Isabella of France (1295-1358) was the wife of Edward II of England and mother of Edward III. After escalating tensions between Isabella and her husband, and the contempt she held for numerous of his favourites at court, Isabella took the opportunity in 1325 to go to France on a diplomatic mission to make peace between her husband and her brother, King Charles IV of France (who had seized Edwards lands there). However, once back in France, Isabella continued to stir unrest against her husband, and formed an alliance with Roger Mortimer (1287-1330), a powerful English lord, who soon became her lover, and together they invaded England in 1326, deposed Edward II, imprisoning him and brutally executing those closest to him. Edward died in prison the following year, and the crown passed to his son by Isabella: Edward III, still a minor. Roger Mortimer governed the kingdom as regent.However, a few days before Edward IIIs eighteenth birthday in 1330, he led a coup against Roger Mortimer, who he had arrested and hung as a common criminal. Isabella spent the next couple of years under house arrest, but later was used as a diplomat in foreign peace negotiations in the 1340s and 50s.Shortly before her death in 1358, she joined the order of the Poor Clares, a Franciscan order, and was buried at the Franciscan church in Newgate. Show less «