Isabelle de Beauvau
(1436-1475)
Isabelle de Beauvau or Isabeau de Beauvau (around 1436–1475) was a French noblewoman of the Beauvau family, Lady of Champigny and La Roche-sur-Yon and Countess of Vendôme by her marriage to John VIII, Count of Vendôme.
Early life
Isabelle was the only child of the marriage between Count Louis de Beauvau (1409-1492) and Marguerite de Chambley, a woman of noble birth from Lorraine. Due to the close relationship between her father and René d'Anjou, Isabelle was named after Isabella de Lorraine and occupied an important place at the court of René d'Anjou and was the god-mother of the future Louis XII.
Isabelle's lineage made her valuable to René of Anjou, who was dealing with a succession crisis over the duchy of Lorraine. He was trying to strengthen ties with Lorraine's nobility which is why her name appears with those of her mother and Yolande, Duchess of Lorraine, in a handwritten collection of poems by Alain Chartier offered to Marie de Clèves. Other than that not much is known about Isabelle's childhood; her marriage negotiations started before she was eighteen.
Marriage and becoming Countess
Isabelle married John VIII, Count of Vendôme, on 9 November 1454 at Angers, thus becoming the Countess of Vendôme. Isabelle and John had:
Jeanne (1460-1487); in 1478 she married Louis de Joyeuse (around 1450–1498);
Catherine (1461-after 1525), married in 1484 to Gilbert de Chabannes, seneschal of Limousin;
Jeanne de Bourbon (1465-1511), known as Jeanne la Jeune; she married 1) in 1487 Jean II of Bourbon, 2) in 1495 Jean IΙΙ, Count of Auvergne (through this marriage, she became the grandmother of Catherine de Médici); 3) in 1503 François de La Pause, baron of La Garde;
Renée (1468-1534), abbess of the Trinity of Caen from 1491 to 1505, then from Fontevrault from 1505 to her death;
François de Bourbon-Vendôme (1470-1495)
Louis, Prince of La Roche-sur-Yon (1473-1520)
Charlotte (1474-1520), married to Engilbert de Clèves, count of Nevers (1462-1506);
Isabelle (1475-1531), abbess of the Trinity of Caen from 1505 to 1531
Death and legacy
Isabelle died in 1475, giving birth to her last daughter. She is buried in the Saint-George collegiate church in Vendôme, the Bourbon Vendôme necropolis, which has since disappeared. Through her third daughter she was great-grandmother to the French nobility. She is most remembered for the poem by Alain Chartier to Marie of Cleves.
“Isabelle de Beauvau” enters the record as (1436-1475). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Isabelle, Beauvau and 1436-1475 can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3802334. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1436, 1475, 1409 and 1492.
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