Joan of Acre - Birth and Childhood

Birth and Childhood

Joan (or Joanna, as she is sometimes called) of Acre was born in the spring of 1272 in Syria, while her parents, Edward I and Eleanor of Castile, were on crusade. At the time of Joan's birth, her grandfather, Henry III, was still alive and thus her father was not yet king of England. Her parents departed from Acre shortly after her birth, traveling to Sicily and Spain before leaving Joan with Eleanor's mother, Joan, Countess of Ponthieu, in France. Joan lived for several years in France where she spent her time being educated by a bishop and “being thoroughly spoiled by an indulgent grandmother.” Joan was free to play among the “vine clad hills and sunny vales” surrounding her grandmother’s home, although she required “judicious surveillance.”

As Joan was growing up with her grandmother, her father was back in England, already arranging marriages for his daughter. He hoped to gain both political power and more wealth with his daughter's marriage, so he conducted the arrangement in a very “business like style”. He finally found a man suitable to marry Joan (aged 5 at the time), Hartman, son of King Rudoph I, of Germany. Edward then brought her home from France for the first time to meet him. As she had spent her entire life away from Edward and Eleanor, when she returned she “stood in no awe of her parents” and had a fairly distanced relationship with them.

Unfortunately for King Edward, his daughter’s suitor died before he was able to meet or marry Joan. The news reported that Hartman had fallen through a patch of shallow ice while “amusing himself in skating” while a letter sent to the King himself stated that Hartman had set out on a boat to visit his father amidst a terrible fog and the boat had smashed into a rock, drowning him.