Marie I de Coucy, Countess of Soissons

Marie de Coucy (* April 1366 in Coucy, † 1405) was a French aristocrat in the 14th century. She was a daughter of Sire Enguerrand de Coucy VII and Princess Isabelle, daughter of King Edward III. of England.

Marie was born in France on the ancestral home of her family, but grew up mainly in the English court in London, where her mother retreated again and again as soon as the father opened the long campaigns in Europe. At the age of ten, she was accepted into the household of Queen Joan of France. As the oldest of three daughters Marie was regarded as the sole heir of the undivided ownership of the Sire de Coucy, who included not only the county Soissons also the great barony of Coucy, with its mighty castle and the nearly 150 communities. In 1383 it was with Henry of Bar, the oldest son and heir of the Duke of Bar and cousin of King Charles VI. of France, married. On this occasion it was endowed by their father with the castle reigns of Oisy and Marle as dowry. 1390 was their only child and heir, Robert of Bar, born.

In 1396 Marie's husband and father involved in the Crusade of Count John of Nevers against the Ottomans in the Balkans. But they were caught in the Battle of Nicopolis in captivity of the Sultan, in which her father died a year later. Her husband died shortly afterwards, already released from captivity, of the plague. With her infant son, she came in a precarious position, given its heritage awakened desires of others. Especially her stepmother, Isabelle of Lorraine, claimed the half of inheritance as jointure, which Marie denied her. Both women performed so in the following years against each other several processes before the royal parliament in Paris without disclosing a permanent compromise could be found. Trying Queen Isabeau, Marie with her father to marry Duke Stephen of Bavaria, provoked the opposition of the French nobility, who did not want to know in the hands of a foreign prince, the strategically important barony Coucy.

The king's brother, Duke Louis of Orléans, therefore, urged in 1400 successfully, probably serving with extortionate means and own enrichment Marie for sale of Coucy. An agreement was reached 400,000 livre as the purchase price and a lifelong enjoyment of Coucy by Marie. The Duke Marie could move to a refund of half the price, but still paid only 60,000 livre from. To the remaining payments Marie was now against the Duke of Orléans in court before, until she suddenly died in 1405 not without the " suspicion of poison murder ".

Marie's son led the processes continued success. Ultimately Coucy remained in the possession of the Duke of Orléans in 1498 and went into royal ownership of, as his grandson, as Louis XII. the royal throne.