Marie of France, Countess of Champagne

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Marie of France
Marie Champagne.jpg
Seal of Marie of France
Countess consort of Champagne
Tenure1164 – 17 March 1181
Born1145
Kingdom of France
Died11 March 1198(1198-03-11) (aged 52–53)
County of Champagne
Burial
Meaux Cathedral, Seine-et-Marne
SpouseHenry I, Count of Champagne
IssueHenry II, Count of Champagne
Marie, Latin Empress
Theobald III, Count of Champagne
Scholastique, Countess of Mâcon
HouseCapet
FatherLouis VII of France
MotherEleanor of Aquitaine

Marie of France (1145 – 11 March 1198) was a French princess and Countess consort of Champagne. She was regent of the county of Champagne in 1179–1181, and in 1190–1197.

She was the elder daughter of King Louis VII of France and Duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine.

Early life[]

Marie's birth was hailed as a "miracle" by Bernard of Clairvaux, an answer to his prayer to bless the marriage between her mother Eleanor of Aquitaine and her father, Louis VII.[1] She was just two years old when her parents led the Second Crusade to the Holy Land. Not long after their return in 1152, when Marie was seven, her parents' marriage was annulled.[2] Custody of Marie and her younger sister, Alix, was awarded to their father, since they were at that time the only heirs to the French throne. Both Louis and Eleanor remarried quickly; Eleanor married King Henry II and became Queen of England. Louis remarried first Constance of Castile (d. 1160) and then Adele of Champagne on 13 November 1160. Marie had numerous half-siblings on both her mother's and father's side, including the eventual kings Philip II of France and John and Richard I of England.

Marriage[]

In 1153, well before Louis married Adele of Champagne, he betrothed Marie and Alix to Adele's brothers.[3] These alliances were arranged based on the intervention of Bernard of Clairvaux, as reported in the contemporary chronicle of Radulfus Niger.[4][5] After her betrothal, Marie was sent to live with the Viscountess Elizabeth of Mareuil-sy-Aÿ and then to the abbey of Avenay in Champagne for her Latin-based education. In 1159, Marie married Henry I, Count of Champagne.[2][5] 522.

Regencies[]

Marie became regent for Champagne when her husband Henry I went on pilgrimage to the Holy Land from 1179 until 1181. While her husband was away, Marie's father died and her half-brother, Philip Augustus, became king of France. He confiscated his mother's dower lands and married Isabelle of Hainaut, who was previously betrothed to Marie's eldest son. This prompted Marie to join a party of disgruntled nobles—including the queen mother Adela of Champagne and the archbishop of Reims—in plotting unsuccessfully against Philip. Eventually, relations between Marie and her royal brother improved.[3] Her husband died soon after his return from the Holy Land in 1181, leaving her again as regent for her young son Henry.

Now a widow with four young children, Marie considered marrying Count Philip I of Flanders in 1184,[6] but the engagement was broken off suddenly for unknown reasons. In 1187, after Saladin won a significant victory over the West and recaptured Jerusalem, Marie served again as regent for Champagne as her son Henry II joined the Third Crusade, from 1190 to 1197. He remained in the Levant, marrying Queen Isabella I of Jerusalem in 1192. Over the course of her regencies, Champagne was transformed from a patchwork of territories into a significant principality.[2]

Death and legacy[]

Marie was able to retire only briefly to the nunnery of Château de Fontaines-les-Nonnes near Meaux (1187-1190), before being called back to govern Champagne. She died on 11 March 1198, not long after hearing the tragic news of her son's death.[2] She was buried in Meaux Cathedral.

On 25 June 1562, rioting Huguenots devastated many edifices, including the Cathedral of Maux; it was on this occasion that the tomb of Marie de Champagne, located in the choir, was destroyed.[3]

Literary patronage[]

medieval illumination of sitting woman
Marie pictured as patroness in a medieval manuscript

As great-granddaughter of the first troubadour, William IX, Duke of Aquitaine, it is not surprising that Marie would be an avid supporter of the arts.[7] Marie was a patron of literature and her court became a sphere of influence on authors and poets[8] such as Andreas Capellanus, who served in her court and referred to her several times in his writing,[7] Chrétien de Troyes, who credits her with the idea for his Lancelot: The Knight of the Cart, the troubadours Bertran de Born and Bernart de Ventadorn, Gautier d'Arras and Conon de Bétune.[3]

She is credited with the widely held belief of fin'amors or Courtly Love, that love cannot exist within the bounds of marriage.[9]

Being literate in both French and Latin, she amassed and maintained her own extensive library.[2] A deep affection existed between Marie and her half-brother King Richard, and a stanza from his celebrated poem J'a nuns hons pris, lamenting his captivity in Austria, was addressed to her.[3]

Issue[]

Marie had four children with her husband Henri I of Champagne:

Genealogical table[]

hideSelective genealogy of Countess Marie[10]
Henry II of EnglandEleanor of AquitaineLouis VII of FranceAdelaHenryRobert I of DreuxPeter I of Courtenay
Henry the Young KingRichard I of EnglandGeoffrey II of BrittanyHenry I of ChampagneMarie of FranceAliceMargaretPhilip II of FrancePeter II of Courtenay
Henry II of ChampagneTheobald III of ChampagneMarieScholastica

References[]

  1. ^ Anderson, Jeffrey (2019). Angevin Dynasties of Europe 900-1500: Lords of the Greater Part of the World. Robert Hale Non-Fiction.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Evergates, Theodore (11 December 2018). Marie of France : Countess of Champagne, 1145-1198 (1st ed.). Philadelphia. ISBN 978-0-8122-5077-0. OCLC 1033578543.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e McCash, June Hall Martin (1979). "Marie de Champagne and Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Relationship Reexamined". Speculum. 54 (4): 698–711. doi:10.2307/2850324. JSTOR 2850324.
  4. ^ Feudal society in medieval France : documents from the County of Champagne. Evergates, Theodore. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 1993. ISBN 0-585-19686-9. OCLC 44962783.CS1 maint: others (link)
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b McCash, June Hall (2018). Eleanor's Daughter: A Novel of Marie de Champagne. Twin Oaks Press. ISBN 9781937937218.
  6. ^ "COMTES de CHAMPAGNE". fmg.ac. Retrieved 2020-06-09.
  7. ^ Jump up to: a b "Marie de Champagne". Academic Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Retrieved 2020-04-13.
  8. ^ Benton, John F. (1961). "The Court of Champagne as a Literary Center". Speculum. 36 (4): 551–591. doi:10.2307/2856785. ISSN 0038-7134. JSTOR 2856785.
  9. ^ "A letter from Marie of France, countess of Champagne and Troyes (1174?)". Epistolae: Medieval Women's Latin Letters. Retrieved April 13, 2020.
  10. ^ Evergates 2018, p. 109.

Sources[]

  • Wheeler, Bonnie. Eleanor of Aquitaine: Lord and Lady, 2002
  • Evergates, Theodore. Aristocratic Women in Medieval France, 1999
  • McCash, June Hall Martin. "Marie de Champagne and Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Relationship Reexamined." Speculum 54.4 (Oct. 1979): 698-711.
  • Evergates, Theodore. Marie of France : Countess of Champagne, 1145-1198, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018. (ISBN 9780812250770)
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