Daughter of Louis VIII and of his wife, Blanche of Castille,
born in March, 1225; died at Longchamp, 23 February, 1270. St.
Louis IX, King of France (1226-70), was her brother. When still
a child at court, Isabel, or Elizabeth, showed an extraordinary
devotion to exercises of piety, modesty, and other virtues. By
Bull of 26 May, 1254, Innocent IV allowed her to retain some
Franciscan fathers as her special confessors. She was even more
devoted to the Franciscan Order than her royal brother. She not
only broke off her engagement with a count, but moreover refused
the hand of Conrad, son of the German Emperor Frederick II,
although pressed to accept him by everyone, even by Pope
Innocent IV, who however did not hesitate subsequently (1254) to
praise her fixed determination to remain a virgin. As Isabel
wished to found a convent of the Order of St. Clare, Louis IX
began in 1255 to acquire the necessary land in the Forest of
Rouvray, not far from the Seine and in the neighbourhood of
Paris. On 10 June, 1256, the