Marguerite of France was born to be a dowager. The quiet, unassuming, willing to help everyone royal had spent her entire queenship in the shadows of her predecessor so when she became a widow, she was ready to fade to grey one more time.
Marguerite's tenure as queen consort of England came to an end on July 7th 1307 with the death of her husband, Edward I. The king, who was 68, died during a final Scottish campaign and his wife, then around 27, was with him. She was clearly affected by the loss of the man who had never forgotten his first queen, despite their happy marriage. Marguerite declared that ''all men died for me'' when Edward passed away.
Her husband had called her a ''pearl beyond price'', thanks to her devotion to him and to his rule. Marguerite was never showy, always pious and deeply respectful to the memory of Edward's first wife, Eleanor, even naming her only daughter in her honour.
After Edward's death, she took even more of a back seat and ended up retiring to a castle to live out her widowhood. She saw her niece, Isabella, become Queen of England when she married the new king, Edward II, and she also saw her humiliated as her husband showed endless preferences to his favourite, Piers Gaveston. Marguerite, however, was never a threat to the new queen, acting as all dowagers should by staying discreetly in the shadows. But then, she'd been practising that all her life. Marguerite, Queen of England, really was born to be a dowager.
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