Charles, Count of Valois and Louis, Count of Evreux

I feel like writing a genealogy post today, so here's one about Charles of Valois, count of Valois, Anjou, Maine, Alençon, Chartres and Perche, and Louis, count of Evreux, the uncles of Edward II's queen Isabella.  Charles (12 March 1270 - 16 December 1325) was the second surviving son of Philip III of France and his first queen Isabel of Aragon, and the younger brother of Philip IV.  Louis, count of Evreux (3 May 1276 - 19 May 1319) was the eldest of the three children of Philip III and his second queen Marie of Brabant (1254-1321), and thus Philip IV and Charles of Valois's half-brother.  Charles of Valois was the ancestor of the Valois dynasty which ruled France from 1328 to 1589, being the father of Philip VI, who became the first Valois king of France in 1328 after the death of his first cousin Charles IV, the youngest of Queen Isabella's three brothers and the last Capetian king of France.  Louis of Evreux's younger full sister Blanche was betrothed to Edward of Caernarfon in the early 1290s and ended up marrying Rudolf, duke of Austria, and his other younger sister Marguerite, queen of England (born 1278/79) married the widowed Edward I in 1299 and was the mother of Edward II's half-brothers Thomas and Edmund.  Louis travelled to England in 1312 to negotiate between Edward II and the barons who had killed Piers Gaveston, and was made one of the seven godfathers of his newborn great-nephew the future Edward III on 16 November 1312.  Before Edward II's accession, he and Louis had been good friends and frequent correspondents, but Charles of Valois had long followed an anti-English line and was generally hostile to England, though this didn't stop him seeking marriage alliances in the 1320s between his children/grandchildren and Edward II's.

Louis of Evreux was married once, to Marguerite of Artois, a great-granddaughter of Henry III of England via her mother Blanche of Brittany and Blanche's mother Beatrice, who was the second daughter of Henry III and Eleanor of Provence.  Marguerite's father Philip would have succeeded their father Robert (younger brother of Blanche of Artois, queen of Navarre, Queen Isabella's maternal grandmother) as count of Artois, but he died in 1298 before his father, and Artois passed to Philip's sister Mahaut (mother of Joan and Blanche of Burgundy who married Queen Isabella's brothers Philip V and Charles IV) rather than his son, Marguerite's younger brother Robert (1287-1342).  This Robert was the son-in-law of Charles of Valois, and the brother-in-law of Charles of Valois's half-brother Louis of Evreux.  Louis's wife Marguerite of Artois was the first cousin of Joan and Blanche of Burgundy, who were Louis's nieces by marriage, wives of Queen Isabella's brothers Philip (V) and Charles (IV).  The French royal family in the early fourteenth century was extremely, madly and confusingly inter-related; if I've worked it out correctly, Marguerite of Artois was the first cousin once removed of Edward II and the second cousin of Queen Isabella.

Charles of Valois was married three times.  His first wife was Marguerite of Anjou-Naples (1273-1299), countess of Anjou in her own right, one of the children of Charles of Salerno, king of Naples and Marie of Hungary; her many siblings included Charles Martel, titular king of Hungary, Robert, king of Naples and titular king of Sicily and Jerusalem, Philip, king of Albania, Saint Louis, bishop of Toulouse, and Blanche, queen of Jaime II of Aragon.  Charles of Valois married secondly Catherine de Courtenay (1274-1307), titular empress of Constantinople in her own right and a first cousin of Charles' first wife Marguerite, and thirdly Mahaut de Châtillon (1293-1358), daughter of the count of St Pol and older sister of Marie, countess of Pembroke.  Mahaut was, like her first cousin Marguerite of Artois above, a great-granddaughter of Henry III and Eleanor of Provence.  Charles of Valois and Marguerite of Anjou-Naples were the maternal grandparents of Edward III's queen Philippa of Hainault, and the parents of Philip VI of France.

In the second part of this post, I'll be looking at the children of Charles of Valois and Louis of Evreux.  Coming soon!