Joan of Savoy (1310 – 29 June 1344), was Duchess consort of Brittany by marriage to

John III, Duke of Brittany John III ''the Good'' (in Breton ''Yann III'', in French ''Jean III''; 8 March 128630 April 1341) was Duke of Brittany, from 1312 to his death and 5th Earl of Richmond from 1334 to his death. He was the son of Arthur II, Duke of Brittany, and ...

. Joan was the claimant to the

County of Savoy The County of Savoy () was a feudal state of the Holy Roman Empire which emerged, along with the free communes of Switzerland, from the collapse of the Burgundian Kingdom in the 11th century. It was the cradle of the future Savoyard state. s ...

upon the death of her father in 1329 until 1339.

Life

Joan was born in 1310, and was the only child of Edward, Count of Savoy, and his wife,

Blanche of Burgundy Blanche of Burgundy ( 1296 – 1326) was Queen of France and queen consort of Navarre, Navarre for a few months in 1322 through her marriage to Charles IV of France, King Charles IV the Fair. The daughter of Otto IV, Count of Burgundy, Cou ...

. Joan married in 1329, aged nineteen, to the forty-three-year-old childless John III, Duke of Brittany; she was his third wife, John's second wife, Isabella, had died the previous year. The same year as Joan's marriage, her father died. Being his only child, she considered herself his successor. However, Savoy had never had a female ruler, leading to a dispute in the succession. Joan's uncle Aymon had the support of the nobles of Savoy for the

Semi-Salic The Salic law ( or ; ), also called the was the ancient Frankish civil law code compiled around AD 500 by Clovis, the first Frankish King. The name may refer to the Salii, or "Salian Franks", but this is debated. The written text is in Late L ...

inheritance and succeeded as count. John supported Joan's rights on Savoy. After the marriage, Joan renewed her claim on Savoy and allied herself with the Dauphin de Viennois against her uncle. By agreement, settled by the French King State Archives, volume 104, page 51, fascicule 9.1, and Guichenon (Savoie), Tome IV, Preuves, p. 170. on 22 November 1339, she renounced her rights of succession in return for an annual income of 6000 livres. Joan and John were married for twelve years but produced no offspring, and John died on 30 April 1341, leaving Joan a childless widow. This led to a disputed succession in Brittany between John's half-brother of the same name and John's niece Joan. In 1343, when her uncle Aymon died, Joan renewed her claim on the county of Savoy against her nine-year-old cousin, Amadeus VI. In her will, she left the county to Philip, Duke of Orléans to spite her cousins. In the end, he negotiated a similar settlement to the one of Joan, yielding the claim in exchange for 5000 livres annually. Joan died on 29 June 1344.

Notes

References

* * , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Joan Of Savoy 1310s births 1344 deaths House of Savoy Duchesses of Brittany 14th-century Breton people 14th-century Breton women 14th-century French women