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Birth:          ABT 1220 of Dammartin, France
Death:          16 Mar 1279 Abbeville, France
Burial:         Abbey de Valloires

Notes
rec with bith at 1260 does not fit (Stuart shows as I have it)
heiress of Ponthieu
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan,_Countess_of_Ponthieu
Joan of Dammartin (French: Jeanne de Dammartin; c. 1220[1] – 16 March 1279) was 
Queen consort of Castile and León (1252), suo jure Countess of Ponthieu (1251–1279) 
and Aumale (1237–1279). Her daughter, the English queen Eleanor of Castile, was her 
successor in Ponthieu. Ferdinand II, Count of Aumale, her son and co-ruler in 
Aumnale, predeceased her, thus she was succeeded by her grandson John I, Count of 
Aumale.
Family[edit]

Joan was the eldest daughter of Simon of Dammartin, Count of Ponthieu (1180- 21 
September 1239), and his wife Marie of Ponthieu, Countess of Montreuil (17 April 
1199- 1251). Her paternal grandparents were Alberic II, Count of Dammartin, and 
Mahaut de Clermont, daughter of Renaud de Clermont, Count of Clermont-en-
Beauvaisis, and Clémence de Bar.[2] Her maternal grandparents were William IV of 
Ponthieu and Alys, Countess of the Vexin, daughter of Louis VII of France and 
Constance of Castile.

Henry III of England[edit]

After secret negotiations were undertaken in 1234, it was agreed that Joan would 
marry King Henry III of England. This marriage would have been politically 
unacceptable to the French, however, since Joan stood to inherit not only her 
mother's county of Ponthieu, but also the county of Aumale that was vested in her 
father's family. Ponthieu bordered on the duchy of Normandy, and Aumale lay within 
Normandy itself. The French king Philip Augustus had seized Normandy from King 
John of England as recently as 1205, and Philip's heirs could not risk the English 
monarchy recovering any land in that area, since it might allow the Plantagenets to 
re-establish control in Normandy.

As it happened, Joan's father Simon had become involved in a conspiracy of northern 
French noblemen against Philip Augustus and to win pardon from Philip's son Louis 
VIII, Simon—who had only daughters—was compelled to promise that he would marry off 
neither of his two eldest daughters without the permission of the king of France. In 
1235, the queen-regent of France, Blanche of Castile, invoked that promise on behalf 
of her son, King Louis IX of France, and threatened to deprive Simon of all his lands if 
Joan married Henry III.[citation needed] Blanche also petitioned the Pope to deny the 
marriage based on consanguinity. He agreed, denying the dispensation which Henry 
had sought and paid for. Henry therefore abandoned the project for his marriage to 
Joan and in January 1236 married instead Eleanor of Provence, the sister of Louis IX's 
wife.

Queen of Castile[edit]

In November 1235, Blanche of Castile's nephew, King Ferdinand III of Castile, lost his 
wife, Elisabeth of Hohenstaufen, and Blanche's sister Berengaria of Castile, 
Ferdinand's mother, was concerned that her widowed son might involve himself in 
liaisons that were unsuited to his dignity as king. Berengaria determined to find 
Ferdinand another wife, and her sister Blanche suggested Joan of Dammartin, whose 
marriage to the king of Castile would keep her inheritance from falling into hostile 
hands.[3] In October 1237, at the age of about seventeen, Joan and Ferdinand were 
married in Burgos. Since Ferdinand already had seven sons from his first marriage to 
Elisabeth of Hohenstaufen, there was little chance of Ponthieu being absorbed by 
Castile.

They had four sons and one daughter:
1.Ferdinand II, Count of Aumale (1239–ca 1265), who married Laure de Montfort, Lady 
of Espernon, sometime after 1256 and had issue.
2.Eleanor (1240–1290), Countess of Ponthieu, who married king Edward I of England 
and had issue.
3.Louis (1243–ca 1275), who married Juana de Manzanedo, Lady of Gaton, and had 
issue.
4.Simon (1244), died young and buried in a monastery in Toledo.
5.John (1246), died young and buried at the cathedral in Córdoba.

