page_title: Margaret, Countess of Vertus
section_title: County of Étampes
hierarchical_section_title: Margaret, Countess of Vertus / Life / County of Étampes
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Marguerite d'Orléans
context_page_description: Margaret, Countess of Vertus, was a French vassal, Countess of Vertus and Etampes 1420–1466. She was the daughter of Louis I, Duke of Orléans, and Valentina Visconti.
context_section_description: With her father's death, Margaret inherited the rights to the County of Étampes, and was named countess with her husband as count, in 1423, which was recovered from the crown lands after the death in 1416, of its last incumbent lord, John, Duke of Berry. However, the claim was disputed by the then Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good, who succeeded his father John the Fearless in 1419 after the latter's assassination by the agents of Dauphin Charles. Philip took possession and ruled the county personally, (possibly wresting it from Richard in vengeance of his father's death) till 1434, after which he gave it to John II, Count of Nevers, his first cousin, who kept it in peaceful possession, until it was reverted to Richard in September 1435 (who died in 1438) by the former Dauphin, who was now King Charles VII of France. The new king confirmed his gift to the deceased duke by letters patent presented to his widow in 1442. However, this decision was contested by the Attorney General of the Parlement, who argued that the County should have been reunited with the Crown, after the death of Richard. It was taken back from Margaret's son Francis in 1478 and in the month of April of the following year, Charles's son and successor, King Louis XI gave it to John of Foix, Viscount of Narbonne, whose wife Marie of Orleans was a niece of Margaret and sister of the future Louis XII of France.
caption: A folio from the Book of Hours of Margaret of Orléans, western France, commissioned around 1430. The combined arms of Brittany and Orléans appearing behind the lady praying to the Virgin indicate that this book was produced for Marguerite d'Orléans. The artist's decorative genius is affirmed most strongly in the imaginative borders
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