CHAPTER 7

Bibliophile & Reformer

‘BY THE COMMANDMENT OF MY SAID REDOUBTABLE LADY DUCHESS OF BURGUNDY.’

Like many medieval women, from the Good Wife of Bath to Christine de Pisan, Margaret found that the widowed state offered many rewards. As the wealthy and well-respected Dowager of Burgundy, she enjoyed a considerable degree of independence. Her wealth ensured that she could maintain a high standard of personal ease, but her position was never a sinecure and her life was full of interest and stimulation. She had secured and retained her financial position through her unwavering defence of the ducal family and her constant work on their behalf. During her nine years as Duchess and her twenty-six years as Dowager, Margaret served three generations with energy and loyalty. She was not seduced by French blandishments on the death of her husband, nor did she attempt to safeguard her French possessions by adopting a neutralist position in the struggle between Burgundy and France.

Her commitment to the ducal family was total and consequently her rewards were great. After the settlement of her dower by her stepdaughter, her position in Burgundy was never challenged, and all her possessions were confirmed and ratified by both her step-son-in-law Maximilian and by her step-grandson Philip when he came of age. In December 1494 Philip justified the generosity of her endowment on the grounds of:

her good and honest conduct towards our late lord and grandfather, and the great love that she clearly bore towards our late sovereign lady mother and to all her lands and lordships both before and after her marriage, and equally towards our lord and father, and towards us in our minority, how after the death of our late lady mother, she behaved towards us as if she was our real mother ... and moreover because she has suffered inestimable damage rather than abandon us … and because of many other great reasons and considerations.¹

Philip gave Margaret’s interests every consideration. In 1495 she exchanged her property at Le Quesnoy for the town of Rupelmonde at the junction of the rivers Scheldt and Rupel, with all its valuable tolls and customs duties.² The 300 livres shortfall in her annual revenue that resulted from the exchange was made up from the revenues of Dendermonde and Oudenaarde, and Philip agreed to bear half the expenses for the repair of the castle and the mill at Rupelmonde. Le Quesnoy was situated two days journey south of Mons and had been constantly in the front line of French invasions. Although by the time of this transfer the various Franco-Burgundian treaties had restored Margaret to the full possession of all her dower, Le Quesnoy was a difficult and expensive property for a dowager to hold. Apart from its strategic position, Le Quesnoy lay within the vast hunting forest of Mormail and that fact may also have inspired the transfer to Philip. The ageing Duchess no longer had such a need for this type of estate.

Margaret bore a heavy load of responsibility for the maintenance and administration of all her dower property. Many documents survive in the archives of Brussels, Malines and Lille that bear witness to her assiduity. Apart from raising troops to defend her possessions, a serious matter in the years of invasions and rebellions, Margaret had full responsibility for upholding law and order, collecting aides and taxes and maintaining all the property of the demesne such as castles, palaces and mills. In the wet lands of the valleys of the Scheldt and the Lys it was also the duty of the landowner to preserve the vast network of ditches and dykes.

Margaret was jealous of her authority and would never permit its erosion. This is made clear from her arguments with the magistrates of Malines over elections and with the Bishop of Cambrai over a case of sanctuary.³ Even Malines, her favoured dower town found that she was zealous in preserving her privileges. In 1495 she was not pleased with the results of the election for the magistrates. Claiming the same rights which she possessed in her other dower towns, Margaret demanded that all the names of the magistrates should be submitted for her approval. The corporation of Malines resisted her orders, declaring that this was an infringement of their ancient liberties, which the Dowager had herself confirmed in 1477 and 1485. Margaret then turned to Philip and persuaded him to declare the election null and void but this was not to be the end of the story. The magistrates persisted in their claims, and they too appealed for ducal justice. And so the legal argument continued. Unfortunately the final outcome is unknown, but it is very clear that she was resolved to maintain her authority. In spite of this legal wrangle, the relations between Malines and their Dowager remained very good indeed.

Ardent in the protection of her rights and privileges, Margaret was not averse to making an appeal to the ducal government if it suited her purpose. Nor was she immune from the general addiction of the age to pursue lengthy and often fruitless litigation. One long drawn out affair concerned the lands of Buggenhout which were given to Margaret when its former owner defected to France.⁴ But her right to these manors was challenged by Charles de Hallewijn, a close relative of Mary’s lady-in-waiting. Margaret’s lawyer, William Stadio, pursued the case for several years but found all his efforts blocked and after Margaret’s death, Charles de Hallewijn ultimately gained the title to the property.

Apart from the legal tussle with Malines and about Buggenhout, the Dowager took another long-standing case before Archduke Philip in September 1496. Six defendants had all been found guilty of certain illegalities in the drapery business, but they had failed to pay their fines to Margaret. Philip found in her favour and this time she seems to have obtained satisfaction. However although she was willing to pursue some cases in the courts she was not over zealous. She was prepared to concede some of her traditional judicial rights to the archducal courts and she surrendered to the high court all responsibility for the sale of the criminal’s confiscated goods in cases of homicide.⁵

If Margaret relied on Philip’s support in judicial matters, she was entirely independent in the administration and management of her dower lands and she appointed her own officials. She selected men of good family and character to head her administration and she was loyal to those who had served her husband well. To be in the Dowager’s service provided a good opportunity for ambitious young men who sought to catch the attention of the Archduke. Henri de Witthem, Lord of Beersel and Henri de Hammericourt, Lord of Villerzies, both began their careers in the Dowager’s service, the former as her Lord Lieutenant at Malines and the latter at Binche.⁶ They eventually became important councillors to Philip and after his death they served under the Regent Margaret and later under Emperor Charles V. Henri of Witthem became Charles’ strong right arm in the Brussels area, a position which earned him great notoriety in 1532 when he was sent into Brussels to crush an urban revolt. His brutality was so appalling that the citizens rose up, marched on the castle of Beersel and destroyed it. Another who achieved high office through the service of the Dowager was Gerard of Assendelft. The son of an important Dutch family with a large house in The Hague (now the British embassy), he was chosen to take the feudal oaths for her dower lands at Brielle and Voorne. By the reign of Charles V, Assendelft controlled the mint at The Hague and was one of the most important ducal administrators in the whole of Holland and Zeeland.

Margaret kept a close eye on the officials and nobles who performed duties on her behalf. All her officials were expected to report regularly and punctually to their mistress. Most of her correspondence was conducted through secretaries but there are several peremptory notes from the Dowager herself. Her agent at Dendermonde was Olivier van Royan and he received many instructions from her.⁷ In December 1482, at the height of the crisis over the treaty of Arras, she wrote to van Royan telling him to meet her at Antwerp on the following Monday to discuss the maintenance of two windmills on her estates there. In her own hand and in her peculiarly eccentric French, Margaret added ‘non fayllye poynt de estre a Anvers et Jacques ausy’ (don’t fail to be at Antwerp and Jacques too).

Another of her servants, one Ghysbrecht Dullaert, was summoned to meet her at Oudenaarde and he had to be there no later than ‘the end of this week’. One of her favourite phrases in her letters to her civil servants was ‘toutes excusacions cessans’ (with no more excuses). It seemed that she understood the bureaucratic mind very well indeed and she was resolved to get immediate action. Good service was well rewarded and Margaret showed a maternal care for her employees. In 1488, Corneille de Berghes received a horse for his special services to ‘her very dear and well beloved son’ (i.e. Maximilian) and when Jean Lebrun the miller at Binche lost all his goods and his children in the troubles of 1487, Margaret ordered that he should receive compensation and reduced his taxes accordingly.⁸ She made similar sympathetic reductions for the people of Hainault at the time of the great dearth in 1480 and for the people of Brielle and Voorne after the floods of 1485.⁹

As a result of her careful supervision her revenues were collected smoothly and regularly. The officials gathered in her rents, levied all the usual feudal dues on the transfer of property, on the sales of livestock, timber, food, cloth, and coals and collected the customs and duties on imported goods. Many officials received their salaries directly from her dower towns. Guillaume de Baume supplemented his income with an annuity of 1,000 livres from Malines and the same city also paid the salaries of the caretakers of her palace.¹⁰ No doubt Malines viewed these payments as a small price to pay for all the benefits that accrued to the city as a result of Margaret’s residence. Apart from their trading privileges with England, Malines received special favours from both Philip and Maximilian. From 1489 to about 1530, when it was transferred to Brussels, Malines was the centre of the imperial postal system set up to serve the needs of first Maximilian and later Philip the Fair and Charles V.¹¹ This alone brought plenty of work and wealth to the hostelries and stables of the town.

