Joanna, Duchess of Brabant

Joanna of Brabant (1322–1406), daughter of Duke John III of Brabant, inherited the duchy in 1355 and faced invasion within a year. In 1334 she married William II of Hainaut, who was killed fighting the Frisians in 1345. Her second husband was Wenceslaus of Luxembourg.

In January 1356 she granted the Joyous Entry charter, limiting ducal power and settling the succession on her sisters. That year Louis II of Flanders, claiming Brabant through his wife Margaret, overran the duchy and forced the humiliating Treaty of Ath, which ceded Mechelen and Antwerp.

Emperor Charles IV later had parts of the charter annulled to satisfy the Luxembourgs, and in 1371 Wenceslaus was captured at Baesweiler. On Joanna's death in 1406 Brabant passed to her great-nephew Anthony of Burgundy.