Formidable Medieval Women Who Made Daring Escapes
- 30 December 2025
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Dynasty, Captivity, and Escape in Burgundian Europe
Overview
A focused historical account of two high-born medieval women who escaped captivity to defend their authority. Set against Burgundian and Savoyard power struggles, the article reveals how gender, inheritance, and warfare shaped elite women’s lives—and how courage and strategy allowed some to resist.
Cite This Work
Abernethy, S. (2025). Formidable Medieval Women Who Made Daring Escapes – Medieval History. Medieval History – Yesterday in a Nutshell. https://historymedieval.com/formidable-medieval-women-who-made-daring-escapes/
Marriage Markets and Monumental Dowries at Burgundy
While doing research for my latest book, The Formidable Women Who Shaped Medieval Europe: Power and Patronage at the Burgundian Court, it soon became obvious that there were many similarities in the lives of these women. While the Valois Dukes of Burgundy put into motion a concerted plan to marry their children, grandchildren, nieces and cousins into various houses surrounding their empire, patterns emerge, such as the dukes paying large dowries for their daughters.
For example, the dowry paid by Philip the Bold for his daughter, Catherine of Burgundy, for her marriage to the Austrian Duke Leopold IV, was one of the largest ever paid in the medieval era. Several of the Valois dukes and their wives found it difficult to let their daughters leave the court to join their husbands. They would delay their departures, sometimes for years, probably to the great frustration of the grooms.
The Escape of Jacqueline, Duchess of Bavaria-Straubing, Countess of Holland, Zeeland, Hainaut and Oostervant
Jacqueline (Wittelsbach) of Hainault (1401 – 1436)
Another pattern discovered is the propensity of the dukes to badger and bully and incarcerate certain women with the end goal of taking their patrimonies. One example is the story of Jaqueline, Duchess of Bavaria-Straubing, Countess of Holland, Zeeland, Hainaut and Oostervant. As you can see, she stood to inherit a great deal of territory, mostly in the Low Countries, bordering on the lands of the Burgundian duke. Jacqueline, the only child of William II, Duke of Bavaria-Straubing, and Margaret, daughter of Philip the Bold, was the cousin of Philip the Good. In her case, we have a duke pressuring a woman for her patrimony and a daring escape combined.
When Jacqueline’s father died, she ostensibly succeeded to his estate. In his first move to bargain away her territory, her uncle John the Fearless arranged a marriage between Jacqueline and her cousin, John IV, Duke of Brabant. Presumably, any children from this marriage would gain all of Jacqueline’s territories. However, the marriage was not only childless but also extremely unhappy, as John did not treat his wife well.
Civil war ensued between her husband and her paternal uncle, Bishop John of Bavaria-Straubing, who believed he was the successor to that duchy. A showdown occurred at Dordrecht in 1418. The siege of the city failed, and Jacqueline’s husband made a humiliating truce. John of Bavaria-Straubing was named regent of Holland, and John of Brabant mortgaged Holland and Zeeland to the bishop for twelve years to raise funds.
Jacqueline was furious. She tried to get her marriage annulled but was unsuccessful. So she declared her union invalid because of their close blood relationship and formally repudiated the union. John never accepted the annulment of his marriage. During this time, King Henry V of England sent envoys to Jacqueline seeking an alliance. Jacqueline requested and obtained a safe conduct and secretly travelled to England. The king gave her an income and asked her to be the godmother of his newborn son, the future King Henry VI.
Jacqueline met and fell in love with the king’s brother, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, and they soon married. Only England recognised this marriage, as she had not officially divorced John of Brabant. Gloucester agreed to come to Jacqueline’s aid in recovering her territories, and they crossed the Channel with five thousand soldiers in October 1424.
By mid-December, they had conquered most of Hainaut. Philip the Good came to the aid of John of Brabant and advanced far into Hainaut. A furious correspondence passed between Gloucester and Philip, ending with Philip challenging Gloucester to a duel of single combat, but this never took place. Gloucester fled Hainaut with Jacqueline’s lady-in-waiting, Eleanor Cobham, and returned to England.
Left on her own, Jacqueline fought Philip the Good to the best of her ability. Philip laid siege to the city of Mons and forced Jacqueline to surrender. They captured Jacqueline, and Philip had her imprisoned in Ghent in genteel custody. Some of her supporters decided to liberate her. A couple of local lords met her and planned her escape, bringing her men’s clothing.
She requested privacy to take a bath, changed her clothes, got past the guards and stole away. She met up with the local lords with horses and fled to Gouda, where she stayed with supporters. Jacqueline decided to fight the Duke of Burgundy, which renewed the Dutch civil war. Jacqueline won a few minor skirmishes, but the duke’s superior forces then defeated her at the Battle of Brouwershaven on January 13, 1426.
Her position weakened after several years, and she finally sued for peace. In the summer of 1428, they completed the Treaty of Delft. Jacqueline kept her titles of Countess of Holland, Zeeland, and Hainaut, but a regency council took over the administration of her territories, and she named Philip the Good her heir.
Jacqueline fell in love with her custodian, Frank van Borssele. The Delft Treaty barred her from marrying without the duke’s approval. He used this to force Jacqueline to abdicate all rights to her territories for having her marriage confirmed. Jacqueline enjoyed a short, good life with Frank until her death from tuberculosis on October 9, 1436. Her territories of Hainaut and Holland passed into the hands of Philip the Good. Her mother had her buried in The Hague.
The Two Daring Escapes of Yolande of France, Duchess of Savoy
Dedication by the theologian Guillaume Fichet of his book Rhetorica to Yolande of France, Duchess of Savoy (1471)
When she was two years old, Queen Marie of Anjou and King Charles VII of France betrothed their daughter, Yolande of France, to the future Amadeus IX, Duke of Savoy. They sent her to Savoy to be brought up there and learn the culture and language of her new home. Amadeus was the great-grandson of Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy.
