Editing Blanche of Castile (section)

==Queen mother==
Louis began to take part in political affairs by declaring his maturity, but Blanche was very influential and powerful in politics and court affairs, and her son did not withhold anything from her. No one dared to criticize the Queen Mother. In 1233, Raymond of Toulouse was starting to chafe under the terms of the treaty of Paris, thus Blanche sent one of her knights, Giles of Flagy, to convince him to cooperate. Blanche heard through troubadours of the beauty, grace, and religious devotion of the daughters of [[Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Provence]], and assigned Giles a second mission to visit Provence. Giles found a much better reception in Provence than in Toulouse. Upon his return to Paris, Blanche decided that a Provençal marriage would suit her son and help keep Toulouse in check.  In 1234, Louis married [[Margaret of Provence]], who was the eldest of the four daughters of Ramon, Count of Provence, and [[Beatrice of Savoy]].

She did not have a good relationship with her daughter-in-law, perhaps due to the controlling relationship Blanche had with her son, and she wanted to maintain control of her son and the court. To maintain better control over the new queen, Blanche dismissed the family and servants who had come to her wedding before the couple reached Paris. Prior to the arrival of the new queen, Blanche was considered the beauty of the court, and had poems written about her beauty by the count of Champagne. In 1230, it was even rumoured that she was pregnant by Romano Bonaventura. The new queen drew the attention of the court and the king away from Blanche, so she sought to keep them apart as much as she could. [[Jean de Joinville]] tells of the time when Queen Margaret was giving birth and Blanche entered the room telling her son to leave saying "Come ye hence, ye do naught here". Queen Margaret then allegedly fainted out of distress. Joinville also remarks that when Queen Blanche was present in the royal household, she did not like Margaret and Louis to be together "except when he went to lie with her".<ref>Jean de Joinville, The History of Saint Louis trans. J.Evans 1938: p 184 (New York Press)</ref>

In 1239, Blanche insisted on a fair hearing for the [[Jews]], who were under threat by increasing [[antisemitism]] in France. She presided over a formal disputation in the king's court. Louis insisted on the burning of the [[Talmud]] and other Jewish books, but Blanche promised Rabbi [[Yechiel of Paris]], who spoke for the Jews, that he and his goods were under her protection.{{sfn|Labarge|1997|p=193}}