Marie of Champagne

Marie of Champagne
Born	c. 1174
Died	(1204-08-09)9 August 1204 Acre, Israel
Noble family	House of Champagne
Spouse(s)	Baldwin I of Constantinople
Father	Henry I, Count of Champagne
Mother	Marie of France

Marie of Champagne (c. 1174 – 9 August 1204) was the Empress consort of Baldwin I of Constantinople.

Family

She was a daughter of Henry I, Count of Champagne and Marie of France, Countess of Champagne. Her maternal grandparents were Louis VII of France and Eleanor of Aquitaine.

Her brothers were Henry II of Champagne and Theobald III, Count of Champagne. Her sister Scholastique of Champagne married William V of Macon. Both sisters are mentioned by name in the chronicle of Alberic of Trois-Fontaines.

Her uncles were kings Richard I of England, John and Philip II of France.

Marriage

According to the chronicle of Gislebert of Mons, Marie was bethrothed to "Theobald", son of the count of Flanders and Hainaut in 1179. Gislebert is presumed to have misrecorded the name of Baldwin. Her betrothed was Baldwin VI, son of Baldwin V, Count of Hainaut and Margaret I, Countess of Flanders.

On 6 January 1186, Marie and Baldwin were married. They had two known children:

• Joan, Countess of Flanders (1199/1200 – 5 December 1244).
• Margaret II, Countess of Flanders (2 June 1202 – 10 February 1280).

Empress consort

On 14 April 1202 her husband left Flanders to join the Fourth Crusade. This Crusade was diverted to Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire. The crusaders captured and sacked the city. Then they decided to set up a Latin Empire in place of the fallen Greek one. On 9 May 1204, Baldwin was elected its first emperor making Marie the empress consort.

Marie herself left Flanders to join her husband but decided to visit Outremer first. According to Geoffrey of Villehardouin she could not join him in the crusade earlier as she was pregnant at the time of his departure. After delivery of the child, Margaret and sufficient recovery, she set forth to join him.

She set sail from the port of Marseille and landed in Acre. There she received tribute by Bohemond IV of Antioch. In Acre news reached her of the fall of Constantinople and the proclamation of Baldwin as the new emperor. She wanted to set sail for Constantinople but fell sick and died in the Holy Land.

News of her death reached Constantinople through Crusading reinforcements from Syria. Baldwin was reportedly afflicted by the death of his wife. Villehardouin reports that Marie "was a gracious and virtuous lady and greatly honoured".

Ancestry

Family of Marie of Champagne

16. Theobald III of Blois 8. Stephen, Count of Blois 17. Garsinde du Maine 4. Theobald II of Champagne 18. William the Conqueror 9. Adela of Normandy 19. Matilda of Flanders 2. Henry I of Champagne 20. Engelbert I of Sponheim 10. Engelbert, Duke of Carinthia 21. Hedwig 5. Matilda of Carinthia 22. Ulric of Passau 11. Uta of Passau 23. Adelaide 1. Marie of Champagne 24. Philip I of France 12. Louis VI of France 25. Bertha of Holland 6. Louis VII of France 26. Humbert II of Savoy 13. Adelaide of Maurienne 27. Gisela of Burgundy, Marchioness of Montferrat 3. Marie of France 28. William IX, Duke of Aquitaine 14. William X, Duke of Aquitaine 29. Philippa of Toulouse 7. Eleanor of Aquitaine 30. Aimery I, Viscount of Châtellerault 15. Aenor de Châtellerault 31. Dangerose de l'Isle Bouchard

References

• Alberic of Trois-Fontaines, Chronica Alberici Monachi Trium Fontium.
• Gislebert of Mons, Chronicon Hanoniense (Chronicle of Hainaut).
• Geoffrey of Villehardouin, De la Conquête de Constantinople
• Steven Runciman, A History of the Crusades: Volume 3, The Kingdom of Acre and the Later Crusades (Cambridge University Press 1954).

External links

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