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Birth:          4 Oct 1160 France
Death:          1221 

Notes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alys_of_France,_Countess_of_Vexin
Alys of France, Countess of Vexin (4 October 1160 – c. 1220) was the daughter of 
King Louis VII of France and his second wife, Constance of Castile.[1][2]
Life[edit]

Alys was the half-sister of Marie and Alix of France, Louis's children by Eleanor of 
Aquitaine, and the younger sister of Margaret of France. Just five weeks after 
Constance died giving birth to Alys, Louis married Adèle of Champagne, by whom he 
had two further children, including the future Philip II of France.

In January 1169, Louis and Henry II of England signed a contract for the marriage 
between Alys and Henry's son Richard the Lionheart.[3] The 8-year-old Alys was then 
sent to England as Henry's ward.

In 1177, Cardinal Peter of Saint Chrysogonus, on behalf of Pope Alexander III, 
threatened to place England's continental possessions under an interdict if Henry did 
not proceed with the marriage.[4] There were widespread rumors that Henry had not 
only made Alys his mistress, but that she had borne him a child[citation needed]. 
Henry died in 1189. King Richard married Berengaria of Navarre on 12 May 1191, 
while still officially engaged to Alys.

Philip had offered Alys to Prince John, but Eleanor prevented the match.[5] Alys 
married William IV Talvas, Count of Ponthieu, on 20 August 1195. They had two 
daughters: Marie, Countess of Ponthieu, and Isabelle; and a stillborn son named Jean.

Portrayals in fiction[edit]

As "Alasia of France", she appears in Eleanor Anne Porden's 1822 epic poem Cœur de 
Lion. In it, Alys joins the army of Saladin during the Third Crusade to avenge herself 
on Richard for rejecting her.

Under another spelling, Alais, she appears as Henry's lover in James Goldman's 1966 
play The Lion in Winter. She was played by Jane Merrow in the 1968 film adaptation, 
by Julia Vysotskaya in the 2003 TV adaptation and by Sonya Cassidy in the 2011 
London theatre production. In Christy English's novel The Queen's Pawn (2010), Alais 
comes to England to marry Prince Richard only to become the mistress of King Henry 
II.

Alys has a minor role in Sharon Kay Penman's novels, Time and Chance (2002) and 
Devil's Brood (2008). In Judith Koll Healey's novel The Canterbury Papers (2005), Alys 
is sent on a mission to England to retrieve some letters from Canterbury Cathedral for 
Eleanor of Aquitaine. In Healey’s second novel, “The Rebel Princess,” Princess Alys 
confronts corrupt court officials and religious fanatics in the pursuit of her disappeared 
illegitimate son Francis, whose very existence could unsettle the thrones of England 
and France.

She was played by Katherine DeMille in The Crusades (1935); by Susan Shaw in the 
1963 British children's TV series Richard the Lionheart; by Lorna Charles and Lucy 
Gutteridge in The Devil's Crown (1978); and by Rebecca Viora in Richard the 
Lionheart: Rebellion (2005).

Parents
____ Louis VII "the Young" (1119 - 18 Sep 1180)
OF CASTILE Constance (ABT 1140 - 4 Oct 1160)

Siblings
OF FRANCE Alice (Alix) (4 Oct 1160 - 1221)

Marriage To TALVAS William (Guillaume) III (1179 - 4 Oct 1221)
    m. 20 Aug 1195 Meudon

Notes

Parents
____ John I (Jean) I (ABT 1135 - 30 Jun 1191)
CANDAVENE DE ST. POL Beatrice (ABT 1135 - )

Children by TALVAS William (Guillaume) III 1179 - 4 Oct 1221
OF PONTHIEU Marie (Jeanne) (17 Apr 1199 - 21 Sep 1250)

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