Margaret of Provence was Queen of France by marriage to King Louis IX. She was born in 1221, the eldest daughter of Count Ramon Berenguer IV of Provence. By the 1230’s Margaret was already widely famed for her beauty and virtuous character. Blanche of Castile, Queen Mother of France, sent one of her knights to the court at Provence to meet young Margaret. Ultimately, Blanche would arrange a marriage between Margaret and her son, the young King Louis. Louis and Margaret were married on May 27, 1234 at the cathedral of Sens, where Margaret was crowned queen the following day.
The Queen Mother Blanche was nevertheless jealous of Louis’s affection for his wife, and frequently strove to keep the young couple apart. Jean of Joinville, one of Louis’s knights, provides an example of this in his famed chronicle The Life of Saint Louis:
“The King was once by his wife’s side, at a time when she was in great danger of dying on account of the injuries she had suffered in giving birth to a child. Queen Blanche came to her room, and taking the King by the hand, said to him: ‘Come away, you’re doing no good here.’ Queen Margaret, seeing that the Queen Mother was taking the King away, cried out: ‘Alas! Whether I live or die, you will not let me see my husband!’ Then she fainted, and they all thought she was dead. The King, convinced that she was dying, turned back, and with great difficulty they brought her round.” –Joinville, 316.
Unfortunately for Margaret, Blanche maintained a strong influence over her son, and would remain a powerful force at court for many years yet. However, the early period of Louis and Margaret’s marriage was happy, and they spent much time together praying, reading, listening to music or riding the countryside on horseback.
In 1248, Margaret accompanied her husband on his crusade to conquer Ayyubid Egypt, known to history as the Seventh Crusade. In 1249 the French army captured the Egyptian port city of Damietta, and Margaret took up residence in the city’s citadel while her husband carried on campaigning.
In 1250, Louis’s army was badly defeated at the Battle of Fariskur, and Louis himself was captured by the Ayyubids. Jean of Joinville recalls how the Queen received this news:
“Now you have already heard of the great suffering the King and all the rest of us endured. The Queen (who was then in Damietta) did not, as I am about to tell you, escape from tribulations herself. Three days before she gave birth to a child news came to her that the King was taken prisoner. This frightened her so much that every time she slept in her bed it seemed to her that the room was full of Saracens, and she would cry out. So that the child she was bearing should not die, she made an old knight lie down beside her bed and hold her by the hand. Every time she cried out, he would say to her: ‘Don’t be afraid, my lady, I am here.’
“Just before the child was born she ordered everyone except the knight to leave her room. Then she knelt down before the old man and begged him to do her a service; he consented and swore to do as she asked. So she said to him: ‘I ask you, on the oath you have sworn to me, that if the Saracens take this city, you will cut off my head before they can also take me.’ The knight replied: ‘Rest assured that I will do so without hesitation, for I already had it in mind to kill you before they took us all.’” –Joinville, 262-63.
The responsibility of negotiating with the Ayyubids and raising the King’s ransom fell to Margaret. Meanwhile, Margaret gave birth. Jean of Joinville recounts how Margaret acted courageously despite these trying circumstances:
“The Queen gave birth to a son who was named Jean. Her people called him Tristam, because of the great sorrow that had attended his birth. On the very day on which she was confined she was told that the men of Pisa, Genoa, and the other free cities were intending to flee Damietta. The next day she had them all summoned to her bedside, so that the room was quite full, and said to them: ‘Gentlemen, for God’s sake, do not leave this city, for it must be plain to you that if we lose it the King and all those who have been taken captive with him would be lost as well. If this plea does not move you, at least take pity on the poor weak creature lying here, and wait until I am recovered.’
“They answered: ‘My lady, what can we do? We’re dying of hunger in this city.’ The Queen told them that they need not leave for fear of starvation. ‘For,’ said she, ‘I will order all the food in this city to be bought in my name, and from now on will keep you all at the King’s expense.’ After talking the matter over among themselves, they came back to the queen and told her they would willingly remain. Then the Queen – may God grant her grace! – had all the food in the city bought at a cost of more than three hundred and sixty thousand livres.” –Joinville, 263.
Once Louis and his men were ransomed and released, the French forces departed Egypt and traveled to the Crusader Kingdom of Outremer. Here, while the King was refortifying the coastal city of Sidon, an incident occurred that highlights another aspect of Queen Margaret’s personality: her sense of humor. Jean of Joinville recounts:
“The Count of Tripoli – may God grant him grace! – entertained us nobly and paid us all the honor he could. He would have given me and my knights most valuable presents, if we had been willing to accept them. But we refused to take anything except a few relics, some of which I took to the King, together with the camlet I had bought for him.
“I also sent four pieces of camlet to Her Majesty the Queen. The knight who came to present them carried them wrapped up in a piece of white linen. When the Queen saw him enter her room she knelt before him, while he in his turn knelt before her. The Queen said to him: ‘Rise up, my good knight, it is not fitting for you to kneel when you are the bearer of relics.’ ‘My lady,’ replied the knight, ‘these are not relics, but pieces of camlet sent to you by my lord.’ On hearing this, the Queen and her ladies began to laugh. ‘Tell your lord I wish him the worst of luck,’ said the Queen to my knight, ‘since he has made me kneel before his camlet!’” –Joinville 314-15.
While the French army was still in Outremer, King Louis received news from his Kingdom that his mother, Blanche, had died. When Jean of Joinville discovered Queen Margaret’s reaction to this news, he was surprised:
“Madam Marie de Vertus, a very good and pious lady, came to tell me that the Queen was plunged in grief, and asked me to go to her and comfort her. When I arrived there, I found Queen Margaret in tears. So I said to her that the man who said one can never tell what a woman will do spoke truly. ‘For,’ said I, ‘the woman who hated you most is dead, and yet you are showing such sorrow.’ She told me it was not for Queen Blanche that she was weeping, but because of the grief the King was showing in his mourning over the dead, and also because of her own daughter – later Queen of Navarre – who was now left in the sole guardianship of men.’” –Joinville, 315-16.
This was typical behavior on the part of Queen Margaret, who tended to put her husband and her children before herself.
Margaret of Provence stands out as a truly heroic woman. The Seventh Crusade was one of the most devastating defeats in the history of the Crusades, which put those involved to the ultimate test. Through this difficulty, Margaret acted decisively in the interests of her people, helping to carry the Crusade through one of its darkest periods. After her husband’s death in 1270, Margaret returned to Provence, where she spent much of her time in charitable and pious works. She was a woman devoted to God, devoted to her husband and children, and devoted to her subjects.
To learn more about Queen Margaret, pick up a translation of Jean of Joinville’s Life of Saint Louis, available from Penguin Classics.
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