Yolande and Amadeus were married in Chambéry in 1452, and he became Duke of Savoy upon the death of his father in early 1465. Because of his ill health, Amadeus wanted to devote himself to a life of seclusion and contemplation. For the sake of their children, Yolande opposed his wishes and persuaded her husband to remain the head of the government. From the beginning of her husband’s reign, Yolande took it upon herself to administer the affairs of Savoy.
In order to maintain the rights of her children and keep order in the government, Yolande had to be on guard on three fronts. First, her own brother, King Louis XI of France, while professing to be her protector, actively schemed to annex Savoy to the crown of France. Next, Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy and longtime foe of King Louis, also had designs on Savoy.
And lastly, danger developed from the aims of her numerous brothers-in-law, who aspired to obtain government responsibilities. The most treacherous of these men was Philip, Count of Bresse, who began meddling in the Savoyard government during his father’s reign. He obtained power in the parliaments of Savoy, as well as among the Swiss, and highly resented the growing influence of France in Savoy’s affairs.
Perhaps at the request of Yolande, King Louis lured Philip of Bresse to France and locked him up on the pretence of his animosity toward the Francophile policy of Savoy. After dealing with a civil war in France, Louis worked to improve relations with Savoy. When his father died, Philip of Bresse reconciled with Louis, who released him from captivity. He quickly made his way home, intending to seize the regency for his nephew Amadeus.
Yolande refused to yield to Philip. She met with the Estates of Savoy, agreeing to some of Philip’s demands but gaining official recognition of her regency exclusively in her own name. The Estates approved her appointment in 1469, leading to the eruption of a power struggle in 1471.
Philip of Bresse planned to take the duke and duchess into custody and besieged them in the castle of Montmélian. Yolande sent repeated requests to her brother for aid, but none arrived, forcing her to surrender. Amadeus headed to Chambéry with his brother Philip, but Yolande pretended to be ill and promised to follow her husband the next day. Two of her brothers-in-law stayed behind with the duchess, her children and her ladies.
After dinner, Yolande sent all her kitchen equipment and her master of the household to Chambéry and dismissed all her male servants. One of her brothers-in-law departed, fully expecting to see Yolande the next day. At midnight, the signal of a lighted fire appeared on the castle walls. Two of the duchess’s servants brought armed men near the castle.
She opened the postern gates, and her entire party passed through on horseback. They rode to La Bussière and spent the night in a monastery. She then made her way to Grenoble, where the inhabitants received her with great honour. After she completed successful peace negotiations, she reunited with her husband and became alarmed by his health. Amadeus died in March 1472.
Yolande confirmed her regency status for her young son with the Estates. But her delicate balance of diplomacy between all the warring parties continued to deteriorate. This forced her to make an alliance with Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy. Through a gradual process, from 1468 to 1473, Charles intensified his connections with the House of Savoy.
Charles’ designs on Savoy ended up being a direct threat to the interests and influence of Bern, leading Bern to start aggressive acts towards Savoy. Bern and Fribourg declared war against Burgundy in the fall of 1474 and took several cities. Charles was occupied with his futile siege of Neuss in the Rhineland, so he could not help when Yolande messaged him. Bern was victorious, so Yolande had to mediate a peace.
Yolande planned to enlist Charles’ aid in a campaign against Bern. He had overtaken Lorraine, and as he made his way to Savoy, he continued his feud with the Swiss, suffering a defeat at the Battle of Grandson. This alarmed Yolande, and she proposed a Franco-Burgundian reconciliation, hoping to find a way back into her brother’s good graces.
She met with Charles, hoping for a resolution to the conflict. Charles began considering taking custody of Yolande on the pretext of protecting her from her brother. He continued his feud with the Swiss and lost another battle at Murten (Morat). Yolande was now even more alarmed about her alliance, and she approached her brother for a new alliance.
Charles, now highly suspicious, met Yolande just outside of Geneva and tried to persuade her to stay in Switzerland. She refused, and Charles ordered her capture. As Yolande headed for Geneva, Charles’s captain of the guard, Olivier de La Marche, intercepted her. Olivier swung Yolande up on his saddle while others secured three of her children.
In the dark, one of Olivier’s Italian officers intentionally allowed young Duke Philibert and his brother James Louis to slip away, and servants of their mother hid them in the wheat fields, later taking them both away to Chambéry and finally to France for safekeeping with their uncle Louis. Yolande and the children were held in Burgundy.
Her guards were not strictly vigilant, and Yolande began corresponding with her friends and her brother. Louis plotted a dramatic rescue. In the fall, Louis sent a force of three hundred lances under the command of his governor of Champagne. On the night of October 2, 1476, the governor took possession of the castle of Rouvres, overwhelming the garrison.
Yolande, her children and her attendants escaped on horseback, making their way to French territory. Yolande reunited with her brother, renounced all of her Burgundian connections and returned to Savoy to rule in peace until her death in August 1478.
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Sources
Abernethy, S. (2025). The formidable women who shaped medieval Europe: Power and patronage at the Burgundian court. Pen & Sword History.
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Susan Abernethy
Susan’s passion for history dates back fifty years, leading her to study for a Bachelor of Arts degree in history at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She is currently a member of the Rocky Mountain Medieval and Renaissance Association, the Society for Renaissance Studies, and the Historical Association. Her work has appeared on several historical websites and in magazines and includes guest appearances on historical podcasts. Her blog, The Freelance History Writer, has consistently published over 500 historical articles since 2012, with an emphasis on European, Tudor, Medieval, Renaissance, Early Modern, and women’s history. She is currently working on her third non-fiction book.