At Binche where Margaret spent much of her last few years, she owned two houses, the hotel of the old Abbey of Lobbe and the Hôtel de la Salle.¹² She may have only used the former during the major rebuilding of the latter, which went on for several years and cost between 2 to 3,000 crowns. The Hôtel de la Salle was on the site of the old castle (now the town hall). A range of buildings were reconstructed by the Dowager, including a new tower, a chapel, a great hall and reception rooms with galleries along the garden side. The new hall was of a considerable size, more than 10 metres wide and 22 metres long and the Dowager used it as the focal point for all her administration in Hainault. She made other improvements at the Hôtel of Bavaria at Mons which she visited on a regular basis. The city gave her enthusiastic support and provided all the bricks and mortar required.¹³ In her activities at Mons and Binche the Dowager was asserting her presence in Hainault, which, after 1477, had become one of the most southerly possessions of the duchy. Margaret was zealous in the defence of her property in Hainault and her continued presence there showed her strong political commitment to the province.

Even after 1496, when Philip had taken over the full reins of government, the Dowager was never entirely free from the affairs of state. She never shunned the court or avoided political involvement. Unlike her mother-in-law, Isabelle of Portugal, Margaret did not retire, although in the last two or three years of her life ill health seems to have forced her to be less active. Whenever there was a great court occasion Margaret attended. Indeed her continued energetic involvement in all that life had to offer is one of her more attractive and consistent characteristics.

When Philip came of age Margaret was forty-eight years old, a good age for a woman in the fifteenth century. Of course being a noblewoman, she had avoided the miseries of famine and malnutrition which affected much of the population. Due to her seclusion and to the careful regimens of her doctors, she also escaped the epidemics of plague which scourged the Low Countries in 1472 and again in 1497-8. She had been spared the dangers of childbearing and the violent deaths which had carried off most of her male relatives. Only one of her brothers, Edward IV, had died in his bed and then at the relatively early age of forty-one. Of her other three brothers, Edmund was killed at seventeen, Clarence at twenty-eight and Richard III at thirty-two. Her father, killed at forty-nine and her husband at forty-four were positively old in comparison with these three sons of York. Of Margaret’s two sisters, Anne died at thirty-seven and Elizabeth at fifty-nine or sixty. None of them survived as long as their mother Cecily, who lived to be eighty. Indeed Cecily’s strong constitution seems to have been unique in the House of York. It was perhaps one of her Beaufort characteristics.

In 1494, Margaret had less than a decade to live, and there were increasing signs of ill health. When she was at Binche in May of 1497, anxious enquiries arrived from her subjects at Malines. In her reply she thanked them for their ‘bonne visitacion’ (kind delegation) and admitted that during the last six weeks she had had two ‘accidens de maladie’ (outbreaks of sickness).¹⁴ However she was able to reassure them that through the good services of her doctors Cornille and Lambert, she had finally thrown off the heavy fever which had afflicted her up to that very day and she was now very much recovered. After this illness, although Margaret was by no means infirm, she no longer travelled as often as she had done in the past. She spent most of her last years at Malines and Binche with very occasional visits to Brussels, Mons, Oudenaarde, Louvain and Ter Elst.¹⁵

The Dowager continued to be, due to the long absences of Margaret of Austria and the frequent illnesses of the new Archduchess Joanna, the most important lady of the court. It was she who welcomed the distinguished visitors to the Low Countries. With her experience spanning the reigns of Charles and Mary in Burgundy, two Kings of France and no less than five Kings of England, some of her guests must have regarded the Dowager as a piece of living history. An audience with Margaret was regarded as a great honour and she seems to have been delighted to represent the ducal family whenever the need arose.

Even in the last year of her life, when she was already very sick, she entertained Maximilian when he visited Malines. Earlier, in September 1494, when Maximilian’s second wife Bianca Sforza, the daughter of Galeazzo, Duke of Milan, came on her only visit to the north, she too was received by Margaret, both at Brussels and at Malines. The Empress was entertained most royally and Margaret did not fail to exploit her visit to serve her own political ambitions. When Philip entered Louvain for his Joyeuse Entrée, he was accompanied by two important guests, the Empress Bianca and Richard of York.¹⁶ It was her influence at the ducal court and her access to all the important visitors to the Low Countries that made Margaret’s support of the Pretender such a threat to the security of Henry Tudor.

After 1494, the Emperor Maximilian rarely visited the Low Countries, spending most of the rest of his life in Germany.¹⁷ However it is clear from the ‘Weisskünig’ that his years in the north had had a great impact on him. He remarried but he had no more legitimate children and, though he was to live to the age of sixty, a serious attack of syphilis in 1493 had a lasting effect on his health. When he had arrived at Ghent in 1477, he was only eighteen years old and during the next seventeen years he had been at the centre of Burgundian affairs. In this hard school he received a thorough political and military education, proving himself to be much more realistic as a general than his predecessor, Duke Charles, had been.

As a politician operating within the maelstrom of the Low Countries, Maximilian always suffered from the handicap of his foreign origin. Margaret understood this handicap very well. The Chronicle of Flanders recorded her frustrations on this score when she was forced to withdraw from Ghent in 1477.¹⁸ Her support of Maximilian was therefore both loyal and sympathetic. He claimed that he had learned from her to listen carefully to all the requests that were made of him. Maximilian always showed Margaret the greatest respect and consideration and on all his later visits he either visited Margaret at Malines or she came there to meet him. Her influence on his policies towards England had a long lasting effect and his continued support of the House of York seems to have been as much a matter of personal honour as it was of diplomatic value. His loyalty to Edmund, Earl of Suffolk, and his brother Richard de la Pole must have pleased Margaret, who could no longer support her nephews herself.

It is not difficult to discern Margaret’s influence over the younger Archduke Philip. In character, Philip the Fair seems to have been like his great-grandfather Philip the Good, preferring to avoid political conflicts and enjoying the pleasures of life, particularly women and hunting. He was very much the antithesis of his grandfather Charles, being fair-skinned, fair-haired, lively and frivolous. However, his brief rule was in many ways much more successful. His government was realistic in its foreign policy, placating France and reaching a practical trading agreement with England. It was also tactful in its domestic administration which operated smoothly under the ducal councillors.

Most of the men who served Philip were selected by Margaret. Philip’s tutor Francis van Buysleyden became the Bishop of Besançon and the Lord of Gistel. The former Mayor of Malines, who had trained the young Archduke in the military arts, was made the Governor of Dendermonde.¹⁹ Others like Olivier de La Marche remained in their old positions in the ducal household. Even when Philip decided to replace the Chancellor Carondelet with a man of his own choosing, he selected Thomas Plaines, a man well-known to the Dowager from his participation in her embassy to England in 1480. Although Margaret was disappointed by Philip’s failure to support her Yorkist nephews, she would have been well pleased to see her own pragmatic and conciliatory methods applied to the government of the duchy.

Neither Margaret nor any of the ducal advisers could have anticipated the disastrous consequences of the great double marriage which took place at the Church of St Gudule in Brussels in December 1495.²⁰ At these proxy weddings, Philip married the Infanta Joanna of Castile and Margaret of Austria was married to Don Juan, the heir to the thrones of Spain. This proud and splendid occasion was to have a dismal outcome both from personal and political points of view. Joanna had a difficult and unstable personality and, especially after the birth of her third child, she suffered from manic depression. Her brother, Don Juan, was to die within two years of the marriage, with the result that Philip the Fair became heir to the Kingdoms of Spain. The Habsburg possession of Spain, the Empire and the Low Countries, which was the vast inheritance of Philip and Joanna’s son, the Emperor Charles V, would bring war and conflict to the Low Countries throughout much of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Ignorance of the future is one of the consolations of the present and this gloomy destiny was quite unknown when the Infanta Joanna arrived in the Low Countries in September 1496. Both the Dowager and Margaret of Austria went up to Antwerp to meet the new Archduchess. They travelled with a glittering retinue drawn from the Knights of the Golden Fleece. The Infanta arrived with a vast armada of one hundred and twenty ships. Some of these were to provide the escort for Margaret of Austria when she left for Spain early in the following year. Unfortunately Joanna was ill after the long voyage and she had to be taken to the Abbey of St Michael at Bergen op Zoom, so it was there that the two Margarets first visited her. By 20 October, Joanna was sufficiently recovered for the marriage ceremonies to take place at the Church of St Gommaire in Lier.²¹

The Dowager had already made several visits to the shrine of St Gommaire, one in 1475 to see the relics of the saint and another for the annual procession of the saint in October 1477. On her first visit the canons had presented her with an illuminated life of St Gommaire and she had given the church two fine silver candlesticks. The wedding of Joanna and Philip was celebrated with banquets and a tournament, no doubt organised by Olivier de La Marche, but, although with the accession of Philip the duchy seemed to have been restored to much of its old equilibrium, the old opulent ceremonies of earlier times were not repeated.

In the following January, Margaret of Austria left for Spain, accompanied by her old nurse Le Veau de Bouzanton, as she had done when she left to become the Dauphine of France. Within the year her bridegroom was dead and she returned home in April 1499. Two years later, in 1501, the twenty-four year old Margaret set off for her third marriage, to Philibert of Savoy. This was to be marginally more successful than her earlier betrothals since it at least lasted for three years before he too died.

