How one European princess negotiated her way around a man’s world to become one of the most powerful and remarkable women of her generation
Words ELIZABETH NORTON
Margaret of Austria
b.1480-d.1530 Reigned 1506-1515, 1519-1530
The second child of Maximilian, Archduke of Austria, Margaret was forced into three political marriages. After her third husband’s death, Margaret was made regent of the Low Countries and she became Europe’s most powerful woman.
Although little remembered today, Margaret of Austria was one of the most remarkable of late medieval women within the political realms of early 16th century Europe.
Margaret of Austria was born in Brussels on 10 January 1480, the only daughter of Maximilian, Archduke of Austria and his heiress wife, Mary, Duchess of Burgundy. She was named for her mother’s beloved stepmother, Margaret of York, who also stood as her godmother and with an elder brother, Philip, already in the nursery, her birth was of little dynastic consequence.
Margaret’s mother, Mary, as a woman, had struggled to hold her rich inheritance following the death of her father, Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, in 1475. Burgundy, which was one of the wealthiest and most cultured states of late medieval Europe, had already drawn the jealous eye of the kings of France and Louis XI took the opportunity to assert his own claims to the duchy. Although the marriage of Mary to Maximilian calmed matters to some extent, hostilities were reignited in March 1482 with the sudden death of the young duchess in a hunting accident. Margaret, at two years old, found herself suddenly motherless and an object of considerable political interest.
Under the terms of the Treaty of Arras, agreed later that year between Maximilian and Louis, Margaret was betrothed to Louis’ 12-year-old son, Charles, and sent to France to be raised. The two children were married in France in 1483 and were referred to as king and queen after Louis’ death shortly after. However, due to Margaret’s extreme youth, they did not live together, with childhood marriages only binding once a couple had consummated their relationship. Margaret was largely raised under the supervision of Anne de Beaujeu, Charles’ elder sister and regent of France: she was Margaret’s first experience of a woman wielding considerable political power.
Margaret’s childhood, in which she was raised as a French princess, was a happy one. She was well educated along with other noble girls, including Louise of Savoy, who would become the mother to the future Francis I of France. She was also permitted to spend time with her husband, developing some affection for him.
This happy time came to an abrupt end, however, when Charles married the heiress, Anne of Brittany, in 1491, repudiating his still unconsummated relationship with Margaret. In one stroke, Margaret lost her status as queen of France and her home at court, finding
