Margaret of
Burgundy (French: Marguerite de Bourgogne) (1290 – 14 August 1315) was the first queen
consort of King Louis X of France (also King Louis I of Navarre). Name variations: Matilda
of Artois; Mahout or Mahaut Capet; Mahaut of Artois; Mahaut of Burgundy; Mahaut
of Flanders.
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EXCERPT: Many women
have been more merciless and heartless than any man could have been, who could
have been more merciless and heartless than Queen Margaret of Burgundy, wife of
King Louis X. of France? According to the chronicler Brantome, she used to lure
the handsomest young officers in the army to her retreat, the Tour de Nesle,
and then, “having obtained what she wished of them, caused them to be tied in a
sack and thrown into the Seine.”
[Excerpt from: “A Real Female Bluebeard - Strange Tragedy of
the Jealous Beauty and Her Thirty-five Unlucky Sweethearts,” American
Weekly (San Antonio Light Sunday magazine section), Aug. 22, 1925, p. 5;
referencing: Pierre de Bourdeille, seigneur (and abbé) de Brantôme (c. 1540 –
15 July 1614) “L'Histoire de la Tour de Nesle.”]
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Wikipedia: Mahaut, Countess of Artois (1268 – October 28, 1329, Paris),
also known as Mathilda, was the eldest child (and only daughter) of Robert II, Count
of Artois, and Amicie de Courtenay.
Her paternal grandparents were Robert I, Count of Artois,
and Matilda of Brabant. Her maternal grandparents were Pierre de Courtenay,
Seigneur de Conches, and Perronelle de Joigny.
Her younger brothers were:
• Philip of Artois (1269–1298). Married Blanche de Dreux,
daughter of John II, Duke of Brittany,
by whom he had five children.
• Robert of Artois (born 1271). Died young.
In 1291,
Mahaut married Otho IV, Count of Burgundy, to whom she bore three children, including
two girls who married kings of France:
• Joan II, Countess of Burgundy (1292-1330), married Philip
V of France,
• Blanche of Burgundy (1296 ? – 1326), married Charles
IV of France and
• Robert, Count of Burgundy (1300–1315).
Mahaut’s daughters Joan II and Blanche, along with their
cousin Margaret of Burgundy, were implicated in the Tour de Nesle Affair.
Because of the premature death of her brother Philip in
1298, she inherited the County of Artois at her father’s death in 1302, rather
than her nephew Robert III (her inheritance being based upon proximity of blood).
Although he repeatedly challenged the decision, her rights to the county were
consistently upheld. She was an able administrator and managed to defeat the
many rebellions perpetrated by members of the nobility. Her senior
administrator was the Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Arras, Thierry de
Hérisson. Upon her death in 1329, the county was inherited by her daughter Joan
I, Countess of Burgundy (d. 1329), who was married to Philip V of France.
Mahaut is a major character in Les Rois maudits (The
Accursed Kings), a series of historical novels by Maurice Druon. Druon
describes her as the poisoner of Louis X and his baby child, to be later
poisoned the same way by her lady-in-waiting Béatric d’Hirson, who originally
helped with the King’s poisoning.
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Wikipedia EXCERPT: “The Accursed Kings”
Writing for The Wall Street Journal, Allan Massie
praised Druon’s “thorough research, depth of understanding and popular touch”,
noting that “Druon’s re-creation of medieval Paris is so vivid that it loses
nothing in comparison with the evocation of the city in the greatest of French
medievalist novels, Victor Hugo’s Notre-Dame de Paris.” Massie added:
There are murders galore in these books—one queen is
strangled, one king poisoned and another thought to be poisoned while still a
baby at his christening. There is skullduggery, conspiracy and civil war. There
are men of great ability and few scruples, and scarcely a page without dramatic
incident ... The characters are impressive, but few are admirable. Almost the
only likeable one is the young Siennese banker Guccio—and bankers are important
figures in the novels, for Druon never lets us forget that even in his world of
kings, barons and knights, it is money that rules, money that oils the wheels
of war and politics ... The novels are not recommended to the squeamish, but
anyone with strong nerves will delight in them. Few figures in literature are
as terrible as the Countess Mahaut, murderer and maker of kings.
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