Marie de Coucy (c. 1218 – 1285) was
queen of Scotland by marriage to King
Alexander II. She was a member of the royal council during the two last years of the minority of her son, King
Alexander III, in 1260–1262.
Background
Marie was the daughter of Lord
Enguerrand III of Coucy
Enguerrand III de Boves, Lord of Coucy (c. 1182 – 1242) was a medieval French nobleman. The eldest son and successor of Ralph I, Lord of Coucy (c. 1134 – 1191) and Alix de Dreux,M. A. Pollock, ''Scotland, England and France After the Loss ...
and his third wife,
Marie de Montmirel (
fr) (1192 – 1267) and a great-great granddaughter of King
Louis VI of France. According to the chronicler Matthew Paris, she was beautiful and very wealthy. In 1238, King Alexander II of Scotland needed to remarry after the death of his first childless spouse,
Joan of England. King
Henry III of England
Henry III (1 October 1207 – 16 November 1272), also known as Henry of Winchester, was King of England, Lord of Ireland, and Duke of Aquitaine from 1216 until his death in 1272. The son of King John and Isabella of Angoulême, Henry ...
claimed sovereignty over Scotland, which was opposed by Alexander, who wished to make an alliance with France against England. Enguerrand III was a powerful French vassal and a known enemy of England, and the marriage between Marie and Alexander II was regarded as a French-Scottish alliance against England.
Queenship
On 15 May 1239 Marie married
Alexander II of Scotland in
Roxburgh. The marriage brought an alliance between the Scots and the Coucy lordship, and for the rest of the 13th century they exchanged soldiers and money. She brought a large train of French followers to Scotland. In her retinue was her chancellor
Richard Vairement and her nephew
Enguerrand de Guines, who came to have some influence in Scottish affairs. Her nephew married Christiane de Lindsay, a niece of
John Balliol
John Balliol ( – late 1314), known derisively as ''Toom Tabard'' (meaning "empty coat" – coat of arms), was King of Scots from 1292 to 1296. Little is known of his early life. After the death of Margaret, Maid of Norway, Scotland entered a ...
, and thus became a Scottish magnate. Two years after her marriage, she gave birth to the future king,
Alexander III.
King Alexander II died on 8 July 1249 during an expedition against the lord of Argyll on the island of
Kerrera
Kerrera (; gd, Cearara or ''Cearrara'') is an island in the Scottish Inner Hebrides, close to the town of Oban. In 2016 it had a population of 45, divided into two communities in the north and south of the island.
Geology
The oldest bedrock ...
. Immediately after the news reached her, Queen Marie made sure her 8-year-old son was crowned as soon as possible at
Scone. Although her son was a minor and was placed under regency, Marie did not become
regent
A regent (from Latin : ruling, governing) is a person appointed to govern a state '' pro tempore'' (Latin: 'for the time being') because the monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge the powers and duties of the monarchy ...
. On 9 June 1250 Marie and Alexander III were present in Dunfermline for the observance of the canonisation of
Saint Margaret of Scotland and the transference of her remains to the new shrine.
Later life
In autumn 1250 Marie returned to
Picardy and, for the rest of her life, she divided her time between France and Scotland. In 1252 she attended the wedding in York of her son Alexander III and Margaret of England with a great entourage of French and Scottish nobles. In 1256 or 1257 Marie married
John of Brienne
John of Brienne ( 1170 – 19–23 March 1237), also known as John I, was King of Jerusalem from 1210 to 1225 and Latin Emperor of Constantinople from 1229 to 1237. He was the youngest son of Erard II of Brienne, a wealthy nobleman in Champagn ...
(1227–1296), grand butler of France. They had no children together.
In 1260 the rivalries between the Scottish factions for influence during the minority of her son made the situation in Scotland critical, and Marie and her husband were therefore named members of the royal council during the remaining years of the king's minority, until Alexander III was declared of legal majority in 1262. In 1268 Marie separated from John and returned to Scotland. When her daughter-in-law, Margaret, died in February 1275, Marie arranged the new marriage between her son and
Yolande of Dreux. In 1275–76, she made a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Thomas Becket in Canterbury.
Marie de Coucy died in the summer of 1285 and was buried in a tomb she had constructed in
Newbattle Abbey
Newbattle Abbey ( gd, Abaid a' Bhatail Nuaidh) was a Cistercian monastery near the village of Newbattle in Midlothian, Scotland, which subsequently become a stately home and then an educational institution.
Monastery
It was founded in 1140 by ...
.
Notes
References
*''Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America Before 1700,'' by Frederick Lewis Weis, Line 120-30
* Joseph Bain (ed) ''Calendar of documents relating to Scotland'', volume 2.
* Brown, Michael, ''The Wars of Scotland, 1214-1371,'' (Edinburgh, 2004)
* Marshall, Rosalind, ''Scottish Queens, 1034-1714''
* Richard Oram: "The Kings and Queens of Scotland"
* Timothy Venning: "The Kings and Queens of Scotland"
* Mike Ashley: "British Kings and Queens"
* Elizabeth Ewan, Sue Innes and Sian Reynolds: "The Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marie of Coucy
1218 births
1285 deaths
People from Picardy
Scottish royal consorts
House of Dunkeld
House of Brienne
13th-century Scottish women
13th-century Scottish people
13th-century French women
13th-century French people
Remarried royal consorts
Queen mothers