John of England Marries Isabella of Angoulême 1200

On 24 August 1200 King John of England married Isabella of Angoulême in Bordeaux. A year earlier John had managed to get his marriage to Isabel, Countess of Gloucester annulled due to consanguinity.

His first marriage to Isabel of Gloucester in 1189 had initially been declared illegal by the Archbishop of Canterbury Baldwin of Forde due to the fact that both of them were great grandchildren of King Henry I of England. However they had received a papal dispensation, from Pope Clement III, to remain married so long as they did not have a sexual relationship.

Isabella of Angoulême is thought to have been 12 years old when she married John, however some commentators think that she may have been as young as 9. Isabella had, before the marriage to John, been betrothed to Hugh IX de Lusignan, but the marriage had not taken place as Isabella had not yet reach the age of consent.

At the time of the marriage John was finalising details of his marriage to a Portugeuse princess. However, while John's ambassadors were traveling to bring the princess back to Rouen, he hastily married Isabella instead. The marriage was designed to prevent Hugh de Lusignan gaining control of La Marche that would have cut Aquitaine off from Gascony, and Poitou. However, as a result of the marriage King Philip II of France, in 1202, confiscated all of John's properties in France and gave them to John's nephew Arthur, Duke of Brittany. At the Battle of Mirebeau later that year John captured Arthur and 200 other knights.