Margaret of Geneva

Margaret of Geneva (1180?-1252), countess of Savoy, was the daughter of William I, Count of Geneva, and Beatrice de Faucigny (1160-1196).

She was supposed to become the third wife of Philip II of France. However, when her father was escorting her to France in May 1195, Thomas I of Savoy carried her off. Attracted by her youth and her beauty, Count Thomas then married her himself, claiming that Philip II was already married (the French King had married Ingeborg of Denmark in 1193 but had repudiated her soon thereafter). Margaret's father fell sick and died after the wedding, and her mother died the following year. Margaret was the mother of either 14 or 19 children.

Issue

The children of Marguerite and Thomas I of Savoy were:

• Amadeus IV of Savoy (1197–1253)
• Helena of Savoy (d. 1230)
• Humbert (d. 1223)
• Thomas, Count of Flanders, count in Piedmont
• Elisabeth of Savoy (d. 1235)
• Aimone (d. 1237), Lord of Chablais
• Henry (1205-1230), Lord of Lyon
• William of Savoy, Bishop of Valence and Dean of Vienne
• Amadeus of Savoy, Bishop of Maurienne
• Mary of Savoy (d. 1210)
• Magdalena of Savoy (d. 1239), abbess of Hautecombe Abbey
• Peter II of Savoy, Earl of Richmond and later disputed count of Savoy
• Philip I of Savoy, archbishop of Lyon, later Count Palatine of Burgundy by marriage and disputed count of Savoy in 1268
• Boniface of Savoy, Archbishop of Canterbury
• Beatrice of Savoy (1205 – 4 January 1267), wife of Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Provence. She was married in 1219 and was mother to four queens consort and maternal grandmother of Philip III of France and Edward I of England.
• Alasia of Savoy (d. 1250), abbess of St Pierre, Lyon
• Agatha of Savoy (d. 1245), abbess of St Pierre, Lyon
• Margaret of Savoy (d. 1273), wife of Hartmann I of Kyburg
• Avita of Savoy (1215–92), wife of Baldwin de Redvers, 7th Earl of Devon and later of Robert Aguillon (d. 1286)

Margaret was the ancestress of many royal houses, including the Valois and Bourbons. After her death, she was buried at Hautecombe Abbey in Savoy.

References

• Marguerite (Beatrix) of Geneva