Margaret of Austria, Duchess of Savoy

Margaret was born on 10 January 1480 and named after her stepgrandmother, Margaret of York. She was the second child and only daughter of Maximilian of Austria (future Holy Roman Emperor) and Mary of Burgundy, co-sovereigns of the Low Countries. In 1482, her mother died and her three-year-old brother Philip the Handsome succeeded her as sovereign of the Low Countries, with her father as his regent.

The same year her mother died, King Louis XI of France signed the Treaty of Arras, whereby her father promised to give her hand in marriage to Louis's son, Dauphin Charles. The engagement took place in 1483. With Franche-Comté and Artois as her dowry, Margaret was transferred to the guardianship of Louis XI, who died soon after. She was raised as a fille de France and prepared for her future role as Queen of France.

Portrait of Margaret aged ten by Jean Hey, c. 1490

Under the supervision of her governess Madame de Segré, and Charles' sister, regent of France Anne de Beaujeu, Margaret received a fine education alongside several noble children, amongst whom was Louise of Savoy.[1]

Although their union was political, the young Margaret developed a genuine affection for Charles. However, he renounced the treaty in the autumn of 1491 and married her former stepmother Anne, Duchess of Brittany, for political reasons. The French court had ceased treating Margaret as their future queen but she could not return to her stepgrandmother's court until June 1493 after the Treaty of Senlis had been signed in May that year. She was hurt by Charles's actions and was left with a feeling of enduring resentment towards the House of Valois.

Engraving of Margaret of Austria as Governor of the Netherlands

Queen Isabella died in late 1504, and Philip and Juana went to Castile to claim the crown. Their eldest son stayed behind, for the Burgundians refused to accept him as their ruler unless he was brought up in the Low Countries. After Philip's death, the House of Habsburg entered a new crisis: Charles was the new sovereign of the Low Countries, but he was young and alone. Juana could not return to act as regent because her unstable mental state and her Castilian subjects would not allow their ruler to abandon the kingdom. With Charles too young to govern, the provinces of the Low Countries voted to make Maximilian their regent. Preoccupied with his affairs in Germany, the now Emperor named Margaret governor of the Low Countries and guardian of Charles in 1507, along with her nieces Eleanor, Isabella and Mary. She became the only woman elected as its ruler by the representative assembly of Franche-Comté, with her title confirmed in 1509.

Although her mother was a previous sovereign of the Netherlands, Margaret was always considered a foreigner because of her childhood at the French court. She knew neither Dutch nor German, and her principal advisers, such as Mercurino di Gattinara, were Italians who had followed her north. In any case, the Governess acted as intermediary between her father and her nephew's subjects in the Netherlands from her newly built palace at Mechelen. During a remarkably successful career, she broke new ground for women rulers.[5]

A letter by the Emperor Charles V to his aunt, Margaret of Austria, 19 October 1519, after she had returned to her previous position as his governess for the Netherlands

While she lavished great care on her young nephew's education, Margaret immediately confronted his tutor William de Croy, lord of Chièvres and a dominant political figure at court. He retained the boy's trust, but his pro-French leanings brought him into conflict with her support for the Emperor. Jealous of her power, Croy and some nobles secretly pressed Emperor Maximilian to declare Charles of age to rule. The Estates paid Maximilian to resign as regent and installed Charles, who was not yet 15 years old, on 1515. Margaret's dethronement was a public humiliation. In his aunt's place, Charles established a council of regency, of which she was part but had no vote in its deliberations. Her ministers found themselves thrust aside and even persecuted. Maximilian shortly saw his mistake towards his intelligent, angry daughter, but Croy completely dominated Charles and urged upon him policies that not only conflicted with Habsburg interests, but gave little in return. King Ferdinand's death opened the way to her nephew's Spanish inheritance, but he had to go to Spain to claim it. After participating in councils with Croy and his ministers for a while, Charles soon recognized his need for Margaret and her ministers. In June 1518, he appointed Gattinara chancellor and helped arrange Margaret's return as regent of the Low Countries.

On a subsequent visit to the Low Countries in mid-1520, Charles made Margaret his governor-general "in consideration of the great, inestimable and praiseworthy services that our said lady and aunt has done us." He recognized his aunt as one of his wisest advisers and the only regent he ever re-appointed indefinitely from 1519 until her death in on 1 December 1530.[6]

Economy

The Palace of Coudenberg from a 17th-century painting. Brussels served as one of the main revenues of the Imperial court of Charles V in the Low Countries.

Margaret had an aptitude for business, and maintained the prosperity of the Netherlands. She negotiated the restoration of Intercursus Magnus with England, which was favorable to the Flemish textile interests and brought huge profits.[7][8] Because of the trade, industry and wealth of the regions and cities she oversaw, the Low Countries was an important source of income for the Imperial treasury.

Margaret provided funds and war supplies for her nephew's troops, especially against King Francis I of France and the German Protestants. In following years, Habsburg forces consolidated their hold over Tournai, Friesland, Utrecht, and Overijssel, which became part of the Netherlands.

Foreign policy

Louise of Savoy, whom Margaret negotiated the terms of the Treaty of Cambrai with.

Margaret soon found herself at war with France over the question of Charles's requirement to pay homage to the French king for Flanders as Duke of Burgundy. To preserve the Low Countries for her nephew, she persuaded Emperor Maximilian to make peace with King Louis XII. She journeyed to Cambrai in November 1508 to form the League of Cambrai, which largely removed the French threat to the Low Countries.[7][8]

To curb Croy's pro-French influence over Charles, Margaret persuaded her father to join a papal alliance with Spain and England against France in 1513, although she maintained the Low Countries in neutrality. They created a council containing representatives of Emperor Maximilian, King Ferdinand, and King Henry VIII.

