Margaret of Huntingdon, Duchess of Brittany

Margaret of Huntingdon
Tenure	Princess of Scotland (1145–1201) Duchess consort of Brittany and Countess consort of Richmond (1160–1166) Countess of Hereford (1171–1201)
Born	1145
Died	1201
Spouse	Conan IV, Duke of Brittany Humphrey III de Bohun, Constable of England Sir William fitz Patrick de Hertburn
Issue	Constance, Duchess of Brittany Henry de Bohun, 1st Earl of Hereford
House	Dunkeld
Father	Henry of Scotland, Earl of Huntingdon, Earl of Northumbria
Mother	Ada de Warenne

Margaret of Huntingdon (1145–1201) was a Scottish noblewoman. Two of her brothers, Malcolm IV and William I were Scottish kings. She was the wife of Conan IV, Duke of Brittany and the mother of Constance, Duchess of Brittany.^[1] Her second husband was Humphrey de Bohun, hereditary Constable of England. Following her second marriage, Margaret styled herself as the Countess of Hereford.

Family

Margaret was born in 1145, the second eldest daughter^[2] of Henry of Scotland, Earl of Huntingdon, Earl of Northumbria, and Ada de Warenne. She had an older sister Ada, and two younger sisters, Marjorie and Matilda. Two of her brothers, Malcolm and William became kings of Scotland, and she had another brother, David, Earl of Huntingdon, who married Maud of Chester. Her paternal grandparents were King David I of Scotland and Maud, Countess of Huntingdon, and her maternal grandparents were William de Warenne, 2nd Earl of Surrey and Elizabeth of Vermandois.

In 1152, when she was seven years of age, her father died.

Marriages and issue

In 1160, Margaret married her first husband, Conan IV, Duke of Brittany, Earl of Richmond. Upon her marriage, she was styled as the Duchess of Brittany and Countess of Richmond. Margaret's origins and first marriage were deduced by Benedict of Peterborugh who recorded filia sororis regis Scotiae Willelmi comitissa Brittanniae gave birth in 1186 to filium Arturum. Together Conan and Margaret had at least four children, of whom two only survived:

• Constance, Duchess of Brittany (c. 1161 – September 1201), married firstly in 1181, Geoffrey Planatagenet, by whom she had three children, including Arthur of Brittany; she married secondly in 1188, Ranulph de Blondeville, 4th Earl of Chester; she married thirdly in 1199, Guy of Thouars, by whom she had twin daughters, including Alix of Thouars.
• At least two children who died young^{[3][lower-alpha 1]}
• William (still alive towards 1200).^{[4][lower-alpha 2]}

Margaret's husband died in February 1171, leaving her a widow at the age of twenty-six. Shortly before Easter 1171, she married her second husband, Humphrey de Bohun, Hereditary Constable of England (c. 1155–c. 1181). He was the son of Humphrey de Bohun and Margaret of Hereford. Hereafter, she styled herself Countess of Hereford. The marriage produced a son and a daughter:

• Henry de Bohun, 1st Earl of Hereford (1176 – 1 June 1220), a Magna Carta surety; he married Maud FitzGeoffrey de Mandeville of Essex by whom he had three children, including Humphrey de Bohun, 2nd Earl of Hereford and from whom descended the Bohun Earls of Hereford. Maud was the daughter of Geoffrey Fitzpeter, 1st Earl of Essex by his first wife Beatrice de Say.
• Margaret de Bohun (d. 17 November 1189/1195), married to count Pedro Manrique de Lara, Viscount of Narbonne.^{[lower-alpha 3]}

Margaret's second husband died in late 1181 and she then married the English nobleman Sir William FitzPatrick Hertburn who acquired the lands of Washington in Durham in 1183.^[5] This marriage also produced one son:

• Sir William de Wessington (c. 1183–c. 1239), he married Alice de Lexington by whom he had issue

Margaret died in 1201 and was buried in Sawtrey Abbey, Huntingdonshire. Her third and final husband had died around 1194

Ancestry

Ancestors of Margaret of Huntingdon, Duchess of Brittany

16. Duncan I of Scotland               8. Malcolm III of Scotland                       17. Suthen               4. David I of Scotland                             18. Edward the Exile               9. Saint Margaret of Scotland                       19. Agatha               2. Henry, Earl of Northumbria                                   20. Siward, Earl of Northumbria               10. Waltheof II, Earl of Northumbria                       21. Aelfflaed of Bernicia               5. Maud, Countess of Huntingdon                             22. Lambert II, Count of Lens               11. Judith of Lens                       23. Adelaide of Normandy               1. Margaret of Huntingdon                                         24. Rodulf II de Warenne               12. William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey                       25. Emma               6. William de Warenne, 2nd Earl of Surrey                             13. Gundred, Countess of Surrey                       3. Ada de Warenne                                   28. Henry I of France               14. Hugh I of Vermandois                       29. Anne of Kiev               7. Elizabeth of Vermandois                             30. Herbert IV, Count of Vermandois               15. Adelaide, Countess of Vermandois                       31. Adele of Valois

Notes

1. Margaret of Huntingdon made a donation for the souls of "herself, Duke Conan IV, and 'our boys', or 'our children' (pro salute anime... puerorum... nostrorum). This would seem to be a reference to at least one son of the marriage who did not survive infancy, leaving Constance as heiress in 1166." (Everard and Jones, The Charters of Duchess Constance and Her Family (1171-1221), The Boydell Press, 1999, p 94).
2. Two charters made by Constance and her son Arthur towards 1200 mention a brother of Constance, William. As a boy, William should have inherited the duchy after Conan. According to Everard, Henry II’s forcing Constance’s father into abdicating in 1166 was meant to prevent any son of the Duke from inheriting the duchy. According to her, the fact that Constance’s brother was called William seems to indicate that he was not an illegitimate son of Conan IV, as William was the name of one of Margaret of Huntingdon’s brothers. (Everard, Judith (2000). Brittany and the Angevins: Province and Empire, 1158-1203. Cambridge University Press, 2000, p 43).
3. Her existence is disputed. ENGLISH NOBILITY in: Foundation for Medieval Genealogy by Charles Crowley [retrieved 23 December 2014].

References

1. Charles Cawley, Medieval Lands, Brittany
2. Charles Cawley, Medieval Lands, Scotland, Kings
3. Judith Everard and Michael Jones, The Charters of Duchess Constance of Brittany and Her Family (1171-1221), The Boydell Press, 1999, pp 93-94
4. Everard, Judith (2000). Brittany and the Angevins: Province and Empire, 1158-1203. Cambridge University Press, 2000, p 43
5. Cawley, Medieval Lands, Scotland