Marguerite of Flanders, Countess of Montfort, was the only daughter of
Loys de Nevers, eldest surviving son of Robert the First, Count of
Flanders (who predeceased his father), and of Marie or Jeanne, daughter
of the Count de Rethel. She had one brother, Count Loys the First of
Flanders, who fell at Crecy. Many modern writers call her Jeanne; but
her name in the contemporary public records of England is invariably
Margareta. Her birth probably took place about 1310, and it may have
been about 1335 that she married Jean of Bretagne, Count de Montfort, a
younger son of Duke Arthur the Second.
Duke Arthur, the son of Beatrice of England, had been twice married--to
Marie of Limoges and Violette of Dreux, Countess of Montfort in her own
right. With other issue who are not concerned in the story, he had by
Marie two sons, Duke Jean the Third and Guyon; and by Violette one, Jean
Count of Montfort, the husband of Marguerite. On the childless death of
Jean the Third in 1341, a war of succession arose between the daughter
of his deceased brother Guyon, and his half-brother the Count of
Montfort. The daughter, Jeanne la Boiteuse, claimed the right to
represent her father Guyon, while Montfort stood by the law of
non-representation, according to which no deceased prince could be
represented by his child, and the younger brother even by the half-blood
was considered a nearer relative than the child of the elder. The King
of France took the part of Jeanne and her husband, Charles de Blois; he
captured the Count of Montfort, and imprisoned him in the Louvre. The
Countess Marguerite, "who had the heart of a lion," thenceforth carried
on the war on behalf of her husband and son. In the spring of 1342 she
obtained the help of King Edward the Third of England, which however was
fitfully rendered, as he took either side in turn to suit his own
convenience. Some account of her famous exploits is given in the story,
and is familiar to every reader of Froissart's Chronicle. Shortly after
this the Countess brought her son to England, and betrothed him to the
King's infant daughter Mary; but she soon returned to Bretagne. In 1345
the Count of Montfort escaped from his prison in the disguise of a
pedlar, and arrived in England: but the King was not at that time
disposed to assist him, and Montfort took the refusal so much to heart
that--probably combined with already failing health--it killed him in
the following September. When the war was reopened, the Countess took
captive her rival Charles de Blois, and brought him to England. The
King appointed her residence in Tickhill Castle, granting the very small
sum of 15 pounds per annum for her expenses "there or wherever we may
order her to be taken, while she remains in our custody." (Patent Roll,
25 Edward the Third, Part 3.) It is evident that while treated overtly
as a guest, the Countess was in reality a prisoner: a fact yet more
forcibly shown by an entry in December, 1348, recording the payment of
60 shillings expenses to John Burdon for his journey to Tickhill, "to
bring up to London the Duchess of Bretagne and the knight who ran away
with her." This seems to have been an attempt to free the prisoner, to
whom, as the upholder of her husband's claim on the throne of Bretagne,
the King of course accorded the title of Duchess. The testimony of the
records henceforward is at variance with that of the chroniclers, the
latter representing Marguerite as making sundry journeys to Bretagne in
company with her son and others, and as being to all intents at liberty.
The Rolls, on the contrary, when she is named, invariably speak of her
as a prisoner in Tickhill Castle, in keeping of Sir John Delves, and
after his death, of his widow Isabel. That the Rolls are the superior
authority there can be no question.
The imprisonment of Charles de Blois was very severe. He offered a
heavy ransom and his two elder sons as hostages; King Edward demanded
400,000 deniers, and afterwards 100,000 gold florins. In 1356 Charles
was released, his sons Jean and Guyon taking his place. They were
confined first in Nottingham Castle, and in 1377 were removed to
Devizes, where Guyon died about Christmas 1384. In 1362 Edward and
Charles agreed on a treaty, which Jeanne refused to ratify, alleging
that she would lose her life, or two if she had them, rather than
relinquish her claims to young Montfort. Two years later Charles was
killed at the battle of Auray, and Jeanne thereon accepted a settlement
which made Montfort Duke of Bretagne, reserving to herself the county of
Penthievre, the city of Limoges, and a sum of ten thousand _livres
Tournois_.
The only authority hitherto discovered giving any hint of the history of
Marguerite after this date, is a contemporary romance, _Le Roman de la
Comtesse de Montfort_, which states that she retired to the Castle of
Lucinio, near Vannes, and passed the rest of her life in tranquillity.
Even Mrs Everett Green, in her _Lives of the Princesses of England_,
accepted this as a satisfactory conclusion. It was, indeed, the only
one known. But two entries on the public records of England entirely
dissipate this comfortable illusion. On 26th September 1369, the Patent
Roll states that "we allowed 105 pounds per annum to John Delves for the
keeping of the noble lady, the Duchess of Bretagne; and we now grant to
Isabel his widow, for so long a time as the said Duchess shall be in her
keeping, the custody of the manor of Walton-on-Trent, value 22 pounds,"
and 52 pounds from other lands. (Patent Roll, 43 Edward the Third, Part
2.) The allowance originally made had evidently been increased. The
hapless prisoner, however, was not left long in the custody of Isabel
Delves. She was transferred to that of Sir Godfrey Foljambe, whose
wife, Avena Ireland, was daughter of Avena de Holand, aunt of Joan
Duchess of Bretagne, the second wife of young Montfort. Lastly, a Post
Mortem Inquisition, taken in 1374, announces that "Margaret Duchess of
Bretagne died at Haselwood, in the county of Derby, on the 18th of
March, 48 Edward the Third, being sometime in the custody of Godfrey
Foljambe." (Inquisitions of Exchequer, 47-8 Edward the Third, county
Derbyshire).
It is therefore placed beyond question that the Countess of Montfort
died a prisoner in England, at a date when her son had been for ten
years an independent sovereign, and though on friendly terms with Edward
the Third, was no longer a suppliant for his favour. Can it have
occurred without his knowledge and sanction? He was in England when she
died, but there is no indication that he ever went to see her, and her
funeral, as is shown by the silence of the Wardrobe Rolls, was without
any ceremony. Considering the character of the Duke--"violent in all
his feelings, loving to madness, hating to fury, and rarely overcoming a
prejudice once entertained"--the suspicion is aroused that all the early
sacrifices made by his mother, all the gallant defence of his dominions,
the utter self-abnegation and the tender love, were suffered to pass by
him as the idle wind, in order that he might revenge himself upon her
for the one occasion on which she prevented him from breaking his
pledged word to King Edward's daughter, and committing a _mesalliance_
with Alix de Ponteallen. For this, or at any rate for some thwarting of
his will, he seems never to have forgiven her.
Marguerite left two children--Duke Jean the Fourth, born 1340, died
November 1, 1399: he married thrice,--Mary of England, Joan de Holand,
and Juana of Navarre--but left no issue by any but the last, and by her
a family of nine children, the eldest being only twelve years old when
he died. Strange to say, he named one of his daughters after his
discarded mother. His sister Jeanne, who was probably his senior, was
originally affianced to Jean of Blois, the long-imprisoned son of
Charles and Jeanne: she married, however, Ralph, last Lord Basset of
Drayton, and died childless, November 8, 1403.