Marie of Brabant, Queen of France

Marie of Brabant
Queen consort of France
Tenure	21 August 1274 – 5 October 1285
Spouse	Philip III of France
Issue
Louis d'Évreux Blanche, Duchess of Austria Margaret, Queen of England
House	House of Brabant House of Capet
Father	Henry III, Duke of Brabant
Mother	Adelaide of Burgundy
Born	13 May 1254(1254-05-13) Leuven
Died	12 January 1321(1321-01-12) (aged 66) Les Mureaux, France
Burial	Cordeliers Convent, Paris

Marie, at her coronation

Marie of Brabant (French: Marie de Brabant; 13 May 1254 – 12 January 1321) was Queen consort of France.

Marie was born in Leuven, Brabant. She was a daughter of Henry III, Duke of Brabant, and Adelaide of Burgundy, daughter of Hugh IV, Duke of Burgundy.

Family

Marie's paternal grandparents were Henry II, Duke of Brabant, and his wife Marie of Hohenstaufen. Her maternal grandparents were Hugh IV, Duke of Burgundy, and his first wife Yolande of Dreux. Marie's siblings included Henry IV, Duke of Brabant, and John I, Duke of Brabant.

Marriage

Marie married on 21 August 1274, to Philip III of France. This was Philip's second marriage, after the death of his first wife, Isabella of Aragon. Isabella had already given birth to three surviving sons: Louis, Philip and Charles.

Philip was under the strong influence of his mother, the dowager Queen of France, Margaret of Provence and his minion, surgeon and chamberlain (Chambellan) Pierre de La Broce (or Pierre de Brosse). Not being French, Marie stood out at the French court.

In 1276, Philip's son and heir, Louis died, under suspicious circumstances. Marie was suspected of ordering him to be poisoned. La Brosse, who was also suspected, was imprisoned and later executed for the murder. Margaret suspected Marie of ordering the death of Louis and Philip did seem to agree more with his mother than his wife^{[according to whom?]}.

Widow

After the death of Philip III in 1285, Marie lost some of her political influence, and dedicated her life to her three children. Her stepson, Philip was crowned king of France, as Philip IV, on 6 January 1286 in Reims.

Together with Joan I of Navarre and Blanche of Artois, she negotiated peace in 1294 between England and France with Edmund Crouchback, the younger brother of Edward I of England.^[1]

Marie lived right through Philip IV's reign and she had outlived all three children.

Issue

Marie and Philip had three children:

1. Louis (May 1276 – 19 May 1319), Count of Évreux, married Margaret of Artois.
2. Blanche (1278 – 19 March 1305, Vienna), married Rudolf III of Austria on 25 May 1300
3. Margaret, married Edward I of England

Death

Marie died in 1321, aged sixty one, in the monastery at Les Mureaux, near Meulan, where she had withdrawn to in 1316. Marie wasn't buried in royal necropolis of Basilica of Saint-Denis, but in the Cordeliers Convent, in Paris. Destroyed in a fire in 1580, the church was rebuilt in the following years.

Ancestors

Notes

Sources

• Marc Morris (2008). Edward I and the Forging of Britain. Windmill Books 2009. 
• Translation from German wikipedia

See also

• Marie of Brabant (disambiguation)