Marie de Coucy

This article deals with the French noblewoman Marie de Coucy , for the Scottish Queen of the same name see Marie de Coucy (Queen)

Marie de Coucy (April 1366 in Coucy , † 1405 ) was a French noblewoman in the 14th century. She was a daughter of Sire Enguerrand VII. De Coucy and Princess Isabelle , daughter of King Edward III. of England .

Marie was born in France at the ancestral home of her family, but grew up mainly at the English royal court in London , where her mother always withdrew as soon as the father went on long campaigns in Europe. At the age of ten she was accepted into the household of Queen Joan of France . As the eldest of three daughters, Marie was the sole heir to the undivided property of the Sire de Coucy, which included the county of Soissons as well as the great barony of Coucy with its mighty castle and almost 150 parishes. In 1383 she was with Heinrich von Bar , the eldest son and heir of the Duke von Bar and cousin of King Charles VI. from France , married. On this occasion, her father endowed her with the lords of Oisy and Marle as a dowry. Around 1390 their only child and heir, Robert von Bar , was born.

In 1396, Marie's husband and father took part in Count Johann von Nevers' crusade against the Ottomans in the Balkans. In doing so, however, they were captured by the sultan in the battle of Nicopolis , in which their father died a year later. Her husband also died of the plague shortly afterwards, already released from captivity . With her underage son, she found herself in a precarious position, as her inheritance aroused the desire of others. Especially her stepmother, Isabelle von Lorraine, claimed half of the inheritance as a Wittum , which Marie denied her. In the following years, both women therefore led several trials against each other in front of the royal parliament in Paris without a permanent compromise being found. Queen Isabeau's attempt to marry Marie to her father, Duke Stephan of Bavaria , provoked resistance from the French nobility, who did not want the strategically important Barony of Coucy in the hands of a foreign prince.

The king's brother, Duke Ludwig von Orléans , therefore successfully urged Marie to sell Coucy in 1400, presumably also with extortionate means and for his own enrichment. A purchase price of 400,000 livre and a lifelong usufruct to Coucy by Marie were agreed. The Duke was able to persuade Marie to refund half the price, but still only paid 60,000 livre. For the remaining payments, Marie took legal action against the Duke of Orléans until she suddenly died around 1405, not without “suspicion of poisoning”.

Marie's son continued the lawsuit unsuccessfully. Ultimately, Coucy remained in the possession of the Duke of Orléans and passed into royal possession in 1498, when his grandson was named Louis XII. ascended the royal throne.

literature

• Barbara Tuchman : A Distant Mirror. The Calamitous 14th Century. Knopf, New York NY 1978, ISBN 0-394-40026-7 (German: Der ferne Spiegel. The dramatic 14th century. Claasen, Düsseldorf 1980, ISBN 3-546-49187-4 ).