(Juvenal des Ursins, p. 438, who says the marriage was at Senlis). Isabella became Duchess of Orleans, on the murder of her father-in-law, on 23 Nov. 1407. With Valentina Visconti, her husband's mother, she went to Paris, and throwing herself at Charles VI's feet, demanded justice on the murderers.
On 13 Sept. 1409 Isabella gave birth at Blois to her only child, Joan, and died a few hours after. She was buried at Blois, in the chapel of Nôtre Dame des Bonnes Nouvelles, in the abbey of Saint-Laumer. Charles of Orleans gave her rich robes to the monks of St.-Denys, to be made up into chasubles and dalmatics (Religieux de Saint-Denys, iv. 252). In 1624 her body was transferred to the Orleans burying-place in the church of the Celestines in Paris (Anselme, Hist. Généal. i. 208). Her daughter Joan married in 1424 John II of Alençon, and died without children in 1432. A portrait of Isabella as the bride of Charles of Orleans is engraved in Miss Strickland's ‘Lives of the Queens of England.’
[Most of the facts of Isabella's life are collected, in a readable, if not very critical way, in Strickland's Lives of the Queens of England, i. 428–54, ed. 1889. Anselme's Histoire Généalogique de la Maison Royale de France, vol. i., corrected by M. Vallet de Viriville in Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartes, 4e série, iv. 473–482. Wallon's Richard II and Wylie's Henry IV best summarise the political aspects of Isabella's life. The chief original sources include Froissart, ed. Kervyn de Lettenhove; Chroniques du Religieux de Saint-Denys (Doc. Inédits); Monstrelet (Soc. de l'Histoire de France); Jean Juvenal des Ursins in Michaud and Poujoulat's Collection des Mémoires, 1e série, t. ii.; Walsingham's Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.); Monk of Evesham and Otterbourne, both ed. Hearne; Chronique de la Traïson et la Mort de Richart Deux (Engl. Hist. Soc.); Creton's Metrical Chronicle in Archæologia, vol. xx.; Rymer's Fœdera, vols. vii. and viii., and Report on Fœdera, App. D; Nicolas's Proc. and Ord. of Privy Council, vol. i.; Godefroy's Hist. de Charles VI.]
ISBISTER, ALEXANDER KENNEDY (1822–1883), educational writer, eldest son of Thomas Isbister, an officer of the Hudson Bay Company, was born at Fort Cumberland, Canada, in 1822, and was sent to Scotland, the original home of his family, to be educated. In his fifteenth year he returned to Canada, and after serving for a short time as a pupil-teacher, he entered the service of the Hudson Bay Company. Seeing little prospect of advancement he threw up his appointment and, returning to Scotland, studied at the universities of Aberdeen and Edinburgh. At the latter he graduated M.A. on 3 March 1858. During part of this period he supported himself by contributing to the ‘Encyclopædia Britannica’ and to Chambers's ‘Educational Course.’
In 1849 he became second master in the East Islington proprietary school, and a year afterwards the head-master. Five years later he was appointed the head-master of the Jews' College in Finsbury Square, and from 1858 to 1882 was master of the Stationers' Company's school. His connection with the College of Preceptors, 42 Queen Square, Bloomsbury (now located in its own building in Bloomsbury Square), began in 1851. In 1862 he was appointed editor of the ‘Educational Times,’ the official organ of the college, and in 1872 he succeeded the Rev. G. A. Jacob, D.D ., as dean of the college. His services were very great, and to him the present position of the college is largely due. On 17 Nov. 1864 he was admitted to the bar at the Middle Temple, and took the degree of LL.B. at the university of London in 1866. He died at 20 Milner Square, Islington, London, on 28 May 1883. He was the author of numerous works, chiefly school books, among which were: 1. ‘Elements of Bookkeeping,’ 1850, with forms of a set of books, 1854. 2. ‘A Proposal for a New Penal Settlement in the Uninhabited Districts of British North America,’ 1850. 3. ‘Euclid,’ 1860, 1862, 1863, and 1865. 4. ‘Cæsaris Commentarii de Bello Gallico,’ 1863, 1864, 1865, and 1866. 5. ‘The Elements of English Grammar,’ 1865. 6. ‘Arithmetic,’ 1865. 7. ‘Outlines of the English Language,’ 1865. 8. ‘Xenophon's Anabasis,’ 1866. 9. ‘First Steps in Reading and Learning,’ 1867. 10. ‘The Word-builder,’ 1869. 11. ‘The Illustrated Public School Speaker,’ 1870. 12. ‘Lessons on Elocution,’ 1870.
[Times, 30 May 1883, p. 11; Journal of Education, July 1883, p. 247; Solicitors' Journal, 9 June 1883, p. 537; Law Times, 9 June 1883, p. 119.]
ISCANUS, JOSEPHUS. [See Joseph of Exeter.]
ISHAM or ISUM, JOHN (1680?–1726), composer, was born about 1680 and educated at Merton College, Oxford, whence he proceeded to London and served as deputy organist of St. Anne's, Westminster, under Dr. William Croft [q. v.] Croft resigned in Isham's favour in 1711, and in 1713 Isham went from London to Oxford to assist Croft in the performance of the exercise for his doctor's degree, being himself admitted at the same time to the degree of Mus. Bac. Appointed organist of St. Andrew's, Holborn, in April 1718, and of St. Margaret's, Westminster, in the following year, Isham
