Marguerite of Geneva
Overview
Biography
(See also Genealogical Table(s): 4.1.)
Marguerite was the daughter of William I, count of Geneva, and Beatrice of Faucigny. She married Thomas I of Savoy, who had supposedly abducted her on her way to marry Phillip II of France in 1195 when Philip was still married to Ingeborg of Denmark. Later Savoy chronicles romanticize the story, suggesting an early attraction between Thomas and Marguerite, but there is no contemporary evidence for it. Marguerite and Thomas had at least ten children: Amadeus IV, count of Savoy, Humbert (+1223), Aymon, lord of Chablais (+1237), William, bishop of Valence, Thomas (ancestor of the Italian royal house of Savoy and count of Flanders by marriage to Joan), Peter II (baron of Faucigny and Vaud, earl of Richmond, count of Savoy), Beatrice, countess of Provence (mother to four queens), Boniface, archbishop of Canterbury, Philip I (archbishop of Lyon, later count Palatine of Burgundy by marriage and count of Savoy), Boniface, archbishop of Canterbury, Margaret, countess of Kyburg.* Thomas died in 1233, Marguerite in 1258.
The countess was apparently a patron of Provençal poets. She is praised or addressed in a number of poems: Elias de Barjols, who was at the court of her daughter Beatrice and her husband Raymond Berengar of Provence, praises both the countess and her husband Thomas: XXII, l.46-50, “Chanson, la comtessa valen/ de Savoia, on fin pretz es,/ me saluda, e’l pro marques,/ e sapchas li ben dire/ que’l genser es qu’en tot lo mon se mire”; “Chanson, greet for me the worthy countess of Savoy, where there is true worth and the valiant marquis, and know to tell him well that she is the noblest that one can see in all the world.” Le Troubadour Elias de Barjols, ed. Stanislas Stonski (Toulouse: Edouard Privat, 1906). Elias also alludes obliquely to Marguerite as the source of the new countess of Provence, X, ll.41-44: “Savoia e’l tenemen/ sal Dieus, car nos creis d’onransa/ que flors n’ieis de tal senblansa/ don esperam frug valen”; “God save Savoy and its territory, for it increased our honor, when a flower came from it of such a semblance that we hope for worthy fruit from it.”
Albertet (de Sisteron), II, ll.51-55, “La pro comtessa gaia/ de Savoia, car gen/ manten pretz e joven,/ sal Dieus e sa lauzor/ e Monferrat e’l marques mon seignor”; “God save the noble, gay countess of Savoy, who nobly maintains worth and youth, and her fame, and Monferrat and my lord the marquis.” Il Trovatore Albertet, ed. Francesca Sanguineti (Modena, Mucchi, 2012).
Raimbaut de Vaqueiras, in a poem that celebrates the daughter of his patron as the object of a war waged by other notable ladies, has Marguerite elected to be their podestà, the chief magistrate, of the city of ladies: “Donan lur senh, cavalcon ab gran joia;/ fag an ciutat et an li mes nom Troia:/ poestat fan de midons de Savoia”; “They give their signal and ride in exaltation. They have built the city and have called it Troy: as podestà, they elect my lady of Savoy” XVIII, l.73-75. Raimbaut de Vaqueiras, ed. Joseph Linskill (The Hague, Mouton, 1964).
Letters from Marguerite of Geneva
A letter to Officials of Savoy (1226)A letter to Officials of Savoy (1226?)
A letter to Public (1221)
A letter to Public (1227)