Yolande de Dreux
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Yolande de Dreux (c. 1265–2 August 1330) was Queen Consort of the Kingdom of Scotland. She was the daughter of Robert IV, Count of Dreux, and Beatrix of Montfort.
Yolande's family was distantly related to the Capetian Kings of France and had close ties to other prominent noble families. Her father was a fifth-generation descendant of King Louis VI of France, her paternal grandmother Marie de Bourbon was a cousin of Guy of Dampierre, Count of Flanders, while her mother was the only child of Count John I of Montfort-l'Amaury. From her mother Yolande inherited the title of Countess of Montfort in her own right.
Yolande was the second wife of Alexander III, King of Scots, who married the young Frenchwoman in search of an heir following the death of the last surviving child of his marriage to Margaret, daughter of Henry III of England, also named Alexander. As well as being intended to provide an heir for the kingdom of Scots, Alexander's marriage to the French Yolande represented a move to distance Alexander from his neighbour Edward I of England and to emphasise Scots independence.
The marriage was celebrated on 15 October 1285 at Jedburgh Abbey. King Alexander died on either 18 March or 19 March 1286, perhaps from a fall from his horse, while riding from his court at Edinburgh to join Yolande at Kinghorn. It appears that by this time the Queen was pregnant with the expected heir, and Guardians were elected to govern the kingdom by a parliament held at Scone, Perth and Kinross on 2 April or 28 April 1286. The Guardians gathered at Clackmannan of Saint Catherine's Day — 25 November 1286 — to witness the birth of Alexander's heir. No source reports what actually happened, but it is deduced that the child was still-born.
Yolande's second marriage, in 1292, to Arthur II, Duke of Brittany, was longer lasting and more fruitful. Yolande and Arthur had at least six children:
- John, born c. 1294, later Count of Montfort
- Béatrix, born c. 1295, married Guy X of Laval
- Jeanne, born c. 1296, married Robert, son of Robert III of Flanders
- Alix, , born c. 1297, married Bouchard VI of Vendôme
- Blanche, born c. 1300, died young
- Marie, born c. 1302, entered religion
Arthur died in 1312, being succeeded by his son John, born of his first marriage and not be confused with his son by Yolande named John. Yolande survived Arthur, dying on 2 August 1330. Her county of Montfort passed to her son John, who would later fight without successover his claims to his father's Duchy in the Breton War of Succession.
[edit] References
- Duncan, A.A.M., The Kingship of the Scots 842–1292: Succession and Independence. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 2002. ISBN 0-7486-1626-8
- Macdougall, Norman, "L'Écosse à la fin du XIIIe sieclè: un royaume menacé" in James Laidlaw (ed.) The Auld Alliance: France and Scotland over 700 Years. Edinburgh University, Edinburgh, 1999. ISBN 0-9534945-0-0
