Margaret, Marchioness Of Namur

Margaret de Courtenay, Marchioness of Namur (c. 1194 – Marienthal, 17 July 1270) was ruling Marchioness of Namur, from 1229 to 1237. She was the daughter of Peter of Courtenay (d. 1219), Latin Emperor of Constantinople (1216-1219) and Yolanda of Flanders (d. 1219). By her second marriage, to Henry I, Count of Vianden (d. 1252), Margaret was Countess-consort of Vianden.

Life

In some later sources, Margaret was also called ''Sybille''.

She was first married to the French noble Raoul III, Lord of Issoudun (c. 1208), who should not be confused with Raoul I of Exoudun (d. 1219). Her husband composed his will in 1212, and died soon after, without sons. According to customs, Raoul's main domains passed to his distant cousin Guillaume de Chauvigny, who was also his brother-in-law, while Margaret claimed possession over Châteauneuf-sur-Cher and Mareuil-en-Berry.

Soon after that (c. 1216) she remarried to Henry I, Count of Vianden (d. 1252). Henry was the son of Frederic III, Count of Vianden (d. 1217), and his wife Matilda (de).

In 1216, Margaret′s father Peter Courtenay (d. 1219) was elected Latin Emperor of Constantinople, and crowned in Rome by Pope Honorius III on 9 April 1217. He was succeeded by son Robert of Courtenay (Margaret′s brother) who ruled as Emperor of Constantinople until 1228, when he was succeeded by their brother Baldwin II of Constantinople. Since the elevation to the imperial throne in Constantinople (1216), Margaret′s family became involved in creation of new dynastic policies and alliances.

Marchioness of Namur

Margaret became Marchioness of Namur after the death of her brother Henry II, Marquis of Namur in 1229, who had succeeded another brother, Philip II. Their grandfather had received the county as an inheritance as a nephew of Henry IV, Count of Luxembourg (Henry I of Namur). Margaret and her husband Henry I of Vianden (Henry III of Namur) ruled Namur until 1237, when they had to transfer Namur to Margaret's brother Baldwin II of Courtenay.

Henry and Margaret continued ruling Vianden. Henry V, Count of Luxembourg (1216–1281), maternal grandson of Henry IV, Count of Luxembourg (Henry I of Namur), invaded Namur and ruled it 1256–1264 as Henry IV (or III ?). Baldwin sold Namur in c. 1263 to his cousin Guy of Dampierre, count of Flanders and Henry was removed by military force but they made peace with family marriage.

Later life

After the death of her husband in 1252, Margaret entered a convent in Marienthal near Luxembourg and became a nun. In 1253, together with her brother, the Emperor Baldwin II, she petitioned Pope Innocent IV on behalf of her grand-daughter Maria (born to Margaret's daughter Matilda and her husband John Angelos of Syrmia), thus securing papal consent for Maria's marriage to the Picardian noble Anselm of Cayeux. Margaret died in Marienthal on 17 July 1270 and was buried there.

Issue

Regarding Margaret's daughter ''Matilda'', who was known to earlier scholars just as the other (unnamed) daughter, mentioned twice in "The Life of Yolanda of Vianden", some researchers believed that she was also born from Margaret's second marriage, with Henry I of Vianden, but later scholars pointed out that Margaret's first husband Raoul III of Issoudun, in his 1212 testament, mentioned their "little daughter" (lat. ''filiola'') Matilda, thus concluding that she was born from Margaret's first marriage. Matilda was later (c. 1230) married to John Angelos (b. c. 1193 - d. before 1253), Lord of Syrmia. They ( Matilda and John) had a daughter Maria (c. 1235 - a. 1285) whose husband Anselm (''Anseau'') de Cayeux (the younger) worked for King Charles I of Naples. Since Maria is mentioned, in some 1280s sources, as sister (lat. ''soror'') of Queen Helen of Serbia (c. 1236–1314), some researchers have proposed that Helen was also a daughter of Matilda, and thus grand-daughter of Margaret.

Margaret and Henry I of Vianden had several children, including:
* Peter, dean in cathedrals of Liège and Cologne (died after 1272).
* Frederic of Vianden, who died in 1247 (5 years before his father). He married Matilda of Salm (b. c. 1223), a daughter of Henry III, Count of Ardennes (seigneur de Viviers, c. 1190–1246 ?), and had a son named Henry, Lord of Schönecken (1248–1299).
* Henry I van Vianden (d. 1267), bishop of Utrecht from 1249 to 1267.
* Philip I (d. 1273), Count of Vianden 1252–1273. He married Marie of Brabant- Perwez, daughter of Godfrey of Louvain, Lord of Perwez, apparently a descendant of Godfrey III, Count of Louvain and Landgrave of Brabant (1142–1190). Their issue was Godefroid I, Count of Vianden (d. 1307 or 1310) and four other children.
* Yolanda of Vianden (1231–1283), prioress of Marienthal, still revered today in Luxembourg.

Ancestry

References

Sources

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Margaret, Marchioness of Namur
1190s births
1270 deaths
13th-century margraves of Namur
13th-century countesses regnant
13th-century countesses consort
13th-century French nobility
13th-century French women
13th-century German nobility
13th-century German women
13th-century Christian nuns
Daughters of emperors
Year of birth uncertain
Capetian House of Courtenay
Counts of Vianden
Countesses of Luxembourg
Vianden
House of Hainaut
House of Metz
House of Flanders
House of Sponheim