While researching my book about the women of Burgundy, the name of Marie of Luxembourg arose as she married her maternal uncle Jacques of Savoy, Count of Romont. Yolande of France, Duchess of Savoy, had to contend with the political shenanigans of Jacques during her reign as regent for her son. Jacques died in 1486 and Marie married Francis de Bourbon, Count of Vendome. Together, they would have five surviving children, one of whom was the grandmother of Mary Queen of Scots.
The trajectory of Marie’s life would be greatly influenced by her grandfather Louis of Luxembourg-Saint-Pol and his political machinations. Picardy, the location of the family’s patrimony, was subject to many decades of warfare as innumerable entities disputed ownership of various principalities in the vicinity. Louis, a descendant of Henry V, Count of Luxembourg, belonged to the French branch of the House of Luxembourg. He was a vassal of the Duke of Burgundy, who in turn was a vassal of the King of France, leaving Louis to navigate the treacherous politics between the two rulers.
Louis became close to the Dauphin Louis (the future King Louis XI) and would give support to both the future king and Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy. Subsequently, he took part in the League of the Public Weal, a revolt of French nobles to dethrone Louis XI. Despite fighting alongside Charles the Bold at the Battle of Montlhéry in 1465, King Louis pursued Saint-Pol’s services and gave him the title of Constable of Saint-Pol and arranged a marriage for him to Marie of Savoy, sister of Louis’ queen, Charlotte.
This allowed Saint-Pol to become exceedingly powerful, building a semi-independent power base in the lands straddling French royal and Burgundian territory and taking a leading role in the intrigues and troubles of the period. Saint-Pol supported the invasion of France by King Edward IV of England. (Louis of Luxembourg’s sister, Jacquetta of Luxembourg, Duchess of Bedford, was the mother of Edward IV’s queen, Elizabeth Woodville). Charles the Bold got wind of the conspiracy, betrayed him to King Louis, captured Saint-Pol and turned him over to the king, who put him on trial. The French parlement found him guilty of lèse-majesté, condemned him to death and had him beheaded in the Place de Grève on December 19, 1475.
Nearly all of Louis of Luxembourg’s property was confiscated and doled out to the French king, the Duke of Burgundy and others. Louis’ sons, including Marie’s father Peter, inherited the rest, including Saint-Pol, Conversano and the lordships of Enghien (now Edingen in Hainaut, near Brussels), and Haubourdin. When Peter’s elder brother died, he became the head of the family and added the counties of Marle and Soissons. Peter remained loyal to Charles the Bold. Following the death of the Burgundian duke at the Battle of Nancy in 1477, his daughter Mary of Burgundy restored most of Peter’s confiscated property.
Peter married Margaret of Savoy, another sister of Queen Charlotte of France and he had at least two surviving daughters, one of which was Marie, born c. 1472 in Luxembourg. Marie would inherit all her father’s properties upon his death in 1482. In 1484, Marie married her uncle Jacques of Savoy, Count of Romont, a prominent figure in the Low Countries and a supporter of the Burgundian dukes. The treaty of Arras between King Louis XI of France and Mary of Burgundy had promised the return of all of Marie’s lands, but there were others who contested these terms.
Slowly, her lands were returned to her. Romont obtained royal letters restoring his wife’s rights to Saint-Pol. The fight over these rights continued until Romont’s death in January 1486. Marie gave birth to a daughter, Françoise-Louise, in 1485 who survived and married. The government of the new king of France, Charles VIII, decided on the restoration of Marie’s lands and ultimately pressed her case. He also arranged a second marriage for Marie to a prince du sang (French prince of the blood), Francis de Bourbon, Count of Vendôme and Lord of Epernon.
The marriage was considered to be for the greater good and benefit of the kingdom of France by, to some extent, detaching Marie’s interests from the Low Countries. Francis was seventeen and Marie brought vast revenues and estates to the House of Bourbon, conveying the Luxembourg inheritance into the possession of the junior branch of royal lineage. These included the towns of Condé l’Escaut and Condé de Brie with its chateau, Enghien, the counties of Saint-Pol and Soissons in Picardy, Ligny, Conversano and Marle, and the ladyship of Beaurevoir, Orchies, Haubourdin, Ham, and La Fère, among many others. She was also the chatelaine of Lille and titular chatelaine of Cambrai.
Marie gave birth to many children: Charles, Count then Duke of Vendôme (1514) and head of the House of Bourbon, François, Count of Saint-Pol, Louis who became a cardinal, Antoinette who married Claude of Lorraine, count and then Duke of Guise and a daughter Louise, abbess of Fontevraud. One of the first casualties of the Italian Wars was Marie’s husband Francis, who died at Vercelli at twenty-five in 1495.
