Isabelle de Beauvau
Isabelle de Beauvau or Isabeau de Beauvau was a French noblewoman, of the Beauvau family, lady of Champigny and de la Roche-sur-Yon, countess of Vendôme by her marriage.
Early life
Isabelle was the only child of the marriage between Count Louis de Beauvau and Marguerite de Chambley, a woman of noble birth from Lorraine. Due to the close relationship between her father and René d'Anjou, Isabelle was named after Isabella de Lorraine and occupied an important place at the court of René d'Anjou and was the god-mother of the future Louis XII.Isabelle's lineage made her valuable to René of Anjou, who was dealing with a succession crisis over the duchy of Lorraine. He was trying to strengthen ties with Lorraine's nobility which is why her name appears with those of her mother and Yolande, Duchess of Lorraine, in a handwritten collection of poems by Alain Chartier offered to Marie de Clèves. Other than that not much is known about Isabelle's childhood; her marriage negotiations started before she was eighteen.
Marriage and becoming Countess
Isabelle married John VIII, Count of Vendôme, on 9 November 1454 at Angers, thus becoming the Countess of Vendôme. Isabelle and John had:- Jeanne ; in 1478 she married Louis de Joyeuse ;
- Catherine, married in 1484 to Gilbert de Chabannes, seneschal of Limousin;
- Jeanne de Bourbon in 1487 Jean II of Bourbon, 2) in 1495 Jean IΙΙ, Count of Auvergne in 1503 François de La Pause, baron of La Garde;
- Renée, abbess of the Trinity of Caen from 1491 to 1505, then from Fontevrault from 1505 to her death;
- François de Bourbon-Vendôme
- Louis, Prince of La Roche-sur-Yon
- Charlotte, married to Engilbert de Clèves, count of Nevers ;
- Isabelle, abbess of the Trinity of Caen from 1505 to 1531