Margaret of Hungary

Margaret ("Margit") (born 1175, living 1223) was the Empress consort of Isaac II Angelos, Byzantine Emperor.  She took the baptismal name of "Maria" when she came to Constantinople and is thus called "Mariam Pannoniam" (Mary of Pannonia) by Niketas Choniates in his History in book "Urbs Capta" section 7.

Margaret was the eldest daughter of Bela III, King of Hungary (crowned 1173) and his first wife Agnes of Antioch. She was a younger sister of Emeric, King of Hungary (d Sep/Oct 1204). Her younger siblings were Andrew II of Hungary (d. 1235) and Constance of Hungary. Two other siblings, Solomon and Stephen, are mentioned in the "Europäische Stammtafeln: Stammtafeln zur Geschichte der Europäischen Staaten" by Detlev Schwennicke. They reportedly died young.  Margaret's paternal grandparents were Geza II of Hungary and Euphrosyne of Kiev. Her maternal grandparents were Raynald of Chatillon and Constance of Antioch (joint princes of Antioch).

Bela had conquered several cities that had been part of the Byzantine Empire, but then made peace with the new Emperor Isaac II Angelos, who married as his second wife, Bela's daughter Margaret Jan 1186, when she was just ten years old, and received these cities as her dowry.  For his part, in addition to the cities, Isaac wanted a politically strategic alliance with Hungary in order to strengthen his claim to the throne.  Upon this marriage, Margaret took the baptismal name "Maria".  At this point, Margaret would have gone into the household of Isaac, to be raised there until she was of the right age to consummate the marraige.

• Manuel Angelos (1189/92 – 1 Oct 1205/1207), he was evidently the elder son, being contemplated in 1205 to ascend the Byzantine throne (Rodd, p78) Garland states that Boniface, apparently in 1204, proclaimed Manuel, "emperor of the Romaioi" ("Byzantine Empresses", page 224)  Peter Stewart on Gen-Med Sep 2010 : "The article on Margaret by Wertner (note 2 on page 223) also says that Manuel died at Nicaea in 1212, on 17 June, but no source for this information is cited there either. See the article by Wertner, p. 223 note 2" And in a later note he states : "The claim that Manuel was 35 years old in 1212, i.e. born in 1177 when his mother was aged 2, was made by Hopf, presumably Carl Hopf in _Geschichte Griechenlands vom Beginn des Mittelalters bis auf unsere Zeit_, 2 vols (Leipzig, 1867-1868). This was reprinted in 1960...." "It is worth noting that his half-sister Eirene Maria, wife of the German king Philipp of Swabia, arranged for the anniversary of her brother Manuel's death to be commemorated at Speyer cathedral on 1 October ("Manuel frater Marie regine et Effrosina soror eiusdem obierunt, quorum anniversarium ipsa constituit celebrari", see Hansjörg Grafen, 'Spuren der ältesten Speyerer Necrologüberlieferung: Ein verlorenes Totenbuch aus dem 11. Jahrhundert' in _Frümittelalterliche Studien_ 19 (1985), p. 408). Since Eirene Maria herself died in August 1208 this means that her brother Manuel was dead by 1207 at the latest, so unless she had an otherwise unknown full-brother also named Manuel this clearly precludes his dying at Nicaea in 1212. NB Wertner, loc. cit., adds that Manuel had no known wife or offspring."
• John Angelos (~1193 – before 13 Jan 1254). Peter Stewart on Gen-Med Sep 2010: "Proofs of his parentage are quoted with references by Wertner on pp. 224-225." He migrated to Hungary and ruled over Syrmia and Bacs (1227–42) as a vassal of king Bela IV of Hungary.  He married Matilda von Vianden.  He was dead before 13 Jan 1254.  One of their children might have been the Jelena who married Stephen Uros, King of Serbia.
  

• Demetrius of Montferrat born 1205 ("two years old at his father's death"), he married Bonne de la Roche, a sister of the Lord of Athens but they had no children.  He died in 1227 (Source), his widow remarried to his half-brother Bela de St Omer. (Source)  In the absence of any male successor to his claims to Thessalonica, he transferred his rights to Emperor Frederick II to whose court he had fled.

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Boniface left a will in which, he had designated Demetrius as his successor in Thessalonica, under the regency of Margaret.  His son William, by an earlier marriage, succeeded to the Marquisate of Montferrat.  The barons however, knowing that a strong government was necessary, constituted themselves a council of regency for the infant.

