Married at 6, Dead at 20 — England’s Forgotten Queen

Описание: She was just six years old when a crown was placed on her head and a wedding ring on her finger. Isabelle of Valois, the daughter of Charles VI of France, became England’s queen before she had even learned to write her name. Married off to King Richard II as a pawn in a political treaty, Isabelle’s life was dictated by power, silence, and sacrifice. Her story is one of the most heartbreaking tales of royal childhood in medieval Europe—a life consumed by duty, exile, and grief.

In this episode of Rotten Ages, we uncover the true story of Isabelle’s short and tragic life: her ceremonial marriage as a child, her years trapped between two rival kingdoms, and her early death at just twenty years old. Her voice was barely heard in life—this video gives it back to her.


Timstamps:

0:00 - Intro
1:49 - The French Royal Family
4:02 - A Princess in a Cage
4:22 - Richard II
6:29 - The Marriage’s Contract
8:33 - Far From Home
11:10 - The Marriage
14:34 - The First Night
17:15 - Screams and Nightmares
19:11 - Widowed
22:00 - A New Isabelle
24:51 - The Second Marriage
26:00 - A Royal Tragedy
27:50 - The Legacy
29:00 - Outro


📚 Historical Sources Consulted:
• The Life and Reign of Richard II by Anthony Steel
• Isabelle of France: A Study of Queenship by Karen K. Jamison
• Chronicles by Jean Froissart
• Medieval Queenship edited by John Carmi Parsons
• Royal archives and diplomatic letters from the Hundred Years’ War period

• Isabelle of Valois
• Child bride history
• Richard II of England
• Medieval royal marriages
• Political alliances in the Hundred Years’ War
• Tragic royal deaths
• French princess in English court
• Medieval child queens
• Women in medieval Europe
• History of England and France