A pawn in the dynastic struggles between her family and in-laws during the Hundred Years' War, Margaret was regarded as the future Queen of France at two separate times, as a result of her two marriages: first to the Dauphin and second to the Duke of Brittany.

[2] She and her sisters, described by a contemporary as "plain as owls",[3] grew up in an "affectionate family atmosphere" in the ducal residences of Burgundy, and were close to their paternal grandmother, Countess Margaret III of Flanders.

[4] The death of her eight-year-old fiancé in early 1401 forced Margaret's grandfather and Charles' mother, Isabeau of Bavaria, to arrange a new union in the wake of Armagnac–Burgundian Civil War.

[4] Margaret's father-in-law died in 1422, and the English occupied a part of France in the name of his infant grandson, King Henry VI of England, who was to succeed him according to the Treaty of Troyes.

[3] Margaret was far from enthusiastic about remarrying and attempted to postpone or prevent the marriage by complaining that Arthur was still imprisoned by the English and that all her sisters had married dukes.

[3] Arthur soon became a very influential person at the royal court in Paris, and staunchly worked in the interests of Burgundy, especially during his marriage to Margaret.

Margaret proved to be a devoted wife, protecting her husband when he fell out with Charles VII and managing his estates while he was at the battlefield.

In her will, a copy of which is preserved in the archives of Nantes, she asked that her heart be buried at a Picardy shrine called Notre-Dame de Liesse.