In 1207, on his father's death, Demetrius became king of Thessalonica, at least in title.  The Emperor Henry visited Thessalonica to receive the homage, in the infant's name but was barred from the city by the bailiff Umberto di Biandrate ("Oberto II of Biandrate", Wikipedia) until he would agree to outrageous demands. (Source) Margaret, now in the Emperor's presence, put herself in his hands and revealed the plot against the infant.  At this time the Emperor crowned the new infant King of Thessalonica. (Source)

Biandrate fled, but conspiring at a distance, returned once more in 1216 to claim the Regency, possibly on behalf of William, Marquis of Montferrat, Demetrius' half-brother. "In response to Queen Margaret's appeal the Emperor hurried to her assistance, but arrived on the scene only to die with mysterious suddenness in the flower of his age."(Source) Margaret married thirdly Nicholas de St Omer, who with his brother, had accompanied his maternal uncle James of Avesnes (Jacques d'Avesnes) on the Crusade and was granted a fief in Doris.  Nicholas was the fifth son of his father William castellan of St Omer in France.  Nicholas is also called "Lord of Boetia". (Source1, Source2: "Margit of Hungary" on Charles Cawley's, "Medlands") The Santameri hills in this area owe their name to a corruption of "St Omer". (Source)  Nicholas had been one of the many crusaders who accompanied Boniface when the latter used force to secure his fiefdom in Thessalonica and surrounding areas.

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Apparently Nicholas wasn't really very old at this time, and so he and his brother were merely assigned the fiefdom called "the pass of Gravia" or perhaps just "Gravia", not a very imposing sounding fiefdom.  When Boeotia was next conquered "Thebes with Boeotia and Athens with Attica and the Megarid" were all bestowed on Othon de la Roche. (Source)  Obviously a rather important person, as far as Boniface was concerned.  And that is how Nicholas' son Bela, by marrying Othon's heiress became joint-Lord of Thebes and I suppose Boeotia and Athens... or something.  Nicholas died sometime between 1217 and 1219.

With Nicholas, Margaret is apparently the mother of his two known sons:

• Bela de St Omer, the elder son, born 1208/18, living 1240 but apparently dead by 1258, married Bonne de la Roche, niece of Othon de la Roche, Lord of Thebes, Athens, Boeotia, Attica and the Megarid.  When Othon died, Bela succeeded (in right of his wife) as joint-Lord of Athens. (Source)  Their eldest son Nicholas would succeed to this title in 1258.
• Guillaume de St Omer, the younger son, born 1209/19.  ESNF suggests that he is that one of this name, who married before 15 Oct 1256 Pernel de Lacy, but died childless.  If so, he was living 19 Oct 1265.  However a reference by John Higgins on Gen-Med quoting from F. N. Craig's article in NEHGR, gives that William (Guillaume) a different father.  Peter Stewart on Gen-Med states : "The chronicle ascribed to Baudouin d'Avesnes says that Nicholas of Saint-Omer's younger son Guillaume died without an heir ("Li aisnes ot non Bylaus et li autres Guillaumes. Cil moru sans hoir de sa char..."), although it is also confused about his mother calling her a sister of Guillaume de la Roche, duke of Athens." But see also this entry in Codex diplomaticus Hungariae cited by Peter Stewart on Gen-Med 9 Sep 2010 : "...that he held lands in the Angevin kingdom of Naples (Sicily) and was deprived in 1281 after leaving."  But then on 12 Sep 2010 Peter Stewart on Gen-Med states : "It turns out that this is wrong after all - the Guillaume of Saint-Omer who was given lands by Charles of Anjou was in fact a first cousin twice removed to his namesake the younger son of Nicholas by Margaret of Hungary, so the basis for speculating that the latter returned to Flanders before June 1281 disappears.  The castellany of Saint-Omer was inherited by Beatrice (a sister of Nicholas) who married Philip of Aire and died in 1253 leaving Saint-Omer to her daughter Mathilde, wife of Jean II of Ypres, lord of Reninge. Their son Guillaume VII was father of the Guillaume VIII, who took part in the campaigns of Charles of Anjou and lived until 1283 or later. This was the man whose lands were repossessed in 1281.  The genealogy above is set out by Ernest Warlop in _The Flemish Nobility Before 1300_, 3 vols (Courtrai 1975-1976). For Guillaume VIII the references are: _Les châtelains de Flandre: étude d'histoire constitutionnelle_ by Willem Blommaert (1915) and a charter of Philippe de Quienville, who was in charge of Saint-Omer in Guillaume's absence, dated February 1279:
  • "Jou Phelippes de Kienvile, chevaliers, tenans le liu et warde de le tiere mon chier segneur, monsegneur Willaume, castelain de Saint Omer, liquels est en lointaines tieres, fai savoir... ke mesir Wautiers, etc. a vendu iretaulement, etc., par devant mi et par devant ses pers, houmes audit castelain ki à ce furent apelé soufisanment, c'est à savoir monsegneur Boissart de Renenghes et monsegneur Jehan de Cornus..."
    

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Thanks to Derek Howard for the following two references:

• Sir Rennell Rodd, "The Princes of Achaia and the Chronicles of Morea : A Study of Greece in the Middle Ages", Vol I. Edward Arnold, London (1907)
• Queller, Donald E and Thomas F Madden, "The Fourth Crusade: The Conquest of Constantinople", Second Edition, University of Pennsylvania Press (1997)
• Andrea, Alfred J, "Contemporary Sources for the Fourth Crusade", Revised Edition (2000)

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