Marie of Bar

Marie of Bar (April 1366-1405 was born Marie de Coucy and was the wife of Henry of Bar. She was also the Countess of Soissons. She owned numerous estates in North-Eastern France.

Family

Marie was born, on an unknown date, in April 1366 at Coucy Castle, Picardy France. She was the eldest daughter of a powerful French nobleman, Enguerrand VII de Coucy and Isabella of England, daughter of King Edward III of England and Philippa of Hainault. She had a younger sister, Philippa de Coucy born in 1367 who married Robert de Vere, Duke of Ireland. When Marie was about a month old, she accompanied her parents to England, where on 11 May1366 her father received the title of Earl of Bedford and was inducted into the Order of the Garter. [Barbara Tuchman "A Distant Mirror",pgs 232-3.] In 1376 at the age of ten, Marie joined the household of the French queen, Jeanne de Bourbon and was educated alongside the Dauphin and his siblings. [Tuchman,p.314]

Marriage

In November 1384, she married Henry of Bar, Marquis de Pont-à Mousson (1362- October 1397 Treviso, Italy), son of Robert I, Duke of Bar and Marie Valois, sister of King Charles V of France. [Tuchman,pgs367,423.] The marriage produced two sons, Enguerrand (1387-c.1400) and Robert of Bar (1390-25 October1415 at the Battle of Agincourt). Through her son Robert who married Jeanne de Bethune, and had one daughter, Jeanne, Marie was the direct ancestress of King Henri IV of France.

Later Years

Marie's mother, Isabella, died in 1379, and her father re-married in February 1386, a girl about thirty years his junior. Her name was Isabelle, and she was the daughter of John I, Duke of Lorraine. They had one daughter, Isabel. Upon Enguerrand's death on18 February 1397 [Tuchman,p.603] in a Turkish prison five months after the ferocious Battle of Nicopolis, Marie inherited his title and became the Countess of Soissons. Near the end of that same year, she was widowed. Following the Battle of Nicopolis, her husband Henry was also taken prisoner and later ransomed. In October 1397, on the prolonged journey home to France, Henry of Bar died at the crusaders' camp in Treviso after having contracted the plague in Venice. [Tuchman, p.606]

Marie disputed the de Coucy inheritance with her step-mother. Marie claimed the entire inheritance, while Isabelle insisted upon half. Neither lady yielded. The barony was described as "having castles of grandeur, with it's 150 towns and villages, it's famous forests, fine ponds, many good vassals, much great nobility and inestimable revenues". [Tuchman, p.609] The women lived in hostility, each in a separate castle of the domain, with her own captains and entourage of relatives, endlessly pursuing lawsuits. [Tuchman, p. 609] In 1404, Marie was coerced by Louis d'Orleans into selling the barony to him. She brought at least eleven lawsuits against Orleans in an attempt to recover her property, but after a wedding feast in 1405, Marie died suddenly. Poison was suspected but could not be proven. [Tuchman,pgs.609-10.] Her son Robert continued the litigation,but eventually,the barony of Coucy passed to the French Crown.

References

ources

# Barbara W. Tuchman,"A Distant Mirror" published by Alfred A.Knopf 1978
# "Medieval Lands" Charles Cawley