Moreover, Isabella also influenced internal politics as well as negotiations with France. Various petitions to the king mention the queen-mother, including one by William Bateman complaining of violations of rights conducted by ministers of the queen-mother. These petitions infer that Isabella was operating in domestic politics and to such an extent that people chose to mention her in official protests to the crown. Furthermore, Isabella was not restricted to minor affairs but likewise manipulated greater domestic political decisions. For example Benz suggests that Isabella was influential in the marriage of her daughter Eleanor to the count of Guelders in 1332. While Isabella was not directly involved in these negotiations, she participated in the formation of Eleanor’s entourage and donated some of her servants to help with the journey thus it is apparent that Isabella did influence in the marriage alliance partly. Thereby, Isabella may have had a reduced role within English politics but she was still influential in both foreign and domestic affairs. Yet, while her meddling in domestic politics may be credited to her headstrong personality, her foreign influence was a result of her heritage that was only allowed to be applied when she was considered useful by the king.

Another aspect of Isabella’s influence during her dowager period was her cultural and religious patronage which impacted the culture within the royal court as well as a means to control her reputation. Culture in particular, was essential to queen dowagers as a means to display their social status and to exhibit the impact they had within society. Thereby, by presenting herself as a premium member of society through culture, a dowager queen could assert influence over the country once more. Isabella was particularly interested in French romances and was in possession of various romances such as King Arthur, Tristian and Isolde and other books on the knights of the Round Table. Johnstone proposes that Isabella may have been heavily influenced by these books and suggests that her love of the genre influenced her to have an affair with Mortimer like Genevieve with Lancelot. Yet, as it is uncertain whether Isabella was well acquainted with these books, it cannot be known how much they influenced her politics but her loaning of the these books to other nobles such as King Jean of France and Quean Joan of Scotland ensured that she was influencing the culture of others. H