The First Governess of the Netherlands, Margaret of Austria. Eleanor E. Tremayne

of England, France, and Flanders which Philip was planning; her dowry from Spain was, as was natural with Ferdinand for a pay-master, in arrear; and the coming voyage to Spain of Philip and Joanna at the urgent summons of Ferdinand and Isabella, who hoped to win over the Archduke, if possible, from his alliance with their enemies, was a subject of the deepest concern to Margaret.

      When Fuensalida first saw Margaret on his return to Brussels from England, in August 1500, she welcomed him eagerly in the belief that he brought some special message to her from Spain. He told her that his mission was simply one of affection towards her, and she made no attempt to hide her disappointment. The cause of her anxiety was soon apparent. Fuensalida reported in the same letter that the bastard of Savoy had been to see her secretly, and that she and her father, Maximilian, had looked with favour upon the proposal of the Duke of Savoy to marry her. Such a marriage was, of course, a blow, as it was intended to be, against her brother Philip's anti-Spanish projects, because not only did it leave Katharine of Aragon's marriage with the Prince of Wales undisturbed, but it secured Savoy to the imperial and Aragonese interests against France, which was of the highest importance as touching the French designs upon Italy. Her marriage in Savoy, moreover, was opposed strongly by Philip for another reason, namely, that he would, in case it was effected, be obliged to hand to his sister the domains belonging to Burgundy which had been bequeathed to her by her mother; and in order to frustrate it Philip brought forward the recently widowed King of Portugal as a fit husband for Margaret, which would have secured her residence in a distant country, and his continued occupation of her Burgundian inheritance.

      Successive deaths had now made Philip and Joanna heirs of Spain, as well as of Burgundy, Flanders, and the Empire; the Archduke was already betrothing his infant son, Charles, the future King of Castile, to a French princess, and his open negotiations for the formation of a league against Ferdinand to assert Joanna's right to assume the crown of Castile on the death of her mother Isabella, who was in failing health, had fairly frightened Ferdinand, who knew not whom to trust; for Castilians generally disliked him, and were ready to acclaim Joanna and her foreign husband on the first opportunity—Joanna herself was unstable, violently jealous of her husband, and with strange notions as regarded religion. She would not go to Spain alone, and Philip was determined not to go except on his own terms, and at his own time, and Margaret, living in close contact with the inharmonious pair, struggled bravely to reconcile the clashing interests that surrounded her.

      There was a talk of leaving her regent of Flanders in the absence of her brother in Spain, and against this Ferdinand's agents were instructed to work secretly; although Margaret lost no opportunity of professing to the ambassador her attachment to Spanish interests. From several remarks in Fuensalida's letters to Ferdinand it is, however, evident that her desire was less to rule Flanders than to enjoy the care of the infants whom her brother and sister-in-law were to leave behind. But even this natural desire was opposed by the Spaniards; apparently because the Princess was looked upon as being too ready to follow her brother's lead. Writing in March 1501 of Philip's dissolute life and his disaffection towards Spain, Fuensalida says: 'I am loath to say how much Madam Margaret's good-nature encourages this, for she simply follows her brother's fancies in all things.'

      But the departure of Margaret from Flanders in August 1501 for her marriage with the Duke of Savoy put an end for a time to her pretensions to take charge of her brother's children; and when she returned as a young widow early in 1505, the issue between Ferdinand and his undutiful son-in-law was joined, for Isabella the Catholic was dead, and Philip in right of his wife was arrogantly claiming, not only the crown of Castile, but the entire control of its policy against the wish of the great Queen just dead, whose last hours were embittered by the dread that her beloved, her sacred, Castile, would be ruled by a foreigner of doubtful orthodoxy. Philip was abetted in his revolt against Ferdinand by the Castilian officers attached to him who were jealous of Aragon, Don Juan Manuel, the principal Spanish diplomatist of his time, being their leader and Philip's prime adviser. As soon as Margaret arrived in her brother's Court both factions tried to gain her. 'My lady,' Don Juan Manuel is represented to have said to her on one occasion (June 1505), 'I shall be able to serve you quite as effectively as Antonio de Fonseca when I am in Castile and Treasurer-General'; and at this time, when Philip and his friends were anticipating the rich booty they would gain in Castile, whither they were bound to take possession of mad Joanna's inheritance, Margaret was beset with offers of reward if she would throw in her influence against King Ferdinand.

