Margaret of Provence

I require you, by the faith which you have just now plighted, if the Saracens take this city, to strike off my head before they lay hands on me.

Margaret of Provence (French: Marguerite; spring 1221 – 20 December 1295) was Queen of France by marriage to King Louis IX.

Quotes

• Three days after Margaret had heard of her husband's captivity she was confined of a son, named John, whom she surnamed Tristan. For security sake, she had an old knight, eighty years of age, to lie at the foot of her bed. Shortly before her labor came on, she knelt at his feet and begged a boon, which the knight swore to grant. Then she said, "I require you, ... if the Saracens take this city, to strike off my head before they lay hands on me." The knight replied, "Be sure that I will do it willingly, for I had myself resolved on slaying you rather than that you should fall into their power."
  • John of Joinville, p. 84; reported in Jules Michelet, History of France, tr. G. H. Smith (New York, 1882), vol. 1, p. 302

External links

• Encyclopedic article on Margaret of Provence on Wikipedia