Joan, Countess of Toulouse
Joan (1220 – 25 August 1271) was Countess of Toulouse from 1249 until her death. She was the only child of Raymond VII, Count of Toulouse by his first wife Sancha of Aragon. Biography Joan was born at the Castle of Corneto near Siena. In 1225, aged five, Joan was betrothed to Hugh, eldest son and heir of Hugh X of Lusignan and Isabella, Countess of Angoulême and Dowager Queen of England. However, the engagement was soon broken. One of the conditions of the Treaty of Paris, signed on 12 April 1229, stipulated that Joan was to be married to Alphonse, Count of Poitiers and brother of King Louis IX of France, and a Papal dispensation for their 4th degree of consanguinity is dated on 26 June of that year. After the confirmation of his betrothal, Joan was thereafter brought up at the French royal court. She was thereby not a part of the Occitanian culture, felt no sympathy for the Albigensians and did nothing to prevent the hunt of them issued by the Inquisition. The date of the formal marriage is not confirmed; both 1234 and 1241 have been suggested, but the former is considered more likely. The couple