Jeanne de Bar, Countess of Marle and Soissons

Who was Jeanne de Bar, Countess of Marle and Soissons?

Jeanne de Bar, suo jure Countess of Marle and Soissons, Dame d'Oisy, Viscountess of Meaux, and Countess of Saint-Pol, of Brienne, de Ligny, and Conversano was a noble French heiress and Sovereign Countess. She was the only child of Robert of Bar, Count of Marle and Soissons, Sire d'Oisy, who was killed at the Battle of Agincourt when she was a baby, leaving her the sole heiress to his titles and estates. In 1430, at the age of fifteen, Jeanne was one of the three women placed in charge of Joan of Arc when the latter was a prisoner in the castle of John II of Luxembourg, Count of Ligny, Jeanne's stepfather.

She was the first wife of Louis of Luxembourg, Count of Saint-Pol, of Brienne, de Ligny, and Conversano, Constable of France. From their marriage descended Mary, Queen of Scots, King Henry IV of France and the subsequent Bourbon kings of France.