Margaret of Austria (1480–1530)

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Margaret of Austria as a widow, painting by Bernards van Orley

Margaret of Austria (born January 10, 1480 in Brussels , † December 1, 1530 in Mechelen ) was Princess of Asturias and later Duchess of Savoy by marriage . From 1507 to January 1515 and from 1517 until her death in 1530 she was governor of the Habsburg Netherlands and one of the great music patrons of her time. Margarete came from the Habsburg dynasty .

Life

youth

Margaret of Austria. Painting by Jean Hey (known as the Master of Moulins) circa 1490, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Margaret was the only daughter of Maximilian I from his marriage to Mary of Burgundy . Her brother was Philip the Fair . In 1482, when Margarete was two years old, her mother died as a result of a riding accident, pregnant with the third child. Even before her death, Maria had appointed her children as heirs in her will and decreed that Maximilian should be the guardian until they reached the age of majority. Due to the Peace of Arras , which included a marriage between Margarete and the future French King Charles VIII , she was brought to France to be educated at the French court and to be prepared for her future role as queen. On July 22nd, 1483, the marriage contract was signed with the then 13-year-old Dauphin Karl, who became King of France that same year. Although Charles had married Anna of Bretagne on December 6, 1491 , and thus expelled Margarete, she was only allowed to return to the Netherlands in June 1493 after the Treaty of Senlis between Charles VIII and Maximilian I had also settled this question.

Marriages

Margarete and her brother Philip I of Habsburg, called the beautiful. Diptych by Pieter van Coninxloo approx. 1493–95, oil on panel, National Gallery, London

During the Italian conquest of Charles VIII, Maximilian I signed a preliminary contract on January 20, 1495 with an envoy of Ferdinand of Aragon in Antwerp to secure the Habsburg interests in northern Italy. In the contract, a double wedding was also agreed, which set the weddings of Maximilian's son Philip with the Infanta Juana and Margaret with the Spanish heir to the throne , the Infante Juan . This treaty was the preliminary stage for the formation of the Holy League with Pope Alexander VI. , Ferdinand of Aragon, the Republic of Venice and the Duchy of Milan . On November 5, 1495, a treaty on the double wedding was ratified in Mechelen, and Margarete was married to the Spanish heir to the throne by procuram . Another contract for the planned double wedding was signed on January 3, 1496, simultaneously by Maximilian in Nördlingen and by Ferdinand von Aragón in Ulldecona .

After Juana had traveled by sea to the Netherlands, where she was married to Philip on October 20, 1496, Margarete was supposed to travel directly to Spain. The departure was delayed, however, not least because of further negotiations, and so the actual wedding with the Spanish heir to the throne did not take place until April 3, 1497 in Burgos . The marriage was short-lived, as Juan died on October 4th of the same year during a trip to Portugal after a fever in Salamanca . Since Margarete was pregnant, she stayed in Spain, but gave birth to a stillborn child. She was only allowed to leave the country in September 1499 and returned to Flanders by land via France . After her arrival in Ghent on March 4, 1500, she became godmother of her nephew, the future Emperor Charles V , who was born on February 24, 1500 and was solemnly baptized on March 7.

As early as January 1498, Maximilian had planned to marry his daughter Margaret to Savoy as part of his anti-French policy . In fact, her brother Philip signed a marriage contract in Brussels on September 26, 1501. On October 27, 1501, Margarete set out with a solemn escort for Savoy, where she was married to Duke Philibert II of Savoy on December 3, 1501 in Romainmôtier . In Savoy, Margarete showed her political skills for the first time by disempowering, ostracizing, and banishing Philibert's scheming half-brother René.

Margaret's marriage to Philibert of Savoy was also short-lived, as her husband died as early as 1504 as a result of a hunting accident. Margarete, who had loved Philibert very much, was widowed again at the age of 24. In 1506 she laid the foundation stone for a monastery and a monastery church in Brou, today a district of Bourg-en-Bresse , which was to become Philibert's tomb. Her father Maximilian could no longer persuade her to another marriage.

Governor of the Netherlands

After Margarete's brother Philipp died in Burgos on September 25, 1506 , Maximilian I transferred the reign of the Netherlands to her on March 18, 1507 . She also became the guardian and educator of her nephew Karl and her nieces Eleonore of Castile , Isabella and Maria , who had stayed in the Netherlands. The other children of Philip the Fair, Ferdinand I and Catherine stayed in Spain and were brought up at the court of Ferdinand of Aragon .

In Mechelen, her main residence, Margarete had a palace built opposite the old ducal court, where she gathered many artists and scholars around her and made the court of Mechelen the center of humanism . These included personalities such as Cornelius Agrippa , Adrian von Utrecht , Erasmus von Rotterdam , Pierre de la Rue and Josquin Desprez . Her court was so highly regarded that foreign nobles placed their daughters in Margarete's care to be brought up by her. Between 1513 and 1515, both the young Anne Boleyn , future Queen of England, and Anne Brandon , about the same age , the eldest daughter of Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk , were among Margaret's protégés.

Her policy, in which she was supported primarily by Mercurino Gattinara , was aimed at regaining the lost duchy of Burgundy . In 1508 she was instrumental in bringing about the League of Cambrai , from which she promised the submission of Geldern . In 1513 she promoted an alliance between Maximilian I, Spain and England in the League of Mechelen to initiate the reconquest of the Duchy of Burgundy. This alliance was also short-lived, but it resulted in the battle of Guinegate , in which Emperor Maximilian and King Henry VIII of England were able to defeat a French army.

With the arrest of the Castilian grande Don Juan Manuel, a knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece , in January 1514, a rift began with her nephew Karl.

