Alexandre Dumas, the renowned author of The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo, lived a life nearly as eventful as his characters. Among other things, he fought several duels, both with swords and pistols, one of them against the writer Frédéric Gallardet, who accused him—rightly—of having appropriated his theatrical drama The Tower of Nesle (often retitled in Spanish as Marguerite of Burgundy). The duel ended with both men sustaining minor injuries and the matter being taken to court, but what interests us today is the historical episode that inspired this work—a scandal that erupted within the French royal family in 1314.

Gallardet’s version—or rather Dumas’s, since he practically rewrote it—adhered to all the hallmarks of the literary Romanticism of the time: a medieval setting, impossible love affairs, treacherous crimes, nocturnal intrigue, and an inescapable fate. In reality, the writer blended his story with a later gruesome legend about a princess who murdered her lovers and threw them into the Seine. Nevertheless, the actual events were so shocking that they not only led to imprisonments, torture, and executions but also to the enactment of a law to prevent such a case from happening again, which would have significant consequences across Europe: the Salic Law.

This occurred during the reign of Philip IV the Fair, a monarch remembered primarily for his persecution of the Knights Templar and the execution of their last Grand Master, Jacques de Molay, in 1314. That same year, the scandal of the Tower of Nesle took place, though to understand how it began, we must go back one year earlier to 1313, when Edward II of England visited France with his wife, Isabella, the only surviving daughter of the French king and the late Joan I of Navarre, who had died in 1305.

salic law scandal medieval france
Anonymous 1450 illustration depicting Isabella of France’s arrival in Paris. Credit: Public domain / Wikimedia Commons

Isabella, whose hand had been given in marriage to settle the ongoing dispute between the two countries over Aquitaine and Flanders, did not find much joy in being Queen Consort of England. It was vox populi that her husband was involved with Piers Gaveston, Duke of Cornwall, whom his father-in-law, the late Edward I, had exiled to France upon discovering the affair with his son—which had led to a heated confrontation. In fact, the young English king had other favorites, and Isabella particularly despised one of them, Hugh Despenser the Younger, who was Gaveston’s brother-in-law (he was married to Eleanor de Clare, granddaughter of Edward I), which negatively affected their marital relationship.

During the aforementioned visit to France, Isabella had personally embroidered some purses, which she gifted to her brothers and sisters-in-law during the welcome celebration. Philip IV had three sons who would later become kings: the future Louis X, Philip V, and Charles IV, who were respectively married to Margaret, Joan, and Blanche of Burgundy. As was customary, these were arranged marriages, and only Philip and Joan enjoyed a happy—and fruitful—union, while the other two couples were not well-matched.

This, combined with Isabella’s gift, would set off a chain of events in a financial crisis that was economically suffocating France, prompting the king to act against the Templars—likely with the goal of confiscating their immense wealth to improve the kingdom’s situation. Little did Philip IV imagine that the success of that campaign would soon be overshadowed by a family scandal that, for once, would shatter his reputation for imperturbability (“Neither man nor beast, but a statue,” described Bernard Saisset, Bishop of Pamiers and one of his enemies).

salic law scandal medieval france
Illustration from a 1310 manuscript depicting Philip IV of France in the center with his children. From left to right: Charles, Philip, Isabella, and Louis. On the right, Charles of Valois. Credit: Public domain / Wikimedia Commons

Curiously, the spark was ignited months later during a banquet back in England, when Isabella noticed that two Norman knights carried purses identical to those she had given to Blanche and Margaret of Burgundy. This was impossible since she had not bought them but had made them herself… unless they were the very same ones. The knights, Gauthier and Philip d’Aunay, were brothers and served Philip, Joan’s husband, which led Isabella to suspect an adulterous affair between her sisters-in-law and them.

Consequently, when she visited her father again in 1314, she recounted what she had seen and the conclusions she had drawn. The king, known for his cautious nature, did not act immediately but ordered the two Normans to be placed under surveillance. The resulting reports indicated regular visits by both men to the Tower of Nesle, coinciding with those of the two suspected sisters-in-law: Blanche and Margaret. The evidence was mounting, and the French monarch now had grounds to take action.

