Marie de Luxembourg

Marie de Luxembourg (d. April 1, 1547) was a French noblewoman, the elder daughter and principal heiress of Pierre II de Luxembourg, Count of St. Pol, by Margaret, a daughter of Louis, Duke of Savoy. She belonged to the French, cadet branch of a dynasty whose senior line had reigned as Dukes of Luxembourg and provided several Holy Roman Emperors before becoming extinct in 1437.

She was first married as a child to her maternal uncle, Jacques of Savoy, Count of Romont. A commander in the army of Charles the Bold, he was deprived of his appanage, the Vaud, by Berne and Fribourg shortly before her prospects as heiress were greatly diminished following the execution for treason of her grandfather, the French constable Louis de Luxembourg, Count of Saint-Pol in 1475, which entailed the sequestration of his property.

Her status and inheritance in France were restored upon her re-marriage to François, Count of Vendôme in 1487. Although she had a younger sister, Françoise d'Enghien, who wed Philip of Cleves-Ravenstein, and her father left several younger brothers, she brought the Bourbons vast estates, including the counties of Saint-Pol and Soissons in Picardy.

At François's death in 1495, she became guardian of their minor son Charles de Bourbon, and managed the lands he inherited from his father as well as her own. She enlarged the Collégiale Saint Georges, rebuilt the Church of Saint Martin, and donated the Porte Saint Georges-aux-Bourgeois-de-Vendôme to become the mairie.

Her daughter by her first marriage, Princess Françoise of Savoy (d. 1511), died childless of her marriage to Count Henry III of Nassau-Breda. By her second husband, Marie had six children, including:
*Charles (1490-1527), Duke of Vendôme
*François (1491-1545), Count of Saint Pol and of Chaumont, Duke of Estouteville
*Louis (1493-1557), Cardinal de Bourbon, Archbishop of Sens
*Antoinette (1493-1583), married Claude, Duke of Guise
*Louise (1495-1575), Abbess of Fontevrault

She lived to see her sons and son-in-law, and her Bourbon and Guise grandchildren become mortal enemies, leading the Huguenot and Catholic factions, respectively, vying for power in France as the Valois dynasty approached extinction. She was still living when her great-granddaughter was crowned Mary, Queen of Scots in 1542. She died in the château de Fère-en-Tardenois in Picardy at the age of 75, but was buried with her second husband in Vendôme.