Queen Isabeau's vilipended reign has generated a great deal of scholarship; however, the monarch's negative appraisal is mostly an outgrowth of the volatile political constellation in which she operated. During the first half of the fifteenth century, the Hundred Years' War between France and England (1337–1453) raged on, primarily in the French hexagon. The basic cause of strife had been a dynastic quarrel between France and the kings of England, since the latter held the Duchy of Guienne and resented paying homage to French heads of state. Because the war inflicted unrelenting misery upon the French people — for example, through famine (the effect of sieges) and roving bands of marauders decimating the population — critics have argued that Queen Isabeau, wife of Charles VI (who had been debilitated by recurring bouts of insanity since 1392), should have taken action to end the war, but did not. Granted, this weakness of royal leadership was not the only exacerbating factor prolonging the war. Internecine strife among French princes and the Black Death also worked against any peace effort that might conclude hostilities between France and England.

Two letters Christine de Pizan wrote to Queen Isabeau warrant our reconsideration of the latter, until recently vituperated as anti-French by historians. Scholars have read these epistles as reproaches directed at Isabeau and therefore concluded that the queen remained oblivious to pleas that she end the war.