ABSTRACT
Charles I of Anjou was at his most Capetian in family matters. With a firm sense of the value of lineage, he was sufficiently sensitive to the claims of all members of his nuclear family to create harmony among them. Charles bravely scooped the lovelorn maiden out of the arms of the aged Raimon VII, and rode off with her into the sunset. The actual events were certainly as dramatic if not as romantic as this; they transformed Charles’s whole career. Charles’s second marriage with Margaret of Nevers in November 1268 brought less obvious territorial gains. The marriage alliance was a brick in the wall of friendship between Charles and the Dampierres, laid in Charles’s 1253 campaign in Hainault. Important in the early history of the reign were the Montfort brothers, Charles’s cousins, sons of Simon, earl of Leicester. Charles was also deferential to the claims of Raoul de Courtenay, count of Chieti, and his family to be considered cousins.
