Queen: Margaret of France, c 1279-1318

Love wasn't expected to be a part of royal or noble marriages.  People of high rank married for dynastic or diplomatic purposes.  If the two partners treated each other well and grew to respect and trust one another, great.  If not, men, and sometimes women sought their consolation elsewhere.  That which we know today as romantic love was considered silly, if not some type of mental or physical illness.  That's not saying that some royal marriages didn't turn into genuine love matches.  Lightening stuck in the same place twice for Edward I of England.

Margaret, or Marguerite, c 1279-1318, was the daughter of Phillip III of France and his wife Maria of Brabant.  Her father died when she was 3, so Margaret was brought up by her mother and by Jeanne of Navarre, the wife of her older half-brother Phillip IV.  Meanwhile in England, Edward and his wife Eleanor of Castile had forged a bond of union that saw them through the deaths of several of their children, the Plague, a Crusade, and a few other ups and downs in between.  Then Eleanor died in 1290, when Edward was 49 years old.  Royal business stopped for several days as the King grieved his wife, and planned a unique tribute, 12 stone crosses tracing the route of her funeral procession to London.  Edward's heart didn't want to take another chance, but his mind knew he had only one son.  Eventually, he would have to marry again for the sake of the realm.

He set his sights on France in an effort to play off the larger kingdom on the Continent against the Scots in his backyard.  He betrothed his son, the future Edward II to Blanche, Margaret's sister.  However, Edward became aware that Blanche was considered a great beauty and decided to take Blanche as his own wife.  The French king agreed, also agreeing to give up Gascony to the English.  Edward sent his brother, Edmund Crouchback, Earl of Lancaster, to bring Blanche across the Channel for her wedding.  The only problem was that Blanche was already betrothed to Rudolph, the oldest son and heir of the King of Germany.  Phillip offered Margaret instead.  Edward called off any weddings and declared war on France.  Five years later, with the Pope's mediation, a truce was agreed.  It provided that Edward would marry Margaret and his son would marry Phillip's daughter Isabella.  The English would retain Guyenne, as well as Eleanor of Castile's dower lands in Ponthieu and Montreuil as the dower for Margaret and later Isabella.

Edward was 60 and Margaret was about 20 when they married in Canterbury Cathedral in 1299.  She was invested with the crown of England, or given the right to wear it as queen consort, but not formally crowned.  Edward soon had to hurry off to Scotland and, to his delight, Margaret chose to follow.  Their son, Thomas of Brotherton was born in 1300, with a brother Edmund, born in 1301, they would also have a daughter.  Like her husband, Margaret was fond of chess and minstrels.  She was a patroness of charities, including the Franciscan order.  She and her stepson, the future Edward II, got along well and whenever Edward Senior and Junior got into an altercation, Margaret could smooth things over.  Edward I wasn't a man to be trifled with and wasn't above ordering anyone who crossed him up to be put to death.  He was also a strict enforcer of English law.  Many reprieves from the period attest that the pardon was granted due to the intercession of Margaret.  Unfortunately for her, Edward died in 1207, leaving her a 26-year-old widow with three children all dependent on the now Edward II for their survival.

Margaret could have married again, but stated that, "after Edward, all men are dead to me."  She became more pious and more involved with the Franciscan Order in England.  Friction developed between her and Edward II when he gave his favorite, Piers Gaveston, the Earldom of Cornwall, which Edward I had intended for their son Thomas.  Gaveston also helped himself to some of Margaret's dower properties in England.  But Margaret had remained in touch with her brother Phillip IV and her niece Isabella, Edward's wife.  Margaret threw her support and a generous monetary donation behind the barons' efforts to unseat Gaveston, which eventually led to his exile and enabled her to reclaim her property.  She was present at the birth of the future Edward III in 1312.

Margaret died at Marlborough and was buried in the habit of the Franciscan Order at Christ Church Greyfriars, in London.  Her tomb was destroyed in the Reformation.

In-Laws: Margaret of France, 1157-c. 1197

Margaret's story belongs in the "you can't make this stuff up" file.  Not even a reality show producer could conjure the twists and turns of this woman's life.

Margaret was born in 1157.  Her father was Louis VII of France and her mother was Constance of Castile.  Sounds simple enough until the extended family factors into the equation.  Constance was Louis' second wife, the mother of Phillip II Augustus, Alys and Margaret.  But Louis had been married before, to Eleanor of Aquitaine, who was now married to Henry II of England.  This gave young Margaret some interesting connections around the various courts of Europe.  Her half-sisters were Eleanor's two older daughter's Marie of Champagne and Alix, Countess of Blois.  Margaret's own sister Alys was betrothed to Richard the Lionhearted and may have been the underage (even for that time) and unwilling sexual victim of her own prospective father-in-law Henry II.  Henry and his sons had no use for Margaret's brother, Phillip II, who was their rival in power, land and everything else, and Phillip felt likewise about them.

But politics is business and the Capets and Plantagenets had to find a way to co-exist.  While Alys' betrothal to Richard dragged on, Henry proposed a sop to Phillip's injured family pride by offering the hand of his son Henry, called the Young King, and Margaret.  Henry's status had been elevated to a junior king under his father, both to designate the ultimate successor to the throne of England and to make him an attractive enough suitor for Margaret.  Thus, Margaret stepped into the hornet's nest that was the Plantagenet family on any given day.  What her mother-in-law thought of her.  Whether she was able to connect with her sister Alys is anyone's guess.  The mixed blessing might have been that these families lived in separate residences, often in separate countries most of the time.  Putting up with one another only happened infrequently, usually during holidays or treaty parleys.

Henry the Young King and Margaret were crowned together at Winchester in 1172, against the backdrop of the Becket controversy.  Margaret was lucky enough to have her first and only child, William in Paris, in 1177, likely surrounded by her own family.  Tiny William only lived a few days and Margaret herself almost died in childbirth.  That most likely factored into why she was never able to have a child again.  From that point, Margaret and Henry's marriage deteriorated and there was talk of having the marriage annulled for her inability to conceive when Henry the Young King died during the campaign against his own brother, Richard, in 1183. 

Princesses of the era weren't allowed to remain widows for long and Phillip had Margaret back on the marriage market.  She became the wife of Bela III of Hungary in 1186.  She wasn't able to bear children by him, either.  He died ten years later in 1196, leaving Margaret a widow yet again.  She decided to take a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, a common thing at the time for those who could afford it.  She arrived in Acre and died eight days later, in 1197.  She was buried at the cathedral of Tyre, there being no way at the time to ship the body back home and because being buried in the Holy Land was considered an honor.