During the two periods while Margaret of Austria was in the Low Countries, between 1493 and 1497 and again between 1499 and 1501, she passed much of her time in the company of the Dowager. The two women were seen together at state occasions and on each of her departures Margaret of Austria was seen off by the Dowager. In 1501, the Dowager accompanied her granddaughter to Halle where they made a pilgrimage to the shrine of the Virgin. They then went on to Mons, where Philip came to bid his sister farewell.²² When Margaret of Austria finally returned from Savoy, the Dowager was dead.

Margaret of Austria inherited much from her step-grandmother, acquiring both her personal treasures and her public servants. Guy de Baume, from the same family as the Dowager’s chevalier d’honour, became the chevalier of the young Margaret. But the young woman seems to have inherited much more than material goods and servants from her namesake. After the death of her brother Philip, Margaret of Austria became a most successful governess of the Low Countries. Her court at Malines was modelled on the Dowager’s example and her pragmatic and patient approach won her great popularity. Perhaps it was also her respect for the Dowager which made her so resolute in her refusals when Henry VII put himself forward as a candidate for her hand.²³ It is through Margaret of Austria that an interesting link exists between Margaret of York and her most illustrious great-grand-niece, Queen Elizabeth I. Before her presentation to Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn passed two years at Malines learning courtly manners under the eye of Margaret of Austria.²⁴ While she was there she would have been surrounded by all the books, pictures and tapestries inherited by Margaret of Austria from Margaret of York.

Before the arrival of the new Spanish Archduchess Joanna, the Dowager Margaret moved out of the Malines palace into a suite of rooms on the first floor of the building opposite. This house was divided from the Church of St Peter and St Paul by a narrow street, and the corporation of Malines built a gallery so that she could reach the church directly from her rooms on the first floor.²⁵ This does not mean that Margaret had retired from court life, as she continued to play a large role, especially as the poor Archduchess was perpetually pregnant and ill.

Philip and Joanna’s first child Eleanor was born at Brussels in November 1498 (she would later marry King Francis I of France). Margaret was one of her godmothers and carried the baby to her christening at the Church of St Gudule.²⁶ The godfather was Emperor Maximilian, represented at the christening by Prince Christopher of Baden. In the Emperor’s absence it was Margaret who took the most prominent place in the processions. The hilly walk, from the palace on the Coudenberg to the church on the Treurenberg, must have been too much for the ageing Dowager, especially on a cold November evening. During the torch-lit return, Margaret and the baby were carried in a litter.

Thirteen months later in 1500, a second child was born at Ghent and there was great delight when the new heir was presented to the people. This child was surely named after his great-grandfather, Duke Charles, although Molinet thought he had been named in honour of one of his godfathers, Charles, Count of Chimay. Once more it was Margaret who carried the child to the font, and the crystal cup encrusted with precious stones which she gave was a measure of her pride. Even if Margaret had no children of her own, she never lacked family connections. Apart from her close relations with the ducal family, she was often sought as a godmother by the nobility of the Low Countries and, in the same year as Charles was born, she attended the christening of Philip de Croy. He was baptised by her old friend the Bishop of Cambrai and her present to the child was a fine crystal and gold cross.

Another ceremony in which the Dowager played a leading role was when the infant Charles was presented to the Order of the Golden Fleece. The chapter met in the church of the Carmelites in Brussels in January 1501 and the Dowager was chosen to present the heir to his father the Archduke.²⁷ The church had been splendidly decorated for the occasion with the Troy tapestries being brought from the Coudenberg palace to hang on the walls. Before all the Knights of the Golden Fleece, in their cloaks of crimson cloth of gold and amid all the trappings of chivalry and hierarchy, Margaret bore the child to his father who placed the chain of the order around his son’s neck and promised that Charles would take the oaths when he came of age.

This celebration typified the traditionalist and conservative attitudes with which Margaret should be identified. The Order of the Golden Fleece expressed the chivalric aspirations of the feudal monarchies and duchies which existed, in theory, entirely for the service of God. Yet its very existence mirrored the ambiguities of the fifteenth century. It was the creation of Philip the Good, who had used it to unite his widely spread possessions and to assert his own considerable sovereignty. The Knights were drawn from the greatest noble families of the whole duchy but their number had been severely depleted after the death of Charles by defections to France. It was gradually transformed into a Habsburg institution which would survive even beyond the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918. Though the order had a clear political purpose, the Knights were drawn together in a semi-religious and heroic brotherhood, like the Argonauts or the Knights of the Arthurian Round Table. In her attendance at the chapter of 1501, Margaret showed her indivisible devotion to her service to God and to her Sovereign.

There can be no doubt that Margaret was personally, deeply and seriously religious and was an important patron of the Church.²⁸ She lived in an age of religious excess and controversy. Savanorola, one of the most extreme examples of religious dogmatism, was burnt at the stake in Florence in 1498. A few years after Margaret’s death, William Tyndale was burnt at Vilvoorde near Brussels, and Erasmus would seek in vain for the patronage of the Archduke Philip. Stirred by the fierce puritanism of zealots like Savanorola, the unorthodoxy of reformers like Tyndale and the intellectual debate of the neo-classicists like Erasmus, conscientious and pious lay people searched for a way of reconciling new ideas within the framework of the established Church. They sought to reconcile a devout and pious religious life with their secular responsibilities and to do this they adopted various religious systems and regimes.

Margaret, like her mother and many other devout men and women in northern Europe, followed the way known as the devotio moderna. This regime had its origins in the teachings of Gerard de Groot of Flanders.²⁹ It had been popularised by the Brethren of the Common Life and by the canons of the congregation of Windesheim near Zwolle. Two of the greatest theological teachers of the fourteenth century, Jan van Ruysbroeck, a brother at the Abbey of Groenendael near Brussels, and St Thomas à Kempis were sympathetic to the movement. The lay practitioners of the devotio moderna built their lives around a pattern of worship, prayer, study and contemplation. Through private study, they were led towards self-education and their piety involved them in religious reform. Their devotions were encouraged by many of the established religious orders, especially by the Augustinian Canons, the Observant Friars and the Poor Clares.

Margaret’s dedication to the devotio moderna was both personal and public. In her earliest years as Duchess of Burgundy, she made contact with Denis van Rijkel, a Carthusian scholar and teacher, one of the leading theologians of the Low Countries.³⁰ Later she had other friends among the more pious and reforming clergy. She consulted the Prior of Groenendael over the reorganisation of the Victorine convent at Blydenberg near Malines and she turned to Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa, the leading Papal Reformer in the Low Countries, when she was trying to promote reform in religious houses at Louvain and Binche. Her chaplains and confessors were all well educated and devout priests. Among her confessors was the worthy and pious Henri de Berghes, the Bishop of Cambrai, who was one of Erasmus’ earliest patrons. His sister Elizabeth de Berghes was the supervisor of the training school at the convent of Bethany at Malines, and a close friend of the Dowager.

The reform movement within the Church of the Low Countries concentrated chiefly on restoring the purity of the religious life within convents and monasteries. The reformers also tried to see that only conscientious and well-educated priests and bishops were appointed to benefices and to ensure that all religious services were properly performed. Even the worldly David of Burgundy, Bishop of Utrecht, supported this type of reform.³¹ He was particularly keen to improve the educational standards of the clergy within his bishopric. He supported poor scholars and introduced the printing press into his diocese. Erasmus was ordained by Bishop David.

As Duchess of Burgundy, Margaret was expected to set a high standard in religious observance, but her interest went much deeper than the conventions of the court. Religious devotion might be expected from the daughter of the pious Cecily Neville, though it should also be noted that neither of her sisters, Anne or Elizabeth, were known for their piety and charity.³² Margaret’s interest in religious matters was stimulated not only by her mother but also by her husband who was strictly pious. He shunned oaths, abhored blasphemies and punctiliously attended religious services. She was also influenced by her acquaintance with theologians such as the Carthusian Denis van Rijkel who had been closely involved with the rulers of Burgundy for many years. He had encouraged Duke Philip the Good to undertake a crusade and he had intervened in the conflict with Guelders. He provided Margaret with a very severe model to follow, for he disapproved of all worldly vanities amongst which he included polyphonic music, curled hair and pleated clothes.³³ Fortunately, his strictures against music were not closely observed at the Burgundian court. John of Burgundy the worldly bishop who preceded Henri de Berghes at Cambrai was the patron of Guillaume Dufay, whose paean to female beauty beginning with the words, ‘that noble brow carries my soul to paradise’ would certainly not have pleased van Rijkel.³⁴

For thirty-five years Margaret was actively involved in the reform of the Church, founding and refounding convents, building churches and monasteries and giving generously to the Church. Her influence was felt throughout the Low Countries, from Brielle in the north, to Mons and Binche in the south. At Brielle she gave one of her estates, lying just outside the city walls, for the foundation of a new Augustinian convent, ‘to which order she bears a singular affection’.³⁵ Margaret’s preference for the Augustinians may have been due to the influence of Denis van Rijkel, who had drawn many of his ideas from the teachings of St Augustine. This ‘singular affection’ was also apparent at Binche, where she established a convent of Black Sisters (as the Augustinian nuns were known) near to St James’ Gate.³⁶

Margaret was very practical in her various foundations and seemed to prefer working orders. At Binche, the convent provided a hospital, an orphanage and a school for girls. She appointed Lawrence Couvreur as the first superior and he was still associated with the convent as late as 1525. Margaret founded several other hospitals, orphanages and hostels at Mons, Louvain, Ghent and Binche. At Mons she also founded a house for reformed prostitutes, known as the daughters of Magdalen. The rules for this house were drawn up with the Dowager’s approval and permitted girls to leave and marry if the opportunity arose. Meantime they were to wear white habits and pass their time in prayer and in caring for the sick.

