Margaret of England, Duchess of Brabant

Margaret was born on 15 March 1275,[1] at Windsor Castle, the tenth child of King Edward I and his cousin Eleanor of Castile.

Margaret's fifteen siblings included Joan of Acre, Eleanor, Countess of Bar, Elizabeth of Rhuddlan and her father's successor, Edward II of England.

On 8 July 1290 Margaret married John II, Duke of Brabant in Westminster Abbey, London, becoming Duchess of Brabant less than four years later on 3 May 1294. She had been acquainted with her groom since childhood,[2] as they had been betrothed in 1278 when she was three years old. Margaret's wedding festivities were splendidly extravagant; they included a procession of knights in full body armour and richly dressed ladies singing as they paraded through the streets of London to the music provided by harpers, minstrels and violinists, while fools danced.[3] Their only child was John III, Duke of Brabant, successor to his father.

Margaret, described as having been a good-natured, merry child in her youth,[3] was unhappy at the Brabant court, as she was forced to accept her husband's perennial succession of mistresses and the illegitimate children they bore him,[3] all of whom were raised at court alongside her own son John. The latter was her only child, born 10 years into her marriage to the Duke.

During the reign of John II, Brabant continued supporting a coalition to stop French expansion. He tried to conquer South Holland from the pro-French count John II of Holland, but was not successful. John, who suffered from kidney stones and wanted his duchy to be peacefully handed over to his son upon his death, in 1312 signed the famous Charter of Kortenberg.

Margaret and John attended the wedding of her brother Edward to Isabella of France in Boulogne on 25 January 1308. They accompanied the royal pair to England for their joint coronation at Westminster Abbey the following month.

Margaret died twenty-two years after her husband, during the reign of her nephew Edward III of England. She died in Brabant and was buried at the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula, Brussels. Her tomb and that of her husband have been destroyed.