Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Margaret (1282?-1318)
MARGARET (1282?–1318), queen of Edward I, youngest daughter of Philip III, called 'le Hardi,' king of France, by Mary, daughter of Henry III, duke of Brabant, was born about 1282. A proposal was made in 1294 by her brother, Philip IV, that Edward I of England, who was then a widower, should engage himself to marry her (Fœdera, i. 795). The proposal was renewed as a condition of peace between the two kings in 1298; a dispensation was granted by Boniface VIII (ib. p. 897); the arrangement was concluded by the peace of Montreuil in 1299; and Margaret was married to Edward by Archbishop Winchelsey at Canterbury on 9 Sept., receiving as her dower lands of the value of fifteen thousand pounds tournois (ib. p. 972; see account of marriage solemnities, which lasted for four days, in Gesta Regum Cont. ap. Gervasii Cant. Opp. ii. 317). She entered London in October, and after residing some time in the Tower during her husband's absence, went northwards to meet him. On 1 June 1300 she bore a son at Brotherton, near York, and named him Thomas, after St. Thomas of Canterbury, to whom she believed she owed the preservation of her life. For some time after this she appears to have stayed at Cawood, a residence of the Archbishop of York. On 1 Aug. 1301 she bore a second son, Edmund, at Woodstock. She was with the king in Scotland in 1303-4. Edward increased her dower in 1305, and in 1306 Clement V granted her 4,000l. from the tenth collected in England for the relief of the Holy Land, to help her in her expenses and in her works of charity (Fœdera, i. 993). At Winchester in May she bore a daughter called Margaret (Walsingham, i. 117) or Eleanor (Flores, sub an.), who died in infancy. In June she was present at the king's feast at I Westminster, and wore a circlet of gold upon I her head, but, though she had previously worn a rich crown, she was never crowned queen. She accompanied the king to the north, and was with him at Lanercost and Carlisle. She grieved much over her husband's death in 1307, and employed John of London, probably her chaplain, to write a eulogy of him (Chronicles of Edward I and II, ii. 3-21). In the following year she crossed over to Boulogne with her stepson, Edward II, to be present at his marriage. She died on 14 Feb. 1318, at the age of thirty-six, and was buried in the new choir of the Grey Friars Church in London, which she had begun to build in 1306, and to which she gave two thousand marks, and one hundred marks by will. She was beautiful and pious, and is called in a contemporary poem 'flos Francorum' (Political Songs, p. 178). Her tomb was defaced and sold by Sir Martin Bowes [q. v.] (Slow, Survey of London, pp. 345, 347); her effigy is, however, preserved on the tomb of John of Eltham [q. v.] in Westminster Abbey, and is engraved in Strickland's 'Queens of England,' vol. i.
[Strickland's Queens, i. 452 sqq.; Rymer's Fœdera, vol. i. pt. ii. vol. ii. pt. i. passim (Record ed.); Political Songs, p. 178 (Camden Soc.); Matt. Westminster's Flores Hist. pp. 413, 415, 416, 457, ed. 1570; Gervase of Cant. Opp. ii. 316-19 (Rolls ed.); Ann. Paulini, and Commendatio Lamentabilis, ap. Chron. Edw. I, Edw. II, i. 282, ii. 3-21 (Rolls ed.); T. Walsingham, i. 79, 81, 117 (Rolls ed.); Opus. Chron. ap. John de Trokelowe, p. 54 (Rolls ed.); Liber de Antiqq. Legg. p. 249 (Camden Soc.); Cbron. Lanercost, pp. 193, 200, 205, 206 (Maitland Club); Dugdale's Monasticon, vi. 1514; Stow's Survey, pp. 345, 347, ed. 1633.]