      It is abundantly clear that she grieved at the unhappy state of affairs. Ferdinand and his wife had been good to her in Spain, and easy-going as she may have been, she must have seen her brother's unworthiness and his bad treatment of Joanna; and yet it was neither prudent nor natural that she should oppose Philip violently. Fuensalida saw her in Bois le Duc in June 1505, whilst she was on her way to Bourg, and discussed matters with her. 'She told me that she had talked to her brother, and had asked him whether he would allow her to mediate between him and your Highness (Ferdinand), and he had answered, "No, you are still marriageable, and so is he, and I will not have any such third person interposing between us." She told me that her father and brother have made her swear that she will not entertain any marriage without their consent. She really believes that those who are around her brother have turned his head, and will not let him make terms with your Highness.... She bids me tell your Highness that she will continue to be as obedient a daughter to you as she was when she was with you in Spain; and that she is going to her own home now for no other reason than that she cannot bear to see in silence the things that are going on, whereas if she spoke of them or protested against them, evil would come of it. She prefers, therefore, to go away, so that she may not witness them personally; for she sees quite plainly that the destruction of her brother's and her father's house will ensue. She prays your Highness to make use of her services in any way you please, and she will do for you all that a good daughter may. "Why not speak to Queen Joanna?" I said. "Because they will not let me," she answered. I am told that Don Juan Manuel said to her (Margaret), what is the use of your going to speak to a stone? You might just as well speak to a stone as to the Queen.'

      Margaret herself was determined not to be drawn into the shameful intrigue by which her brother sought to supplant his wife and her father in order to rule Castile himself and for his own pleasure; but it is evident that no stone was left unturned to gain her, directly or indirectly, by Don Juan Manuel and his friends. One of Margaret's officers was a certain Monsieur Louis, to whom Manuel offered, 'that if he would prevail upon his mistress to follow in all things the wishes of King Philip, her brother, he would get the King to give to Louis from the revenues of Castile an income equal to the highest officer of his household. Louis, he said, knew Castile: let him look about and choose any office or place he liked, and it should be granted to him. Louis succumbed to this temptation; but the Duchess (Margaret) heard of it, and never consented to speak to him again, although he had been her most trusted servant.'

      Through this wretched business, which ended in the triumph of Ferdinand by the untimely death, probably by poison, of Philip in Spain, and the lifelong incarceration of crazy Joanna, Margaret is the only person who stands forth pure and unselfish. In the summer of 1505, when Philip and Joanna were about to start on their voyage to Spain, Margaret set out for her own castle of Pont d'Ain, full of her projects for building Brou; but just as she reached the frontier of her brother's dominions she was stopped by the news that her little nephew, Charles, was suffering from fever, and she determined to retrace her steps to see the children again, and bid farewell once more to unhappy Joanna.

      From her quiet retreat in Bresse Margaret was summoned, on the death of her brother, to rule the States, and care for the children whom he had left behind, bereft of a mother's care by the lunacy of Joanna. How nobly and self-sacrificingly she fulfilled her trust this book to some extent will tell; but of all the sacrifices she made in her wise and gentle life none was greater than the renunciation of her love, perhaps the only love she ever experienced, for the handsome Englishman who appears to have treated her so shabbily. For Charles Brandon, though his King's first favourite and brother-in-law, hardly played the game of love very fairly with Margaret. Kneeling at her feet in sweet dalliance after the banquet at Tournai, he drew from her finger, as lovers will, a ring, and placed it upon his own hand. In gentle chiding she told him in French, and then in Flemish so like English that he understood, that he was a thief. But soon she became alarmed when she saw