Margaret of Austria

The Hof van Savoye
Margaret's palace at Mechelen
where Anne Boleyn served as fille d'honneur.
Public domain

Margaret is best known in Britain because in 1513 the 12-year-old Anne Boleyn became one of her maids of honour. What is less well known is that she was one of the most successful rulers of the early sixteenth century. One of the best English-language sources for Margaret is Sarah Gristwood's Game of Queens (Oneworld, 2016) on which much of this post is blamed.

She was born in 1480, the only daughter of Duchess Mary, the heiress of the Duchy of Burgundy, and her husband, Maximilian of Habsburg (which is why she is known as Margaret of Austria). She was named after her English step-grandmother, Margaret of York, the sister of Edward IV. Her mother died after a riding accident in 1482, leaving her to Margaret's guardianship. Her brother, Philip, became sovereign of the Low Countries, with Maximilian acting as regent.

Margaret's brother, Philip of
Habsburg, called 'the Handsome'
though why is not clear from this portrait.
Kunsthistorisches Museum
Public domain

Queen in waiting

The Duchy of Burgundy and France had long been enemies, but in 1482 Maximilian signed a peace treaty with Louis XI. By its terms, Margaret was to marry Louis' 13-year-old son Charles. In 1483 at the age of 3 she travelled to France. Two months later, on 30 August, Louis XI died and Charles became King Charles VIII.  However, Margaret was only nominally the Queen of France, because she was still a small child and the marriage was unconsummated. The real power lay with Charles’s sister, the regent Anne de Beaujeu (also known as Anne of France).

Anne de Beaujeu,
'Madame la Grande',
a powerful female role model
for Margaret
Public domain

At the French court Margaret learned the courtly arts of painting and drawing, dancing and music. She learned to write French verse. She was to take these accomplishments back with her to the Netherlands.

Margaret as future Queen of France.
Public domain

At a very young age, therefore, Margaret had experienced two powerful women: Margaret of York and Anne of Beaujeu. She also had the memory of her mother, Mary of Burgundy. But at the age of 11 she experienced her own powerlessness when her marriage to Charles VIII was annulled. Anne de Beaujeu had her eyes on the Duchy of Brittany and its 12-year-old, heiress, Duchess Anne, for her brother. But quarrels over Margaret's dowry meant that she was kept in France for another two years, living in conditions of near poverty. She returned to her father in 1493 but never forgot her humiliation.

Princess of Asturias

In the same year that Margaret returned to the Netherlands, her father Maximilian was elected Holy Roman Emperor. 

Emperor Maximilian I, by Albrecht Dürer
Public domain

He was concerned to build up an anti-French alliance and in pursuit of this he arranged for his children, Philip and Margaret, to marry two of the children of Ferdinand and Isabella: Philip was to marry their daughter, Juana, Margaret their heir, Juan.

In November 1495 Margaret underwent a proxy marriage at Mechelen, but she did not set sail for Spain until January 1497. The weather was so bad that she was forced to land at Southampton and in the Bay of Biscay she thought she would drown. She composed an epitaph: 

Here lies Margot, the willing bride, /Twice married – but a virgin when she died. 

Once in Spain she met yet another powerful woman, Isabella. Juan and Margaret married on 19 March 1497. But Juan had always been sickly and he died on 4 October 1497. Margaret was pregnant, but she miscarried of a baby girl. 

Once again she was left stranded in a foreign country, and her return was delayed - again because of squabbles over her dowry. It was only in early 1500 that she was able to returned to the Netherlands – and this time she made the journey by land. She arrived in time to stand godmother to her nephew, Charles, the infant son of Philip and Juana, the eventual heir to Spain and the Netherlands.

Duchess of Savoy

Even before she returned home, discussions were underway about another husband. The choice fell on the 19-year-old Philibert, Duke of Savoy. 

Philibert II, Duke of Savoy
Public domain

Although Philibert was not a king, he was strategically important because the Duchy of Savoy was the gateway to Italy. Margaret set off in October 1501. The marriage was far less grand than her two previous ones, but it was to prove a happy one. Philibert was more interested in hunting than politics and he had left the government of his territory to his illegitimate half-brother, René. Margaret made sure that René was stripped of his powers and she took over the government of Savoy, chairing council meetings, appointing officers, and keeping in touch with her brother, Philip, over matters of foreign policy. 

On 10 September 1504 Philibert died, leaving Margaret grief-stricken. She commemorated him in the church at Brou where he was buried

She was now 24, and from this time onwards she dressed as a widow. Her brother Philip wanted her to marry again, and he pressed the claims of the recently widowed Henry VII, but she was now determined not to remarry. 

Regent of the Netherlands

In 1506 Philip died, leaving his 6-year-old son, Charles ruler of the Netherlands. Maximilian became regent for his grandson, but he was preoccupied with his Austrian lands and he needed someone nearer at hand to rule the territory. His daughter was the ideal person. In March 1507 Margaret was sworn in as governess-general of the seventeen provinces, and she took up residence in the palace at Mechelen, the former residence of Margaret of York. There, dressed in widow’s black, she presided over one of the most splendid courts in Europe.

