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- BIOGRAPHY
Marguerite de Bourgogne was born in 1290, daughter of Robert II, duc de Bourgogne, and Agnès de France, the youngest daughter of St. Louis IX, king of France and Marguerite de Provence.
In September 1305, at Vernon in Normandy, Marguerite married her cousin once removed, Louis de France, king of Navarre, who in 1314 would also ascend the French throne as Louis X of France, succeeding his father Philippe IV 'le Bel'. On 28 January 1311 Marguerite and Louis had a daughter Jeanne.
At the beginning of 1314, Philippe IV 'le Bel' ordered the arrest of his three daughters-in-law Marguerite, Jeanne and Blanche, following their denunciation by his daughter Isabelle, married to Edward II, king of England, that they had been caught committing adultery with two young knights, Philippe and Gautier d'Aunay. Under torture, these confessed their relationships with the princesses over three years, and they were then hung, drawn and quartered at Pontoise.
Marguerite, locked up in the fortress of Château-Gaillard, was said to have admitted her adultery, and was kept secretly in her prison for two years. She became queen of France at the death of her father-in-law Philippe IV on 29 November 1314. On 15 August 1315 she was found strangled or choked with her own hair. Her death was presumably ordered by her husband so that he could remarry.
Her daughter Jeanne later became queen regnant Jeanne II of Navarre after the death of her husband Philippe III, king of Navarre in 1343. Doubts were raised about her paternity, but she was undoubtedly the daughter of Marguerite and a great granddaughter of St. Louis IX.
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