Biography
Joan was the daughter of Robert II, Duke of Burgundy, and Agnes of France, Duchess of Burgundy and Daughter of France. Her mother was the youngest daughter of King Louis IX of France and Margaret of Provence.
Her older sister, Margaret of Burgundy, was the first wife and Queen of Louis X of France. Her brothers were Hugh V, Duke of Burgundy, and Odo IV, Duke of Burgundy.
She married Philip of Valois in July 1313. From 1315 to 1328, they were Count and Countess of Maine; from 1325, they were also Count and Countess of Valois and Anjou.
Intelligent and strong-willed, Joan proved a capable regent while her husband fought on military campaigns during the Hundred Years' War. However, her nature and power earned both herself and her husband a bad reputation, which was accentuated by her deformity (which was considered by some to be a mark of evil), and she became known as la male royne boiteuse ("the lame evil Queen"), supposedly the driving force behind her weaker husband. One chronicler described her as a danger to her enemies in court: "the lame Queen Jeanne de Bourgogne...was like a King and caused the destruction of those who opposed her will."
She was also considered to be a scholarly woman and a bibliophile: she sent her son, John, manuscripts to read, and commanded the translation of several important contemporary works into vernacular French, including the Miroir historial of Vincent de Beauvais (c.1333) and the Jeu d'échecs moralisés of Jacques de Cessoles (c.1347), a task carried out by Jean de Vignay.
Joan died of the plague on 12 September 1348. She was buried in the Basilica of Saint Denis; her tomb, built by her grandson Charles V, was destroyed during the French Revolution.
Read more about this topic: Joan The Lame
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