Isabella de Vesci
| Isabella de Vesci | |
|---|---|
| Died | 1334 |
| Noble family |
de Beaumont de Vesci |
| Spouse(s) | John, Baron de Vesci |
| Father | Sir Louis de Brienne |
| Mother | Agnés de Beaumont, Vicomte of Beaumont |
| Occupation | Lady-in-waiting to Eleanor of Castile and Isabella of France. |
Isabella de Vesci (died 1334), also Isabella de Beaumont, was a prominent noblewoman allied to Isabella of France during the reign of Edward II of England.
Isabella de Vesci was the daughter of Sir Louis de Brienne and Agnés de Beaumont, Vicomte of Beaumont, probably born during the 1260s. The de Beaumonts were a powerful noble family with French origins. Isabella herself was the granddaughter of John of Brienne, King of Jerusalem, and the great-granddaughter of both Alfonso IX of León and William I of Scotland. Isabella was also, through her Spanish links, a cousin of Edward I's wife, Eleanor of Castile. Isabella was therefore a particularly well-connected member of a noble family that stretched across Europe. Isabella arrived in England in either 1278 or 1279, and married John de Vesci, a prominent noble, in either 1279 or 1280, with Edward I's blessing. The marriage was an advantageous one for John de Vesci, but also strengthened Isabella's English credentials at the Plantagenet court, where John – a close associate of both Henry III and Edward I – was a central figure.
Isabella continued to enjoy royal favour; for her wedding, she was given valuable lands by the king to hold in her own right, for example. When Isabella and her husband travelled to Gascony in 1288, Edward arranged for them to have apartments next to his own royal lodgings and had them specially decorated for Christmas. Isabella was one of the closest friends of the Queen, up until Eleanor's death in 1290. Isabella de Vesci was also made the governor of two royal castles, Scarborough Castle in Yorkshire and Bamburgh Castle in Northumberland, her main power base, subject to her remaining single and unmarried. Being granted governorships of castles close to conflict areas was unheard of for a woman of the period, and Edward probably did so on the basis of Isabella's personal loyalty to him. Nonetheless, the actual appointment to Bamburgh was not done entirely regularly – the Great Seal was not applied to the appointment – and this would cause Isabella later problems.
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