Blanche of France, Infanta of Castile

Blanche (also Blanka; * 1253 in Jaffa, † June 17 1320-1323, Paris) was a French princess of the Capetian dynasty. She was a daughter of King Louis IX. the saints ( Saint Louis) and Margaret of Provence.

Blanche had an older sister of the same name, which was already in 1243 but died as an infant. She herself was born during the sixth crusade in the Holy Land. By the will of her father, she should join as a nun of the Order of Cistercians, while they, however, Pope Urban IV successfully resisted with the response. On September 28, 1266, a contract for the marriage between Blanche and the Castilian Infante Ferdinand de la Cerda was sealed in Saint- Germain -en- Laye, who was the eldest son and therefore the expected heir of King Alfonso X of Castile. The marriage took place in Burgos on 30 November 1268 emerged from the two children:

• Alfonso de la Cerda (* 1270, † 1324 )
• Ferdinand de la Cerda (* 1275, † 1322)

Infant Ferdinand de la Cerda, however, died in 1275 before his father, so the sons of Blanche aufrückten in line to the throne of Castile. My brother in law but, Infant Sancho, his father forced a change in the succession to the throne in his favor. Blanche and her sons were temporarily jailed, but were in 1277 following the intervention of King Philip III. emigrate to France. From there they held claims of her sons to the Castilian throne continues to maintain without them could ever be realized, however. Her great- nephew, King Philip IV the Fair, announced in 1290, support for the de la Cerda from the French crown entirely.

Together with her mother Blanche applies as the founder of the Couvent des Cordelières the Klarissinnenschwesternschaft in Paris in 1289th, where she retired at the age where she died between the years 1320 and 1323 and was buried in the monastery church of Sainte Claire de l' Oursine.