Margaret of Brittany

Margaret of Brittany
Isabella of Scotland with her daughter Margaret of Brittany behind.
Duchess of Brittany
Tenure	26 December 1458 – 25 September 1469
Born	c. 1443
Died	25 September 1469 (aged 25–26) Nantes
Burial	Nantes Cathedral
Spouse	Francis II, Duke of Brittany
Issue	John, Count of Montfort
House	Dreux-Montfort
Father	Francis I, Duke of Brittany
Mother	Isabella of Scotland
Religion	Roman Catholicism

Margaret of Brittany (in Breton Marc'harid Breizh, in French Marguerite de Bretagne) (c. 1443 – 25 September 1469) was the elder of the two daughters of Francis I, Duke of Brittany (died 1450), by his second wife, Isabella of Scotland, and hence granddaughter of James I of Scotland.

Since the Breton War of Succession, Brittany had been understood to operate according to semi-Salic Law–women could only inherit if the male line had died out. As expected from the provision of the Treaty of Guérande, which ended the war, neither Margaret nor her younger sister, Marie, were recognized as heirs of the duchy. After her father's death, her uncle Peter II succeeded as Duke of Brittany. He was also childless and to avoid any subsequent dispute, he arranged the marriage of Margaret to Francis of Étampes, the second in the order of succession and the last male left of the Breton House of Montfort, and the younger Marie to John II, Viscount of Rohan, the most powerful noble in Brittany.

In 13 or 16 November 1455, she was married to her cousin Francis of Étampes at the Château de l'Hermine, Vannes. She became Duchess of Brittany upon his accession as Francis II, Duke of Brittany in 1458. Their only son John, Count of Montfort, died at a young age. ^{[lower-alpha 1]}

Margaret died, September 25, 1469, in Nantes. She was buried in the Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul, Nantes, in the tomb constructed for her and her husband and later his second wife, Margaret of Foix.

Ancestry

Ancestors of Margaret of Brittany

16. John of Montfort               8. John IV, Duke of Brittany                       17. Joanna of Flanders               4. John V, Duke of Brittany                             18. Charles II of Navarre               9. Joan of Navarre                       19. Joan of France               2. Francis I, Duke of Brittany                                   20. Charles V of France               10. Charles VI of France                       21. Joanna of Bourbon               5. Joan of France                             22. Stephen III, Duke of Bavaria               11. Isabeau of Bavaria                       23. Taddea Visconti               1. Margaret of Brittany                                         24. Robert II of Scotland               12. Robert III of Scotland                       25. Elizabeth Mure               6. James I of Scotland                             26. Sir John Drummond, 11th of Lennox               13. Anabella Drummond                       27. Mary Montifex               3. Isabella of Scotland                                   28. John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster               14. John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset                       29. Katherine Roet               7. Joan Beaufort                             30. Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent               15. Margaret Holland                       31. Alice FitzAlan

Notes

1. Anne of Brittany (1476/7–1514), queen successively of Charles VIII of France and Louis XII of France, was her widower's daughter by a subsequent marriage.