When she was personally involved in the reformation of convents and monasteries, Margaret favoured the Augustinian rule, even to the extent of forcing it on the reluctant nuns of the Victorine convent of Blydenberg near Malines.³⁷ Sometimes she encountered strong resistance to her ideas. There were powerful opponents to reform among the local nobility who regarded the abbeys and convents as an extension of their own estates and resented any interference in them. She faced considerable local opposition at the hospital of Louvain when she intervened to establish the Augustinian rule there. The old Abbess, Mathilde Lobs, would not surrender her authority without a fight and called on local patrons to support her.³⁸ After a struggle lasting three years, Margaret’s will prevailed. A new reforming Abbess was appointed and Mathilde ended her days as a simple nun in the Carmelite order. The other sisters who had supported Mathilde were also moved out and placed in other convents.

A major influence on the reforms of the religious orders in the Low Countries was St Colette of Corbie who had been active in the early fifteenth century.³⁹ She had worked chiefly within the convents and monasteries of northern France in the orders of the Poor Clares and the Franciscans. Earlier Duchesses of Burgundy, including the wife of the second Duke, had supported St Colette and the Duchess Mary was particularly devoted to her cult, urging successive Popes to agree to her canonisation, which did not take place until 1807. Margaret was the patron of the Poor Clares at Melaan, near Malines and in 1501 she led the procession back into their newly rebuilt convent. For this occasion she dressed in the novice’s habit of the order.

Margaret had already donated a lavishly illustrated Vie de Sainte Colette to the convent of the Poor Clares at Ghent.⁴⁰ This was written by Pierre de Vaux, a Franciscan who had known the saint and who was closely associated with her work. The copy was made during the lifetime of Duke Charles and one of the miniatures depicted Margaret and Charles kneeling with St Colette before an apparition of St Anne. The book was decorated with the arms of the Duke and the Duchess, with their interlaced initials and the Duchess’ device: ‘bien en aviengne’. On the final page, in her own bold and untidy hand, Margaret inscribed the gift from ‘votre loyale fylle Margarete Dangleterre pryez pour elle et pour son salut’ (your faithful daughter Margaret of England pray for her and for her salvation). The book remains today one of the treasures of the convent for which it was made.

It was through her devotion to St Colette that Margaret also became involved with the reform of the Franciscan orders, particularly with the Recollects, or the Observant Friars as they were called in England. She persuaded the Beghards of Malines to adopt this rule, and in 1497 after a fire at their monastery she paid for the rebuilding of both the library and the dormitory. It was in the church of this order that she eventually chose to be buried.⁴¹ The foundation of the house of the Observant Friars at Greenwich was also largely due to her influence on Edward IV. Margaret frequently encouraged and supported others in their work for the Church. She laid the foundation stone for a new charterhouse at Louvain, leaving a gold coin for the master mason and paying for the cell of the Father Procureur.⁴² The founder of this charterhouse was one of her husband’s chaplains, Walter Waterleet. He was a canon of St Peter’s at Louvain and of St Gudule’s at Brussels, and also a friend of Gillis de Platea, an outstanding scholar and teacher at Louvain University. In 1521 the Louvain Charterhouse became a part of the University of Louvain. Margaret was a keen patron of the Carthusians and she also paid for the reconstruction of the Prior’s house at the Charterhouse of Scheut near Brussels. At one time she must have considered being buried at the Louvain charterhouse, for a decorated niche was prepared for her there but it was never used.

Gillis de Platea, known also as Egidius, was appointed as one of Margaret’s confessors and through him the Dowager became a patron of St Agatha’s Convent at Ghent.⁴³ There she paid for the building of the church and provided the convent with a valuable source of income. One of her wards was Jeanne, the orphaned daughter of the Count of St Pol, and in 1478 the little girl was sent to the convent for her education. Eventually Jeanne entered the order and the convent benefited from her rich inheritance. Margaret’s many gifts to the Church included the financing of major building works and the donation of occasional presents such as sacks of silks which she sent to St Brigitte’s at Dendermonde and an altar which she gave to St Waudrin’s at Mons.⁴⁴

St Ursmer’s at Binche was specially favoured. All her income from Le Perrière and Chaussin went to this church to provide daily masses for her husband’s soul and to support the necessary clergy including a deacon, a sub-deacon, a canon and an organist.⁴⁵This chantry was still in existence a hundred years later, when King Philip II was asked to provide the money to continue the masses for his great-great-grandfather. Margaret lavished gifts on St Ursmer’s including a rich chasuble, a gold brocade cope, two tunics, several song-books (one of which bears her autograph) and the most valuable of all, a golden reliquary. This beautiful piece of goldsmiths’ work escaped the religious iconoclasts and survived the French revolution. It is in the form of a calvary with the enamelled figures of Jesus, Mary and John against a green enamelled hillside. Inlaid with pearls and jewels, the work is of such high quality that it has been identified with the workshops of Gerard Loyet, the goldsmith who made the famous reliquary that Charles gave to St Lambert’s at Liège. The St Ursmer calvary originally contained two relics: a piece of the Holy Cross and a Thorn. This is not the only instance of Margaret’s devotion to the cult of the Holy Cross. As early as 1470 she supported the nuns at Boneffe who were hoping to take over the chapel of the Holy Cross at Malines. She wrote to the Malines magistrates asking them to help the nuns and to obey the commands of the Dowager Isabelle who was a patron of the convent.⁴⁶

Another church which benefited from Margaret’s special attentions was St Rombout’s at Malines. In 1480 she attended the exhumation of the saint’s remains, when the coffin was opened in the presence of many eminent witnesses including eight abbots. The body was in a poor state and the odour was classified as ‘redolentia’ which can hardly have been pleasant. The occasion was, however, very important in the eyes of the church and all the witnesses signed a document to indicate their participation.⁴⁷ The saint’s shrine was being moved during a massive rebuilding programme. The chief architect for these works, Anthony Keldermans, had worked for Margaret at Malines when she rebuilt the house of the Bishop of Cambrai, and he may also have been involved with her works at Binche. Her principal gift to the enlarged church was one of the great transept windows. In this, Margaret and Charles were portrayed kneeling at prayer, attended by their patron saints.⁴⁸ The Dowager gave windows to other churches at Malines, Dendermonde, Alost and Bruges, but they have since been almost totally destroyed leaving only a few fragments of the ducal arms.

Margaret had a truly medieval interest in relics. Apart from her attendance at the opening of St Rombout’s tomb and her many visits to shrines on saints days, she even became involved in arguments over the ownership of relics. She supported the canons of St Ursmer’s at Binche in their struggle with the clergy of St Lambert’s at Liège over the relics which had belonged to the old Abbey of Lobbe.⁴⁹ It was a lengthy dispute which seems never to have been finally settled. Her veneration for relics, popularly regarded as a cure for all the ills of the body and the soul, was the sort of superstition strongly attacked by many of the fifteenth century reformers. Certainly, Margaret was not in the vanguard of change. Her attitude towards the Church was essentially that of the great feudatories and she did not hesitate to challenge churchmen who interfered with her secular interests. She even clashed with her friend the Bishop of Cambrai over the infringement of sanctuary by her bailiff at Dendermonde. Towards the end of her life she was engaged in a bitter argument with the Abbot of Tongerloo when he refused to sell her the castle of Ter Elst which she wanted to acquire as a country retreat.⁵⁰ Nor did she hesitate to use her considerable authority to settle a dispute at Mons in favour of her Black Sisters and against the canons of St Waudrin’s.