She accompanied Ferdinand to Andalucia and lived with him in the army camp as he 
besieged Seville in 1248.[4]

Upon her mother's death in 1251, Joan succeeded as Countess of Ponthieu and 
Montreuil, which she held in her own right.

After Ferdinand III died in 1252, Joan did not enjoy a cordial relationship with his heir, 
her stepson Alfonso X of Castile, with whom she quarreled over the lands and income 
she should have received as dowager queen of Castile. Sometime in 1253, she 
became the ally and supporter of another of her stepsons, Henry of Castile, who also 
felt Alfonso had not allowed him all the wealth their father had meant him to have. 
Joan unwisely attended secret meetings with Henry and his supporters, and it was 
rumored that she and Henry were lovers. This further strained her relations with 
Alfonso and in 1254, shortly before her daughter Eleanor was to marry Edward of 
England, Joan and her eldest son Ferdinand left Castile and returned to her native 
Ponthieu.

Rule in Ponthieu and Aumale[edit]

Sometime between May 1260 and 9 February 1261, Joan took a second husband, 
Jean de Nesle, Seigneur de Falvy et de La Hérelle (died 2 February 1292).[5] This 
marriage is sometimes said to have produced a daughter, Béatrice, but she was in fact 
a child of Jean de Nesle's first marriage. In 1263, Joan was recognized as countess of 
Aumale after the death of a childless Dammartin cousin. But her son Ferdinand died 
around 1265, leaving a young son known as John of Ponthieu.

During her marriage to Jean de Nesle, Joan ran up considerable debts and also 
appears to have allowed her rights as countess in Ponthieu to weaken. The death of 
her son Ferdinand in 1265 made her next son, Louis, her heir in Ponthieu but around 
1275 he, too, died, leaving two children. But according to inheritance customs in 
Picardy, where Ponthieu lay, Joan's young grandson John of Ponthieu could not 
succeed her there; her heir in Ponthieu automatically became her adult daughter 
Eleanor, who was married to Edward I of England.[6] It does not appear that Joan was 
displeased at the prospect of having Ponthieu pass under English domination; from 
1274 to 1278, in fact, she had her granddaughter Joan of Acre (the daughter of 
Edward I and Eleanor) with her in Ponthieu, and appears to have treated the girl so 
indulgently that when she was returned to England her parents found that she was 
thoroughly spoiled.

That same indulgent nature appears to have made Joan inattentive to her duties as 
countess. When she died at Abbeville, in March 1279, her daughter and son-in-law 
were thus confronted with Joan's vast debts, and to prevent the king of France from 
involving himself in the county's affairs, they had to pay the debts quickly by taking 
out loans from citizens in Ponthieu and from wealthy abbeys in France.

They also had to deal with a lengthy legal struggle with Eleanor's nephew, John of 
Ponthieu, to whom Joan bequeathed a great deal of land in Ponthieu as well as 
important legal rights connected with those estates. The dispute was resolved when 
John of Ponthieu was recognized as Joan's successor in Aumale according to the 
inheritance customs that prevailed in Normandy, while Edward and Eleanor retained 
Ponthieu and John gave up all his claims there. By using English wealth, Edward and 
Eleanor restored stability to the administration and the finances of Ponthieu, and 
added considerably to the comital estate by purchasing large amounts of land there.

Parents
DE DAMMARTIN Simon II (ABT 1180 - 21 Sep 1239)
OF PONTHIEU Marie (Jeanne) (17 Apr 1199 - 21 Sep 1250)

Siblings
DE DAMMARTIN Joan (ABT 1220 - 16 Mar 1279)

Marriage To ALFONSEZ Fernando III "The Saint" (5 Aug 1201 - 30 May 1252)
    m. BEF 1237 Burgos, Spain

Notes

Parents
FERNANDEZ Alfonso IX (15 Aug 1171 - 24 Sep 1230)
OF CASTILE Bernegaria (Berenguela) (Jun 1180 - 8 Nov 1246)

Children by ALFONSEZ Fernando III "The Saint" 5 Aug 1201 - 30 May 1252
OF CASTILE Eleanor (Leonor) (1244 - 28 Nov 1290)

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