The death of this brother left Mahaut the
heiress of Artois, and she succeeded to her heritage when, as we noted
above, her father was slain at Courtrai, in 1302.

At that time Mahaut was already a matron and a great lady in the land;
for, in 1285, she had married Otho, Count Palatine of Burgundy. Her
husband was far older than she, being then forty-five, while Mahaut had
scarcely reached womanhood; moreover, Otho had been a comrade of her
father, and was as proud, as chivalrous, as lavish in his expenditures
as any prince of his time. This habit of extravagance made Otho an easy
victim for the rapacious money-lenders; and when he was in the hands of
these Philistines the cautious King Philippe le Bel knew how to help him
just enough to keep him a grateful and obedient vassal of the crown. As
early as 1291 was born Mahaut's first child, a daughter named Jeanne,
who was followed by a second daughter, Blanche (about 1295), and then by
two sons, Robert, and John, the latter dying while still in infancy. The
ruinous excesses of Count Otho had brought him to such a pass that, in
1291, Philippe le Bel made a most advantageous bargain with him: the
infant daughter Jeanne, it was agreed, was to marry the eldest son of
the king and thus bring Burgundy under the power of the crown; but it
was stipulated that, in the event of the birth of a son to Otho,
Burgundy should revert to this son and Jeanne should marry the second
son of the king. This, in fact, was what happened, for Otho had two
sons. Again, in 1295, when the count was in the hands of the usurers,
Philippe le Bel paid his debts, and granted him a pension and a
continuance of this or part of it to his children, in return for which
Burgundy was placed in the king's hands, together with the guardianship
of the children until they should reach the age of seventeen.

What the Countess Mahaut thought of these arrangements, so largely
affecting the future of her children, we cannot tell, for we have little
information in regard to her life previous to the death of her husband.
This event occurred in the early part of 1303, when Otho, like so many
others of Mahaut's family, was killed in battle with the Flemings; and
it cannot be denied that his death was a gain rather than a misfortune
for Mahaut and her children. As a widow she enjoyed the right to special
protection from the crown, with which the relations of her family and of
her husband had been most intimate and fortunate