Although she was old fashioned in these respects she still seems to have had a more intellectual interest in religious matters than her mother Cecily, and she encouraged education and learning. In her Will she left money for a scholarship at the University of Louvain.⁵¹ One of the first beneficiaries of this bequest was Adrian Dedel (or Florizoon) from Utrecht. Her bequest helped him along the road which led him to become a doctor of theology, the Dean of the University and finally Pope Adrian VI. She also saw that her chaplain, Robert Camell, was supported during his studies and she paid for the education of a poor child at Ghent in the school run by the brothers of St Jerome.⁵²

Considering her religious devotion, it is appropriate that almost all the miniatures of her which have survived show her praying or reading.⁵³ The most colourful miniatures portraying the Duchess are those by Jean Dreux illustrating Nicolas Finet’s Benois seront les Misèricordieux (Blessed are the Merciful). Here Margaret is shown directly involved in acts of charity and at prayer.⁵⁴ There are two illuminated leaves and on one of them there are eight separate miniatures. Margaret is depicted giving food to a cripple and an orphan, offering drink and alms to a pilgrim, clothing the naked and visiting the prisons and hospitals. In the final miniature she is reading at a prie-dieu which is draped with the royal arms of England. In the second miniature Margaret is again depicted kneeling, accompanied by the four founding fathers of the early Church, Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome and Gregory, and by her own patron saint, Margaret.

In both miniatures the Duchess is richly dressed in a magnificent gown of crimson cloth of gold, with a deep trim of ermine. This is comparatively unusual for in most of the other miniatures portraying her, she is more soberly dressed in a black or grey gown. This suggests that the manuscript was made very shortly after her marriage or perhaps even in its honour. The arms of England and of Burgundy appear in the paintings and in the margins are interlaced ‘Cs’ and ‘Ms’. It would have been a most appropriate gift to the Duchess on her Joyeuse Entrée to Brussels, since the city’s beautiful Gothic buildings, St Gudule with its twin towers, Our Lady of the Sablon, the City Gates and the Town Hall feature in the background of the miniatures. The book would have pleased her not only for its beauty but also for its content. In it Nicholas Finet described the duties of a Christian duchess.

About twenty-five books have been identified as having been ‘visibly’ in Margaret’s possession. This is a relatively small number but it is, nevertheless, one of the largest collections of this period traced to female ownership. For this reason alone Margaret merits the name of bibliophile.⁵⁵ Great fifteenth century libraries existed both in Burgundy and in England, but these were owned by men. Duke Humphrey of Gloucester had thousands of books and manuscripts and his brother, the Duke of Bedford, also had a large personal library. Of Margaret’s contemporaries at the English court, both Lord Hastings and Anthony Woodville had substantial collections of books. Margaret Beaufort and Anthony Woodville were sufficiently interested to make their own translations of French works and have them printed. However, within Margaret’s immediate family there is little evidence of a serious interest in books, though her great-uncle, Edward, Duke of York had translated a French hunting manual, her father commissioned at least one translation from the classics and her mother had a library of religious books.⁵⁶ There was apparently no substantial Yorkist library until after Edward IV’s visit to his sister’s court in 1471. It was thus not until her arrival in Burgundy that Margaret had personal access to a really large and comprehensive collection.

The library of Duke Philip the Good was one of the greatest in Europe, not only in quantity, but also in quality and variety. It has been estimated that he had about nine hundred volumes in total.⁵⁷ They covered all subjects including religion, history, the classics, myths and legends, genealogy, chivalry and military history and there was a place for the best-sellers of the period such as the ‘Roman de la Rose’ and the ‘Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles’, a French version of ‘The Decameron’. Margaret’s taste would be influenced not only by her own piety but also by the great literary tradition of the Burgundian court. The variety of languages used within the duchy was an added stimulus to the writers of the period and Duke Charles’ library included works and translations in French, Dutch, Latin, Italian and Portuguese.

The books attributed to Margaret’s library were all in French and included several translations from the Latin which she had commissioned. It is not surprising that she had no books in English since most books written for the nobility, even in England, were still in French. Indeed the only evidence of her association with an English text concerns the translation made and printed by William Caxton. Many of Margaret’s books were copies of ones which belonged to the ducal libraries⁵⁸ and the majority of those which have survived were acquired during the lifetime of Duke Charles, either as gifts or as personal commissions.⁵⁹ Most of the books attributed to Margaret came to her purely in her capacity as Duchess of Burgundy. It is clear that all those who knew the Duchess regarded books as a suitable gift for this intelligent woman and were sure that such presents would be appreciated.

During the fifteenth century Burgundy was the literary centre of northern Europe and after her marriage Margaret found herself at a court which patronized living authors. Chastellain was the chief chronicler and historian for both Philip and Charles, and after his death there were plenty of rivals for his place among Molinet, Olivier de La Marche, Jehan de Waurin and Jacques Clercq. Eventually it was Molinet who became the real heir to the Burgundian tradition of historical writing, since Commynes, the more lively author, chose to leave Burgundy for the court of France. With Olivier de La Marche in her own household, Margaret was in close contact with this literary and historical tradition. Although there is no evidence that she commissioned any of these authors, she was certainly interested in history and in chronicles. Her coat of arms were added to a copy of Chastellain’s ‘Instructions for a Young Prince’, which was originally written for her husband. This particular copy may have been made for the young Archduke Philip or even for the future Charles V. She also owned a copy of ‘Les Chroniques de Flandre’, given to her by Mary in 1477 after the death of Duke Charles.⁶⁰

The great majority of Margaret’s own books were on religious subjects. Only four were of secular or classical origin and even one of these, the ‘Consolationes’ by Boethius, had been adopted as a religious tract.⁶¹ Of the other three, ‘Des Faiz du Grant Alexandre’ (The Deeds of Alexander the Great) was originally made for Charles. One of the miniatures shows Vasco de Lucena, the translator, presenting the book to the Duke but it was not completed until after Charles’ death. The inscription at the end of the book shows that it was in fact given away by Mary and Margaret and was never truly part of Margaret’s library. ‘La Fleur des Hystoires’ by Jean Mansel, which was a history of the world from its beginning to about 1400, was also a copy of a work in the ducal library, and this together with ‘Les Chroniques de Flandre’ are the only truly secular books known to have had a permanent place in Margaret’s personal library.⁶²

In view of her access to the ducal library it is unwise to deduce too much from the small number of books which actually carry her own arms or signature. She could have read as widely as she chose and those few volumes of her personal collection which have survived may not be entirely representative of her taste and interests. The books bearing her arms and signatures were most likely those she kept through her later years and were the consolation of a Dowager, to which she turned regularly for her religious devotions and for contemplation.

Her taste in religious books ranged from standard theological works such as the ‘Contemplations of St Augustine’, translated for her by Vasco de Lucena, to the more exotic ‘Les Visions du chevalier Tondal’, the tale of a twelfth century Irish knight who found himself transported into heaven and hell.⁶³ She also possessed a copy of ‘L’Apocalypse’ of St John, with additional extracts from the ‘Legenda Aurea’ (The Golden Legend), a ‘Bible moralisée’, which had been made for the Duke and the Duchess, several Books of Hours and Breviaries and many collections of sermons and moral tracts. The finest of the Books of Hours associated with Margaret is the ‘Hours of the Virgin’ containing thirty-four miniatures some of which were probably made by Lieven van Lathem, one of the artists who had worked on the tableaux and decorations for her marriage.

As well as the sermons of well-known theologians such as Jean Gerson and Father Laurent du Bois whose ‘La Somme le Roi’ was popular with all the nobility, Margaret had several books by clerics at the Burgundian court. Among these were the works of Nicolas Finet, a canon of Cambrai who was also Margaret’s almoner and Charles Soillot who had been secretary to Charles when he was the Count of Charolais. Soillot’s book ‘Le Livre de Felicité et Vie’ was in the form of a dialogue on eternal happiness. A leaf of the gradual which was part of this book survived in the possession of the Observant Friars at Greenwich. The gradual may have been a gift from Margaret to the Order on the foundation of the house in England.

Charles had a greater interest in the classics than his wife. The books he took with him to the siege of Nancy included the works of Xenophon, translated by Lucena, and the histories of Hannibal and Alexander. Like Margaret he also had a sophisticated taste in the manuscripts themselves. This is especially apparent in the magnificent ‘Black Book of Hours’ that he gave to Galeazzo Sforza in 1466.⁶⁴ The vellum had been dyed black or deep purple and the miniatures were then painted in gold and silver, a costly and elaborate method. Margaret’s preference was for a lighter, more delicate and more realistic style. Her books were all of the highest standard and are masterpieces of the craft of bookmaking which was then enjoying its final flourish in the workshops of the Burgundian Netherlands.