Marie became the guardian for her minor son Charles and would govern the county of Vendôme, of which she held usufruct until her death. She competently managed all the lands her son inherited, as well as her own properties. Marie was modest and cultured and maintained good relations with the courts of France and Brussels. Her own court comprised about 150 people and, with her immense resources, she proved to be an excellent administrator.
She could ride on horseback for many hours, which allowed her to visit her properties and take care of her affairs. Her newly constructed castle of La Fère served as the headquarters of her government. She was well known for her charitable and pious reputation, overseeing many projects such as enlarging the Collegiate Church of Saint George in Vendôme, rebuilding the Church of Saint Martin, founding the monastery of La Fère, and constructing the churches of Travecy, Ly-Fontaine, and Verneuil.
Marie donated the Porte Saint Georges-aux-Bourgeois-de-Vendôme which became the Mairie (town hall), maintained the Hôtel-Dieu of La Fère and built covered markets in Condé-en-Brie. She has a reputation for bringing embroidery work to Vendômois and introduced glass-making in Saint-Gobain in 1529. In her politics, Marie supported the Valois kings of France and encouraged her children to do the same. King Francis I of France often visited Marie in her castle in La Fère.
Marie’s son Charles served as a military commander in Italy under King Louis XII of France and was created Duke of Vendôme in 1514 and fought in the Battle of Marignano in 1515. When Holy Roman Emperor Charles V captured and took prisoner King Francis I after the Battle of Pavia in 1525, they elevated Charles of Bourbon to head of the king’s council.
During the first half of the sixteenth century, Picardy would become the most consistently fought over region of France, continually plagued by war from 1513 to 1559. The English army under King Henry VIII invaded in 1513 and Francis I and HRE Charles V repeatedly were at odds over ownership in their long-standing feud. Picardy and Artois were the most debatable principalities, and Saint-Pol would be in an anomalous position between them.
In negotiations for the Treaty of Madrid in 1526 for the release of Francis I from captivity, some of Marie’s properties in the Low Countries were engaged by Francis to pay for his ransom in landed revenues. This state of affairs lasted until the Treaty of Cambrai or the Ladies Peace was negotiated in 1529 by Margaret of Austria, Regent of the Netherlands for her nephew HRE Charles V and King Francis I’s mother Louise of Savoy. Marie was the chatelaine of Cambrai, where the negotiations took place.
In both these treaties, the status of Saint-Pol is never mentioned specifically. Marie of Luxembourg supposedly would regain possession of all her properties in the Low Countries. She sent an ambassador to press her case to Malines to discuss with Margaret the restoration of her properties. These were the richest group of fiefs in Artois. She regained the bulk of her properties, but Saint-Pol remained unredeemed.
The French safeguarded Saint-Pol until 1537, when Francis I allegedly made a bargain with Marie’s son Francois de Bourbon to swap Saint-Pol for the duchy of Estouteville, giving the king an excuse to invade the county. He captured and sacked Saint-Pol and Hesdin. The French were eventually driven out of Saint-Pol and the Truce of Bomy (July 30) provided for their withdrawal. But clearly, the king continued to regard himself as the legal possessor.
A conference in La Fère in October 1538 restored to Marie of Luxembourg, the town of Enghien for wartime compensation, but the fate of Saint-Pol still hung in the balance. Marie would eventually regain Saint-Pol with the Treaty of Crépy in 1544 as a fief held of the Holy Roman Emperor. She died April 1, 1547 at La Fère and was buried next to her second husband in the Collegiate Church of Saint George in Vendôme.
Because of the competent governance and second marriage of Marie into the French royal lineage, the House of Luxembourg survived the catastrophe of 1475 and the death of her grandfather. Among many others, Marie of Luxembourg was the ancestor of: Henriette of Cleves, Duchess of Nevers and Rethel, Marie de Guise, Queen of Scots and regent of Scotland, Mary Queen of Scots, Henry I, Duke of Guise, King Henri IV of France and Navarre, Henry I of Bourbon, Prince of Condé and his half-brother Charles of Bourbon, Count of Soissons and of Henry I of Orléans, Duke of Longueville and Grand Chamberlain of France. Marie of Luxembourg was truly the “Mother of Kings”.
Further reading: “The Impossible Bourbons: Europe’s Most Ambitious Family: by Oliver Thomson, “War and Government in the French Provinces: Picardy 1470-1560” by David Potter
