Margaret of Villehardouin
Margaret of Villehardouin (Greek: Μαργαρίτα Βιλλεαρδουίνου; 1266 – February/March 1315) was the daughter of
Biography
In ca. 1276, her father granted her two thirds (16 knights' fiefs) of the
In 1304, she claimed from her brother-in-law, Prince Philip of Savoy, one fifth of the Principality of Achaea, but was rebuffed. She repeated her claim, this time for the entire principality, on the death of her sister Isabella in 1312. Margaret's claim rested on her interpretation of the Treaty of Viterbo, which stipulated the creation of such a fief, but only for a male descendant of William II. A later document dated to 1344 also asserts that William had included in his will the stipulation that Margaret would inherit her sister, if the latter died childless, but Isabella had two daughters. In addition, when Charles of Anjou gave the Principality to Isabella in 1289, he explicitly limited her heirs to her own descendants. As J. Longnon commented, her rights on Achaea were "more than doubtful", and her claims were again disregarded by the principality's suzerain, Philip of Taranto, in favour of her niece Matilda of Hainaut and her husband, Louis of Burgundy.[3]
In order to gain support for her claims, in February 1314 Margaret visited Sicily in order to wed her only daughter,
Family
She married first in September 1294 with
References
Sources
- Bon, Antoine (1969). La Morée franque. Recherches historiques, topographiques et archéologiques sur la principauté d'Achaïe (in French). Paris: De Boccard.
- Longnon, Jean (1949). L'empire latin de Constantinople et la principauté de Morée (in French). Paris: Payot.