Margaret as the widowed
Regent of the Netherlands
Public domain

The Netherlands ranked alongside Italy as the cultural and economic powerhouse of Europe. It boasted wealthy cities and magnificent cathedrals and civic buildings. Its court was renowned for its magnificence. It was the centre of the international market for paintings, illuminated books and musical instruments. Margaret’s art collection included works by Hieronymus Bosch and Jan van Eyck, and one of the prize paintings was van Eyck’s Arnolfini Marriage. (See here for what we know about the provenance of this iconic painting, which is now one of the glories of the National Gallery.) Older masterpieces included the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry. 

A good deal of her time was taken up with diplomacy and in particular with furthering her father’s policies. She did not find her position easy, because as well as representing imperial interests she had to be mindful of the sensitivities of the Netherlands, who would not have supported her if she had seemed to be no more than a foreign puppet. She wrote to Maximilian, 

I know that it is not my business to interfere in your said affairs, as I am an inexperienced woman in such matters. 

Because she followed imperial policies, this inevitably involved dealing with France, sometimes as an ally, sometimes as an enemy. In 1508 she represented her father and her former father-in-law, Ferdinand of Aragon in negotiating the League of Cambrai with France and the papacy against the encroachments of Venice. She had become a major player. But the international situation meant that she had to shift alliances. The League of Cambrai was short-lived and in 1513 she was recruited into a new anti-French alliance, the Treaty of Mechelen, comprising the Pope, Maximilian, Ferdinand of Aragon, Venice, and Henry VIII.

In 1513 an English invading force under Henry VIII crossed the Channel, captured Thérouanne, and laid siege to Tournai. Margaret went to meet him at Lille taking her 13-year-old nephew, Charles with her, and then met him again at Tournai. She spent ten days with the English forces and it was there that the up-and-coming courtier, Charles Brandon, paid court to her. 

Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk
He paid court to Margaret in a
game of chivalry that nearly went wrong.
Public domain

Henry made Brandon Duke of Suffolk, possibly to advance his suit with Margaret, but she told the king that she had no desire to marry again: ‘I was too much unhappy in husbands’. Brandon had taken a ring from her and she was horrified to learn that her prospective marriage was common gossip in Europe. It was a game of courtly love that nearly went wrong. But though she might have been attracted to Brandon, she continued in her resolve to remain single. 

She was always acutely aware of the vulnerability of the Netherlands, the richest region in Europe, but without natural frontiers, and she lived in fear of French aggression. She was deeply alarmed when Maximilian and Henry VIII sought a rapprochement with France, to be ratified by the marriage of the 52-year-old Louis XII to Henry’s 18-year-old sister, Mary. At the request of the English diplomat, Thomas Boleyn, Margaret released his daughter Anne from her service so that she could go with Mary to France. 

By now her nephew, Charles, was in his teens, and resenting what he saw as her autocratic ways. Under the influence of her enemies at court, the Estates-General, the parliament of the Netherlands, demanded that Charles should be declared of age. Maximilian agreed and did not even tell her that he was planning to displace her. As a sign of the transfer of power, she accompanied Charles on a six-month tour of his territory. She then read aloud to her council a memorandum defending herself against the accusations of her opponents, and retired. Her energies were now devoted to building her husband Philibert’s tomb in Brou.

The return to power

Margaret’s position began to change when Ferdinand of Aragon died in January 1516. His grandson Charles, who was already the de facto ruler of Castile, was now also King of Aragon, and this was in addition to his Netherlands territories. All this was too much for one man to govern, especially as he faced problems in Spain, where the Cortes of Castile were resisting what they saw as the imposition of a foreign ruler, who did not speak their language. In February 1517 Maximilian came to the Netherlands in person to bring about a reconciliation between aunt and nephew.  

Charles began to give way. When he departed for Spain, he left the Netherlands to be governed by a council but Margaret was to be one of its members. In July 1518 he issued a grant from Saragossa giving ‘his dear Lady and Aunt’ the right to sign ‘all letters, acts and documents with her own hand, which are issued for us’, and declaring that she ‘alone’ should ‘provide and dispose of the appointments of this our country’. This was not yet a full regency but it was coming close.

On 12 January 1519 Maximilian died, and the battle was on for his successor as Holy Roman Emperor. The two main contenders were his grandson, Charles, and François I of France. Margaret threw herself into the campaign to win over the seven electors for her nephew and she borrowed huge sums of money from the Fugger banking house in order to win them over. In June Charles was elected unanimously as Charles V. 

Charles V in 1519
Public domain.

Margaret ordered feasts and bonfires to celebrate. In Barcelona on 1 July Charles signed letters naming his ‘very dear lady and aunt’ as regent and governess of the Low Countries. 

