Margaret of England, Duchess of Brabant

For other people named Margaret Plantagenet, see Margaret Plantagenet (disambiguation).

Margaret of England
John II, Duke of Brabant and Margaret of England, Grand Place, Brussels
Duchess of Brabant, Lothier and Limburg
Tenure	3 May 1294 – 27 October 1312
Spouse	John II, Duke of Brabant m. 1290; dec. 1312
Issue
John III, Duke of Brabant
Father	Edward I Longshanks
Mother	Eleanor of Castile
Born	15 March 1275(1275-03-15) Windsor Castle, Berkshire
Died	aft. 1333 (aged c. 58) Belgium
Burial	Cathedral of Saint Michael and Saint Gudula, Brussels

Margaret of England (15 March 1275 – after 1333) was the tenth child and seventh daughter of King Edward I of England and Eleanor of Castile. Her husband was John II, Duke of Brabant, whom she married in 1290; the year of her mother's death. Margaret and John had one child, John III, Duke of Brabant.

Family

Margaret was born on 15 March 1275,^[1] at Windsor Castle, the tenth child of King Edward I of England and his first queen consort, Eleanor of Castile. Margaret's maternal grandparents were Ferdinand III of Castile and his second wife Jeanne, Countess of Ponthieu, and her paternal grandparents were Henry III of England and his wife Eleanor of Provence. Henry III was son of John of England and his second wife Isabella of Angoulême.^[2] John was son of Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine.

Margaret's fifteen siblings included: Henry of England, Joan of Acre, Eleanor, Countess of Bar, Elizabeth of Rhuddlan and her father's suceesor, Edward II of England.

When Margaret's mother died in 1290, her father remarried to Margaret of France. She was daughter of Philip III of France and Maria of Brabant. They were parents to three children: Thomas of Brotherton, 1st Earl of Norfolk, Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent and Eleanor of England.

Marriage

On 8 July 1290 Margaret married John II, Duke of Brabant in Westminster Abbey, London; becoming Duchess of Brabant less than four years later on 3 May 1294 . She had been acquainted with her groom since childhood,^[3] as they had been betrothed in 1278 when she was three years old. Margaret's wedding festivities were splendidly extravagant; they included a procession of knights in full body armour and richly-dressed ladies singing as they paraded through the streets of London to the music provided by harpers, minstrels and violinists, while fools danced.^[4] Their only child was John III, Duke of Brabant, successor to his father.

Margaret, described having been a good-natured, merry child in her youth,^[4] was unhappy at the Brabant court, as she was forced to accept her husband's perennial succession of mistresses and the illegitimate children they bore him;^[4] all of whom were raised at court alongside her own son, John. The latter was her only child, born 10 years after her marriage to the Duke.

During the reign of John II, Brabant continued supporting a coalition to stop French expansion. He tried to conquer South Holland (district of medieval Holland) from the pro-French count John II of Holland, but was not successful. John, who suffered from kidney stones and wanted his duchy to be peacefully handed over to his son upon his death, in 1312 signed the famous Charter of Kortenberg.

Margaret and John attended the wedding of her brother King Edward II to Isabella of France in Boulogne on 25 January 1308. They accompanied the royal pair to England for their joint coronation at Westminster Abbey the following month.

After his death John II was buried in the St. Michael and Gudula Cathedral in Brussels. Margaret died twenty-two years after her husband. She died in Belgium and is buried at Cathedral of Saint Michael and Saint Gudula, Brussels.^[5] Both tombs have since been destroyed.

Ancestors

Ancestors of Margaret of England

16. Henry II of England

8. John of England

17. Eleanor of Aquitaine

4. Henry III of England

18. Aymer Taillifer, Count of Angoulême

9. Isabella of Angoulême

19. Alice of Courtenay

2. Edward I of England

20. Alfonso II, Count of Provence

10. Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Provence

21. Garsenda II of Sabran

5. Eleanor of Provence

22. Thomas I of Savoy

11. Beatrice of Savoy

23. Marguerite of Geneva

1. Margaret of England

24. Ferdinand II of León

12. Alfonso IX of León

25. Urraca of Portugal

6. Ferdinand III of Castile

26. Alfonso VIII of Castile

13. Berenguela of Castile

27. Leonora of England (daughter of 16)

3. Eleanor of Castile

28. Alberic, Count of Dammartin

14. Simon de Dammartin, Count of Ponthieu

29. Maud de Ponthieu

7. Jeanne of Dammartin

30. William IV of Ponthieu

15. Marie of Ponthieu

31. Alys, Countess of the Vexin

References

1. ^ Richardson, Douglas, Everingham, Kimball G. (2004). Plantagenet Ancestry: a study in Colonial and Medieval Families. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company. p.20. Google Books. Retrieved 25-11-10
2. ^ Ancestors of Margaret Plantagenêt
3. ^ Costain, Thomas B. (1958). The Three Edwards. Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company, Inc. p.39
4. ^ ^{a b c} Costain, p.39
5. ^ Margaret Plantagenêt

Persondata
Name	Plantagenet, Margaret
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	15 March 1275
Place of birth	Windsor Castle, Berkshire
Date of death
Place of death	Belgium