Margaret of the Palatinate

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Margarete von der Pfalz, Duchess of Lorraine (engraving, around 1600)

Margaret of the Palatinate (* 1376 ; † August 26, 1434 in Einville-au-Jard (today in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department , northeastern France)) was Duchess of Lorraine from 1393 to 1431 . She led a very pious and charitable life in the succession of Elisabeth of Thuringia , but was not beatified by the Catholic Church, although she was often requested.

Origin and youth

Margarete von der Pfalz was the eldest daughter and the second of nine children of the Elector Palatinate, who came from the Wittelsbach dynasty and later the Roman-German King Ruprecht, and his wife, Countess Elisabeth of Nuremberg .

Little is known about Margarete's youth. In any case , she was brought up appropriately in Heidelberg .

Duchess of Lorraine

On February 6, 1393, 16-year-old Margarete married the twelve-year-old Duke Charles II the Bold of Lorraine in Kaiserslautern . Since the couple were closely related, the Pope, at the request of Margaret's father, granted the dispensation for their marriage.

In addition to their two sons, Ludwig and Rudolf, who died young, the Lorraine couple had two daughters of marriageable age:

On August 20, 1400, the German electors voted out King Wenceslaus and enthroned Margarete's father as King Ruprecht I in his place. When the latter moved to Italy in 1401/02, where he - albeit in vain - sought his coronation as emperor in Rome , Charles II of Lorraine, in this case, as in general in his struggle for the royal throne. Conversely, Ruprecht I helped his son-in-law against the French crown and the Orléans dynasty . When Charles II was absent from his duchy - for example during war operations - Margaret initially took over rule as his deputy. In later times she was less politically prominent.

Relatively early on, Margarete practiced a very religious, ascetic lifestyle with penance exercises. She was encouraged in this by the Carthusian Adolf von Essen , whom she had met after 1403 during one of her numerous visits to the Lorraine community of Sierck and who became her confessor. Her husband, however, by no means shared her pious inclinations and had various extramarital affairs. When Jolanthe von Aragón , the mother of René d'Anjous, wanted to break the Lorraine Duke of his alliance with Duke Johann Ohnefurcht and bring him closer to her house and the Dauphin Charles (VII) , she took advantage of his sensual passion. Margarete, who was related to Johann Ohnefurcht, wanted her husband to hold on to his Burgundian alliance. In 1415, Jolanthe arranged the acquaintance of Charles II with a young woman of simple origin who was well versed in the arts of eroticism, Alison du May, who was soon able to take him completely for herself. He lived openly with his mistress and had five children with her, while Margarete appealed in vain to his conjugal duty of loyalty. Alison du May contributed to the fact that Charles II married his heir Isabella to René d'Anjou in 1420, thus realizing the alliance of the Anjou and Lorraine houses desired by Jolanthe.

Meanwhile, Margarete had the Cistercian convent Marienfloss , located near Sierck, converted into a Carthusian monastery in 1415. This was headed by their spiritual leader Adolf von Essen as abbot. He translated the rosary prayers of his pupil Dominic of Prussia for the Duchess and wrote several edifying works for her, including De commendatione Rosarii . In 1435, after the Duchess's death, he reported on her virtuous work in the work Vita sanctae memoriae D. Margaretae Ducissae Lotharingiae.

From 1419 the Lorraine Duchess lived almost exclusively in Sierck and founded a hospital there. She personally looked after the sick, bandaged their wounds and gave them spiritual assistance. She washed the feet of poor people. She was also behind the plan of the clarissess Colette von Corbie , canonized in 1807, to build a monastery in Nancy .

Widowhood and death

When Charles II of Lorraine died on January 25, 1431, Margarete withdrew to Einville-au-Jard. Her son-in-law René d'Anjou took over the rule of the duchy. But a nephew of the late Duke, Anton von Vaudemont , laid claim to the Lorraine throne and, with Burgundian help, fought René d'Anjou, who was captured in July 1431. Margarete also participated in the negotiations for its release.

In Einville-au-Jard Margarete continued to lead a deeply religious way of life with charitable works and founded a second hospital. A good three years after the death of her husband, she died in 1434 at the age of 58 as a princess who was in the reputation of holiness and greatly appreciated by her subjects. Her body was brought to Nancy and buried next to her husband in the church of Saint Georges, but in 1743 it was transferred to the ducal chapel attached to the church of St-François-des-Cordeliers .

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ Jean Markale: Isabeau de Bavière , Paris 1982, German Munich 1994, p. 264ff.
personal data
SURNAME Margaret of the Palatinate
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Duchess of Lorraine
DATE OF BIRTH 1376
DATE OF DEATH August 26, 1434
Place of death Einville-au-Jard