Marie de St Pol

Who was Marie de St Pol?

Marie de St Pol was the wife of Aymer de Valence, the Earl of Pembroke, and is best known as the foundress of Pembroke College, Cambridge.

The daughter of Guy III of Châtillon, legend has it that she was maiden, wife, and widow all in the space of a single day when her husband Aymer de Valence was killed in front of her in a friendly jousting match, on their wedding day. However, this is apocryphal as documentation indicates he died of apoplexy after three years of marriage. Marie was only seventeen when she married, whilst her husband was already fifty.

In 1347, Marie obtained licence from Edward III to establish an educational establishment in the still-young university town of Cambridge. The resulting college was known as the Hall of Marie Valence, and is known today as Pembroke College, home to over 700 students and fellows. The first statutes of the college gave preference to students born in France who had already studied elsewhere in England. The foundation of the college demonstrates Mary's piety as well as her interest in education. Mary favored the Franciscan order of Christianity, so she required that at least one proctor always be a Franciscan friar.