Margaret of Provence

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Monument to Margaret of Provence and her husband Louis IX. on Ludwigkirchplatz in Berlin-Wilmersdorf

Margaret of Provence (French Marguerite de Provence ) (* 1221 in Brignoles ; † December 20, 1295 in Paris ), also known as Margaret of Provence , was the wife of Louis IX. and thus Queen of France from 1234 to 1270. Through their efforts, the city of Damiette was defended during the Sixth Crusade and then used as an object of exchange for the life of the captured French king.

family

Margarete was the eldest daughter of Raimund Berengar V of Provence and Beatrix of Savoy , a daughter of Thomas I of Savoy , probably born at Brignoles Castle . At the age of 13, she was married to Louis IX, King of France, on May 27, 1234 in the Cathedral of Sens .

Her three younger sisters became queens by marriage, as did her. Eleonore married the English King Henry III. , Sancha Richard of Cornwall , who was elected German King in the double election of 1256/57 , and Beatrix her, Margaretes, brother-in-law of Charles I of Anjou , who would later become King of Sicily and Naples .

Contrary to their expectations, however, in his will of 1238 her father did not appoint her, but her youngest sister Beatrix, to be the sole heir of the county of Provence. Through Beatrix's marriage to Karl von Anjou, Provence was subsequently subjected to the French crown as a domain . A protracted dispute developed between Margarete and Karl over the county, to which the queen claimed despite her father's will.

progeny

From the marriage with Louis IX. came from eleven children:

Life

childhood

Raised at her father's Provencal court, she grew up with the Mediterranean way of life that is common there. The presence of troubadours , poets and poets shaped Margarete's childhood as well as a deep love for Provence promoted by Raimund Berengar V. Although she only saw them twice after her marriage, the French queen remained closely connected to her homeland throughout her life.

Her parents made sure that she and her younger sister Eleonore received a thorough, religious upbringing in the spirit of the Catholic Church. Through Margarete's later correspondence with Eleonore z. B. guarantees that she mastered the Latin language. The comprehensive education of the girls was based not least on the parents' plan to marry off their daughters in order to guarantee the political security and stability of their county through the family ties that this entails.

Marriage and the first years of marriage

At the instigation of the French regent Blanka of Castile , Margarete was born on May 27, 1234 with her son Louis IX. married. Since the two spouses were blood related in the fourth degree, Pope Gregory IX. to issue a dispensation in January 1234 . Just one day after the marriage in Sens Cathedral, Margaret was crowned queen in the same place.

The first years of marriage were marked by constant opposition to her mother-in-law Blanka, who - although Ludwig IX. was officially of age since his marriage - had a strong influence on her son and his son's politics. The chronicler of Louis IX, Jean de Joinville , reported in his notes under the title La vie de Saint Louis of the steadily growing jealousy of Blankas towards Margaret with regard to her relationship with Louis. He wrote that Queen Blanka couldn't stand it when her son was with his wife, except in the evening when he slept with her. (“La rein Blanche ne vouloit souffrir à son pouvoir que son fils fust en la compagnie de sa femme, sinon le soir quand il alloit coucher avec elle.”) To make matters worse, Margarete's mother-in-law together with the young couple in the Palais de la Cité lived in Paris and followed him on his travels. It was not until 1247 that Margarete was able to evade Blanka's influence: she was granted her own personal household and budget for expenses.

Sixth crusade

Saint Louis and his wife Margaret of Provence started their journey home in 1254 in the port of Acre. Depiction from the Livre des faits de Monseigneur Saint Louis , 15th century, Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France

When Louis IX. In 1248, when he kept his promise of crusade, made during a life-threatening illness, Margaret accompanied him on this crusade. After a stopover in Cyprus , the royal couple reached Egypt in June 1249 . After the conquest of Damiette, Louis IX transferred. his wife - pregnant at the time - took responsibility for the city in order to move on to Cairo in November.

When the crusader army suffered a crushing defeat at al-Mansura in early April 1250 and Louis IX. was captured, the Genoese and Pisan squadrons that secured the port of Damiette wanted to surrender and were already preparing their departure. In this situation, however, Margarete was extremely courageous and strong-willed. Shortly before the birth of her child, she made a knight who had been assigned to protect her swear that if the Saracens were to conquer the city, he would behead her before she fell into the hands of the infidels. Only one day after the birth of her son Johann Tristan, she had the commanding officers from Genoa and Pisa called to her childbed and convinced her to stay. Their plan was to offer Damiette as a barter item for the captured crusaders. Her plan was successful: In exchange for a ransom payment of 400,000 livres and the return of Damiette on May 6, 1250, Margarete saved her husband and his soldiers' lives.

