Maria of Brabant (France)

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Maria von Brabant (French Marie de Brabant ; * May 13, 1254 in Leuven , Brabant ; † January 10, 1321 in Murel near Meulan ) was the second wife of Philip III. Queen of France from 1275 to 1285. She was the daughter of Henry III. , Duke of Brabant , and his wife Adelheid of Burgundy (around 1233–1273).

Lineage, Early Life, and Marriage

Coronation of Mary of Brabant on a miniature in the manuscript Grandes Chroniques de France , around 1458

Mary's father Heinrich III. von Brabant was a friend of Thibaut de Champagne , promoted poets, emerged as a trouvère himself and left behind a few poems. He died on February 28, 1261, when Maria was still a little girl. Her mother passed away in October 1273. Maria received a befitting, aesthetic education, also developed a penchant for poetry and enjoyed reading Fabliaux and chivalric novels. Her compatriot, the well-known Ménestrel Adenet le Roi , later accompanied her to France and was to remain close to her at all times.

After Mary's brother John I of Brabant asked a French embassy to allow his sister to marry King Philip III. the Bold (1245-1285) had agreed, the educated young Mary, whose beauty was praised, was married on August 21, 1274 in Vincennes Castle with the nine years older, widowed for three years French monarch. On St. John's Day (June 24th) 1275, her coronation, celebrated by the Archbishop of Reims , took place in the presence of numerous French nobles and prelates as well as some German princes in Paris in the Sainte-Chapelle . The Grandes Chroniques de Saint-Denis give a detailed account of the celebrations and amusements held in Paris on the occasion of this event.

progeny

Philip III von France already had three surviving sons from his first wife, Isabella von Aragón . The following children resulted from his marriage to Maria von Brabant:

Queen of France

Maria of Brabant remained surrounded for a long time by the advisers of the Duchy of Brabant, especially since Philip was under the strong influence of his mother Margaret of Provence and his favorite, surgeon and chamberlain ( chambellan ) Pierre de la Brosse (also La Broce or La Broue) and for this reason Maria initially had a difficult time at the French court.

After the suspicious death of the young Crown Prince Ludwig shortly before May 1276, La Brosse Maria accused in August 1276 of having poisoned her stepson in order to help her own sons to succeed to the throne. With this step the favorite sought to eliminate the influence of the opposed queen and her Brabant party. Maria's cousin, Frau Perwez, and Maria's confessor were also implicated in the indictment. At first the king did not want to believe these accusations. According to some reports, however, he is said to have had his wife locked up in the tower of Vincennes Castle . Then the Duke of Brabant, Maria's brother Johann, secretly entered his sister's prison disguised as a monk, calmed her down and then challenged La Brosse to a duel before the king. Philip III had appeased Duke Johann by releasing his wife and ordering an investigation into the case.

Since the poison administered at that time was hardly detectable medically, according to various accounts, the king had two Belgian beguines , Alix la Lépreuse and Isabelle de Spalbeek, who belonged to the beguine community of Nivelles , questioned about the accusations against Maria von Brabant . La Brosse managed to get his cousin Pierre de Benais , Bishop of Bayeux, to consult the Beguines. Benais went to the Beguines, accompanied by the Bishop of Liège, but could not receive any statements from them that were disadvantageous for the Queen. When Philip III. then turned directly to the Bishop of Liège and this questioned Isabelle de Spalbeek without Benais being present, the Beguines ended her statement by stating that the king should not believe those people who speak ill of his wife.

In any case, the suspicion against Maria was dispelled. After intercepting incriminating letters, allegedly from La Brosse, but possibly forged, the previous royal favorite was arrested in Vincennes in January 1278 and imprisoned in Janville . Probably wrongly convicted, La Brosse was finally hanged on June 30, 1278 on the gallows at Montfaucon in Paris. It is not clear whether personalities from the circle around the queen were involved in the alleged poisoning of the heir to the throne and forced the condemnation of La Brosse.

Meanwhile, Pierre de Benais was to Rome to Pope Nicholas III. fled. At the urging of noble former opponents of La Brosse such as the Dukes of Brabant and Burgundy, the Queen wrote a letter to the Holy Father in which she harshly demanded that the fugitive prelate be punished. In his answer, which took place after only five months, Nicholas III praised. Mary's innocence and virtue, but did not respond to the allegations made against the Bishop of Bayeux. Also a letter from Philip III. himself as well as the posting of Arnould III. de Wezemaal , who on behalf of the French king demanded the removal or punishment of the bishop, could not induce the Catholic pontifex Maximus to take decisive action against Pierre de Benais. Philip III spoke about the latter. however, at least a ban decree.