More than a third of her books were copied by David Aubert, who after beginning his career in Brussels spent the rest of his working life in Ghent.⁶⁵ Scribes like Aubert were responsible for the calligraphy and the production of a book and they worked closely with the translators and the artists who painted the borders and the miniatures. Aubert’s manuscripts were known for their excellent script in the style known as ‘Bastarda’ or ‘gothic batarde’. Aubert worked for both Philip the Good and Charles the Bold, who honoured him by making personal visits to his workshops, incidents which were recorded in miniatures. After Charles’ death he worked for Margaret and his copy of the ‘Consolationes’ by Boethius includes an illustration showing Aubert presenting his work to the Duchess who wears a long train trimmed with ermine and is attended by five ladies-in-waiting. In the copy of ‘Les Visions du chevalier Tondal’ which he made for Margaret at Ghent in 1474, he humbly described himself as the Duchess’ ‘très petit indigne escripvain’ (very minor and unworthy scribe). It is a measure of his prestige and of the spirit of Burgundy that while Edward IV was considered remarkable for visiting the homes of the merchants of London, the rulers of Burgundy and their successor the Archduke Maximilian were distinguished by their visits to the studios of their book-makers and artists. Maximilian, for example, visited Hugo van der Goes in his retreat at the Rode Klooster.⁶⁶

The margins of Margaret’s books were decorated with realistic and beautiful flowers, leaves, fruit and birds. These and the miniatures were made by the best artists of the age, including Jean Dreux, Simon Marmion, and Guillaume Vrelant. Jean Dreux, who illustrated Finet’s two books, had worked for Philip and Charles and was appointed a valet de chambre. Simon Marmion had also worked for Duke Charles, who may have commissioned him to paint the portrait of Margaret which hangs in the Louvre. His most notable works for Margaret were his miniatures for the two books on the visions of Tondel.⁶⁷ These were probably Margaret’s most magnificent books. The miniatures of the horrors of Hell and the delights of Heaven reveal a highly imaginative and exotic style resembling the later works of Hieronymous Bosch. Did they also reflect Margaret’s taste and her own religious conceptions? If so, the solemn Louvre portrait may well be a true representation of her character.

Some of the finest miniatures were made for Margaret by the unknown artist called ‘The Master of Mary of Burgundy’. This painter seems to have begun his career under Margaret’s patronage.⁶⁸ It has been suggested that he may have been either a brother of Hugo van der Goes or like him, a brother at the Abbey of the Rode Klooster near Brussels, or Alexander Bening of Bruges. He painted the very delicate miniature of the Duchess which appears in the ‘Traités de Morale’, showing Margaret at prayer before an unusual representation of the Holy Trinity. God the Father bears the crucified Christ in his arms and the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove hovers beside them. A human touch is added by Margaret’s small whippet scampering in the background.

One of the most interesting miniatures in the style of this artist has survived in the ‘Register of the Ghent Guild of St Anne’ now in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle. Margaret and Mary were patrons of this guild from 1473, and they were presented with an illuminated register of the members. A miniature depicts Margaret and her stepdaughter kneeling together in the chapel of St Anne. However the finest work of this artist appears in a Book of Hours which he made for the Archduchess Mary.⁶⁹ This outstanding miniature is set in an architectural frame which seems to depict the house of Lord Louis of Gruuthuyse, where there was a window looking directly into the chancel of the Church of Our Lady at Bruges. A lady is seated at this window where she is reading with her dog on her lap, and below her in the body of the church there is a group of ladies including two very finely dressed figures, one of whom may be Margaret. At the right-hand side there is the figure of a man who might be Lord Louis. Gruuthuyse was closely associated with both Margaret and her stepdaughter and was particularly valuable to them in the crisis of 1477-8. He also had a great library and may also have influenced Margaret’s taste in books, though she favoured the Brussels and Ghent studios rather than the more elaborate Bruges bookmakers patronised by Lord Louis and later by Edward IV.

Margaret frequently gave books as presents to friends, churches and convents, though very few of these gifts have survived in their entirety. The ‘Vie de St Colette’, the ‘Des Faiz du Grant Alexandre’ and ‘La dyalogue de la Duchesse de Bourgogne’ by Finet, which she gave to her old friend Jeanne de Hallewijn, are exceptions.⁷⁰ Through her piety and her gifts to churches and convents, the Dowager was seeking the salvation of her immortal soul. She achieved a more worldly immortality with the bold signature which she inscribed in many of her books.⁷¹ Her energetic and untidy autograph indicates a far from scholarly hand, but it also suggests a bold and forceful personality, very far removed from the modest and retiring ideal of Christian womanhood recommended in thedevotio moderna.

The literary heritage of Burgundy, so cherished by Margaret, was also appreciated by Maximilian and Philip the Fair. Maximilian showed a particular zeal for the written word, with his autobiographical Weisskünig and the virtual encyclopaedia which he planned as his memorial.⁷² At least some of his literary interests may have been stimulated by Margaret. She had a more direct influence on Philip the Fair and on Margaret of Austria, who inherited both the ducal library and most of the Dowager’s own books.

Her influence was also felt by her family and friends in England. It was not until after his stay in the Low Countries that Edward IV began to commission and collect a series of illuminated manuscripts.⁷³ Gruuthuyse was also a major influence on Edward’s taste but it was his experience of the ducal collections which acted as a spur. The first Yorkist King was eager to display the opulence and magnificence of his court and after his return from Burgundy he seems to have been resolved to outshine his brother-in-law in every respect. Lord Hastings wrote to ask Olivier de La Marche for a copy of the household ordinances of Duke Charles, and the household of Edward’s heir was established with these in mind.⁷⁴ Determined to create a royal library to equal its Burgundian model the King began to buy in books and manuscripts. Like his sister, Edward chose to have most of his books in French. Since he left the bulk of his religious books to his wife and these were dispersed after her death, the full extent of Margaret’s influence is hard to assess. One of the few religious volumes which has survived from Edward’s library is a French translation of St Augustine’s ‘Civitas Dei’.⁷⁵ Edward seems to have preferred histories and chronicles. He owned copies of ‘La Fleur des Hystoires’ and the ‘Les Chroniques de Flandre’.⁷⁶

Among the classical works in the Tudor royal collection was the ‘Des Faiz du Grant Alexandre’, a translation from Quintus Curtius, begun for Charles and completed for Margaret, by Vasco da Lucena who had come to Burgundy in the service of Duchess Isabelle.⁷⁷ After Isabelle’s death, he joined Margaret’s staff as a chamberlain. This book may have been one of the ‘translations worthy of remembrance’ which Margaret commissioned from him. The Tudor arms at the end of the book conceal the identity of the original English recipient, but on the same page are the dedications from Mary and Margaret: ‘forget not har that ys on of your treu frendes Margarete of Yorke’ and ‘(p)renez moyajames pour vostre bonne amie Marie de Bourgogne’. Given the choice of book and the style of these inscriptions, it may be that the book was sent to Edward in 1477 when both Margaret and her stepdaughter were appealing for help. The ‘Deeds of Alexander’ may even have been despatched in the hope of encouraging the reluctant Edward into some military prowess on their behalf.⁷⁸

Lord Hastings was also very responsive to the influences of the Burgundian court.⁷⁹ He bought books from the studio of Margaret’s favourite miniaturist, the Master of Mary of Burgundy, and his brother-in-law Sir John Donne commissioned the triptych by Memlinc which now hangs in the National Gallery. Hastings and Lord Rivers were also closely involved with another of Margaret’s ventures. Although in many ways the Dowager seems to have been rather old-fashioned, as far as William Caxton was concerned she was at the forefront of revolutionary change. Her patronage resulted in the printing at Bruges of the first book in English and ultimately the introduction of printing in England.⁸⁰

Caxton entered Margaret’s service soon after her marriage.⁸¹ She probably met him for the first time on her wedding day. He had been the Dean of the Merchant Adventurers at Bruges since 1462 and in this capacity he had the honour of leading the English merchants in the procession. He was at the ducal court in 1470 when John Russel arrived to offer the Order of the Garter to Charles (he would later publish Russel’s oration). By March 1471 he had left his appointment with the Merchant Adventurers and entered the Duchess’ service, receiving a yearly fee and other benefits from her hands. He probably served Margaret as a commercial and financial adviser. She received her first trading licences from Edward in 1472 and she took full advantage of her privileges to profit from her trade with England. There was nothing unusual in this. Isabelle had also traded with the English Merchant Adventurers. Margaret used various agents to manage her affairs in England and would have found the advice of an experienced merchant like Caxton very useful indeed.

