Margaret of L'Aigle

Margaret of L'Aigle
Queen consort of Navarre
Tenure	1134–1141
Died	25 May 1141
Spouse	García Ramírez of Navarre
Issue	Sancho VI of Navarre Blanche of Navarre, Queen of Castile Margaret of Navarre Henry, Count of Montescaglioso
House	L'Aigle
Father	Gilbert of L'Aigle
Mother	Juliana du Perche

Sketch of an incompletely preserved seal of Margaret’s son Sancho VI, shown on a horse in the Mediterranean style

Margaret of L’Aigle (French: Marguerite de L’Aigle, Spanish: Margarita de L’Aigle) (died 1141) was a Queen consort of Navarre, the first wife to García Ramírez of Navarre.^[1] She was the daughter of Gilbert of L’Aigle and Juliana du Perche, daughter of Geoffrey II, Count of Perche.

Margaret’s paternal grandparents were Richer of L’Aigle and Judith d’Avranches, whilst Margaret’s maternal grandparents were Geoffrey II de Perche, Count of Perche and Mortagne, and his wife, Beatrice of Montdidier.^[2] Margaret’s siblings included Richer of L’Aigle, successor to her father as Baron of L'Aigle. Margaret was a distant cousin of Queen Felicia of Roucy.

Queen of Navarre

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

Margaret was to bear García 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.

Garcia’s relationship with Margaret was, however, unstable. She supposedly took many lovers and showed favouritism to her French relatives.^[4] She bore a second son named Rodrigo, whom her husband refused to recognise as his own.^[5] He was never acknowledged as a son by the Navarrese king, even after Margarets 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.^[6]

Margaret died disgraced on 25 May 1141. Her husband later remarried.

References

1. Gaztambide, J. G. (ed.), (1997), Colección diplomatica de la catedral de Pamplona
2. Jan B Young. Our Ancestry - Volume 1. Page 105.
3. Cawley, Charles, Norman nobility: MARGUERITE de Laigle, Medieval Lands database, Foundation for Medieval Genealogy
4. Hans Houben, "Enrico di Navarra", Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani
5. Chronicle of Hugo Falcandus, History of the Tyrants of Sicily, is available in its original Latin at The Latin Library. Henry is also mentioned in the chronicle of Romuald Guarna. Both historians are contemporaries.
6. John Julius Norwich, 258.