Margaret of England, Duchess of Brabant

Margaret of England
Depiction of Margaret on the family tree. Her sister Mary of Woodstock was a nun; she can be seen at the right.
Duchess of Brabant, Lothier and Limburg
Reign	3 May 1294 – 27 October 1312
Born	(1275-03-15)15 March 1275 Windsor Castle, Berkshire
Died	aft. 1333 (aged c. 58) Belgium
Burial	Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula, Brussels
Spouse	John II, Duke of Brabant (m. 1290; his death 1312)
Issue	John III, Duke of Brabant
House	Plantagenet
Father	Edward I Longshanks
Mother	Eleanor of Castile

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

Margaret of England (15 March 1275 – after 1333) was the tenth child and seventh daughter of King Edward I of England and his first wife, 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, at Windsor Castle, the tenth child of King Edward I and his cousin Eleanor of Castile.

Margaret's fifteen siblings included Joan of Acre, Eleanor, Countess of Bar, Elizabeth of Rhuddlan and her father’s successor, Edward II 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, 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. 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, 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; 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 Edward 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.

Margaret died twenty-two years after her husband. She died in Belgium and was buried at Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula, Brussels. Out of all of Edward I's nineteen children Margaret lived the longest even survived into the reign of her nephew Edward III of England. Her tomb and the one of her husband have been destroyed.

Ancestry

Family of Margaret of England, Duchess of Brabant

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. Joan, Countess of Ponthieu                             30. William IV of Ponthieu               15. Marie of Ponthieu                       31. Alys, Countess of the Vexin