Only a little later she lost the guardianship of her two nieces. In May 1514, Margarete's ward , the nine-year-old Maria who had been promised to the Bohemian-Hungarian heir to the throne Ludwig II , traveled to Austria with a solemn escort to Maximilian. Isabella, the 13-year-old daughter of Philip the Beautiful, was initially married to Christian II of Denmark in a proxy wedding and left the Netherlands the following year.

With Charles' early declaration of age by the Burgundian estates on January 5, 1515, Margarete initially lost her office as governor. After Karl had become king in Spain on behalf of his mother Johanna the Crazy with the death of his grandfather Ferdinand von Aragon on January 23, 1516 , he reinstated his aunt Margarete as governor in 1517. After his arrival in Spain and a first encounter with his 15-year-old brother Ferdinand (later Emperor Ferdinand I ) in November 1517, Charles sent him to the court of Margarete in Flanders for further training . Charles himself stayed in Spain until May 1520.

After the death of her father, Emperor Maximilians I, on January 12, 1519, Margarete supported the election of Charles as Roman-German king from the Netherlands , not least to prevent the French king Franz I from being elected. They supported the Councilors of State Philipp von Kleve-Ravenstein , Karl von Croÿ , Heinrich von Nassau , Anton von Lalaing and Johann von Berghes .

After Charles V was elected as king on June 28, 1519, the postmaster general Johann Baptista von Taxis rode from Frankfurt as a courier to the Netherlands and was able to announce the election results at the Brussels court in the presence of Margarete just two days later. After returning from Spain, Charles had himself crowned king in Aachen in October 1520 in the presence of his aunt Margarete and then assumed the title of “chosen emperor”.

In 1522 Charles traveled again to Spain, where he stayed until 1529. Before leaving, he organized the administration of the Holy Roman Empire and confirmed Margaret on April 15, 1522 as governor of the Netherlands.

In 1529 Margarete negotiated the Cambrai peace with Luise von Savoyen , mother of the French King Francis I , after the rulers themselves, Margarete's nephew Karl and Luise's son Franz, refused to negotiate with each other.

Margaret of Austria, tomb in the monastery church of the Brou monastery

In the last years of her life, Margarete suffered from a leg disease, perhaps varicosis , while it is also known that she stepped into a broken glass, which led to gangrene. After Margarete died of gangrene on December 1, 1530 in Mechelen, she was first buried in Bruges . When the abbey church of Brou Abbey in Bourg-en-Bresse was consecrated in 1532 , it was buried there next to her husband Philibert II. His mother Margarete von Bourbon rests next to it . The artistic tombs have been preserved in the church choir. The impressive system was made by Flemish architects and the German sculptor Conrat Meit , among others .

educator

With the exception of a stillborn child, Margarete had no biological offspring, as her two husbands, Juan and Philibert, had died young and she did not remarry. However, after the death of her brother Philipp in 1506, she took over the guardianship and education of his children living in the Netherlands:

  • Eleonore (1498–1558), later Queen of Portugal and France
    1. ⚭ 1519 Manuel I.
    2. ⚭ 1530 Franz I.
  • Karl (1500–1558), later King Charles I of Spain and Charles V, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire ⚭ 1526 Isabella of Portugal
  • Isabella (1501–1526), ​​later Queen of Norway and Denmark ⚭ 1515 Christian II.
  • Maria (1505–1558), later Queen of Bohemia and Hungary as well as Margareten's successor as governor of the Habsburg Netherlands ⚭ 1515 Ludwig II.

family tree

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Ernst the Iron (1377-1424)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Friedrich III. (1415–1493)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Cimburgis of Mazovia (1394–1429)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Maximilian I (1459-1519)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Edward I of Portugal (1391-1438)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Eleonore Helena of Portugal (1436–1467)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Eleanor of Aragon (1402–1445)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Margaret of Austria (1480–1530)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Philip the Good (1396–1467)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Charles the Bold (1433–1477)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Isabella of Portugal (1397–1471)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Mary of Burgundy (1457–1482)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Charles I. de Bourbon (1401-1456)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Isabelle de Bourbon (1437-1465)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Agnes of Burgundy (1407–1476)
 
 
 
 
 
 

literature

Fiction

Web links

Commons : Margarete von Österreich  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hermann Wiesflecker: Maximilian I. , Vienna / Munich 1991, p. 51
  2. ↑ a b c d Wiesflecker, p. 392f.
  3. ^ Karl Brandi: Kaiser Karl V. , Munich 1964, p. 37
  4. ↑ Ursula Tamussino: Margaret of Austria: Diplomatin the Renaissance. Styria, Graz 1995, p. 72f.
  5. ↑ Tamussino, pp. 79f.
  6. ↑ Tamussimo, p. 90.
  7. ↑ Brandi, p. 38
  8. ↑ a b Wiesflecker, p. 295
  9. ↑ Brandi, p. 41
  10. ↑ See also the diary of Lucas Rem, editor B. Greiff, Augsburg 1861, p. 17.
  11. ↑ Brandi, p. 44, p. 46
  12. ↑ Brandi, p. 44
  13. ^ Contradictory data in the literature: Tamussino, p. 310 mentions 1517; according to Wiesflecker, p. 295, it was already 1516.
  14. ↑ Brandi, pp. 85-88
  15. ^ Fritz Ohmann, The Beginnings of the Post Office and the Taxis , Leipzig 1909, p. 240.
  16. ↑ Tamussino, pp. 265f.
predecessor Office Successor
William of Croy Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands
1507 - 1530 		Mary of Castile
personal data
SURNAME Margaret of Austria
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian Archduchess, Regent of the Netherlands
DATE OF BIRTH January 10, 1480
PLACE OF BIRTH Brussels
DATE OF DEATH December 1, 1530
Place of death Mechelen