Isabella of England and Her Relationship with Emperor Frederick II

On 23 February 1235, Henry III, king of England, wrote to Joan, queen of Scots, informing her of the betrothal of ‘our and your beloved sister Isabella’ (‘dilecte sororis nostre et vestre Isabelle’) to the Emperor Frederick II (d. 1250). This letter’s affectionate tone and Henry’s anticipation that Joan would be interested to hear about their middle sister, Isabella, almost makes us forget that Henry was announcing one of the most prestigious marriages of the Plantagenet dynasty: a marriage that united the English crown to the Empire. Henry reported to Joan how Frederick had sent messengers to England to negotiate this union, and how Henry, acting on the advice of his magnates, had consented to the match. Isabella, for her part, had accepted Frederick as her husband, with Peter de Vinea, Frederick’s emissary and chief adviser, swearing on the emperor’s behalf that he would take Isabella as his wife.The political importance of this alliance in Henry’s eyes was confirmed further at the foot of this letter’s enrolment on the close rolls, where it was recorded that similar news had been dispatched across the British Isles.   

The relative neglect of Isabella by historians begs the question of whether her imperial marriage and the relationship that she was subsequently able to forge with Emperor Frederick truly lived up to contemporary expectations. It is with these subjects that this chapter is chiefly concerned. Drawing upon material from contemporary chronicles, correspondence, and government records, I shall re-examine both Isabella’s visibility and role as Frederick’s wife and mother of his legitimate children, and her links with the English royal court once she departed for the Empire. I shall draw to a close with a short examination of whether Isabella’s daughter, Margaret (d. 1270), who married Margrave Albrecht of Meissen in 1255, and Isabella’s son, Charles-Otto (d. c. 1254), who was renamed Henry, maintained meaningful ties with their mother’s natal kin.