Blanche of Castile, Queen and Regent of France

Blanche of Castile, 1188-1252.  Poor Blanche looks a bit dirty there; I'm sure she'd disapprove.

Blanche (or Bianca as she would have called herself) was an incredibly strong and powerful woman of the Middle Ages, probably second only to her grandmother Eleanor of Aquitane (who, incidentally was left out of this statue series, which is a travesty!).  She was therefore the granddaughter of a king of England (Henry III), niece to two more (Richard I and John), a princess of Castile (at the time an independent kingdom that was sort of a vassal of France, now the Basque area of France and Spain), queen consort and then regent of France, then finally the dowager queen of France.

Whew, that is a lot of responsibility.

Anyway, when Blanche was 14 or so Eleanor, at the time regent of England and 80 years old, made the journey to Castile to choose which of her granddaughters would be best suited to become the queen of France.  Blanche was chosen from Eleanor's seven Castillian granddaughters and soon married the young prince of France who would be Louis VIII "the Lion."

As the Dauphine (wife of the heir to the French throne) and sole prominent woman at the court at that time, Blanche made quite a reputation for herself of being beautiful, wise, strong, and probably too smart for her own good.  She enjoyed the attentions of poets and troubadours, and there are still many existing songs and poems extolling her virtues.  Her husband seems to have doted on her somewhat, but he was often off at war with England and the Toulouse, an area in the south of France.  Without her husband there she gained a sense of independence, and supervised her children's educations herself.  

Louis ascended the throne in 1223, when Blanche was about 35 years old and had had ten of her twelve children (five of whom lived). Unfortunately he died just over three years later, leaving as his heir the 12 year old Louis IX.  Blanche reigned as regent in young Louis' place for eight years, during which time she was genuinely the power behind the throne, and she was known across Europe for holding onto her influence with an iron fist.  She personally went on diplomatic missions, negotiated with other countries, chose her son's bride, made economic decisions, and controlled life at court.  She was legendary in her own time for being an astoundingly astute and powerful woman; dukes and kings from across the continent didn't dare to mess with her and her country.  Her hold on her power even extended to manipulating her son to keep away from his new wife, Marguerite, for the first years of his marriage.  She did not want the new young queen to have heirs so early and take away her power as the most prominent woman at court (as the mother of the heir to the throne, Marguerite would have had a lot of influence). 

Although by all accounts she was hard and unforgiving in her role as regent, she also was a huge patroness of the Church and the arts, commissioning and supporting artists, musicians, and poets, and founding several abbeys, even starting an orphanage.

Blanche basically ruled France as a king would, without anyone seriously attempting to question her power.  That is a pretty amazing achievement for a woman of her time.