Margaret, Countess of Vertus

Margaret
Countess of Vertus and Etampes
Detail of a folio from the Book of Hours of Marguerite, c. 1430
Born	4 April 1406
Died	24 April 1466(1466-04-24) (aged 60) Abbey at Guiche, Order of Sainte Claire near Blois
Burial	Abbey at Guiche, Order of Sainte Claire near Blois
Spouse	Richard of Brittany, Count of Étampes
Issue among others	Francis II, Duke of Brittany Catherine, Princess of Orange
House	House of Valois House of Montfort (by marriage)
Father	Louis I, Duke of Orléans
Mother	Valentina Visconti
Religion	Roman Catholicism

Margaret, Countess of Vertus (French: Marguerite d'Orléans), was born on 4 December 1406. She was the daughter of Louis I, Duke of Orléans, and Valentina Visconti, and the granddaughter and niece of King Charles V of France and King Charles VI of France, respectively. Her mother was the daughter of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, Duke of Milan, and Isabella of France, who was a daughter of King John II of France. Her brother was the famous and unfortunate Charles, Duke of Orléans, (father of the future Louis XII of France), captured at Agincourt and imprisoned for twenty-five years in England and who during his long captivity, became the greatest poet of the 15th century in the French language.

In 1423 she married Richard of Montfort, son of John IV, Duke of Brittany, and Joanna of Navarre, later Queen of England as wife of Henry Bolingbroke. Margaret succeeded her brother Philip as Countess of Vertus. She and Richard had seven children, of whom only two, Francis and Catherine, would have progeny. In 1458 Francis succeeded his uncle Arthur III as Duke of Brittany. Margaret, widowed in 1438, lived for a long time at Longchamp and in other monasteries with her younger daughters, Margaret and Madeleine (who was born after her father's death). She was a very pious woman.

The Book of Hours of Marguerite d'Orleans (see below), a defining example of the Illustrated Prayer Book of the Fifteenth Century, was made for her so that she might practice her devotion on a daily basis. She obtained a declaration from the Cardinal of Estouteville that sheltered her liberty and that of her daughters as they moved among the convents and religious monasteries of northern France. She finally retired to the Abbey at Guiche, order of Sainte Claire near Blois, where she died April 24, 1466 at the age of sixty.