Marie de St Pol
During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the Châtillons married more often into the royal line than any other noble family, and they were renowned for holding prominent positions as Cardinals and Constables of France.
Legend has it that she was maiden, wife, and widow all in the space of a single day when her husband was killed in front of her in a friendly jousting match, arranged to celebrate their marriage in 1324.
[5] In 1336, Marie was granted the manor of Denny in Cambridgeshire by Edward III, and there organised the foundation of a Franciscan nunnery in 1342; the order is known as the Poor Clares.
[6] The south aisle of the church was pulled down and a two-storey building was made for her ladies-in-waiting and domestic staff.
This makes it the oldest Cambridge College with an unbroken constitution from its foundation to survive on its original site.
In addition, this kind of charitable bequest to house and support thirty scholars benefited her soul, according to the tenets of medieval Christianity.
[10] Marie died on the 16 or 17 March 1377 and was buried in Denny Abbey, to the north of Cambridge on the road to Ely.
[11] In 1992 a memorial was placed on a pillar opposite her husband's splendid tomb effigy in Westminster Abbey, situated in the north ambulatory.
Designed by Donald Buttress, Abbey Surveyor, the memorial was made from slate and stone with partial gilding, and bears the Countess's coat of arms and the inscription:
