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Ingeborg of Denmark

Ingeborg ((French) Isambour, Ingeburge; also Ingelburge, Ingelborg, Isemburge) (1175 – July 29, 1236) was a Danish-born queen consort of France.

She was a daughter of Valdemar I of Denmark and Sofia of Minsk. Her maternal grandparents were Volodar of Minsk and Rikissa of Poland. Her mother was also a maternal half-sister of Canute V of Denmark.

Ingeborg was married to Philip II Augustus of France on August 15, 1193 after the death of Philip's first wife Isabelle of Hainaut (d. 1190). Stephan of Dornik described her as "very kind, young of age but old of wisdom."

On the day after his marriage to Ingeborg, King Philip changed his mind, and attempted to send her back to Denmark. Outraged, Ingeborg fled to a convent in Soissons, from where she protested to Pope Celestine III.

However, the council of Compiègne acceded to Philip's wish for a separation on November 5, 1193.

A page from the psalter of Ingeborg of Denmark

Pope Celestine defended the Queen, but was able to do little for her. Indeed, Philip asked Pope Celestine III for an annulment on the grounds of non-consummation. Philip had not reckoned with Ingeborg, however; she insisted that the marriage had been consummated, and that she was his wife and the rightful Queen of France.

The Franco-Danish churchman William of Paris intervened in the case of Philip Augustus who was attempting to repudiate Ingeborg. The genealogy of the Danish kings which William drew up on this occasion to disprove the alleged impediment of consanguinity and two books of his letters, some of which deal with this affair, have come down to us.

Philip married Agnes of Meran, a German heiress, in June 1196. In 1199, however, he was forced to send Agnes away, and to take Ingeborg back as his wife. His response was to lock Ingeborg away in the chateau of Etampes. Locked up in a tower, Ingeborg was a prisoner. Food was irregular and sometimes insufficient. No one was allowed to visit her. Only once were two Danish chaplains allowed to visit her.[1]. Philip, meanwhile, brought Agnes back, and continued to live with her, producing a second child, a son. For these offences, Philip was excommunicated in 1200, and the kingdom was placed under an interdict.

Philip reconciled with Ingeborg in 1213, not out of altruism but because he wished to press his claims to the throne of the Kingdom of England through his ties to the Danish crown. After this time, Ingeborg spent most of her time in a priory of Saint-Jean-de-l’Ile, which she had founded. It was close to Corbeil, in an island of the Essonne. She survived her husband by more than 14 years.

• (English) Ingeborg
• (French) Chateau Prison: Isemburge