Joan II
Countess of Auvergne and Boulogne
Hans Holbein's drawing of a sculpture of Joan byJean de Cambrai, 1523/24.[1]
Born	c. 1378
Died	c. 1424 (aged c. 46)
Noble family	Auvergne
Spouse(s)	John, Duke of Berry Georges de La Trémoille
Father	John II of Auvergne
Mother	Aliénor of Comminges

Joan II (French:Jeanne d'Auvergne 1378 – c. 1424) was thecountess of Auvergne andBoulogne from 1394 until 1424 as well as the duchess of Berry by marriage. She was the daughter ofJohn II, Count of Auvergne (died 1394), and second wife ofJohn, Duke of Berry. She is arguably most famous for saving the life of her nephew KingCharles VI of France, during the disastrousBal des Ardents (Ball of the Burning Men).

Joan was born around 1378 to John II, Count of Auvergne and Boulogne and his wife Aliénor de Comminges. Joan's grandfather,John I, had been an uncle ofQueen Joan of France, a previous heiress to Auvergne and Boulogne; John inherited the counties when his great-nephew, Joan's son, DukePhilip I of Burgundy, died without issue. Joan II's mother was a descendant ofPeter II of Courtenay, theLatin emperor of Constantinople, who in turn descended fromLouis VI of France.

In 1389, Joan was married toJohn, Duke of Berry, a son ofJohn II of France, whose wife had died in the previous year.^[2] They had no children.

TheBal des Ardents

Joan covers the King with her dress

At the age of fifteen, Joan was present at the infamousBal des Ardents given byQueen Isabeau, wife of the Duke of Berry's nephewKing Charles, on 28 January 1393. During this, the King and five nobles dressed up as wildmen, clad "in costumes of linen cloth sewn onto their bodies and soaked in resinous wax or pitch to hold a covering of frazzled hemp," and proceeded to dance about chained together. At length, the King became separated from the others, and made his way to the Duchess, who jokingly refused to let him wander off again until he told her his name. When Charles' brother,Louis of Orléans, accidentally set the other dancers on fire, Joan swathed the King in her skirts, protecting him from the flames and saving his life.^[3]

Upon her father's death in 1394, Joan became Countess of Auvergne and Boulogne. Joan was widowed upon the death of the Duke of Berry in 1416. She marriedGeorges de La Trémoille soon after; however, they produced no children, and the counties passed to her cousin,Marie, upon her death in 1424.

• Echols, Anne and Marty Williams,An Annotated Index of Medieval Women, Markus Weiner Publishing Inc., 1992.
• Emmerson, Richard K. (2013).Key Figures in Medieval Europe: An Encyclopedia. Routledge.ISBN 978-1136775185.
• Müller, Christian; Kemperdick, Stephan; Ainsworth, Maryan, eds. (2006).Hans Holbein the Younger: The Basel Years, 1515–1532. Prestel.ISBN 978-3-7913-3580-3.
• Tuchman, Barbara (1978).A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century. Ballantine.ISBN 978-0-345-34957-6.

French nobility
Preceded by John II and III	Countess of Auvergne andBoulogne 1394–1424 withJohn III and IV (1404–1416) George (1416–1424)	Succeeded by Marie I and II

• 1378 births
• 1424 deaths
• French countesses
• Duchesses of Berry
• Countesses of Montpensier
• French suo jure nobility
• 14th-century countesses regnant
• 15th-century countesses regnant
• 15th-century women monarchs
• Counts of Auvergne
• 14th-century French nobility
• 14th-century French women
• 15th-century French nobility
• 15th-century French women

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• Use dmy dates from March 2021
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