in 1417 Henry V made a treaty with Brittany at Joan’s intercession.22 Joan’s efforts may not always have been treated as pacific in England however and, in 1415, the Bretons were accused of learning state secrets in Joan’s household.23 Once again this was not based in truth but due to her origins people appear to have been ready to believe the worst about her.
Despite being a kind and attentive husband, Henry cannot always have been easy to live with. By around 1408, Henry was suffering from leprosy and pressure appears to have been brought to bear on him to relinquish his crown.24 Henry seems to have retreated more into his household as his illness progressed and Joan may often have found herself shut away alone with him. It must have been sad for Joan, who had known Henry in the prime of his life, to see him struck down with his disfiguring disease. Henry also appears to have been beset by guilt for his usurpation of the crown. According to John Hayward, his mind was ‘perpetuallie perplexed with an endlesse and restlesse chardge, ether of cares, or greifes, or of suspicions and feares’.25 For Joan, it may, perhaps, have been a relief when Henry died in 1413.26
Joan made no attempt to return to either Brittany or Navarre, and, in spite of suspicions raised against her, she was content to stay in England. She was often referred to as Queen Mother in her stepson Henry V’s reign and continued to play the public role of queen, taking a prominent place in a procession from St Paul’s to Westminster in celebration of Henry V’s victory at Agincourt against the French.27 This must have gone against Joan’s own personal feelings about the victory. Her son-in-law, the Duke of Alencon, and her brother Charles of Navarre died fighting for the French and her own son Arthur was captured and brought a prisoner to England.28 Despite her personal grief, Joan took her duties as Queen of England seriously and took a prominent part in the rejoicing in England. This devotion to duty probably went unnoticed and unappreciated in England.
Henry V’s French wars took a harsh toll on his finances and he seems to have begun to look greedily at Joan’s immense dower. On 27 September 1419, the English council suddenly made an order depriving Joan of all her possessions and revenues and, four days later, she was arrested on charges of witchcraft at her palace at Havering-atte-Bower.29 Her arrest would have been an enormous shock to the innocent Joan and she must have been at a loss to explain her situation. The charges stemmed from a confession by her confessor, John Randolf, claiming he had tempted her into using witchcraft to try to kill Henry V.30 Whilst it is possible that the charges were at first believed, no attempt was made to investigate the matter or bring Joan to trial and it appears that Joan’s arrest was a pretext to enable Henry V to take her dower.31 Certainly, Joan was treated very leniently for someone accused of witchcraft. However, at least at first, she must have been terrified, and a charge of witchcraft was no laughing matter, as the treatment of Joan’s stepdaughter-in-law, Eleanor Cobham, Duchess of Gloucester, twenty years later, would indicate.
Like Joan, Eleanor Cobham was also arrested for conspiring to kill the king through sorcery and, according to reports, she and her accomplices produced a wax doll with which to kill the king.32 Eleanor appears to have dabbled in sorcery for some years before her arrest and a woman known as the Witch of Eye was also arrested at the same time:
Whose sorcery and witchcraft the same Dame Eleanor had long time used; and by such medicines and drinks as the said witch made, the said Eleanor compelled the aforesaid Duke of Gloucester to love her and to wed her. Wherefore, and also because of relapse, the said witch was burnt at Smithfield.33
Eleanor’s other accomplice, Roger Bolingbroke, was hanged drawn and quartered for his part in the affair and the duchess herself was also severely punished.34 After being examined by the king’s council, Eleanor was forced to perform a public penance three times by walking bare footed and bare headed through London and carrying a heavy taper.35 For a woman as proud as Eleanor Cobham, this must have been an ordeal and, following her penance, she was taken away to life imprisonment on the Isle of Man, from which she was never released.36 Shakespeare, who was clearly fascinated with the story of Eleanor Cobham puts these words into the duchess’s mouth as she carried out her penance:
Ah, Gloucester, teach me to forget myself:
For whilst I think I am thy married wife,
And thou a Prince, Protector of this land,
Methinks I should not thus beled along,
Mailed up in shame, with papers on my back,
And followed with a rabble that rejoice
To see my tears and hear my deep-set groans.37
Clearly, a charge of witchcraft was a dangerous and shameful thing and Joan must have been terrified by her arrest.
After her initial terror, however, Joan appears to have settled in easily to her imprisonment and, despite its indignity, managed to maintain a luxurious lifestyle. In the first months of her imprisonment, Joan’s accounts show that she had a stable and she was presumably allowed to ride.38 She was also allowed to keep nineteen grooms and seven pages. Joan’s purchases in the first months of her imprisonment also show that she was able to purchase luxuries, such as furs, lace, gold chains and a gold girdle.39 This was not the usual treatment meted out to an imprisoned witch and demonstrates that the charges were not widely believed.
Joan was also able to stock a large wine cellar and she often entertained. On 1 April 1420, the Archbishop of Canterbury came to dinner. Joan’s stepson the Duke of Gloucester also visited on two occasions and the Bishop of Winchester spent the weekend there.40Lord Camoys appears to have spent nine months enjoying Joan’s hospitality.41 Joan’s treatment shows the absurdity of the charges against her and it is likely that apart from the knowledge that she was a prisoner, Joan was able to lead a comfortable existence in much of her old style. Certainly the visits suggest that she remained a recognised member of the royal family rather than an outcast who had plotted to kill the king through sorcery. She must still have been aware, however, during the period, of the charge that hung over her and, for all the comforts provided for her, she must have longed to be freed.
Joan’s innocence can also be seen in Henry V’s deathbed remorse at his treatment of her. As he lay dying of dysentery in France, he remembered his stepmother’s predicament and ordered that she be immediately released and compensated for the loss of her dower.42 Joan must have been glad to hear of Henry’s remorse although it seems unlikely that she was entirely able to forgive him for his treatment of her. Joan was released soon after Henry’s death and much of her dower was returned. In 1422, Joan found herself once again a wealthy and independent widow. Following her release she seems to have led a life of retirement, dying in July 1437.
Joan of Navarre was the only queen of England to be punished for witchcraft and the stigma of this charge still hangs over her reputation. Although there was no substance in the charge, it does illustrate something of the dangers in which royal women could find themselves. Joan of Navarre was never able to win popularity in England due to her foreign birth. She was therefore an easy target when her stepson, Henry V, chose to move against her and his actions helped ensure that she will always have a certain notoriety. Although she was a queen, the charges against her show that, in a hostile England, Joan was also essentially powerless. As a woman, she was already particularly vulnerable to such a charge and as a foreigner she was despised and alone. Joan of Navarre is described as both a witch and as a grasping queen in the sources and, although these charges had little substance, they have clung to her, destroying her reputation. Her notoriety pales in comparison, however, with that of her stepgranddaughter-in-law, Margaret of Anjou, the original She-Wolf of France.