Margaret DE L'AIGLE ( -1141)

	L'Aigle coat of arms

Individual Events and Attributes

Marriage

	Modern statue honouring García Ramírez in Pamplona		The tomb of Blanca of Navarre whose decorated sarcophagus is a remarkable for its frieze depicting a parade of mourners.

Individual Note

Marguerite de l'Aigle (died 1141) was a daughter of Gilbert de l'Aigle, Seigneur de l'Aigle and his wife Juliana du Perche. She was Queen consort of Navarre, by her marriage to García Ramírez of Navarre.

Marguerite's paternal grandparents were Richer de l'Aigle, Seigneur de l'Aigle and his wife, Judith d'Avranches. Her maternal grandparents were Geoffrey II du Perche, Count of Perche and Mortagne, and his wife, Beatrix de Montdidier.

Marguerite’s siblings included Richer de l’Aigle, successor to their father, as Baron de l'Aigle.[1]

Marguerite was a descendent of Hedwig of France, daughter of Hugh Capet. Marguerite was also a distant cousin of Felicia of Roucy, second queen of Sancho Ramírez, King of Aragon.[2]

Marguerite married in 1130 to García Ramírez of Navarre, shortly before his accession to the throne of Navarre. "Garsias Ranimiriz" confirmed the rights and privileges of the church of Pamplona on the advice of "uxoris mee Margarite regina" by charter dated 1135.[3]

Marguerite was to bear García Ramírez a son and heir, Sancho VI, as well as two daughters who each married kings: the elder, Blanca, born after 1133, married Sancho III of Castile, while the younger, Margaret, named after her mother, married William I of Sicily. García's relationship with Marguerite was, however, unstable. She took many lovers and showed favouritism to her French relatives. She bore a second son named Rodrigo, whom her husband refused to recognise as his own. He was never acknowledged as a son by the Navarrese king, even after Marguerite's death, and he was widely considered a bastard, though his sister, Margaret did not treat him as such. He certainly never behaved as anything other than the son of a king.[4]

Marguerite died disgraced in 25 May 1141. Her husband later remarried, to Urraca, illegitimate daughter of Alfonso VII of Castile.

NOTES:

1 Ancestors of Marguerite de L'Aigle

2 Charles Cawley, Medieval Lands, NORMANY, NOBILITY

3 Norwich, 258.²

Sources