page_title: Tour de Nesle affair
section_title: The scandal
hierarchical_section_title: Tour de Nesle affair / The scandal
caption_attribution_description: ... La vue perspective de cette tour (fig. 61), prise en dehors de la porte de Nesle, en fait comprendre la valeur comme poste d'observation sur le fleuve. De là des signaux pouvaient être transmis au Louvre , et vice versa, sur tout le front occidental des remparts de la rive gauche et au palais de la Cité. En amont de Paris, deux autres tours à peu près semblables à celle-ci barraient la rivière: l'une, dite tour Barbeau, formait tête du rempart sur la rive droite; l'autre, dite la Tournelle, avait la même destination sur la rive gauche. Ces deux ouvrages, qui se trouvaient au droit du milieu de l'île Saint-Louis, se reliaient avec deux autres tours élevées sur les berges de cette île, coupée alors par un fossé que remplissait la Seine ...
context_page_description: The Tour de Nesle affair was a scandal amongst the French royal family in 1314, during which Margaret, Blanche, and Joan, the daughters-in-law of King Philip IV, were accused of adultery. The accusations were apparently started by Philip's daughter, Isabella. The Tour de Nesle was a tower in Paris where much of the adultery was said to have occurred. The scandal led to torture, executions and imprisonments for the princesses' lovers and the imprisonment of the princesses, with lasting consequences for the final years of the House of Capet.
context_section_description: Most accounts of the scandal begin with the visit of the king and queen of England to the queen's father in France during 1313. During the visit, Louis and Charles had a satirical puppet show put on for their guests, and after this Isabella had given new embroidered purses both to her brothers and to their wives. Later in the year, Isabella and Edward held a large dinner in London to celebrate their return and Isabella apparently noticed that the purses she had given to her sisters-in-law were now being carried by two Norman knights, Walter of Aunay (also known as Gautier of Aunay) and Philip of Aunay. Isabella concluded that the pair must have been carrying on an illicit affair, and appears to have informed her father of this during her next visit to France in 1314.
  Philip IV placed the knights under surveillance for a period, and the scandal began to take shape. The accusations centred on suggestions that Blanche and Margaret had been drinking, eating and engaging in adultery with Gautier and Philip of Aunay in the Tour de Nesle over a period. The Tour de Nesle was an old guard tower in Paris next to the river Seine and had been bought by Philip IV in 1308. The third sister-in-law, Joan, was initially said to have been present on some of these occasions and to have known of the affair; later accusations were extended to have included suggestions that she had also been involved in adultery herself.
  Most historians have tended to conclude that the accusations against Blanche and Margaret were probably true, although some are more skeptical. Some accounts have suggested that Isabella's accusations were politically motivated; she had just given birth to her son, Edward, and in theory the removal of all three of her sisters-in-law might have made his accession to the French throne more likely. Others have argued that this seems an unlikely plan, given the normal probability that at least one of the three brothers would have successfully remarried and enjoyed a male heir in the coming years. Some contemporary chroniclers suggested that Philip IV's unpopular chamberlainEnguerrand de Marigny might have been responsible for framing the knights and women involved.
  Following the period of surveillance,  Philip IV broke the news of the accusations publicly and arrested all involved. There are some suggestions that Walter and Philip of Aunay attempted to escape to England but in due course both knights were interrogated and tortured by French officials. Both confessed to adultery and were found guilty, therefore, of lèse majesté. Blanche and Margaret were tried before the Paris Parlement and found guilty of adultery. The two women had their heads shaven and were sentenced to life imprisonment. Joan was also tried before the Parlement but was found innocent, partially as a result of her husband Philip's influence.
caption: A 19th-century representation of the Tour de Nesle, where much of the adulterous activity was alleged to have occurred, by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc
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