Battle of Nicopolis
Marie's mother, Isabella, died in 1379. Her father, Enguerrand, remarried in February 1386 to Isabelle, the daughter of John I, Duke of Lorraine. Upon Enguerrand's death on 18 February 1397 in a Turkish prison at Bursa, Anatolia, five months after the ferocious Battle of Nicopolis, Marie inherited his title and became the "suo jure" Countess of Soissons. Near the end of that same year, she was widowed. Her husband Henry was also taken prisoner at the Battle of Nicopolis and later ransomed. In October 1397, on the lengthy journey home to France, Henry of Bar died at the Crusaders' camp in Treviso after having contracted the plague during his sojourn in Venice. He was buried at the convent of the Celestines in Paris.