View source for Marie of Brittany, Lady of La Guerche

{{Short description|Noble from the 14th and 15th centuries}}
'''Marie of Brittany''' (18 February 1391 – 18 December 1446) was the [[Countess of Perche]] and Lady of [[La Guerche-de-Bretagne|La-Guerche]] from 1396 until 1414, and the [[Countess of Alençon]] from 1404 until 1414.<ref>Perceval de Cagny and Henri Morganvillé, ''Chroniques de Perceval de Cagny, publiée pour la première fois pour la Société de l'histoire de France'', (Paris, France: Renouard, H. Laurens, successeur, 1902), 20, 38</ref>  In 1414, Marie’s titles became [[Duchess of Alençon]], Countess of Perche, Lady of La-Guerche, when [[Charles VI of France]] raised her husband John's county of [[Alençon]] to a duchy.<ref>Cagny, ''Chroniques'', 93.</ref>   After the death of her husband in 1415, Marie retained the title of Lady of La-Guerche when her son, [[Jean II, Duke of Alençon|John II]] took the titles of Duke of Alençon and Count of Perche. Marie was the link between the [[Montfort of Brittany|House of Montfort]] of the [[duchy of Brittany]] and the ducal [[House of Valois#Counts and Dukes of Alençon|House of Valois-Alençon]].
== Childhood ==
Marie of Brittany was born to [[John IV, Duke of Brittany]], and [[Joan of Navarre, Queen of England|Joan of Navarre]] on 18 February 1391 in [[Nantes]]. She was the fourth child of nine, and the second child to survive to adulthood.  In the first four years of her life, Marie was offered as a possible wife for [[Henry IV of England|Henry Bolingbroke]], the future King Henry IV of England, or for his son, the future [[Henry V of England|Henry V]],<ref>{{cite DNB |wstitle=Henry V|last=|first= |authorlink=Charles Lethbridge Kingsford|volume=26}}</ref> but negotiations fell through when her father instead married her to [[Jean I, Duke of Alençon|John I d’Alençon]] in 1396.<ref>Michael Jones, ''Ducal Brittany, 1364–1399: Relations with England and France During the Reign of Duke John IV'', (London, UK: Oxford University Press, 1970), 134–36; Michael Jones, "The Finances of John IV, Duke of Brittany, 1364–1399", in ''The Creation of Brittany: a late medieval state'', (London, UK: Hambledon Press, 1988), 252</ref>  Instead, after the death of John IV of Brittany, Marie's mother Joan would marry Henry IV of England.
== Marriage ==
On 26 June 1396, John IV of Brittany signed a contract with [[Pierre II, Count of Alençon|Pierre of Alençon and Perche]] which wedded Marie of Brittany to John of Perche, Pierre's son.<ref>Jones, ''Ducal Brittany'', 134.</ref>   The wedding was celebrated in July of that year at [[Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier]], [[Ille-et-Vilaine]], near [[Fougères]].<ref>Cagny, ''Chroniques'', 38.</ref>  Marie's dowry was to be 100,000 francs, but her father never paid the entire amount, creating tension between the duchies of Brittany and Alençon in later years.<ref>Jones, "The Finances of John IV", 252.</ref> In 1404, John succeeded his father as the Count of Alençon and Perche.
Marie and her husband John had five children:<ref>Cagny, ''Chroniques'', 20.</ref><br>
*Pierre (4 October 1407 – 16 March 1408)
*[[Jean II, Duke of Alençon|John II of Alençon]] (2 March 1409 – 1476).<ref>Cagny, ''Chroniques'', 20–21; Tierney, “New Year's Day,” http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11019a.htm.</ref>
*Jeanne (17 September 1412 – 17 October 1420), buried at [[Bourgueil Abbey]] in Anjou in 1420.<ref>Anselme, ''Histoire'', 135.</ref>
*Marie (died, age 2)
*Charlotte (15 December 1413 – 24 March 1435), nun, died in 1435, and was buried in the [[:fr:Collégiale Notre-Dame de Lamballe|Church of Our Lady]] at [[Lamballe]] in [[Brittany]]
In January 1414, Charles VI of France raised the county of Alençon to a duchy, and made Marie's husband, John, the first duke of Alençon.<ref>Cagny, ''Chroniques'', 93.</ref>
Marie's husband died at the Battle of Agincourt, where he fought alongside the King of France.<ref>Cagny, ''Chroniques'', 21.</ref>
== Later life ==
After the death of her husband in 1415, Marie was forced to flee [[Normandy]], where she had been living prior to the Battle of Agincourt.<ref>Cagny, ''Chroniques'', 22.</ref>  Her son, John, became John II of Alençon and was captured at the [[Battle of Verneuil]] in 1424. He paid for his freedom from the English in 1427, and became well known as a strong partisan of [[Joan of Arc]].
Marie died on 18 December 1446.  It is unknown where she was buried, despite the fact that all of her children's burial places are known.  At her death, Marie was simply Marie of Brittany, Lady of La Guerche.
== In context ==
Much like [[Gisela, daughter of Louis the Pious|Gisela of Aquitaine]], [[Mahaut of Artois|Mahout of Artois]], and her own great-niece [[Margaret of Brittany]], Marie was both literate and the owner of at least a [[Book of Hours]].<ref>Susan Groag Bell, "Medieval Women Book Owners: Arbiters of Lay Piety and Ambassadors of Culture", ''Signs'' 7, no. 4 (1982): 747–48, 751, https://www.jstor.org/stable/3173638 (accessed August 26, 2014).</ref>
== See also ==
*[[Alençon]]
*[[Argentan]]
*[[Hundred Years War]]
== Notes ==
<references/>
== References ==
*Anselme de Sainte-Marie. ''Histoire généalogique et chronologique de la Maison Royale de France: le tout dressé sur les titres originaux''. Amsterdam: Chatelain, 1713.
*Bell, Susan Groag. "Medieval Women Book Owners: Arbiters of Lay Piety and Ambassadors of Culture".  ''Signs'' 7, no. 4 (1982): 742–768. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3173638] (accessed August 26, 2014).
*Cagny, Perceval de, and Henri Morganvillé. ''Chroniques de Perceval de Cagny, publiée pour la première fois pour la Société de l'histoire de France''. Paris, France: Renouard, H. Laurens, successeur, 1902.  [https://books.google.com/books?id=xN9AAAAAYAAJ&dq=Cagny%2C%20Perceval%20de.%20Chroniques%20des%20ducs%20d'Alen%C3%A7on&pg=PP1].
*Jones, Michael. "The Finances of John IV, Duke of Brittany, 1364–1399". In ''The creation of Brittany: a late medieval state'', 239–262. London: Hambledon Press, 1988.
*Jones, Michael. ''Ducal Brittany, 1364–1399: Relations with England and France During the Reign of Duke John IV''. London, UK: Oxford University Press, 1970.
*Tierney, John. "New Year's Day". In ''The Catholic Encyclopedia''. Vol. 11. New York, NY: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11019a.htm]. (accessed December 7, 2014).
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marie of Brittany, Lady of La Guerche}}
[[Category:Counts of Perche]]
[[Category:1391 births]]
[[Category:1446 deaths]]
[[Category:Montfort of Brittany]]