Isabella, Countess of Gloucester

Isabella, Countess of Gloucester (c. 1160–1166 – October 1217),^[1] was an Anglo-Norman noblewoman who was the first wife of King John of England.

Isabella was the youngest surviving daughter of William Fitz Robert, 2nd Earl of Gloucester, and his wife Hawise de Beaumont, daughter of Robert de Beaumont, Earl of Leicester. From him she inherited the cross-channel holdings of the earldom of Gloucester. Her paternal grandfather, Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester, was the illegitimate son of King Henry I. Isabella's brother, Robert, died in 1166, and with her elder sisters Mabel and Amice fitz William, she became co-heir to the honor of Gloucester. Mabel married Amaury III, Count of Évreux, and Amice became the wife of Richard de Clare, 3rd Earl of Hertford

After a series of disputes between Isabella's father William, Earl of Gloucester and Henry II, in September 1176, William attempted to regain favour with the King and secure the future of the earldom. In a politically difficult position, William agreed to a betrothal between Isabella, and John, Henry and Eleanor of Aquitaine's youngest son. As part of the settlement, William agreed that John would be recognised as his heir, and even if William and his wife, Hawise were to have another male child, John would become a co-heir and receive half the Gloucester estates on William's death.^[2]

Earl William died in 1183, at which point Henry II nominated Isabella as the sole heir to the earldom, and made her his ward. Wardship meant that Henry completely controlled her lands, revenues and resources, and while he could have married her to John, he chose to keep Isabella's holdings for himself.^[3]

Following Richard I's accession in July 1189, Isabella was removed from royal wardship and was married to John on 29 August at Marlborough.^[4] Isabella and John were related within the third degree of consanguinity, meaning they both shared the same great-grandfather (Henry I). This order of relationship was prohibited by the Church, and in order to marry they should have gained a special dispensation from the pope. However, this did not happen, and when he learnt of their marriage, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Baldwin of Forde, placed John under interdict and forbade him from seeing Isabella.^[5] Ultimately, the interdict was removed by the papal legate John of Agnani, but permission for the marriage was never officially given.^[6]

Shortly after John acceded to the throne in 1199, and before the end of August, he obtained an annulment of the marriage, so she was briefly queen of England. The annulment was granted on the grounds of consanguinity, by the bishops of Lisieux, Bayeux, and Avranches, sitting in Normandy.^[7] John, however, kept her lands, and Isabella did not contest the annulment.^[7]

After the annulment, John granted the title of Earl of Gloucester to Isabella's nephew Amaury, count of Évreux. This compensated Amaury for the loss of his French title, which was surrendered in the Treaty of Le Goulet. Upon his death without issue in 1213, Isabella once again became Countess of Gloucester.^[8]

Isabel later married Geoffrey FitzGeoffrey de Mandeville, 2nd Earl of Essex, on 20 January 1214. He died in 1216. A year after Essex's demise, she married Hubert de Burgh (later Earl of Kent), later the justiciar of England, in September 1217.^[8]

Isabella died just a month after her third marriage, probably at Keynsham Abbey in Somerset, which had been founded by her father in memory of her brother, Robert. Although remembered in the obituary lists for Canterbury Cathedral, her burial place is unknown. It seems likely, however, that she was interred at Keynsham.

• A very fanciful depiction of her as a witch appears in The Devil and King John, a historical novel by Philip Lindsay, where she is called Hadwisa. In his introduction, Lindsay acknowledged that he had no evidence that she was a witch, but for the purposes of his plot, he needed to provide a link between John and witchcraft.^[9]
• She appears as the character Hadwisa in Robin of Sherwood, played by Patricia Hodge.
• She appears as character Avice in The Adventures of Robin Hood episode "Isabella" played by Helen Cherry.
• Jessica Raine plays her in the 2010 film Robin Hood.
• Featured briefly as Avisa in Virginia Henley's The Falcon and the Flower.
• Appears as Isobel in Roberta Gellis' historical romance novel Roselynde.
• Appears in Maureen Peters' historical novel Lackland's Bride.
• Appears as Avisa in Sharon Kay Penman's historical novel Here Be Dragons.
• Appears as Avisa in Erica Laine's historical novel Isabella of Angouleme: the Tangled Queen Part One