Margaret of Villehardouin

Margaret of Villehardouin (Greek: Μαργαρίτα Βιλλεαρδουίνου; 1266 – February/March 1315) was the daughter of William II of Villehardouin, Prince of Achaea, and his third wife Anna Komnene Doukaina.

In ca. 1276, her father granted her two thirds (16 knights' fiefs) of the Barony of Akova. After William II's death in 1278, as he had no sons, per the Treaty of Viterbo, the princely title passed to the King of Sicily, Charles of Anjou, the father-in-law of Margaret's elder sister Isabella. Her mother Anna retained only the Villehardouins' patrimonial domain, the Barony of Kalamata, and the fortress of Chlemoutsi, but was forced to give them up in 1282 in exchange for lands elsewhere in Messenia. Margaret remained under her mother's guardianship until Anna's death on 4 January 1286.

In 1304, she claimed from her brother-in-law, Prince Philip of Savoy, one fifth of the Principality of Achaea, but was rebuffed. She repeated her claim, this time for the entire principality, on the death of her sister Isabella in 1312. Margaret's claim rested on her interpretation of the Treaty of Viterbo, which stipulated the creation of such a fief, but only for a male descendant of William II. A later document dated to 1344 also asserts that William had included in his will the stipulation that Margaret would inherit her sister, if the latter died childless, but Isabella had two daughters. In addition, when Charles of Anjou gave the Principality to Isabella in 1289, he explicitly limited her heirs to her own descendants. As J. Longnon commented, her rights on Achaea were "more than doubtful", and her claims were again disregarded by the principality's suzerain, Philip of Taranto, in favour of her niece Matilda of Hainaut and her husband, Louis of Burgundy.

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