Regent: the second phase

Once more she was enmeshed in the complex and shifting game of European diplomacy. In June 1520 Henry VIII and François I met at the Field of the Cloth of Gold, and the prospect of an Anglo-French alliance, presented Margaret with a challenge. Before the meeting she arranged for a delegation to come to England to urge Henry to be the first European monarch to greet the new Emperor. Charles arrived in England in May and met Henry and Catherine at Dover on their way to France. After the Field of the Cloth of Gold was over Charles and Margaret met Henry and Catherine at Gravelines, the first time the two women had met since Margaret’s brief period in Spain, when she had been Catherine's sister-in-law. 

From Gravelines, Margaret and Charles travelled to Maastricht, where he confirmed her reappointment as Regent and signed over to her for life the town and territory of Mechelen. She then travelled with him to Aachen, where he was crowned ‘King of the Romans’ and ‘Holy Roman Emperor-Elect’.

In his attempt to secure a European peace, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey met Margaret at Bruges in 1521, but his plan was doomed to fail. 

Thomas Wolsey
churchman and diplomat
He saw Margaret as an
indispensable ally.
Public domain

Charles was now preparing for war against France and Margaret, after a speech to the governing body of the Netherlands, secured the men and money for his campaign. She was prepared to pawn her jewels in order to fund him. 

The Netherland was not an easy territory to govern. They were separate provinces, jealous of their independence, and a new problem had now arisen – the spread of Lutheran ideas. In 1521, after Charles V presided over the Diet of Worms, Luther was put under the Ban of the Empire. Margaret moved to stop the spread of heresy in the Netherlands. She wrote: ‘The heresies of Martin Luther are a great scandal to our Holy Mother Church’. She forbade the meeting of groups to study the Bible and appointed her own inquisitors. In 1526 her ambassador was instructed to tell Charles that she ‘had the greatest pleasure’ in trying to extirpate the Lutherans.

Anglo-Habsburg relations continued to be a problem for Margaret. In 1523 she sent money to finance an English invasion of France, but this was a disaster. The imperial troops did not turn up and Margaret was blamed.

But in February 1525 François I was captured after the French defeat at Pavia and taken to Spain as a prisoner. Margaret greeted the news with a public display of fireworks, processions and prayers. But she was still worried that the French would invade the Netherlands and in the summer she arranged an armistice, with the French regent, the king's mother, Louise of Savoy. Charles was furious with her for acting without his instructions, and Wolsey felt that he should have been consulted. But the women could not be kept out of these negotiations. François’s sister, Marguerite, travelled to Madrid to try to settle terms with Charles. In December Francis and Charles signed the Treaty of Madrid, though François had no intention of keeping to the terms. He was allowed to return to France, though his two young sons remained hostages in Spain.

The Ladies’ Peace

From 1526 Spain and the Empire were engaged in fighting the League of Cognac, an anti-imperialist alliance of France, the Papacy, England, and Venice. In 1528 Thomas Wolsey tried once more to bring about a general peace in Europe and hoped for Margaret’s support. Louise of Savoy was also looking for a way out of the endless wars between France and the Empire, and negotiations began, although they were initially very difficult. The growing threat from the Ottoman Empire, however, was a powerful argument for the Christian powers to come together. 

In January 1529 Margaret wrote to her chief steward expounding the idea that peace would stand a better chance if it was discussed by ladies, who had less need to stand on their dignity than men: 

On the other hand, how easy for ladies…to concur in some endeavours for warding off the general ruin of Christendom, and to make the first advance in such an undertaking.

The meeting between Margaret and Louise was set for July in the border town of Cambrai, then an imperial city. Margaret was warned not to go there in case the French took her prisoner, but she said that if any of her councillors were afraid, they might go home. She turned down the advice to go with an escort of armed men.

Margaret arrived in Cambrai on 5 July. Louise arrived two hours later, accompanied by her daughter, Marguerite, now Queen of Navarre, who was there as a possible hostage to guarantee Margaret’s safety. She also brought François, but he did not take part in the negotiations. The discussions between the two women took three weeks. The treaty was finally ratified at the end of July. The Empire gained most. France left the League of Cognac, surrendered its rights to Artois, Flanders and Tournai and was obliged to pay a ransom before the two hostage princes were released. The treaty confirmed imperial rather than French dominance of the Italian peninsula. The one big concession to France was that it was allowed to hold onto Burgundy. The treaty was to be cemented by the marriage of François to Charles’s sister, Eleanor. 

Conclusion

The treaty was the climax of Margaret’s largely successful rule of the Netherlands. In February 1530 her nephew was crowned by the pope as Holy Roman Emperor. She was now ready to stand down and retire to a convent. But on 1 December 1530 she died from a splinter in her foot. She was buried in the mausoleum at Brou alongside her third husband. She was succeeded as Regent by her 25-year-old widowed niece, Mary of Hungary. One woman gave way to another.

Margaret's tomb at Brou