Marie of Berry

Marie of Berry
Duchess of Auvergne Countess of Montpensier
Marie of Berry and her third husband John of Bourbon. Guillaume Revel, Armorial d'Auvergne: BNF Français 22297 f. 17r
Born	c. 1375
Died	June 1434 Lyon
Burial	Priory of Souvigny
Spouse	Louis III de Chatillon Philip of Artois, Count of Eu John I, Duke of Bourbon
Issue	Charles of Artois, Count of Eu Bonne of Artois Catherine of Artois Charles I, Duke of Bourbon Louis, Count of Forez Louis I, Count of Montpensier
House	Valois-Berry
Father	John, Duke of Berry
Mother	Joanna of Armagnac

Marie of Berry (c. 1375 – June 1434) was suo jure Sovereign Duchess of Auvergne and Countess of Montpensier in 1416-1434. She was the daughter of John, Duke of Berry, and Joanna of Armagnac. She was married three times. She acted as administrator of the Duchy of Bourbon for her third spouse John I, Duke of Bourbon, during his imprisonment in England after he was captured following the French defeat at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, until 1434.

Marie was born about the year 1375, the youngest daughter of John "the Magnificent", Duke of Berry and Joanna of Armagnac. Through her father, a great collector of antiquities, art patron and bibliophile, she was a granddaughter of King John II of France. She had three brothers, Charles, Louis, and John; and one older sister, Bonne.

The first of Marie's three marriages took place on 29 May 1386 in the Cathedral of Saint-Etienne at Bourges: aged about 11, Marie married Louis III de Châtillon as her first husband. Marie's father gave her a dowry of 70,000 francs; he gave Louis, his son-in-law, the county of Dunois. The marriage and trousseau had been arranged by the two fathers in 1384: "A Duke will dress her, in bed and out of it, and a Count will put the jewels on her", John Duke of Berry and Guy Count de Blois-Châtillon agreed. The festivities at the wedding de ces jeunes enfants ("of these young children") are described in Jean Froissart's Chronicles.

There were no children from this marriage, and Louis died on 15 July 1391. On 27 January 1393 a marriage contract was drawn up for Marie and Philip of Artois, Count of Eu. They were married the next month at the Palais du Louvre in Paris; King Charles VI of France himself paid for the festivities, while her father gave her a dowry of 70,000 francs. Marie was now about 18; Philip was about 35, having been born in 1358. She was to bear him two sons and two daughters. The King appointed Philip Constable in 1392. Philippe went on Crusade and fought alongside his friend Jean Le Maingre ("Boucicaut"), marshal of France at the disastrous Battle of Nicopolis on 25 September 1396. Both were captured, and Philippe died some months later in captivity at Micalizo, now called Mihalıççık, in western Turkey.