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In 1176 a delegation from Sicily came to the English court, asking for Joan's hand in marriage on behalf of William II of Sicily. Joan's parents agreed to the proposal, and the betrothal was confirmed. On the 27th of August, Joan, together with a large group of people consisting of ladies-in-waiting, knights, clergy and various retainers, laid out to sail for Sicily. The trip began with the short stretch from Winchester to Southampton, escorted by the archbishops of Canterbury and Rouen, the bishop of Evreux and her father's brother Hamelane. Then Prince Henry, her oldest brother, accompanied her across the Channel and into France to Poitiers. There she was met by another brother, Richard, who escorted her through the Duchy of Aquitaine, across the allied County of Toulouse to Saint Gilles Port, where Bishop Richard Palmer welcomed her in the name of the King of Sicily. Twenty-five Sicilian ships awaited the young princess to sail her to her husband-to-be. The last part of the journey left Joan seasick, but she finally arrived at the end of January and married William at Palermo Cathedral on the 13th of February 1177 at the tender age of eleven while her husband was twenty-three! She was crowned, and was now queen consort.

The letters of Pope Clement IV (1265-1268) contain largely chronologically arranged, with its 556 pieces of the political and personal correspondence of the Pope and are well regarded as the main source of his pontificate. The target audience is broad and largely prominent. Included are letters to the kings of Sicily, France, England, Aragon, Castile, to the Emperor of Byzantium and the princes of the Tartars, in many cases, to cardinals, who were just outside the Roman Curia, and the rest to various ecclesiastical prelates, secular lords, to acquaintances and relatives of Provençal home of the Pope and many others.