Margaret III, Countess of Flanders

Margaret III, Countess of Flanders

Margaret of Dampierre, Countess of Flanders
Spouse(s) Philip I, Duke of Burgundy
Philip the Bold
Noble family House of Dampierre
Father Louis II of Flanders
Mother Margaret of Brabant, Countess of Flanders
Born (1350-04-13)13 April 1350
Died 16 March 1405(1405-03-16) (aged 54)
Arras

Margaret of Dampierre (13 April 1350 – 16/21 March 1405) was the last Countess of Flanders (as Margaret III) of the House of Dampierre, Countess of Artois and Countess Palatine of Burgundy (as Margaret II) and twice Duchess consort of Burgundy. She was the only surviving child and heir of Louis de Mâle, Count of Flanders, Count of Nevers, and Count of Rethel (1346–1384); and his wife Margaret of Brabant, Countess of Flanders.[1]

Biography

In 1355,[2] the young Margaret married Philip of Rouvres,[3] grandson and heir of Odo IV, Duke of Burgundy. He was count of Burgundy and Artois (1347–1361), Duke of Burgundy (1350–1361), and became Count of Auvergne and Boulogne (1360–1361).

Following Philip's death from a riding accident in 1361,[4] Margaret was widowed. King John II of France claimed the duchy for the kingdom of France.[4] In 1364 Philip the Bold, John's youngest son, was granted the duchy,[5] and subsequently married Margaret.[6] Margaret's second marriage to Philip the Bold took place in 1369.[7]

When Margaret's father died in 1384, she and Philip inherited the counties of Artois, Burgundy, Flanders, Nevers, and Rethel.[8] Philip died in 1404, and Margaret died the next year. With her death, the House of Dampierre became extinct and the County of Flanders lost its independence. It came under the rule of the House of Burgundy and later of the House of Habsburg.

Family

Margaret and Philip had the following children:

Legacy

The main line of the House of Dampierre ended with Margaret III. The Dampierres, originally only counts of Flanders, had through a clever marriage policy managed to inherit the counties of Nevers (1280) and Rethel (1328). Through her grandmother, a daughter of King Philip V of France, the counties of Artois and Burgundy (the "Franche Comté") were added to this (1382). These lands were to provide the core of the dominions of the House of Valois-Burgundy, which were, together with the Duchy of Burgundy, to provide them with a power base to challenge the rule of their cousins, the Valois kings of France in the 15th century.

Her eldest son, John the Fearless, succeeded her husband in 1404 as Duke of Burgundy and her as Count of Burgundy, Count of Artois, and Count of Flanders. In 1406 her younger son Anthony inherited Brabant and Limburg. Nevers and Rethel were at first, in her lifetime, given to her eldest sons John (Nevers) and Anthony (Rethel), but after John's accession to the duchy, Nevers went to her youngest son Philip. Rethel was given to Philip in 1402 when it became clear that Anthony would inherit Brabant.

Her residences

The château de Germolles château de Germolles

In Burgundy, the château de Germolles offered by Philip the Bold to Margaret of Flanders in 1381 was embellished by the princess. Largely preserved, it is today one of the best example of the princely residences in France at the end of the Middle Ages.

Ancestry

References

  1. ↑ Sergio Boffa, Warfare in Medieval Brabant, 1356-1406, (Boydell & Brewer, 2004), xvii.
  2. ↑ Wim Blockmans and Walter Prevenier, The Promised Lands: The Low Countries Under Burgundian Rule, 1369-1530, transl. Elizabeth Fackelman, ed. Edward Peters, (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999), 13.
  3. ↑ David M Nicholas, Medieval Flanders, (Routledge, 1992), 225-226, 442.
  4. 1 2 W. Mark Ormrod, Edward III, (Yale University Press, 2011), 417
  5. ↑ Richard Vaughan, Philip the Bold: The Formation of the Burgundian State, Vol. 1, (The Boydell Press, 2005), 152
  6. ↑ Mapping Family Lines: A Late Fifteenth Century Example of Genealogical Display, Charlotte Bauer-Smith, Reputation and Representation in Fifteenth Century Europe, ed. Douglas L. Biggs, Sharon D. Michalove, Albert Compton Reeves, (Brill, 2004), 130.
  7. ↑ Wim Blockmans, Walter Prevenier, The Promised Lands: The Low Countries Under Burgundian Rule, 1369-1530, ed. Edward Peters, transl. Elizabeth Fackelman, (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1988), 1.
  8. ↑ Duchy of Burgundy, Cathal J. Nolan, The Age of Wars of Religion, 1000-1650: An Encyclopedia of Global Warfare and Civilization, Vol. 1, (Greenwood Publishing, 2006), 100.


Margaret III, Countess of Flanders
Born: 13 April 1350 Died: 21 March 1405
Regnal titles
Preceded by
Louis of Mâle		 Countess of Artois and Flanders
Countess Palatine of Burgundy
1384 – 1405 		Succeeded by
John the Fearless
Countess of Nevers
1384-1405
Countess of Rethel
1384 – 1402 		Succeeded by
Anthony
French nobility
Preceded by
Joan III of Burgundy		 Duchess consort of Burgundy
1357–1404 		Succeeded by
Margaret of Bavaria
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