Given her father's poor health, Margaret and Charles began to negotiate the latter's election as Holy Roman Emperor despite the papacy and French being strongly opposed to this. Thinking first of the dynasty, the Governess suggested supporting instead her younger nephew Ferdinand, but Charles refused to withdraw. Using a combination of diplomacy and bribery, she played a crucial role in the election of Charles as Holy Roman Emperor in 1519.[7][8]

Journeying to Cambrai again in 1529, Margaret reunited with Louise of Savoy, his sister-in-law and mother of Francis I. They negotiated the end to a war that France could no longer sustain. The Treaty of Cambrai, the so-called Ladies' Peace, favored the dynastic interests of Charles: besides withdrawing French forces from Italy, Francis renounced his claims to Flanders, Artois and Tournai.

Inner courtyard of Margaret of Austria's Palace, an early 16th-century building in Mechelen, Belgium. It was one of the first Renaissance buildings in northern Europe.

Once she was declared Governor of the Netherlands, Margaret purchased the palace of Jean Laurin, Lord of Watervliet, located in the Korte Maagdenstraat (Virgins Short Street). She found the residence too small and started an ambitious expansion campaign in 1507. From 1517 to 1530, the architect Rombout II Keldermans furthered the project along the Keizerstraat (Emperor Street) and modified what became the rear wing, which faces the Palace of Margaret of York. The Governess kept several painters at her court, including the Master of the Legend of the Magdalen and Pieter van Coninxloo.

Margaret possessed a rich library, consisting mostly of missals, poetry, historical and ethical treatises, which included the works of Christine de Pizan and the famous illuminated Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry.[9] She possessed several Chansonniers[10] which contained works by Josquin des Prez, Johannes Ockeghem, Jacob Obrecht and Pierre de la Rue, who was her favourite composer. The Governess patronized writers and artists. Visiting her palace in 1521, Albrecht Dürer wondered at her many "precious things and precious library."

Margaret ended up raising her nephew and nieces in her palace. Her court was visited by the great humanists of her time, including Erasmus, Adrian of Utrecht (later Pope Adrian VI), and Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa.[11][12] Agrippa dedicated his arguably feminist work "Declamation on the Nobility and Preeminence of the Female Sex" to her.[13] The Governor was so impressed with diplomat Thomas Boleyn's charm that she offered his daughter Anne Boleyn (future Queen consort of England) a temporary place in her household. She reported to the English nobleman that the little girl was "so presentable and so pleasant, considering her youthful age, that I am more beholden to you for sending her to me, than you to me."

Margaret ordered several splendid music manuscripts from Pierre Alamire to send them as gifts to her relatives and political relations.[14] She had one of the earliest collections of objects from the New World. Hernán Cortés had presented Charles V with treasures received from the Aztec King Moctezuma in 1519. Several of these treasures were sent to Mechelen as a gift from her nephew in 1523.[15]

Tomb of Margaret of Austria, Monastery of Brou, Bourg-en-Bresse

According to a legend about Margaret's death, one of her maids broke a glass goblet, a splinter of glass went into her foot, and the resulting wound became gangrenous. Her doctors strongly recommended that she agree to having her foot amputated. She gave her consent for the operation and received the sacrament, but she died before the operation from an overdose of opium given to her for the treatment.[16] In reality, however, Margaret's health had declined since 1527 and an abscessed leg had tormented her during the negotiations in Cambrai. On 20 November 1530, a high fever caused by her infected leg forced her to bed and neither piety nor medicine made any headway against the spreading gangrene. She died shortly after midnight on December 1.

The Emperor bemoaned "the loss that we have made and principally I who held her as a mother and for the lack she does me in the government of the countries where she was in charge." Margaret's will appointed Charles as her sole heir and urged her nephew to protect the sovereignty of the Low Countries against the centralizing tendency of his imperial administrators. She was buried alongside her second husband at Bourg-en-Bresse, in the mausoleum of the Royal Monastery of Brou that she previously commissioned.[17] There is a statue of the Governess next to the Cathedral of Mechelen.

• 
  Arms as a single lady (before 1496)
• 
  Arms as princess of Spain (1496-1501)
• 
  Arms as duchess of Savoy (after 1501)
• 
  Arms as countess of Burgundy and Artois (after 1509)

Margaret of Austria is portrayed by Spanish actress Úrsula Corberó in the TV show Isabel.[18]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Margaret of Austria.

• Margarete - Maximilian I. Musik um 1500, Capilla Flamenca with La Caccia, Schola Cantorum Cantate Domino Aalst, Schola Gregoriana Lovaniensis, 1998, ORF Shop CD 265 (2 CDs).
• Dulcis Melancholia, Biographie musicale de Marguerite d'Autriche, Capilla Flamenca, 2005 (MEW 0525).
• Dame de Deuil. Musical Offerings for Marguerite of Austria, La Morra, 2005 (KTC 4011).
• Diana Maury Robin, Anne R. Larsen and Carole Levin (2007). Encyclopedia of women in the Renaissance: Italy, France, and England. ABC-CLIO, Inc.CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
• "Margaret of Austria (1480-1530)" . Encyclopædia Britannica. 17 (11th ed.). 1911. p. 703.
• Jansen, Sharon L. (2002). The monstrous regiment of women: female rulers in early modern Europe. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 0-312-21341-7.
• Margaret of Austria (1480–1530) Encyclopedia