Marguerite de Flandre, Princesse de France, comtesse de Bourgogne & de Nevers

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marguerite_Ire_de_Bourgogne

https://books.google.fi/books?id=H5jPqbFL81wC&pg=PA126&lpg=PA126&dq...

Marguerite de France (1310 – 9 May 1382) was a medieval ruler, reigning Countess Palatine of Burgundy (Franche-Comté) and Countess of Artois, ruling in both as Margaret I, as well as countess-consort of Flanders, Nevers and Rethel. Her father was King Philip V of France between 1316-22.

She was born as the second daughter of Jeanne de Chalon, Countess of Burgundy and her husband Philippe, Count of Poitiers. Marguerite's mother was Countess Palatine of Burgundy (daughter and heiress of Otto IV, Count of Burgundy) and Queen Consort of France; Marguerite's father was the second son of king Philip IV of France and Queen regnant Joan I of Navarre.

In 1316 her father became king Philip V of France, after the death of her infant first cousin John I of France. Marguerite was married to Louis I, Count of Flanders (1304-1346) who reigned Flanders, Nevers and Rethel from 1322. Her husband was dependent on her father in suppressing the rebellion of Nikolaas Zannekin. Her father died in 1322, and by law the crown was inherited by her uncle, Charles, Count of La Marche.

Marguerite's mother, Queen Jeanne, succeeded her own mother, Mahaut, Countess of Artois, as ruler of Artois in 1329. Marguerite's elder sister Jeanne, duchess of Burgundy (1308-49) inherited when their mother died in 1329, becoming Countess of Artois and Palatine Countess of Burgundy.

Her husband Louis was killed in the Battle of Crécy (26 August 1346). He and Marguerite had one son, Louis II, Count of Flanders (1330-84) who in 1346 succeeded in Flanders, Nevers and Rethel and for whom she acted as a regent in the beginning of his reign. In 1355, the younger Louis claimed the duchy of Brabant in right of his wife, but Joanna, Duchess of Brabant managed to keep her possessions.

In 1357, her granddaughter Margaret (1350-1405), then seven years old, was married to Marguerite's great-nephew Philip I, Duke of Burgundy (1346-1361), who thus was the young bride's second cousin. The girl thus became duchess-consort of Burgundy, as well as countess-consort of Artois and the County Palatine of Burgundy (also called Franche-Comté); in 1360, the couple became Count and Countess-consort of Boulogne and Auvergne.

The coastal Low Countries was a restless region in the latter half of 14th century, due to civil strife. Marguerite succeeded in 1361 her great-nephew Philip I, Duke of Burgundy as ruler of Artois and Franche-Comté (County Palatine of Burgundy), since her elder sister Jeanne's issue went extinct by his death. Thus Marguerite, already Dowager Countess of Flanders, now became a ruler in her own right.

Her granddaughter, Margaret, was now a widow due to the premature death of Philip of Burgundy. The duchy of Burgundy, having since 1330 been united to the counties of Palatine Burgundy and Artois, now passed to one of its two senior heirs, John II of France (the other, Charles the Bad of Navarre, had been kept from inheriting due to his genealogical distance from the Dukes of Burgundy).

In 1369 Margaret, now 19 years old, and Marguerite's only grandchild, married Philip the Bold (1342-1404), King John's youngest son, who had become Duke of Burgundy in 1363 (having given up his previous duchy of Touraine in exchange); thus, Margaret again became Duchess consort of Burgundy.

According to Guizot, whilst Marguerite favoured the marriage of her granddaughter to Philip the Bold, the girl's father, Louis of Flanders, and the Flemish communes, preferring England to France, were unwilling to arrange the marriage. Reputedly, Marguerite, vexed at the ill will of the count her son, had one day said to him, as she tore open her dress before his eyes, "Since you will not yield to your mother's wishes, I will cut off these breasts which gave suck to you, to you and to no other, and will throw them to the dogs to devour." Louis, persuaed, agreed to the marriage.[1]

The unrest in coastal Low Countries escalated to open rebellions in Marguerite's last years. A revolt in Ghent was put down by joint operation of Marguerite's son Louis II of Flanders and grandson-in-law Philip II of Burgundy. However, after the Battle of Beverhoutsveld Louis II was expelled from Flanders by the Flemings under Philip van Artevelde. A French army (and Duke Philip) came to help them to regain Flanders, and the revolting Flemings were decisively defeated at the Battle of Roosebeke the same year in which Marguerite died. However, the citizens of Ghent continued to resist (with English aid) and it was left to her granddaughter and her consort to subdue the town.

Countess Marguerite died in 1382. Her counties of Artois and Burgundy were inherited by her only son Louis, Count of Flanders, who survived her just for two years. In 1384, all her possessions, together with Louis' inheritance (Flanders, etc.), went to her only surviving grandchild, Margaret, the then duchess-consort of Burgundy, who thus became possessor of Palatine County of Burgundy and county of Artois, countess in her own right, where she had been countess-consort almost thirty years earlier, as they then were held by her first husband.