However, Caxton had ambitions to become more than a mere commercial adviser and he made a shrewd move to obtain Margaret’s patronage when he told her about his translation of Lefevre’s ‘Recueil des Histoires de Troie’ (Collection of the stories of Troy) which he began in 1469. He had chosen well. As he says, ‘this booke was newe and late maad and drawen in to frenshe … And neuer had seen hit in oure englisshe tonge.’⁸² There was a copy of the work in the ducal library. The myths of Troy had been used to symbolise Margaret’s marriage, from her sailing in the ‘New Ellen’ to the tapestries which decorated the banqueting hall. Apart from this felicitous choice, Caxton presented his case very diplomatically to the Duchess, appealing to her in terms which were sure to win her interest and sympathy. He put this most succinctly in the prologue he wrote for the edition of 1476:

whan I remembyrd myself of my symplenes and vnperfightnes that I had in bothe langages that is to wete in frenshe and in englisshe for in france I was neuer and was born and lerned myn englisshe in kente in the weeld where I doubte not is spoken as brode and rude englisshe as is in ony place of englond.⁸³

After four years at the Burgundian court Margaret could pride herself on her French. Her English was also that of the court and certainly not of the Kentish Weald. Caxton’s appeal for help with the translation was surely irresistible to her energetic character. In spite of his linguistic difficulties, Caxton had already completed five or six quires when he took his work to the Duchess, but he explained that he had become discouraged in his task and had abandoned it. As soon as she heard about the translation, Margaret ordered him to bring it for her to read. And:

whan she had seen hem anone she fonde a defaute in myn englissh whiche sche comanded me to amende and more ouer commanded me straytli to contynue and make an ende of the resydue than not translated. whos dredefull commandement y durste in no wyse disobey because y am a seruant vnto her sayde grace and resseiue of her yerly ffee and other many goode and great benefetes and also hope many moo to resseyue of hir hyenes but forthwyth wente and labouryde in the sayde translacion aftyr my symple and pour connyng also nigh as y can folouyng myn auctor mekeli beseching the bounteuous hynenes of my said lady that of her benyuolence liste to accepte and take in gree this symple and rude werke here folowyng. and yf ther be ony thyng wreton or sayd to her playsir. I shall thynke my labour well employed and where ther is defawte. yt she arette hyt to ye symplenes of my connyng whiche is ful small in this behalue and requyre and praye alle them that shall rede this sayd werke to correcte hyt and to hold me excusid of the rude and symple translacion.⁸⁴

Margaret’s interest in Caxton did not end with her corrections to his text and her command that he should finish his translation. She also gave him permission to travel and by the late summer of 1471 he was in Cologne. He stayed there for about two years, returning to Bruges in 1473. He may have been involved with the lengthy negotiations which led up to the signing of the treaty of Utrecht a year later. This treaty settled some of the problems troubling trade and commerce between the Hanseatic League and its trading partners, Burgundy and England. He took advantage of his stay in Cologne to become acquainted with the technology of the new movable-type printing presses which had been in use there since 1465 and was already slowly spreading into France and the Low Countries. (The first printing press in the Low Countries was set up by Thierry Martens at Alost in 1472 but he had learned his craft in Venice, not Germany).

On his return to the Low Countries, Caxton began to establish himself in the printing business. His first partnership involved Jan Veldener of Louvain which, being a university city, was at the forefront of these developments. By 1475 however, Caxton was back at Bruges and he completed his translation of the third book of the ‘Recueil des Histoires de Troie’ as he wrote, ‘I haue delibered in my self for the contemplacion of my sayd redoubtid lady to take this laboure in hand as ye suffrance and helpe of almyghty god.’⁸⁵

Finding that there was a good demand for an English version of the Trojan legends he decided to make a printed edition and turned to Collard Mansion who had recently established a press at Bruges. In his youth Collard had been employed in the ducal library and he was, by this date, under the patronage of Louis of Gruuthuyse, who was so friendly with his bookmaker that he even stood as godfather to one of Collard’s children.⁸⁶

Margaret, Caxton and Collard Mansion were thus jointly responsible for the production of the first book ever to be printed in English, which Caxton entitled, ‘The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye’. It was followed by a printed edition in French, so popular were these old stories. Later in the same year, Caxton produced his second English book, ‘The Playe and Game of Chess’ dedicated to Margaret’s brother the Duke of Clarence. This was printed in preparation for Caxton’s move to London and it is likely that Margaret encouraged him to seek her brother’s patronage. All Caxton’s early editions were translations of books which were very familiar to Margaret, including ‘Les Faiz de Jason’ and ‘Meditacions sur les sept psaulms penitentiaux’.

In 1476 Caxton left Bruges for London. He was unlucky in his choice of patrons for Clarence’s arrest early in 1477 removed the Duke from the scene. Margaret was soon much too preoccupied with the succession crisis in Burgundy to be of any further assistance. However, Caxton found a new patron in Lord Rivers, who translated Christine de Pisan’s ‘Dictes des Philiosophes’ (‘Sayings of the Philiosophers’) himself and had it printed.⁸⁷ Through the patronage of Rivers, who was the governor of Edward’s eldest son, Caxton was enabled to present his ‘History of Jason’ to the young Prince. In 1479 he received a grant of £20 from the King.

By the time Margaret visited England in 1480, her old protégé was well established.⁸⁸ Caxton had printed three translations for Lord Rivers and made several other editions such as The Canterbury Tales. He had certainly not forgotten his ‘right high and noble’ patroness the Duchess of Burgundy, and in the prologue to the History of Jason he reminded his readers of his debt to her. The frontispiece of the edition of The Recuyell of the Histories of Troy, now in the Huntington Library in California, which belonged to Queen Elizabeth Woodville, commemorates his relationship with the Duchess. The illustration shows Margaret in her chamber attended by five ladies, two gentlemen and two pages. Above the chair of state at the back of the room are carved the initials ‘C’ and ‘M’ and beside her on the floor a little monkey mimics her gestures of acceptance as she receives the book from Caxton. The printer continued to look hopefully towards the House of York for his patrons and he later dedicated a volume on the orders of chivalry to King Richard III. After the accession of Henry VII he succeeded in attracting the patronage of Lady Margaret Beaufort.

There is extensive evidence of Margaret’s patronage in literary and religious matters. Unfortunately fewer records have survived recording her patronage of the other arts. The houses she had built at Mons, Binche and Malines have been either destroyed or rebuilt, and we know only that she employed the best architects available including some from the famous family of Keldermans. The survival of three possible portraits in addition to the probable representation of her in the ‘Deposition’ at the J. Paul Getty Museum might indicate an active interest in painting. It would be difficult to imagine that such a discriminating bibliophile would not have found an equal delight in the marvels of Burgundian art. The various artifacts associated with her, such as the Aachen coronet and the St Ursmer reliquary, illustrate her taste in the fine arts. Her interest in tapestries, one of the greatest manufactures of Flanders and Brabant, is shown by the several purchases she made, both at the sale of the Hugonet property in 1478 and three years earlier when she gave tapestries to her brother Edward. As an active patron of the Church and the arts, Margaret was of course fulfilling her responsibilities as the Duchess and Dowager of Burgundy. She was sensible of her high position and maintained her estate with rectitude and grandeur. In her library, at least, she showed a deeper interest and revealed more of her personality.

During her last years she may have had more time for her private interests since she was less involved in affairs of state. After the deaths of Don Juan in October 1497 and of the eldest Spanish Princess Isabella in 1500, Philip the Fair became, through his wife Joanna, heir to the Spanish throne. It was therefore necessary for the Archduke and his wife to travel to Spain, where their inheritance would be acknowledged by the Cortes of Castile and Aragon.⁸⁹ Their departure was long delayed by both domestic and diplomatic events. They had originally planned to leave after the presentation of Charles to the Order of the Golden Fleece in 1501, but Joanna became pregnant again and they postponed their journey until after the birth of their third child in July of that year.

Foreign affairs also caused delays. Philip needed to safeguard his duchy during his absence, and he therefore renewed his alliances and treaties with both England and France. The Intercursus Magnus had not settled all the trading problems which arose between England and the Low Countries. Negotiations to settle disputes over import duties and the location of the English staple continued throughout the late 1490s. In the spring of 1500 Henry VII and his court crossed the Channel to escape a particularly severe outbreak of plague in London.⁹⁰ The Archduke went down to Calais to meet the English King and relations between England and Burgundy improved. A year later a marriage treaty was negotiated between the ducal heir Charles and Princess Claude of France.⁹¹Having secured his frontiers and renewed his alliances, Philip finally prepared for his departure and, after seeing his sister, Margaret of Austria, off on her journey to Savoy in October, he and Joanna left for Spain a month later.

The three infants, Eleanor, Charles and Isabella were left at Malines under the eye of the Dowager. A household of ninety-three people had been appointed to look after the children during their parents’ absence, and at the head of the household was one of Margaret’s men, Henri of Witthem, the Lord of Beersel.⁹² Margaret however, spent much of the following two years out of Malines visiting her other properties.⁹³ After the departure of the ducal party for France, she retired to Binche, returning to Malines only in time for the Christmas festivities. She was back at Binche in the summer of 1502. During August she made a progress to Oudenaarde and Dendermonde and she returned again to Binche for September and December of that year.

Early in 1503 Maximilian came to the Low Countries, visiting his grandchildren at Malines and trying in vain to persuade the Estates to support his expedition against Guelders.⁹⁴ Margaret went back to Malines to greet Maximilian and to honour the various celebrations which had been organised for the Emperor’s entertainment. This was her last meeting with her step-son-in-law, and it was also the last time that she would make the journey from Binche to Malines. After this, apart from a brief visit to the abbey-castle of Ter Elst at Duffel in July, the Dowager passed her last months at Malines. She was by now perhaps too ill to travel.

