She married William II of Sicily and later Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse, two very important and powerful figures in the political landscape of Medieval Europe.

Joan was born in October 1165 at Château d'Angers in Anjou as the seventh child of Henry II, King of England and his queen consort, Eleanor of Aquitaine.

As a young Angevin princess, Joan's early education consisted of subjects to ready her for a dynastic marriage.

[4] In 1176, William II of Sicily sent ambassadors to the English court to ask for Joan's hand in marriage.

[4] On 27 August, Joan set sail for Sicily from Southampton, escorted by John of Oxford, the bishop of Norwich and her uncle, Hamelin de Warenne, Earl of Surrey.

He took her to Saint Gilles, and her entourage was met by representatives of the Kingdom of Sicily: Alfano, Archbishop of Capua, and Richard Palmer, Bishop of Syracuse.

[4] Traditionally, a royal husband in such a situation may have annulled the marriage for a chance to marry a woman who would give him a son.

When William II died in November 1189, Sicily was seized by his bastard cousin Tancred, who took the lands given to Joan by William with the sound strategic reason that Monte Sant'Angelo lay on the route taken by the invading forces of Heinrich VI of Germany husband of Constance.

Although Al-Adil and Saladin both expressed agreement with the arrangement, the plan failed when the high ranking priests opposed the wedding and threatened Richard that he would be excommunicated from the Christian Church.

Joan was married in October 1196, at Rouen to Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse, as his fourth wife, with Quercy and the Agenais as her dowry.

"The Chronicle of Guillaume de Puylaurens", however, says the following of Joan's last few months: "She was an able woman of great spirit, and after she had recovered from childbed, she was determined to counter the injuries being inflicted upon her husband at the hands of numerous magnates and knights.