After the elimination of the former royal favorite La Brosse, Maria was able to increasingly get her husband, who had previously also listened to his mother Margaret of Provence, to her side. Her influence on the king continued to grow. In particular, she supported Margarete's old adversary, Philip's uncle Karl von Anjou . The Queen Mother retired to the monastery.

Mary's court was based on the values ​​of courtly-knightly culture; European nobles met in splendid tournaments and especially admired the victorious and bold Charles of Anjou. The queen, who was assigned the castellans Pacy, Mantes, Anet , Nogent-le-Roi and Bréval by her husband as Wittum , continued to promote writers. At her court, Adenet le Roi wrote his poem Cléomadès , which he dedicated to the Queen and her sister-in-law Blanche of France . She was also active as a church patron, for example through the Chapel Foundation for Notre-Dame de Mantes and donations for Carthusians . In memory of Isabelle de Spalbeek, she founded an institute for the Beguines in Nivelles in 1283 and provided it with a considerable income.

After the kingdoms of Aragón and Castile had challenged Charles of Anjou about his claim to Sicily (see Sicilian Vespers ), Maria encouraged her husband to undertake the sterile expedition against Aragón, during which the king retreated on October 5, 1285 in Perpignan of malaria died. The throne ascended as Philip IV, his eldest surviving son from his first marriage to Isabella of Aragón.

Widow life and death

Widowed at the age of 31, Maria von Brabant, deeply grieved by the death of her husband, lost much political influence. Philip IV, however, allowed her to continue to reside at the royal court with her offspring. From then on she devoted herself to the upbringing of her children and knew how to ensure that her daughters would marry into important European dynasties: Margarete married into the Plantagenet family , Blanka into the Habsburg family .

Together with the French Queen Joan I of Navarra and her mother Blanche d'Artois , Maria von Brabant negotiated peace between France and England in 1294 with Edmund Crouchback , the younger brother of King Edward I and husband of the Blanche d'Artois.

Maria survived Philip III. by 36 years and witnessed the accession to the throne of Ludwig X (1314) and Philip V (1316). After 1316 she retired to the Murel monastery near Meulan. In Noyon she had the hospital rebuilt and provided with funds. She died in January 1321 or January 1322 at the age of 66 or 67 in Murel Monastery. The honor of a burial in the burial place of the French royal family in the basilica of Saint-Denis was not granted to her. She was buried in Paris in the Couvent des Cordeliers , the monastery of the Friars Minor of St. Francis of Assisi, in the monastery church. Her grave was destroyed by the church fire in 1580.

literature

  • Émile de Borchgrave: Marie de Brabant . In: Biographie nationale de Belgique , Vol. 13 (1894-95), Col. 704-710.
  • Christian Bouyer: Dictionnaire des Reines de France . Librairie Académique Perrin, Paris 1992, ISBN 2-262-00789-6 .
  • Franck Collard: Grandeur et chute d'un conseiller du roi. L'affaire Pierre de la Brosse . In: L'Histoire . No. 197, March 1996, ISSN  0182-2411 , pp. 50-55.
  • E. Lalou: Maria 4) . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 6, Artemis & Winkler, Munich / Zurich 1993, ISBN 3-7608-8906-9 , Sp. 276.
  • Gerd Hit: The French queens . Verlag Friedrich Pustet, Regensburg 1996, ISBN 3-7917-1530-5 , pp. 142ff.

Web links

Commons : Maria von Brabant  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ Marias date of birth according to Émile de Borchgrave, Biographie nationale de Belgique , Vol. 13, Col. 704; On the other hand, Gerd Treffen ( The French Queens , p. 142) gives her date of birth as “around 1260”.
  2. ^ E. Lalou ( Lexikon des Mittelalters , vol. 6, col. 276) gives January 12, 1322 as the date of death of Mary of Brabant.
  3. ↑ Émile de Borchgrave, Biographie nationale de Belgique , Vol. 13, Col. 705 ff.
  4. ↑ Émile de Borchgrave, Biographie nationale de Belgique , Vol. 13, Col. 708 f.
predecessor Office Successor
Isabella of Aragon Queen of France
1275–1285 		Joan of Navarre
personal data
SURNAME Maria of Brabant
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Queen of France
DATE OF BIRTH May 13, 1254
PLACE OF BIRTH Leuven , Brabant
DATE OF DEATH January 10, 1321
Place of death Meulan , France