Marie of Valois, Duchess of Calabria

Tomb of Maria of Valois in Santa Chiara (Naples).

Marie of Valois (1309 – 23 October 1331), was the eldest daughter of Charles of Valois by his third wife Mahaut of Châtillon. She was a member of the House of Valois. One of her five children was Queen Joanna I of Naples.

Marriage

Marie married Charles, Duke of Calabria, in 1323 when she was only fourteen years of age. Charles married her after the death of his first wife, Catherine of Habsburg, who had died without bearing Charles any children. Marie earned the gratitude of the genteel women in Florence when she persuaded her husband to allow them to wear what they could afford.^[1]

Charles and Marie had five children:

• Eloisa (b. January or February 1325 – d. December 27, 1325).
• Maria (b. April 1326 – d. 1328).
• Charles Martel (b. Florence, April 13, 1327 – d. Florence, April 21, 1327).
• Joanna (b. Naples, March 1328 – d. castello di San Fele, May 22, 1382), Queen of Naples after succeeded her grandfather.
• Maria (b. Naples, May 1329 – d. Naples, May 20, 1366), Countess of Alba.

Her eldest surviving daughter, Joanna, became Queen of Naples. Her youngest daughter, Maria, born six months after Charles' death, became the Countess of Alba.^[2]

Marie's husband died in 1328 and she never remarried. She died in 1331 at the age of 22, during a pilgrimage to Bari.^[3] Her mother and two sisters outlived her.

Ancestors

Ancestors of Marie of Valois, Duchess of Calabria

16. Louis VIII of France               8. Louis IX of France                       17. Blanche of Castile               4. Philip III of France                             18. Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Provence               9. Marguerite of Provence                       19. Beatrice of Savoy               2. Charles of Valois                                   20. Peter II of Aragon               10. James I of Aragon                       21. Marie of Montpellier               5. Isabella of Aragon                             22. Andrew II of Hungary               11. Violant of Hungary                       23. Yolanda de Courtenay               1. Marie of Valois                                         24. Hugh I, Count of Blois               12. Guy III, Count of Saint-Pol                       25. Mary, Countess of Blois               6. Guy IV, Count of Saint-Pol                             26. Henry II, Duke of Brabant               13. Matilda of Brabant                       27. Marie of Hohenstaufen               3. Mahaut of Châtillon                                   28. John I, Duke of Brittany               14. John II, Duke of Brittany                       29. Blanche of Navarre               7. Marie of Brittany                             30. Henry III of England               15. Beatrice of England                       31. Eleanor of Provence

Notes

1. Goldstone (2010), p. 17.
2. Marie de Valois
3. Émile-G. Léonard: Histoire de Jeanne Ire, reine de Naples, comtesse de Provence (1343-1382) : La jeunesse de la reine Jeanne, t. I, Paris et Monaco, Auguste Picard, coll. « Mémoires et documents historiques », 1932, 730 p., p. 142

References

• Goldstone, Nancy (2010). Joanna, The Notorious Queen of Naples, Jerusalem and Sicily. London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson. ISBN 9780297860860.