Built around the year 1200 and originally called the Hamelin Tower, the Tower of Nesle stood on the left bank of the Seine, opposite the Louvre Tower. It was one of the four main towers of the wall built by Philip Augustus, which enclosed the perimeter of Paris. It measured twenty-five meters in height and ten meters in width, was topped by a crenelated platform, and at night, it was linked to its twin tower on the opposite bank by heavy chains resting on a bridge of boats (where the present-day Pont des Arts stands) to block river navigation during those hours (it featured a distinctive hanging lantern).

salic law scandal medieval france
Aspect of the Tower of Nesle in the Middle Ages, according to a nineteenth-century illustration by Viollet-le-Duc. Credit: Public domain / Wikimedia Commons

In 1308, Philip IV bought the tower from the provost of the Isle for five thousand Parisian livres, perhaps because, apparently, it had a subterranean passageway connecting it to a house located at number 13 Nesle Street. It is possible that the four lovers used this corridor to access the property, as having romantic encounters in a solid and austere watchtower was not only unromantic but also unbefitting of their social status. Worse still, it was hardly discreet, as there were sentinels on the battlements.

Did those illicit relationships really exist? Some doubt it, pointing to Isabella’s ambition, as she had just given birth to her son Edward (the future Edward III of England) and may have planned to get rid of her sisters-in-law so that their offspring would be excluded from the line of succession. Others reject this hypothesis, arguing that it would not have prevented her brothers from remarrying and having new heirs. Moreover, Joan, Philip’s wife, was not initially implicated directly; she was only accused of complicity by keeping the secret.

It has also been suggested that it was a possible trap set by the grand chamberlain, Enguerrand de Marigny. As Philip IV’s right-hand man, who had been appointed royal treasurer and chancellor, he conducted negotiations with Flanders that prevented a war favored by the princes, thereby earning their enmity. He was even accused of bribery by Charles of Valois, the king’s uncle, though Philip IV continued to trust him. So, could it all have been a plot devised by the chamberlain to harm his enemies through their wives? It is impossible to know.

salic law scandal medieval france
Joan of Burgundy in a drawing of 1573. Credit: Public domain / Wikimedia Commons

Regardless, Philip IV ultimately issued an arrest warrant for the Norman brothers, who attempted to escape to England without success (one version claims that one of them managed to reach York but was extradited). The standard practice of torture was used to obtain their confession, and in the end, they admitted to adultery. Of course, Margaret and Blanche underwent a more lenient interrogation, during a trial in Parliament, where they also admitted their guilt. Their heads were shaved, and dressed in coarse religious habits, they listened to their sentence of life imprisonment in Gaillard Castle (Normandy).

Upon Philip IV’s death, Margaret’s husband ascended to the throne as Louis X, demanding that she sign an admission of guilt so that their marriage could be annulled and he could marry Clementia of Hungary. He hoped to conceive an heir, as he was uncertain whether he was the father of the child she was expecting. The power vacuum at the Holy See during the election of a new Pope (Clement V had just died) prevented the divorce, which Margaret refused anyway. In 1315, she was found dead—officially due to complications from a cold, exacerbated by her cold, wind-exposed cell. Before that, she had given birth to a daughter, Joan, who would later reign in Navarre.

