page_title: Blanche of Burgundy
section_title: Queenship and death
hierarchical_section_title: Blanche of Burgundy / Queenship and death
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Le pape Jean XXII annulant le mariage de Charles IV le Bel, roi de France (1322-1328), et de sa première épouse Blanche de Bourgogne.
context_page_description: Blanche of Burgundy was Queen of France and Navarre for a few months in 1322 through her marriage to King Charles IV the Fair. The daughter of Count Otto IV of Burgundy and Countess Mahaut of Artois, she was led to a disastrous marriage by her mother's ambition. Eight years before her husband's accession to the thrones, Blanche was arrested and found guilty of adultery with a Norman knight. Her sister-in-law, Margaret of Burgundy, suffered the same fate, while her sister Joan was acquitted. Blanche was imprisoned until she became queen, when she was moved to the coast of Normandy. The date and place of her death are unknown; the mere fact that she died was simply mentioned on the occasion of her husband's third marriage in April 1326.
context_section_description: On Philip the Tall's death on 3 January 1322, Blanche's husband inherited the crowns. Blanche thus became queen of France and Navarre, but her husband still refused to release her. Both of her children died in infancy, Philip before 24 March 1322 and Joan on 17 May 1321. Charles requested annulment of their marriage, to which Blanche reluctantly agreed. The annulment was justified by the claim that Blanche's mother was Charles's godmother, although probably the real reason was Blanche's pregnancy during her imprisonment. Pope John XXII declared their marriage null and void on 19 May 1322, and gave both Charles and Blanche permission to remarry. The Countess of Artois requested, among other things, the return of her daughter's enormous dowry.
  Though she was replaced immediately by Marie of Luxembourg, there was no hope for Blanche to remarry, as she was sent to Gavray Castle. There is no evidence that supports the common belief that she died as a nun at Maubuisson Abbey. Having spent eight years imprisoned underground, the former queen suffered from poor health. The date of her eventual death is unknown; the Pope mentioned her as dead in a document of 5 April 1326 issuing a dispensation for the marriage of her former husband and Jeanne d'Évreux.
caption: Pope John XXII annulling the marriage of Charles the Fair and Blanche of Burgundy
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