| Marie | |
|---|---|
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| Reign | - 1438 |
| House | House of Valois |
| Father | Charles VI of France |
| Mother | Isabeau of Bavaria |
| Born | July or August 1393 Bois de Vincennes, Paris |
| Died | 19 August 1438 Palais Royal, Paris |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
Marie of Valois (July or August 1393-19 August 1438) was a French Princess, the daughter of Charles VI of France and his wife Isabeau of Bavaria. She was a member of the House of Valois and became a nun.
Marie was born at the Bois de Vincennes and was the sixth of twelve children, eight of them including Marie lived to adulthood. Marie was a sister of Charles VII of France, Isabella, Queen of England, Michelle, Duchess of Burgundy, Catherine, Queen of England and Joanna, Duchess of Brittany.
Marie's maternal grandparents were Stephen III, Duke of Bavaria and his first wife Taddea Visconti. Marie's paternal grandparents were Charles V of France and his wife Joanna of Bourbon.
Marie's father was known to suffer from a mental illness, which he had inherited from his own mother Queen Joanna who had herself inherited from her grandfather Louis I, Duke of Bourbon. Isabeau had destined her daughter for the church, possibly because she saw her husband's madness as a punishment from God.[1]
Marie entered the convent of Poissy on the 8 September 1397, taking her vows as a nun on the 26 May 1408. She was the only one of the children that had a religious life, the rest of her surviving siblings were married off.
At the time Marie entered the convent the prioress was her great-aunt, Marie of Bourbon, who was the sister of the younger Marie's paternal grandmother, Joanna of Bourbon. Entering the convent with young Marie as a companion was another Marie, the daughter of Christine de Pizan. Christine described a visit to Poissy in 1400 in her work "Le Livre du Dit de Poissy,"[2] where she was greeted "joyously and tenderly" by the seven year old Princess Marie and the Prioress. Christine also described Marie's lodgings as befitting a royal princess.[3]
Marie later became Prioress of the convent. She lived out the rest of her life here. She died of the Black Death on 19 August 1438 at the Palais Royal, Paris and is buried at the convent.[4] After her death, her brother King Charles was the only surviving sibling.