Blanca was imprisoned in the same castle, although she was later allowed to retire to the Royal Abbey of Maubuisson, originally called Notre-Dame-la-Royale and located in the Loise Valley. She was granted freedom after the death of Philip V, following the annulment of her marriage to Charles by the new pontiff, John XXII. Charles, who had succeeded his brother on the throne, remarried Maria of Luxembourg. This annulment was granted due to pressure exerted by Philip. Blanca died shortly thereafter, in 1326, with her health severely weakened by the harsh years spent in prison.

salic law scandal medieval france
This 1350 miniature shows Pope John XXII annulling the marriage between Blanca and Charles. Credit: Public domain / Wikimedia Commons

Joan, initially considered merely an accomplice, was also eventually tried for adultery. As there was no evidence, she was acquitted, but she had to remain in a convent in Dourdan for a year. She was released in 1325 thanks to pressure from her mother and the fact that her husband, Philip, never wished to repudiate her—either because he still loved her or because he would have lost the County of Burgundy (which she had brought as her dowry). The death of her younger brother made her Countess Palatine of Burgundy, becoming Joan II. In 1317, another unexpected death, that of Louis X, allowed her to become Queen Consort of France alongside the husband she had retained. She died thirteen years later, having inherited the County of Artois from her mother.

The lovers, however, Gutierre and Philip d’Aunay, suffered a brutal fate as they were condemned for lèse-majesté. This crime, considered the most serious since Antiquity because it was committed against the sovereign—and therefore against the state and the people—did not only carry the death penalty but also entailed an atrocious execution. The two brothers were dragged through the streets, flayed alive, and castrated (their genitals were thrown to the dogs). Their bones were broken on the wheel, and they were covered with sulfur and molten lead before being hanged, disemboweled, and quartered.

“The body had never suffered so much,” says a chronicle from the time. Their battered corpses—or what remained of them—were publicly displayed, hanging from their shoulders, to serve as an example to the people. The populace blamed Isabella for their fate, a rumor that resurfaced in 1327 when her husband, Edward II, died, and she took the throne as regent for her underage son, Edward III. She ruled alongside a lover with whom she had been involved for a year, Roger Mortimer, Baron of Wigmore and Earl of March, after leading a rebellion in which they defeated the hated Despensers.

salic law scandal medieval france
Ruins of Château Gaillard, where Margaret and Blanca were imprisoned after being found guilty of adultery in 1314. Credit: Casper Moller / Wikimedia Commons

For all this, she earned the nickname The She-Wolf of France, inspiring characters that portray her, directly or indirectly, with traits as varied as the kind-hearted Princess Isabelle, who sympathizes with William Wallace in the film Braveheart (in reality, she was only ten years old when Wallace was executed, but Robert the Bruce did nearly capture her in 1319), or the cold and cunning Cersei Lannister in the television series Game of Thrones. In the end, Edward III did not forgive his mother for the disgrace of her relationship with Mortimer and ordered his execution. Isabella withdrew to Castle Rising and took the habit of a Poor Clare nun. “The beauty of beauties,” as the chronicler Geoffrey of Paris described her, died in 1358.

As mentioned earlier, the scandal at the French court led to the adoption of the Salic Law, a rule that prevented women from reigning and whose origins date back to the 5th century, to the time of Clovis I, King of the Salian Franks—hence its name—who ordered its inclusion in the legislative corpus he compiled. It was revived in 1358 to retroactively justify the rise of the Valois to the throne and thereby prevent both the claim of Joan II of Navarre (the daughter that Margaret of Burgundy had with Louis X, whom he refused to acknowledge) and that of Isabella herself (out of fear that France would end up subordinate to England).

As for the main setting of these events, the Tower of Nesle no longer exists; it was demolished between 1663 and 1665 to make way for the Mazarin Library and the Collège des Quatre-Nations, an institution founded by the eponymous cardinal where figures such as the encyclopedist d’Alembert, the painter David, and the chemist Lavoisier studied, among others.

This article was first published on our Spanish Edition on March 10, 2025: La Torre de Nesle, el escándalo medieval que provocó la recuperación de la Ley Sálica que impedía reinar a las mujeres

SOURCES

Maurice Druon, Los reyes malditos: La Loba de Francia

Gaëlle Audéon, 1314 Philippe le Bel et l’affaire des brus

Alison Weir, Isabella. She-Wolf of France, Queen of England

Michael Jones, The last Capetians and early Valois king, 1314-1364

Wikipedia, Escándalo de la torre de Nesle

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