Mathilde of Bourbon

Mathilde of Bourbon (French: Mahaut de Bourbon; c. 1165/69^[1] – 18 June 1228) was a French noblewoman. She was the ruling Lady of Bourbon from 1171 until her death.^[2]

Life

Matilda was the only child of Archambault of Bourbon and his wife Alix (or Adelaide) of Burgundy. She was born in the second half of the 1160s.

Her father, the heir apparent of Bourbon, died in 1169, without ever inherting the Lordship. Her grandfather, Archambault VII, died in 1171. Since Mathilde was his only surviving grandchild, she inherited Bourbon in her own right.

Before 1183,^[1] she married Gaucher IV of Vienne, Lord of Salins. After he returned from the Third Crusade, they frequently quarreled. In the end, he became violent and had her locked up.^{[3]:p. 117} She fled to her grandmother's estate in Champagne^{[3]:p. 217} During her escape, she allegedly also used violence,^{[3]:p. 117} and for this she was excommunicated by Archbishop Henri de Sully of Bourges.^[4] After she arrived in Champagne, she asked Pope Celestine III for a divorce from her husband, arguing that Gaucher IV and she were close relatives and that the marriage therefore had been inadmissible. The Pope tasked the bishops of Autun and Troyes and the abbot of Monthiers-en-Argonne with investigating her claim. These men found that Mathilde and her husband were third cousins, as they were both great-great-grandchildren of William II, Count of Burgundy, and that, therefore, her claim that they were too closely related was justified. The pope granted the divorce,^[5] and also lifted the excommunication.

In September 1196,^[6] only a few months after her divorce, she married Lord Guy II of Dampierre. Thus, the Bourbonnais fell to the House of Dampierre. This marriage lasted 20 years: he died in 1216.

Mathilde died twelve years after her husband. After her death, Margaret, her daughter from her first marriage claimed the Lordship of Bourbon. Guy II, had initially recognized Margaret as heir of Bourbon, however, he later claimed the Lordship for his oldest son, Archambault VIII. In the end, Archambault prevailed.

Marriages and issue

Her first husband was Gaucher IV of Vienne, Lord of Salins. Together, they had one daughter:

• Margaret of Vienne (c. 1190/95 – c. 1259), married:
  1. William III of Forcalquier
  2. Joceran, Lord of Brancion

Her second husband was Guy II of Dampierre. With him, she had seven children:^[7]

• Archambaud VIII (1189-1242), Lord of Bourbon
• William II (1196-1231), married Margaret II, Countess of Flanders and Hainaut (d. 1280), a daughter of Latin Emperor Baldwin I of Constantinople
• Philippe (d. 1223), married in 1205 to Guigues IV, Count of Forez (d. 1241)
• Guy III of Dampierre (d. 22 March 1275)
• Marie, married:
  1. around 1201 to Hervé of Vierzon
  2. in 1220 to Henry I of Sully
• Joan
• Margaret

References

• Theodore Evergates: The aristocracy in the county of Champagne, 1100–1300, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 2007, ISBN 978-0-8122-4019-1, pp. 117, 217, 343 (Partially online).

Footnotes