Individual Details

Emma de Laval

(1197 - 27 Apr 1264)

According to Wikipedia:

Emma de Laval 1 (circa 1197/1198 -April 27, 1264), lady of Laval.

Biography [ edit | modify the code ]

Daughter of Guy V de Laval and Avoise de Craon . The death of her brother Guy VI of Laval in September 1211 made her the heir to the seigneury. Emma was only 13 years old and custom made 14 years of age for girls. The lease of his land was therefore continued to Raoul de Beaumont .
Legitimate heiress [ edit | modify the code ]

For the Art of verifying dates 2 , King Philippe Auguste , whose important succession drew attention, wanted to know what were the uses of the province in this regard. In 1211 , the King of France had recourse to the Seneschal of Maine and Anjou, Guillaume des Roches , to learn about local customs in his provinces of Touraine , Anjou and Maine .
In detail, it was a question of inquiring about “Laval affairs”, where Emma, ​​daughter of Guy VI, had just inherited barony 3  ; Seneschal opined that the king was to marry the heiress, and the son had to deal with him the repurchase 4 .
It was Robert, Count of Alençon and Séez, from the Counts of Ponthieu and Bellême, who appeared to fit the designs of Philippe-Auguste. The latter obtained the consent of Havoise de Craon , Emma's mother, that of the lords of Mayenne, Craon and Beaumont, and concluded Robert's marriage with the heiress of Laval. The ceremony took place at the court in 1214. Havoise de Craon was assigned a dower that his son-in-law increased later by adding the usufruct of the lands of Gravelle and Montsûrs . Donations made by her to her second husband were confirmed; he shared the fiefs of Montjean and Beaulieu, plus the enjoyment of some other property 5. They even gave him hopes for the goods of England, in case King John of England came to restore them; but the English prince returned nothing.
Unions and descent [ edit | modify the code ]

Towards 1214/1215, she first married Robert I st Alençon , Count of Alençon , who, before taking possession of the land of Laval, paid him the right of redemption. Avoise de Craon , Emma's mother, was still alive, and asked to be assigned her dower. This article was settled in 1215 at the court of Philippe Auguste, as can be seen from Robert's letters, to which those from the king are attached, which confirm them 6 . Robert died in 1217 , leaving his wife pregnant with a son. This posthumous son, successor of his father in the county of Alençon under the name of Robert II, died at the end of the year 1219 .
In July 1218, Emma remarries with Mathieu II de Montmorency , † 1230, Lord of Montmorency , Constable of France, widower of Gertrude, daughter of Raoul de Nesle, Count of Soissons. Mathieu de Montmorency died on24 November 1230 after having two children with Emma:
Guy VII of Laval (1219 - 1265), baron of Vitré , lord of Laval ( 1264 - 1265 ), lord of Acquigny , Hérouville , Aubigné and Olivet . In 1239 he married Philippa de Vitré , daughter of André III, Lord of Vitré .
Avoise († 1270), wife of Jacques de Château-Gontier , lord of Château-Gontier and of Nogent-le-Rotrou .
Alix († 1247), wife of Roger de Rozoy.
The same year that Matthieu de Montmorency died, Emma went to Paris to deal with her business with Bouchard VI de Montmorency , eldest son of the Constable and Gertrude de Nesle. She is engaged by Saint Louis to go on to a third marriage. Her son was barely entering his twelfth year, and his minority which was to last for another nine years needed a protector. Emma was only in her thirty-third year, and her friends, as well as her noble vassals, of whom she took advice, advised her to consent to a new alliance. In 1231 , Emma married for a third time Baron Jean de Toucy de Puisaye, Lord of Proisie, allied with the houses of Bourbon, Dampierre and Mello. Her marriage contract was kept in the Laval archives, in which her new husband assigns her dower, and undertakes to make her enjoy the one assigned to her by Mathieu de Montmorency. Jean de Choisy and Toucy was in 1235 , the number of barons who subscribed to the princes of the blood the complaint by them to Pope Gregory IX , against the clergy companies 7 . She gives him a daughter: Jeanne , married to Thiébaut II de Bar , count of Bar-le-Duc 8 . Dreux de Mello , Archambault de Bourbon ,Guillaume II de Dampierre , Jean de Montmirail , were witnesses to the contract
The King Saint Louis (we do not know for what reason), tried in 1238 to ensure the town and castle of Laval, put garrison. To prevent it, the Jean de Toucy promised to keep the place himself; and for safety of his word, he engaged his castle of Saint-Fargeau and his lands of Burgundy .
In 1256 , in a charter dated Sunday before the feast of St. Thomas (Apostle 17 December ), Emma promised Charles I st of Anjou , Count of Provence and Anjou, to deliver him to great and small force , his castle in Laval . The act is sealed with an oval shaped seal, bearing the figure of a leopard. Emma died onApril 27, 12649 and was buried in the Abbey of Clermont .

Events

Birth1197
Death27 Apr 1264

Families