Margaret of Brabant

Margaret of Brabant
Margaret of Brabant
German Queen
Tenure	1308–1311
Born	4 October 1276
Died	14 December 1311; Genoa, Italy
Burial	Pisa Cathedral
Spouse	Henry VII, Holy Roman Emperor
Issue	John, King of Bohemia; Maria, Queen of France; Beatrix, Queen of Hungary
House	House of Luxembourg
Father	John I, Duke of Brabant
Mother	Marguerite of Flanders

Margaret of Brabant (4 October 1276 – 14 December 1311), was the daughter of John I, Duke of Brabant and Margaret of Flanders. She was the wife of Count Henry of Luxemburg and after his coronation in 1308, she became Queen of Germany.

Family

Her paternal grandparents were Henry III, Duke of Brabant and his wife Adelaide of Burgundy. Her maternal grandparents were Guy of Dampierre and first wife Matilda of Béthune.

Margaret was a sister of John II, Duke of Brabant who later succeeded their father; Marie of Brabant, wife of Amadeus V, Count of Savoy and mother of Anna of Savoy, Byzantine Empress. Her eldest brother Geoffrey died as a child.

Margaret's paternal aunt was Maria of Brabant, Queen of France, and the second wife of Philip III of France. Maria was mother to Louis d'Évreux, Blanche, Duchess of Austria and Margaret, Queen of England.

Marriage

She was married to Henry on 9 July 1292 which was arranged to settle a long-standing dispute with the Duke of Brabant over the Duchy of Limburg, with the duke abandoning his claim to Limburg at the time Margaret's marriage took place.^[1] By all accounts, the marriage proved to be happy. She became the Queen consort of Germany in 1308 when her husband was crowned king.

Henry and Margaret had three children:

John of Bohemia (10 August 1296 – 26 August 1346) was the Count of Luxembourg from 1309, King of Bohemia. Married firstly to Elisabeth of Bohemia (1292–1330), by whom he had issue including Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor, and Bonne of Bohemia, first wife of the future King John II of France. On Elisabeth's death in 1330, John married secondly Beatrice of Bourbon, by whom he had issue.
Maria of Luxembourg (1304 – 26 March 1324), married Charles IV of France, died in childbirth.
Beatrix of Luxembourg (1305–19), married Charles I of Hungary, died in childbirth.

Margaret (far left) with daughter-in-law Elisabeth (centre) and Anna granddaughter-in-law (right)

Margaret accompanied her husband on his Italy campaign, became ill during the siege of Brescia and died a few months later in Genoa, where she was buried in the church of San Francesco di Castelletto. Her death was recorded in the Gesta Baldewini Luczenburch in December 1311. The famous sculptor Giovanni Pisano was commissioned by the Emperor to create a monument in her memory in 1313 (parts of it are still preserved in Genoa, Museo di Sant'Agostino and Galleria Nazionale della Liguria in palazzo Spinola).