The year 1503 was very harsh. The winter had been extremely cold and when the summer came it was exceptionally hot. Margaret took the ducal children with her when she went to Ter Elst so that they too could enjoy the countryside, away from the heat and dust of the town. Ter Elst was situated midway between Malines and Lier and this made it a convenient retreat for her during her last years.⁹⁵ It had been a twelfth century castle and belonged to the Abbey of Tongerloo. Although the Archduke and the corporation of Malines had intervened on the Dowager’s behalf, the Prior resolutely refused to allow her to acquire the castle for herself. However, he was very willing to accept the Dowager and her court as his guests. Margaret spent the summer there and was back in Malines by the end of September.

Philip finally returned to the Low Countries in November 1503 after an absence of exactly two years. He had set off on his return journey in December 1502 leaving the Archduchess behind in Spain to recover from the birth of her second son Ferdinand. His return had been delayed by a series of visits to France, Savoy and Austria and by an outbreak of an illness. He had been expected for some time and all Malines celebrated his arrival with a series of banquets, jousts and festivities.

It was in the midst of all these festivities that Margaret suddenly died. She had been ill for some time. Her visit to Ter Elst in July had been perhaps a vain hope that the peace and the country air would revive her flagging spirits. On her return to Malines her condition deteriorated and on 21 October she signed her Will.⁹⁶ She lived on for another month, perhaps clinging to life until she was certain that Philip was safely back in the duchy. Only then could she relax that vigilance she had exerted unstintingly over the concerns of the ducal family for thirty-five years.

Her death on 23 November cut short all the welcoming celebrations. Both the city and the court were plunged into deep mourning. The bells of St Rombout’s tolled for ten days at a cost of 30 sous and Philip had a commemorative medal struck in her honour.⁹⁷One side displayed Margaret’s arms surrounded by words dedicating her to the Lord God of Judgement:

DILIGETE JUSTICIA(M) QUI JUDICAT(IS) TERR(AM)

The other side depicted the figure of death, accompanied by two serpents trampling down the pretty marguerites, which had been used as her emblem on her portraits and on the margins of her books, and was inscribed:

MEMORARE NOVISSIMA TUA ANO DNI 1503

As the news of her death travelled across the Low Countries her other dower towns grieved as well. The Hôtel de la Salle at Binche was draped in black and was to spend ‘long days in mourning’.⁹⁸

Margaret was buried in the church of the monastery of the Recollects at Malines which she had so generously supported. Her tomb and memorial have been destroyed but a description of her alabaster memorial was recorded by a scholar in the mid-sixteenth century.⁹⁹ He refers to two statues of the Dowager, in the first she was kneeling beside her patron saint St Margaret, and in the second she was laid out in her shroud with a crown at her head and three friars of the Recollects watching over her. On the inscription itself, her arms, the arms of England and Burgundy surmounted by a crown, were supported by an angel. In death, as in life, Margaret was rigorously upholding her own and her family’s honour. The epitaph, in Latin, announced that:

Beneath the threshold of the doors of the choir the most illustrious princess, the Lady Margaret of England, Duchess of Burgundy, with pious humility, ordered her body to be buried. Sister of their serene highnesses Edward and Richard, Kings of England, wife of the late illustrious Charles, Duke of Burgundy and of Brabant, Count of Flanders and Artois etc. and Lord of Malines etc. a marvellous and devoted Patroness of Justice, of Religion and of Reform in her dower town of Malines, the twenty-third day of November in the year of our Lord 1503. Pray for her.

All traces of this memorial and of her tomb vanished in the sixteenth century not long after this record was made. There were plenty of occasions in that century when the churches of Malines were pillaged and ransacked. In 1566 local iconoclasts destroyed pictures, statues and stained glass. In 1572 the Spanish soldiery looted the whole city and in 1590 English mercenaries fighting under Colonel Norris and Oliver van der Tympel, the Governor of Brussels, mutinied and sacked the city and its churches. It was fortunate for Margaret that she did not have to live through the conflicts of the Reformation. Her niece and namesake Margaret, Countess of Salisbury, the daughter of Clarence, was brutally murdered by Henry VIII’s axe-men at the age of sixty-nine and the shrine of St Thomas à Becket, to which Margaret had made her pilgrimages, was destroyed and plundered by the King’s collectors. The religious world to which Margaret devoted so much of her attention was swept away in her native land. Its ultimate survival in Flanders and Brabant owed much to the geography of the Habsburg possessions but also, in no small way, to the patient reform which had made the church, convents and monasteries a well respected and useful part of the community there. Margaret’s contribution to this reform had been considerable.

Her assiduous and devoted work for the Church was acknowledged by many of the clergy. The Dowager’s obituaries recorded the high standards which she had enforced on the religious establishment of the Low Countries. One of these obituaries survived at the Charterhouse of Louvain on the memorial of Jean Bryart, a scholar and one of the executors of Margaret’s Will.¹⁰⁰ The writer, Martin Dorpius, picked out the Dowager’s clerical appointments as being of the utmost importance for the Church. She had, he asserted, always promoted worthy and learned men regardless of their birth, she had never acceded to the nobility who demanded sinecures for their families and she had never allowed offices to be sold to the highest bidder. This was a scholar speaking, the sort of man whom Margaret had appointed to serve her as chaplains and confessors. The chronicler Molinet also recognised that her death was of the greatest significance to the religious reformers to whom she had given so generously. But he added a more personal touch in his conclusion that she would be missed as ‘a mother to orphans, a nurse to the poor and a refuge and solace for all sad grieving hearts’.¹⁰¹

Of her Will only a fragment has survived, but even from this remnant it is evident that the failure of her brother to pay her full dowry still weighed heavily on her mind.¹⁰² She left to Philip the 115,000 gold crowns or whatever other sum was still owing, ‘according to the treaties, letters and obligations that we have’. With her typical determination not to give up on a case, she had retained all the documents necessary to justify her claims if the opportunity arrived. Although the Duchy of Burgundy had always treated Margaret with the utmost generosity, the same could not be said of the Kingdom of England. Her trading licences were hardly an adequate compensation for the loss of the dowry.

The Will also records some of her bequests: she left 920 livres for the hospital at Louvain and 400 livres for the Grande Chartreuse in Savoy, a gesture towards her well-loved Margaret of Austria, the Duchess of Savoy. Her favourite Black Sisters of Binche were to receive a further 60 livres, and a sum of 30 livres was set aside to establish a scholarship to support a theological student at Louvain. It was this last bequest which would benefit the future Pope Adrian VI. Money was also left to the chantry at Binche for prayers to be said for the souls of her husband Charles, her stepdaughter Mary and for herself. No evidence has survived of her bequests to her family and officials and there is no mention of her many personal possessions such as her books and her paintings. The existence of a substantial number of these in the libraries and archives of Brussels and Vienna would suggest that the bulk of her goods were left to Philip the Fair and Margaret of Austria.

Her chief legacy to the Low Countries was, however, much more lasting and elusive. In all the epitaphs and obituaries of the dowager there was small reference to her political role either as an administrator during her husband’s lifetime or as an adviser to Mary, Maximilian and Philip. There is, of course, nothing unusual about the omission. Women were expected to administer their estates in the absence of their husbands, as Christine de Pisan had pointed out half a century earlier, but they were regarded merely as executives and not as policy-makers.

As a childless woman, widowed for most of her life, whose value as a symbol of the Anglo-Burgundian alliance was extinguished by the events of 1485, she might have been expected to vanish into a convent, the normal destiny for female relicts. Margaret was a relict in every sense of the word, a relict of her husband, of the Valois Duchy, of the House of York, even of her century. Within half a century of her death her milieu had passed away, transformed by the impact of the Reformation and the New World. She seemed to have become as irrelevant as the religious relics and statues which were destroyed and dispersed with her own monument.

Yet to the very end of her life, Margaret remained at the centre of the Burgundian court. In spite of catastrophic disasters she continued to live her life, adapting to changes of rulers and policies with a realism which is sometimes called ‘modern’ but which is in fact a characteristic of all survivors. Her contribution to the history of Europe was considerable. During her husband’s lifetime she acted as a unifying and mollifying influence in the northern provinces. Her support of Mary and of the Habsburg marriage was critically important in 1477. The Duchy of Burgundy survived the demise of the Valois Dukes due largely to her determination, and Louis XI’s public attacks upon her reflected her powerful influence on the policies of Burgundy. As a loyal supporter of Maximilian, she enabled him to establish the Habsburg presence in the Low Countries, and as the guide and mentor of the young Philip she saw peace and prosperity return to the Duchy. France would have to wait until the late eighteenth century before it was able to annex the Low Countries and the individuality of the modern Kingdom of Belgium owes much to its preservation from French autocracy and centralisation.

Margaret’s impact on English history was less positive. Her support of the pretenders served only to aggravate the Tudor paranoia against the House of York which led ultimately to the destruction of almost her entire family. Yet in the characters of her great-great-nieces, Mary and Elizabeth Tudor, there are many of the traits which mark the personality of Margaret herself, including a remarkable tenacity and a determination to survive. Margaret would have had great sympathy with Mary’s religious devotion, but she would surely have admired Elizabeth’s political agility more.