Margaret, Marchioness of Namur

Margaret, Marchioness of Namur (c. 1194 – 17 July 1270) was the daughter of Peter II of Courtenay and Yolanda of Flanders.

Margaret (called Sybille in some sources) married Raoul, lord of Issoudun in 1210. She succeeded her husband as Lady of Châteauneuf-sur-Cher and Mareuil-en-Berry in 1216. Soon after the death of her first husband she married Henry I, Count of Vianden (c. 1190/1210 - 1252) in 1216. Henry was the son of Frederic III, Count of Vianden (c. 1160 - 1210), and Mechthilde (Mathilde) of Neuerburg (?). Another son, Frederick I, younger brother of Henry, inherited Neuerburg and married Cecilia of Isenburg, but that dynasty became extinct with the death of Frederick III of Neuerburg in 1332 (de).

Margaret became Marchioness of Namur after the death of her brother Henry II, Marquis of Namur in 1229, who had succeeded another brother, Philip II. Their grandfather had received the county as an inheritance as a nephew of Henry IV, Count of Luxembourg (Henry I of Namur). Margaret and her husband Henry I of Vianden (Henry III of Namur) ruled Namur until 1237 when they had to transfer Namur to Margaret's brother Baldwin II of Courtenay. Henry and Margaret continued ruling Vianden. Henry V, Count of Luxembourg (1216 – 1281), maternal grandson of Henry IV, Count of Luxembourg (Henry I of Namur), invaded Namur and ruled it 1256-1264 as Henry IV (or III ?). Baldwin sold Namur in c. 1263 to his cousin Guy of Dampierre, count of Flanders and Henry was removed by military force but they made peace with family marriage.

After the death of her husband in 1252, Margaret entered a convent in Marienthal near Luxembourg and became a nun. She died in Marienthal on 17 July 1270 and was buried there.

Margaret and Henry had the following children:

• Mathilde (c. 1216 -), married around 1235 with Kaloioannes Angelos "Johann Angelus" (c. 1193 - c. 1255), Duke of Syrmia and Bacs. They bore Maria Angelina (c. 1235 - a. 1285) whose husband Anseau de Cayeux or Chaurs worked for Charles of Anjou. Possibly they also bore Helen of Anjou (c. 1236 – 1314), Queen consort of Serbia.
• Peter, dean in cathedrals of Liège and Cologne (died after 1272).
• Frederic of Vianden. Frederic died in 1247 (5 years before his father). He married Mathilde of Salm (b.c. 1223), a daughter of Henry III, Count of Ardennes (seigneur de Viviers, c. 1190 - 1246 ?, married to Marguerite de Bar le Duc ?), and had a son named Henry, Lord of Schönecken (1248-1299) (de).
• Henry I van Vianden (d. 1267), bishop of Utrecht from 1249 to 1267.
• Philip I (d. 1273), Count of Vianden 1252-1273. He married Marie of Brabant-Perwez, daughter of Godfrey of Louvain, Lord of Perwez, apparently a descendant of Godfrey III, Count of Louvain and Landgrave of Brabant (1142-1190). Their issue was Godefroid I, Count of Vianden (d. 1307 or 1310) and four other children.
• Yolanda of Vianden (1231–1283), still revered today in Luxembourg.

• Cawley, Charles, Namur, Medieval Lands database, Foundation for Medieval Genealogy ,