Margaret of Huntingdon, Duchess of Brittany

Margaret of Huntingdon (1145–1201) was a Scottish princess and duchess consort of Brittany. Two of her brothers, Malcolm IV and William I were Scottish kings. She was the wife of Conan IV, Duke of Brittany and the mother of Constance, Duchess of Brittany.^[1] Her second husband was Humphrey de Bohun, hereditary Constable of England. Following her second marriage, Margaret styled herself as the Countess of Hereford.

Family

Margaret was born in 1145, the second eldest daughter^[2] of Henry of Scotland, Earl of Huntingdon, Earl of Northumbria, and Ada de Warenne. She had an older sister Ada, and two younger sisters, Marjorie and Matilda. Two of her brothers, Malcolm and William became kings of Scotland, and she had another brother, David, Earl of Huntingdon, who married Maud of Chester. Her paternal grandparents were King David I of Scotland and Maud, Countess of Huntingdon, and her maternal grandparents were William de Warenne, 2nd Earl of Surrey and Elizabeth of Vermandois.

In 1152, when she was seven years of age, her father died.

Marriages and issue

In 1160, Margaret married her first husband, Conan IV, Duke of Brittany, Earl of Richmond. Upon her marriage, she was styled as the Duchess of Brittany and Countess of Richmond. Margaret's origins and first marriage were deduced by Benedict of Peterborugh who recorded filia sororis regis Scotiae Willelmi comitissa Brittanniae gave birth in 1186 to filium Arturum. Together Conan and Margaret had at least two children:

• Constance, Duchess of Brittany (c. 1161 – September 1201), married firstly in 1181, Geoffrey Plantagenet, by whom she had three children, including Arthur of Brittany; she married secondly in 1188, Ranulph de Blondeville, 4th Earl of Chester; she married thirdly in 1199, Guy of Thouars, by whom she had twin daughters, including Alix of Thouars.
• William (still alive towards 1200).^{[3][lower-alpha 1]}
• Maybe one or more children who died young.^{[4][lower-alpha 2][lower-alpha 3]}

Margaret's husband died in February 1171, leaving her a widow at the age of twenty-six. Shortly before Easter 1171, she married her second husband, Humphrey III de Bohun, Hereditary Constable of England (c. 1155–c. 1181). He was the son of Humphrey de Bohun and Margaret of Hereford. Hereafter, she styled herself Countess of Hereford. The marriage produced a son and possibly a daughter:

• Henry de Bohun, 1st Earl of Hereford (1176 – 1 June 1220), a Magna Carta surety; he married Maud FitzGeoffrey de Mandeville of Essex by whom he had three children, including Humphrey de Bohun, 2nd Earl of Hereford and from whom descended the Bohun Earls of Hereford. Maud was the daughter of Geoffrey Fitzpeter, 1st Earl of Essex by his first wife Beatrice de Say.
• Margaret de Bohun (d. 17 November 1189/1195), married to count Pedro Manrique de Lara, Viscount of Narbonne.^{[lower-alpha 4]}

Margaret's second husband died in late 1181 and she then married the English nobleman Sir William FitzPatrick Hertburn who acquired the lands of Washington in Durham in 1183.^[5] This marriage also produced one son:

• Sir William de Wessington (c. 1183–c. 1239), he married Alice de Lexington by whom he had issue, the Washington

Margaret died in 1201 and was buried in Sawtrey Abbey, Huntingdonshire. Her third and final husband had died around 1194

Ancestry

Notes

References