Marie of Valois, Prioress of Poissy

For other people named Marie of Valois, see Marie of Valois (disambiguation).

Marie
Prioress of Poissy
Reign	- 1438
House	House of Valois
Father	Charles VI of France
Mother	Isabeau of Bavaria
Born	July or August 1393 Bois de Vincennes, Paris
Died	19 August 1438 Palais Royal, Paris
Religion	Roman Catholic

Marie of Valois (July or August 1393-19 August 1438) was a French Princess, the daughter of Charles VI of France and his wife Isabeau of Bavaria. She was a member of the House of Valois and became a nun.

Life

Marie was born at the Bois de Vincennes and was the sixth of twelve children, eight of them including Marie lived to adulthood. Marie was a sister of Charles VII of France, Isabella, Queen of England, Michelle, Duchess of Burgundy, Catherine, Queen of England and Joanna, Duchess of Brittany.

Marie's maternal grandparents were Stephen III, Duke of Bavaria and his first wife Taddea Visconti. Marie's paternal grandparents were Charles V of France and his wife Joanna of Bourbon.

Marie's father was known to suffer from a mental illness, which he had inherited from his own mother Queen Joanna who had herself inherited from her grandfather Louis I, Duke of Bourbon. Isabeau had destined her daughter for the church, possibly because she saw her husband's madness as a punishment from God.^[1]

Marie entered the convent of Poissy on the 8 September 1397, taking her vows as a nun on the 26 May 1408. She was the only one of the children that had a religious life, the rest of her surviving siblings were married off.

At the time Marie entered the convent the prioress was her great-aunt, Marie of Bourbon, who was the sister of the younger Marie's paternal grandmother, Joanna of Bourbon. Entering the convent with young Marie as a companion was another Marie, the daughter of Christine de Pizan. Christine described a visit to Poissy in 1400 in her work "Le Livre du Dit de Poissy,"^[2] where she was greeted "joyously and tenderly" by the seven year old Princess Marie and the Prioress. Christine also described Marie's lodgings as befitting a royal princess.^[3]

Marie later became Prioress of the convent. She lived out the rest of her life here. She died of the Black Death on 19 August 1438 at the Palais Royal, Paris and is buried at the convent.^[4] After her death, her brother King Charles was the only surviving sibling.

Ancestry

Ancestors of Marie of Valois

16. Philip VI of France

8. John II of France

17. Joan of Burgundy

4. Charles V of France

18. John of Luxembourg, King of Bohemia

9. Bonne of Luxembourg and Bohemia

19. Elisabeth of Bohemia

2. Charles VI of France

20. Louis I, Duke of Bourbon

10. Peter I, Duke of Bourbon

21. Mary of Avesnes

5. Jeanne of Bourbon

22. Charles of Valois

11. Isabelle of Valois

23. Mahaut of Châtillon

1. Marie of Valois

24. Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor

12. Stephen II, Duke of Bavaria

25. Beatrix of Silesia-Glogau

6. Stephen III, Duke of Bavaria

26. Frederick III of Sicily

13. Elisabeth of Sicily

27. Eleanor of Anjou

3. Isabella of Bavaria-Ingolstadt

28. Stefano Visconti

14. Bernabò Visconti

29. Valentina Doria

7. Taddea Visconti

30. Mastino II della Scala

15. Beatrice Regina della Scala

31. Taddea da Carrara

References

1. ^ Kerrebrouck (Valois), p. 125 footnote 40, referring to Françoise Autrand "Charles VI le roi fou" in L'Histoire no 27 Oct 1980 pp 61-62.
2. ^ "Springtime, Solitude and Society in the Dit de Poissy". http://tell.fll.purdue.edu/RLA-Archive/199/French-html/ROBBINS-HERRING,KITTYE.htm. 
3. ^ Power, Eileen Edna. Medieval English Nunneries. 
4. ^ Capet, Medieval Lands

Persondata
Name	Marie Of Valois, Prioress Of Poissy
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1393
Place of birth	Bois de Vincennes
Date of death	19 August 1438
Place of death	Palais Royal