After the crusade

Margarete spent another four years in the Holy Land before she returned to France with her husband in 1254. Since Blanka of Castile had died in 1252, she became - albeit not officially - an important advisor to the king. When Louis IX. wanted to lay down the crown and enter a monastery, she used all her influence on him and dissuaded him from his plan. The king apparently recognized his wife as an equal partner, because on the marriage contracts of his children she signs them on an equal footing with him.

The years as a widow

After Ludwig died in Tunis in 1270 during his second crusade , Margarete retired to the monastery in the Paris suburb of Saint-Marcel. Although she was often present as a guest at the royal court, she had no influence on the politics of her son Philip III, who had succeeded his father. She devoted herself primarily to private interests, primarily the regulation of her Wittum in Provence. A dispute broke out over this with her brother-in-law Karl von Anjou, who as the husband of her sister Beatrix - sole heir of the county - represented her interests. In 1282 Margarete even raised an army of devoted Provencal nobles to emphasize her demand. The conflict was inter alia through the mediation of her son Philip III. and her grandson Philip the Fair in February 1287, when Margarete was awarded an annual pension of 2,000 Turnosen and a one-off settlement.

After her grandson Philip the Fair rose to the throne in 1285, she completely withdrew from court life. The last years of her life she spent with her daughter Blanka, the widow of the Castilian Infante Ferdinand de la Cerda, in which she co-founded Klarissenkloster Couvent des Cordelières south of Paris on the banks of the Bièvre in the Faubourg Saint-Marcel , which in memory of the The founder of the order, Clare of Assisi, is also known as the Sainte-Claire convent. Margarete died on December 20, 1295 and was buried at the side of her husband in the royal tomb of the Basilica of Saint Denis .

Margaret had seen the initiation of the canonization procedure for her deceased husband in 1282, but his canonization by Pope Boniface VIII took place two years after her death.

Merits

Margaret of Provence learned early on to subordinate her personal interests to those of the common good. Contemporaries portrayed you as lively, cheerful and curious, but you were intelligent and stubborn enough to doggedly defend your rights and sometimes intrigued to assert your interests.

politics

Due to the rigid governance of her mother-in-law, which did not allow any participation in political affairs, and Margarete's youth as well as the years of absence from France during the Sixth Crusade, she did not have any opportunity to actively participate in politics in her first years as Queen. Only after Blanka's death of Castile did she occasionally intervene.

Her greatest political success was the defusing of the conflicts between the French and English royal families. Motivated by the close, loving relationship with her younger sister Eleonore, who lived with Heinrich III. was married from England, she was able to mediate between the two warring ruling houses and thus contributed to their rapprochement.

Art and literature

Margarete sponsored numerous artists and poets throughout her life. Under her leadership, the Palais de la Cité became a meeting place for the most famous poets and intellectuals of their time. Men like Thomas Aquinas were invited to the royal table and helped make the French court one of the leading culturally in Europe.

literature

  • Marguerite de Provence . In: Jean Chrétien Ferdinand Hoefer (ed.): Nouvelle biographie générale depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu'à nos jours . Volume 33. Firmin Didot Frères, Paris 1860, Sp. 559-563 ( online ).
  • Andreas Kiesewetter: The beginnings of the government of King Charles II of Anjou (1278–1295). The Kingdom of Naples, the County of Provence and the Mediterranean region at the end of the 13th century. Matthiesen Verlag, Husum 1999, ISBN 3-7868-1451-1 , p. 158.
  • Regine Pernoud: Women at the time of the Crusades. 1st edition. Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1995, ISBN 3-451-04375-0 , pp. 182-196.
  • Gérard Sivéry: Marguerite de Provence. Une pure au temps des cathédrales. Fayard, Paris 1987, ISBN 2-213-02017-5 .
  • Gerd Hit: The French queens. From Bertrada to Marie Antoinette (8th – 18th centuries). Pustet, Regensburg 1996, ISBN 3-7917-1530-5 , pp. 132-139.

Web links

Commons : Margaret of Provence  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
predecessor Office Successor
Blanka of Castile Queen of France
1234–1270 		Isabella of Aragon
personal data
SURNAME Margaret of Provence
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Margaret of Provence; Marguerite de Provence
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Queen of France (1234-1270)
DATE OF BIRTH 1221
PLACE OF BIRTH Brignoles
DATE OF DEATH December 20, 1295
Place of death Paris