Margaret of Austria (German: Margarete; French: Marguerite; Dutch: Margaretha; Spanish: Margarita; 10 January 1480 – 1 December 1530) was Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands from 1507 to 1515 and again from 1519 until her death in 1530. She was the first of many female regents in the Netherlands. She was variously the Princess of Asturias, Duchess of Savoy, and was born an Archduchess of Austria.
Her life until her mid-twenties was dominated by her importance in political marriages, and the early death of many of her close family. She was engaged for three marriage alliances, and completed two, but both husbands died within a few years: six months in 1497 in the case of John, Prince of Asturias, and three years with Philibert II, Duke of Savoy, from 1501. Her mother had died when she was two, and her only brother in 1506.
Thereafter she made a success, according to most historians, of the highly important role of regent or governor of the Habsburg Netherlands, for firstly her father Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, then her nephew Charles V, who were both forced to spend most of their time in Germany and other parts of the growing Habsburg empire.
She spent most of her life in the Netherlands. Her usual name comes from being a member of the Austrian Habsburg family; she hardly went there, and probably neither spoke nor read German, unlike French and Castilian. The German texts in her extensive library were in French translations.
Margaret was born on 10 January 1480 in Brussels and baptised in what is now the cathedral there, named after her step-grandmother, Margaret of York. She was the second child and only daughter of Maximilian of Austria (future Holy Roman Emperor) and Mary of Burgundy, co-sovereigns of the Low Countries. In 1482, her mother died and her four-year-old brother Philip the Handsome succeeded her as sovereign of the Low Countries, with her father as his regent.
The same year her mother died, King Louis XI of France signed the Treaty of Arras, whereby her father promised to give her hand in marriage to Louis's son, the Dauphin Charles. The engagement took place in 1483, and on the death of his father he became Charles VIII of France later in the year, at the age of 13. With Franche-Comté and Artois as her dowry, Margaret was transferred to the guardianship of Louis XI, until he died in August. She was to be raised as a fille de France and prepared for her future role as Queen of France in the household of the Queen Mother Charlotte of Savoy, mostly at the Château d'Amboise; but Queen Charlotte also died in December 1483.
Now under the supervision of Charles's sister, Anne de Beaujeu, regent of France, and her governess Madame de Segré, Margaret received a fine education alongside several noble children, amongst whom was Louise of Savoy, four years older, who was later to become her sister-in-law.
Although their union was political, the young Margaret developed a genuine affection for Charles. However, he renounced the treaty in the autumn of 1491 and forcibly married Margaret's former stepmother Anne, Duchess of Brittany, for political reasons. The French court had ceased treating Margaret as their future queen but she could not return to her ex-stepmother's (Anne of Brittany) court until June 1493 after the Treaty of Senlis had been signed in May that year. She was hurt by Charles's actions and was left with a feeling of enduring resentment towards the House of Valois, even after Charles's death in 1498.
When she met her father in Maastricht as a young teenager, she had not seen him since she left for France at the age of two, but the two got on well, unlike his difficult relationship with her brother Philip.
To achieve an alliance with Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon, Maximilian started negotiating the marriage of their only son and heir, John, Prince of Asturias, to Margaret, as well as the marriage of their daughter Juana to Philip. Margaret left the Netherlands for Spain late in 1496. Her engagement to the Prince of Asturias seemed doomed when the ship carrying her to Spain hit a storm in the Bay of Biscay. In haste, she wrote her own epitaph should she not reach Spain:
She had had a proxy marriage back in Mechelen, including symbolically lying on a bed next to Francisco de Rojas y Escobar, acting as Spanish ambassador. However, Margaret survived the storm, and in February 1497 her entire fleet was still waiting in Southampton in England for the weather to clear up. Margaret actually married Prince John on 3 April 1497 in Burgos Cathedral. Tragically, John died of a fever after only six months, on 4 October. Margaret was left pregnant but gave birth to a premature stillborn daughter on 2 April 1498. Margaret stayed in Spain until September 1499 before returning home. In the meantime it was suggested that she should teach her teenage sister-in-law Catherine of Aragon French.
When she was on her way back, her nephew, the future Emperor Charles V was born. Her brother, Philip, sent an express messenger to his sister, "begging her to hasten back so that she could hold the child in her hands at the font during the baptism." When she arrived, she pressured Philip to name the baby Maximilian, after their father, but Philip chose to name him Charles, after their maternal grandfather Charles the Bold. She was Charles's godmother, and was later to play the main part in raising him after his father's early death.
By this time, the unexpected deaths of Isabella of Aragon, Queen of Portugal, elder sister of John, Prince of Asturias, in 1498, and her infant son Miguel in 1500, left Joanna and eventually Charles the heirs to the thrones of Castille and Aragon, while he also inherited the Netherlands and the Habsburg claim to the Holy Roman Empire.
In 1501, Margaret married Philibert II, Duke of Savoy (1480–1504), whose realm played a decisive role in the rivalry between France and the Habsburgs in Italy on account of its strategic position in the Western Alps. Though the same age as Margaret, this was his second marriage. They had a very stable relationship for those 3 years, mostly living not in Savoy proper, but in Bresse, then Savoyard territory on the eastern borders of Burgundy (today in France).
When Margaret came to Savoy, the government was in the hands of René, Philibert's bastard brother. Margaret fought hard to strip away his powers and possessions, even involving Maximilian (as Holy Roman Emperor, he was overlord of Savoy) to nullify the letters that gave René legitimacy. René, being declared a traitor, took refuge in France and was welcomed by his half-sister Louise of Savoy, mother of Francis I. Margaret then took hold of the government, while her husband focused on private hobbies like hunting (which she did share with him). She summoned councils, appointed officers, and when her brother Philip visited, she discussed and approved his plan regarding a continued rapprochement with France.
In September 1504 Philibert died of pleurisy. Grief-stricken, Margaret threw herself out of a window, but was saved. After being persuaded to bury her husband, she had his heart embalmed so she could keep it with her forever. Her court historian and poet Jean Lemaire de Belges gave her the title "Dame de deuil" (Lady of Mourning). She remained in Savoy for two years as a widow, beginning the lengthy construction of the lavishly designed Royal Monastery of Brou in Bresse (now eastern France) to house the tombs of Philibert, his mother Margaret of Bourbon (1438–1483) and eventually herself. She returned to the Netherlands after the sudden death of her brother Philip the Handsome in September 1506, at her father's request.
In 1505 Maximilian and Philip had tried to arrange a match with Henry VII of England, 48 years old at the time, but Margaret refused. A portrait, probably five years old, was sent to England.
Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands