Marguerite of Provence

Overview

Title social-status

Queen of France

Date of Birth

c.1221

Date of Death

1295

Biography

(See also Genealogical Table(s): 2.1, 2.3, 2.4.1, 2.4.2, 2.4.3, 3, 4.1.)
Marguerite was the eldest of four daughters of Raymond Berengar V, count of Provence (grandson, nephew and cousin of kings of Aragon, +1245) and Beatrice of Savoy (+1266). Her mother, Beatrice, a skilled diplomat in her own right, had eight brothers six of whom lived long enough to be gifted players in the diplomatic world of Europe. Her father, Raymond Berengar supported Rome against the Albigensians and Raymond of Toulouse, and agreed to Marguerite's marriage to the king of France at the urging of the papacy. All four daughters were married to kings, a phenomenon noted by Dante (Par. 6.133-35): Marguerite married Louis IX of France in 1234, Eleanor Henry III of England in 1236; Sancha in 1243 married Richard of Cornwall, who became king of the Romans and Emperor in 1257, and Beatrice (heir to her father's land) married Charles I of Anjou, brother of Louis IX, who became king of Sicily in 1246. Louis IX of France, who was later canonized, was 19 when he married Marguerite and still under the tutelage/regency of his mother, Blanche of Castile, who seems to have resented her daughter-in-law.(1) Marguerite and Louis had 11 children, Blanche (1240-43), Isabelle (1242-71), Louis (1244-60), Philip III (1245-85, king of France from 1270), Jean (1248), Jean-Tristan (1250-70), Pierre (1251-84), Blanche (1253-1323), Marguerite (1254-77), Robert (1256-1318), Agnes (1260-1327). Isabelle married Thibaud V, count of Champagne and king of Navarre in 1255; Philip married Isabella of Aragon in 1262, and after her death, Marie of Brabant in 1274; Jean-Tristan married Yolande de Nevers in 1266; Pierre married Jeanne d'Alençon in 1277 and became count of Alençon; Blanche married Ferdinand of Castille and Marguerite married Jean of Brabant in 1269; Robert, count of Clermont, married Beatrice of Bourbon in 1277; and Agnes married Robert of Burgundy in 1279. Sivéry reports that Marguerite is named in the marriage contracts on equal terms with Louis, 145. None of the children entered the church. Marguerite ruled directly for only a few months in 1250, in Damietta during a crusade, but she was frequently called on for diplomatic manoevres, to float plans that might not have immediately appealed to government counsellors loyal to the old politics of Louis VIII and Blanche and, as the letters show, she did undertake certain kinds of diplomatic mediation.(2) Marguerite accompanied Louis on crusade in 1248, along with Louis's two brothers, Alfonse of Poitiers and Charles of Anjou and their wives, Jeanne de Toulouse and Marguerite's sister Blanche of Provence. Louis, who had vowed to undertake the crusade when he was quite ill, took his vow seriously and refused to return before 1254, even though his regent, his mother Blanche who had been opposed to the undertaking, died in 1252. Marguerite gave birth to three of her children during this period, Jean-Tristan, who was born during his father's captivity, Pierre, and Blanche. Louis set out for Cairo, leaving Damietta, troops, and the royal fleet in Marguerite's hands, but he was captured during a retreat from Mansourah, and held for ransom. From her bed of childbirth, Marguerite persuaded the Pisans and Genoese who wanted to leave Damietta to stay, by promising to buy food for them and distribute it and she agreed to the terms for Louis's release. When Marguerite's uncle, Thomas of Savoy was captured in an attack on Asti in 1255, she persuaded her husband to help him, by joining other members of the family in seizing Asti bankers within their territories and using their goods to pay the ransom. During the dissensions in England, Louis had Marguerite negotiate for him with Henry and Eleanor, while his counsellors were working against Henry; in the same period, Eleanor asked Marguerite to reconcile Gaston de Béarn with her brother-in-law Alfonse of Poitiers, and Marguerite handled the awkward requests for Alfonse's ships to help Henry (Howell, 200, Sivéry, chapter 9). But Louis did not want Marguerite to be regent for their son Philip, in case of his own death, perhaps because of the enmity between her and his brother, Charles of Anjou over the Provençal inheritance. Charles was married to Eleanor's youngest sister, Beatrice, who was her father's heir in Provence, but the other three sisters had claims to parts of the land, over which Marguerite and Eleanor fought at length with Charles. When Louis went on his last crusade, where he died in 1270, the regents he had left tried to seize Marguerite's dower (which was similar to what Blanche's had been), but she fought them and then her son's regents, until her son granted reparations to her. After 1280, Philip III also supported her claims in Provence, and Marguerite did homage to Rudolph of Hapsburg, king of the Romans, who may have invested her with the county of Provence, though Charles never surrendered it. Philip let her raise an army to oppose Charles, perhaps using Marguerite for his own diplomatic purposes as his father had, to do what he could not do directly. Eventually, Marguerite's grandson, Charles of Valois, married a granddaughter of Charles, who brought Anjou to the family as her dowry.

Letters from Marguerite of Provence

Letters to Marguerite of Provence

A letter from Alexander IV (01/23/1258)
A letter from Alphonse of Poitiers (08/1263)
A letter from Alphonse of Poitiers (1263)
A letter from Alphonse of Poitiers (1263)
A letter from Alphonse of Poitiers (1264?)
A letter from Alphonse of Poitiers (1265)
A letter from Alphonse of Poitiers (1265)
A letter from Alphonse of Poitiers (5 November, 1263)
A letter from Clement IV (1265)
A letter from Clement IV (1265)
A letter from Edward I (1280)
A letter from Edward I (1281)
A letter from Edward I (1295)
A letter from Edward I, king of England (1281, October 10)
A letter from Edward I, king of England (1282)
A letter from Edward I, king of England (c.1280)
A letter from Henry III (05/24/1259)
A letter from Henry III (10/25/1263)
A letter from Henry III (10/29/1261)
A letter from Henry III (11/18/1264)
A letter from Henry III (11/6/1261)
A letter from Henry III (1252, June 8)
A letter from Henry III (1261)
A letter from Henry III (1262)
A letter from Henry III (1264, Feb.8)
A letter from Henry III, king of England (02/05/1263)
A letter from Henry III, king of England (12/28/1261)
A letter from Henry III, king of England (2/5/1260)
A letter from Henry III, king of England (c.1260)