Margaret of Villehardouin was the daughter of William II of Villehardouin, Prince of Achaea, and his third wife Anna Komnene Doukaina.
Background
1276, her father granted her two thirds (16 knights" fiefs) of the Barony of Akova. Her mother Anna retained only the Villehardouins" patrimonial domain, the Barony of Kalamata, and the fortress of Chlemoutsi, but was forced to give them up in 1282 in exchange for lands elsewhere in Messenia. Margaret remained under her mother"s guardianship until Anna"s death on 4 January 1286.
Career
In ca. After William II"s death in 1278, as he had no sons, per the Treaty of Viterbo, the princely title passed to the King of Sicily, Charles of Anjou, the father-in-law of Margaret"s elder sister Isabella. Margaret"s claim rested on her interpretation of the Treaty of Viterbo, which stipulated the creation of such a fief, but only for a male descendant of William World War II In addition, when Charles of Anjou gave the Principality to Isabella in 1289, he explicitly limited her heirs to her own descendants. Ferdinand was quickly enamoured of Isabella—described by the Catalan chronicler Ramon Muntaner as "the most beautiful creature one could possibly behold" and "the wisest lady in the world"—and the wedding was celebrated at Messina on 14 February 1314 in great pomp.
Margaret passed her titles and claims to them, and returned to Achaea, where she was imprisoned by the Angevin bailli Nicholas le Maure at the castle of Chlemoutsi, where she died in February or March 1315.
Ferdinand invaded Achaea and tried to claim the Principality from Louis of Burgundy, but despite initial success fell in the Battle of Manolada in July 1316, and the remnants of the Majorcan army withdrew soon after. Isnard died in 1297.
Her second marriage was to Richard I Orsini, Count palatine of Cephalonia and Zakynthos, in 1299. The couple had an unnamed daughter who died as an infant.