The alleged affair that triggered a war of the century

“Heavy is the head that wears the crown,” wrote William Shakespeare. For three young women in the early 14th century, being daughters-in-law to a king could be just as stressful, especially when the ruler was the ruthless Philip IV of France.

Like many kings before him, Philip IV was concerned about the question of his succession. His dynasty, the Capet dynasty, had ruled France since the 10th century, and to ensure its survival, Philip made strategic marriage arrangements for his children to secure alliances and heirs.

His three sons married French nobles, and his daughter Isabella married King Edward II of England. But all his plans were shattered in 1314 when his children and their spouses became embroiled in the Nesle Tower affair. The scandal not only led to torture, imprisonment, and possibly the murder of one of the princesses, but also a succession crisis in France that sparked the devastating Hundred Years’ War.

(How Joan of Arc turned the tide in the Hundred Years’ War.)

Illegal affairs

The wives of all three of King Philip’s adult sons came from the neighboring region of Burgundy. Louis (later Louis X) married Margaret, daughter of the Duke of Burgundy. Philip (later Philip V) married Joan, daughter of the Count of Burgundy. And finally Charles (later Charles IV) married Joan’s sister, Blanka of Burgundy.

Only one of these marriages is described as happy. Even by the standards of a dynastic marriage, Margaret’s union with Louis was cold. Charles was overbearing towards Blanche. Only Joan seems to have had a happy marriage with Philip, a union that was later to save her from the miserable fate of her sisters-in-law.

The scandal began in 1313, when Isabella, the daughter of King Philip, visited Paris with her young son, the future Edward III of England. Several chronicles describe a puppet show in which Isabella gave embroidered silk bags to her three sisters-in-law, Margaret, Blanche and Joan.

During a later visit home, Isabella noticed that two knights accompanying her sisters-in-law – her brothers Philippe and Gautier d’Aunay – were wearing these gifted bags on their belts. It is said that Isabella saw in these bags a sign of an illicit connection between the knights and her sisters-in-law and alerted her father in 1314.

The purses alone were hardly sufficient proof of adultery, although in the Middle Ages it was often considered a sign of affection when women gave knights such gifts as favors. But the king needed stronger evidence than this.

Philip IV ordered men to spy on his daughters-in-law and the two knights. He soon received reports that the three women were meeting the two men at the Tour de Nesle, a watchtower on the Seine in central Paris. All three princesses were seen coming and going in the tower, but only two of them – Margaret and Blanche – were having affairs with the knights.