Person Page 448

Maria de La Cerda y Lara (1319-13 March 1375) was the youngest daughter of Fernando de la Cerda and his wife Juana Núñez de Lara. Maria was a member of the Castilian House of Burgundy. By her second marriage she was Countess consort of Alençon
Maria was a younger sister of Juan Núñez de Lara and Blanca de La Cerda y Lara, grandmother of John I of Castile. Maria was Dame de Lunel[1]

When Maria was only three years of age her father died, her mother died twenty-nine years later in 1351.


Maria and her second husband CharlesMaria's maternal grandparents were Juan Núñez de Lara “el Mayor” and his wife Teresa Diaz de Haro. Her paternal grandparents were Ferdinand de la Cerda and his wife Blanche of France, herself daughter of Louis IX of France and Margaret of Provence.

In April 1335 at Poissy, Maria married her first husband Charles d'Évreux. They were married for only a year but had twin sons. On the 5 September 1336 Charles died leaving Maria a seventeen-year-old widow with her two young sons.

Maria remarried only three months after Charles' death to Charles II, Count of Alençon. It was a second marriage for them both, Charles' first wife Jeanne of Joigny had died the previous year. They were married for nine years when Charles died at the Battle of Crécy.

Maria died in Paris on 13 March 1375.

[edit] ChildrenWith Charles d'Évreux she had twin sons:

1.Louis II d'Évreux (1336–1400), married Jeanne (d. 1389), daughter of Raoul I of Brienne, Count of Eu
2.John (1336 – aft. 1373, Rome)
With Charles II of Alençon she had the following children:

1.Charles III of Alençon (1337 – 5 July 1375, Lyon)
2.Philip of Alençon (1338–1397, Rome), made Bishop of Beauvais in 1356, later Cardinal, Archbishop of Rouen, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Patriarch of Aquileia, and Bishop of Ostia and Sabina
3.Peter II of Alençon (1340 – 20 September 1404)
4.Isabelle (1342 – 3 September 1379, Poissy), became a nun
5.Robert of Alençon (1344–1377), Count of Perche, married 5 April 1374 Jeanne, daughter of Viscount John I of Rohan.

William I (22 March 875 – 6 July 918), called the Pious, was the Count of Auvergne from 886 and Duke of Aquitaine from 893, succeeding the Poitevin ruler Ebalus Manser. He made numerous monastic foundations, most important among them the foundation of Cluny Abbey on 11 September 910.

William was the son of Bernard II of Auvergne and Ermengard. Sometime before 898, he married the Bosonid Engelberga, daughter of Boso of Provence and Ermengard.

By inheritance, he was the ruler of Auvergne and the Limousin. He conquered Poitou and Aquitaine in 893 on behalf of Ebalus Manser. He kept the latter for himself and was proclaimed duke. His possessions extended from Austrasia to Toulouse and included the Autunois and Mâconnais.

In 910, William founded the Benedictine abbey of Cluny that would become an important political and religious centre. William required no control over the abbey, which he arranged should be responsible directly to the pope (see Clunian reforms). This was especially striking since most monasteries were owned privately and the appointment of abbots and officials was left to that family or individual. This led to the appointment of untrained, unordained abbots and officials. William also nominated Cluny's first abbot, Berno of Baume.

A sign of William's independence of rule in Aquitaine is that he had a deniers minted in his own name at Brioude.[1] He was buried in the monastery of Saint-Julien there. He had no sons of his own and was succeeded by a nephew, William the Younger, son of his sister Adelinda.

Divorced in 1091.