Jeanne d'Evreux, reine de France

Jeanne d'Évreux

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Jeanne d'Évreux (1310 – 4 March 1371) was the third wife of King Charles IV of France, daughter of his uncle Louis d'Évreux and Margaret of Artois. She bore no male heir, thus "causing" the end of the direct line of the Capetian dynasty. She was also the king's cousin, so Pope John XXII had to agree on the marriage, Jeanne bore Charles two daughters, Marie and Blanche.

Two of Jeanne's remarkable possessions survive -- her prayer book and a statue of the Virgin and Child. The Book of Hours, known as the Hours of Jeanne d'Evreux, is held in The Cloisters collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The small statue of the Virgin and Child (gilded silver and enamel, 69 cm high), which Jeanne left to the monastery of St Denis outside Paris, is held in the Louvre Museum.

The Hours of Jeanne d'Évreux was commissioned from the artist Jean Pucelle between 1324 and 1328, probably as a gift from her husband Charles IV. The book contains the usual prayers of the Canonical hours as arranged for the laity along with the notable inclusion of the office dedicated to St Louis, her great-grandfather. See also Breviary.