When Count Ulrich died in March 1324, he left large estates in the Alsatian Sundgau, in the southern Vosges Mountains with the strategically important Burgundian Gate, and in the northern Jura foothills.

He concentrated on the administration of the family's Further Austrian territories in Swabia, while his brother Frederick the Fair rivalled with King Louis the Bavarian.

Joanna ceded her domains (including the town of Belfort) to the House of Habsburg,[1] whereby the dynasty could add a large contiguous territory in Southern Alsace to its Swabian possessions.

In 1336, Joanna mediated the peace between the Habsburg family and the rising House of Luxembourg over the heritage of the late Duke Henry of Carinthia.

Even though there was peace, wars could break out if it promised benefits for Albert and the Habsburgs, who were growing to be one of the most powerful royal families in Europe.

When she was fifty-one, she gave birth to her final child, a son, Leopold III, Duke of Austria, and died soon after.