Jeanne d'Évreux : ses testaments et leur exécution

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Jeanne d’Évreux : her Testaments and their Execution During the forty-three years of her widowhood, Jeanne d’Évreux (d. 1371), the third wife of Charles IV (1294 – 1328), devised and implemented novel testamentary strategies that influenced other members of the royal family and a number of leading royal officials at the end of the fourteenth and beginning of the fifteenth centuries. Beginning in 1339, and perhaps inspired by the example of her great-aunt Mahaut of Artois (1285 – 1311), Jeanne began executing herself the provisions of her last will and testament, which she revised on several occasions. Doubtless fearful that her wishes would be disregarded after her death, as often happened, Jeanne succeeded in gaining numerous spiritual benefits for herself and her dead husband through the anticipatory endowments and gifts she bestowed on many ecclesiastical establishments, including the abbey of Saint-Denis.