Marie de Saint-Pol

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The praying Marie de Saint-Pol. Representation from the 14th century

Marie de Saint-Pol , Countess of Pembroke (also Marie de Châtillon ; * around 1304; † March 16 or 17, 1377 ) was an Anglo-French noblewoman.

Origin and marriage to the Earl of Pembroke

Marie was the fourth daughter of the French Count Guido III. of St. Pol and his wife Marie de Bretagne, daughter of Duke John II of Bretagne . She had five sisters and two brothers, her father died 1317. Through its youth is not known until it through the mediation of the kings Philip V of France and Edward II. With the English tycoon Aymer de Valence, 2nd Earl of Pembroke was married . The widowed Pembroke, over 45 years old, had not yet had any legitimate offspring, so after the death of his first wife in 1320 he was looking for a new wife in order to get an heir. The marriage of Marie and Pembroke took place on July 5, 1321 in Paris. On July 28, 1321, the couple reached London. There, Marie quickly made friends with Queen Isabelle , who also came from France and was related to her. Although Marie's husband was one of the most loyal supporters of the English king, he too got caught up in the power struggle between the king, his favorites and an opposition from the nobility. He died suddenly on June 23, 1324, when he was on his way to Paris as ambassador of the English king. The marriage had remained childless. Marie mourned the death of her husband and had a splendid funeral monument erected for him in Westminster Abbey , and she donated a window in the Franciscan Church in London .

Quarrel about her Wittum

Although her husband was a wealthy and powerful magnate, he died in debt. Since he had left no heirs, his possessions fell to his nephews and nieces, but were initially confiscated by the king. As his widow, Marie had a lifelong claim to a third of his property, but she was now harassed by the king and especially by his powerful favorite, Hugh le Despenser and his father of the same name, the 1st Earl of Winchester . These had been Pembroke's opponents, mainly because he had voted for their exile after the Despenser War in 1321. To do this, the younger despenser tried to take parts of Pembroke's holdings in south Wales, where he had already built up a considerable territory. Under the influence of his favorite, the king refused to pay Pembroke's debts from the proceeds of his confiscated property, leaving Marie and her husband's executors responsible for paying the debts. In addition, the registration of the possessions that Pembroke had owned at his death was delayed. Marie had to give up several lucrative guardianship administrations her husband had accepted, as well as her rights to Stamford and Grantham . It was not until the winter of 1324 and 1325 that she was awarded a number of estates as a Wittum , from which she received an annual income of about £ 700. After King Edward II and the Despensers were overthrown in late 1326 , Marie traded a number of lands with the Crown and with her uncle John of Brittany, Earl of Richmond . In addition, she had inherited other lands in France both from her father and from Pembroke.

The main entrance to the Pembroke College founded by Marie de Saint-Pol, which essentially dates back to the time it was founded

Widow life

Marie did not remarry and lived mostly in England, including on her estates near Cheshunt in Hertfordshire , in Fotheringhay in Northamptonshire and in London. She had both to the English King Edward III. as well as the French King Philip VI. family relationships. In 1331 she traveled to France on behalf of the English king, and from 1337 to 1338 she looked after his little daughter Joan of Woodstock . It is documented that she lived in France from 1325, from 1331 to 1334, 1341 and from 1352 to 1357. Although she was always considered French in England, she was neither arrested nor expropriated during the change of the throne in 1326 or at the beginning of the Hundred Years War in 1337. It was not until 1372 that the French King Charles V had their properties in France confiscated.

Activity as a founder

Marie was known for her piety. In a breviary made for her in the workshop of Jean Pucelle in Paris between 1330 and 1340 , she is shown kneeling in front of Saint Cecilia . Like her close friend Elizabeth de Clare , as a widow she made numerous foundations for the benefit of monasteries and religious orders, including the Franciscan monasteries of Bruisyard in Suffolk and London. In 1336 she bequeathed the Denny estate to the Franciscan Sisters of Waterbeach , Cambridgeshire . At the latest three years later she decided to move the monastery to Denny, but it was not until 1351 that she was able to implement her project. Christmas 1347 she received the king's approval to found a college in Cambridge, initially called the Hall of Valence Mary , which eventually became Pembroke Hall and later Pembroke College . She remained associated with the college until her death, handling detailed questions of college rules herself. She also mapped out the exact schedules of anniversaries for herself, for her late husband, and for her parents in college.

The remains of Denny Abbey in Cambridgeshire founded by Marie de Saint-Pol

Death and inheritance

Marie made her will on February 20, 1377, which she completed on March 13, at least four days before her death, on her estate in Great Braxted , Essex . According to her last will, she was buried in religious vestments in the choir of Denny's priory church. After her death, her possessions fell to the descendants of her husband's heirs, these were John Hastings, 3rd Earl of Pembroke , Gilbert Talbot and the two daughters of David (IV) Strathbogie , both of whom had married into the Percy family .

In Westminster Abbey since 1992, a memorial plaque on it that has donated a graduate of Pembroke College.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alison Weir: Isabella. She-Wolf of France, Queen of England . Pimlico, London 2006, ISBN 0-7126-4194-7 , p. 131.
  2. ^ University of Cambridge: Breviary of Marie de Saint Pol (MS Dd.5.5). Retrieved March 26, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Westminster Abbey: William and Aymer de Valence. Retrieved February 17, 2016 .
personal data
SURNAME Saint-Pol, Marie de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Châtillon, Marie de; Pembroke, Mary de St Pol, Countess of
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Anglo-French nobles
DATE OF BIRTH around 1304
DATE OF DEATH March 16, 1377 or March 17, 1377