Marguerite of Provence, Queen of France

Marguerite of Provence, 1221-1295, Queen of France

Marguerite was the oldest daughter of the count of Provence, an area south of France proper at the time.  Before her birth, her father and his rival, the count of Toulouse, were struggling with keeping their states independent of France.  They both ended up becoming absorbed into France, but whereas the count of Toulouse was militarily forced into submission and his lands taken, the count of Provence went the diplomatic route, giving his daughter in marriage to the young king of France.  He was therefore able to keep some of his independence, thanks to Marguerite's peacekeeping skills.

Marguerite was nearly 13 when she married Louis IX, who at the time was king but too young to rule on his own so his mother, Blanche of Castille, the dowager queen (subject of the last Luxembourg ladies post), was ruling as regent.  Blanche first sent a family member to choose between the daughters of the count of Provence, and then inspected Marguerite herself to make sure she was a fit consort.

However, while the royal couple was young Blanche did not want to give up any of her personal power, and did her best to keep them away from each other so that no heir was born for several years.  Marguerite had to deal very carefully with her mother-in-law so as not to be forced out of influence over the court.  Marguerite managed to hold her own and assert her own influence over the king before Blanche died.

Louis IX, Marguerite's husband, the only sainted king of France, is best known because he was on crusade most of the time he was ruling.  In fact he started the Seventh Crusade in 1248, and unusually, Marguerite came with him.  They had two surviving children by that time, and the next three were born in Egypt while the king and queen were there on crusade until 1248.  For one month in 1250, however, Louis was taken prisoner and he tasked Marguerite herself with continuing the crusade, over all the knights and guards who were with them.  I might add that Louis was captured just two days after Marguerite gave birth to their third child.

It's unclear to me exactly why Marguerite was chosen to lead the crusade, and I'm not sure history has a clear explanation from Louis.  Aside from Eleanor of Aquitaine, Marguerite was the only European woman to ever lead a crusade herself, even if it was only for a month.  That was not only a great political responsibility but a huge spiritual one, too, as the leaders of the Crusades were seen as responsible for the souls of their people while on crusade.  Louis must have trusted Marguerite and believed her to be extremely capable.

Whatever the reason, she certainly had an interesting life.  I would also add that Marguerite's three younger sisters also were highly influential women of their time: the next, Eleanor, was queen consort of England, Sancha was a countess and then "Queen of the Romans," and Beatrice was successively the Countess of Anjou, Queen of Sicily and Naples, and finally also Countess of Provence in her own right (meaning not through her husband but through her own inheritance).