Marie's paternal grandparents were Robert VII, Count of Auvergne and Boulogne, and Marie of Flanders, and her maternal grandparents were Bernard I de Ventadour, Count of Ventadour and Marguerite de Beaumont-au-Maine.
She succeeded her cousin Joan II as Countess of Auvergne and Boulogne upon the latter's death in 1424, as Joan's marriages to John, Duke of Berry, and Georges de la Trémoille had been childless.