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

secured to the crown of France, and the king's ambitious scheme realised to Margaret's mortification.

      Mézerai tells us that 'a double dispensation was necessary, first to annul Charles's marriage with Margaret, and secondly to free Anne from her contract with Maximilian. The marriages not having been consummated, the Court of Rome did not make any great difficulty.'

      When Maximilian heard that his affianced bride had become the wife of Charles VIII., and that his daughter was about to be returned to him despoiled of her title of Queen of France, he made all the Courts of Europe ring with his complaints. War began again and lasted for two years. In 1493 peace was restored by the Treaty of Senlis, concluded between Charles and Maximilian. The King of the Romans renounced the title of Duke of Brittany, and was put in possession of the whole duchy of Burgundy as well as the Franche Comté, and Artois, which had been included in Margaret's dowry.

      If we are to believe Pasquier, Margaret had a foreboding of her misfortune before these events took place. One day whilst walking in the garden at Amboise, her ladies and gentlemen noticed that she seemed very melancholy, and one of them asked her the reason. She replied that she had had a strange dream, which she could not forget, for she believed it boded ill. In her dream she thought she was in a large park, and saw a marguerite (daisy) which she was told to watch; whilst she gazed at the flower, a donkey came and tried to eat it; she kept him off as long as she could, but at last he seized and devoured it. This troubled her so much that she woke with a start, and the dream still weighed upon her mind.

      No one then anticipated what ultimately happened, but afterwards this quaint dream was looked upon as a forecast of Margaret's broken marriage. Curiously enough her dismissal had been provided for by Louis XI. at the time of the Treaty of Arras, as the following clause in the treaty will show. 'If it should happen (which God forbid) that my said Lady Margaret being of age, my said Lord the Dauphin should not proceed to the perfect consummation of the said marriage, or that the said marriage should be broken by the king, Monseigneur the Dauphin, or others on their part, during the minority of the young lady or after; in which case, my said lady shall be sent at the king's expense or at that of my said Lord the Dauphin, back to my said Lord the Duke her father, or the Duke Philip her brother, frankly and fully discharged of all bonds of marriage and all other obligations, to one of the good towns in the territories of Brabant, Flanders, or Hainault, to a safe place acknowledging obedience to the said Dukes.'

      But Margaret remained in France for two years after Charles's marriage with Anne of Brittany, which took place on December 6th, 1491. Neglected by her father, and kept as a sort of hostage until the Peace of Senlis was signed, she passed her time in seclusion. 'When the king had restored peace to Brittany, he returned to France, and gave orders that Madam Margaret of Flanders should retire to the castle of Melun on the river Seine, and take with her the Princess of Tarente'; here she remained for more than a year. An interesting letter written by Margaret to Anne de Beaujeu from Melun has fortunately been preserved. In it she requests that her cousin might not be taken away from her, although the king has ordered her to leave, and mentioning that Madame de Molitart has told her that she is to be better treated than formerly:—[4]

      'Madame ma bonne tante, il faut bien que je me plaigne à vous comme à celle en qui j'ay mon espérance, de ma cousine que l'on m'a voulu oster, qui est tout le passe-temps que j'ay, et quand je l'auray perdue je ne scay plus que je feray. Parquoi je vous prie que veuillez tenir la main pour moy qu'elle ne me soit ostée, car plus grand déplaisir ne me scauroit-on faire. Lachault est venu qui a apporté lettres adressantes à madite cousine, par lesquelles le Roy lui escrivoit qu'elle s'en allast; toutefois je ne l'ay pas voulu souffrir, jusques à ce que vous en eusse advertie, en espérant que m'y seriez en aide, comme j'ay en cela et en autre chose ma parfaite fiance, vous priant, Madame ma bonne tante, que quelque part que je soye ne parte point de vostre bonne grâce, car toujours en aurai-je besoin, à laquelle bien fort me veut recommander. Madame de Molitart m'a dit que voulais que je sois mieux traitée que je ne fus oncques, qui est une chose qui m'a fort réjouie, puisque avez encore souvenance de moy, vous disant adieu, Madame ma bonne tante, que je prie qu'il vous doint le plus aimé de vos désirs. Escrit à Melun, le dix-septième jour de Mars. Vostre bonne humble et léable nièce Marguerite.

      'A Madame ma bonne tante.'

      PHILIPPE AGED 16 MARGARET AGED 14

       IMPERIAL MUSEUM, VIENNA

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      Jean le Maire relates that the autumn of 1491 was very cold and the grapes did not ripen. One day when Margaret was at table she overheard the gentlemen of her suite discussing this fact, and with a play on the words remarked sadly that it was not surprising if the vines (sarments de vigne) were green this year, as vows (serments) were of no value (referring to the king's broken word).

      Before Margaret left France she was made to swear on the Cross and the Gospels that she would renounce for ever all pretensions to her marriage with Charles. At last she set out on her long journey back to Flanders. Charles took care that she was treated with every respect. Anne of Brittany showed her great sympathy, and tried by all means in her power to make Margaret forget her mortification. At the moment of departure Anne ordered Jeanne de Jambes, her most skilful maid of honour, to make an embroidered coif to offer the princess, as well as some gold ornaments, the whole valued at the large sum of £450.[5]

      The French nobles who had been attached to Margaret's person for nearly twelve years accompanied her on her journey. The little princess was calm, but she bore a grudge against France which she never forgot, and which is noticeable in all her later dealings with her first husband's kingdom. When she passed through the town of Arras the citizens cried, 'Noël, Noël,' a French cry that annoyed Margaret; she called back to them, 'Do not cry Noël, but long live Burgundy!'

      Thus she was escorted to St. Quentin, from thence to Cambray, Valenciennes, and finally to Malines, where she was received by her brother Philip and by Margaret of York, the widow of her grandfather, Charles the Bold. 'When she alighted from her litter near a mill by a small stream which divided the royal and archducal dwelling, she thanked the said lords and ladies who had brought and accompanied her, begging them all to recommend her very humbly to the king their master, bearing no ill-will because of his separation from her, believing that marriages ought to be voluntary.'

      However, Margaret always showed great regard for Anne of Brittany, and even more so when the queen married Louis XII. The documents of the period abound in exchange of civilities between the princesses. Thus ended Margaret's first matrimonial adventure. Her former husband did not long survive his marriage with Anne, but died almost suddenly in April 1498, and left no children. His widow fulfilled the clause in her marriage contract, and married his successor, who ascended the throne as Louis XII.

CHAPTER II

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PRINCESS OF ASTURIAS

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      Charles VIII. was hardly free from his sister's tutelage when he dreamt of conquering the kingdom of Naples, which he claimed as heir to the house of Anjou. An embassy which he received from Ludovico Sforza, afterwards Duke of Milan, made him the more determined to carry out this project.

      By the Treaty of Barcelona (January 1493) Charles had agreed to restore to Ferdinand of Aragon the counties of Roussillon and Cerdagne in return for Ferdinand's assurance that he would leave him a free hand in Italy and elsewhere, and would not form matrimonial alliances with the houses of England, Austria, or Naples; but when, in 1494, Charles informed Ferdinand of his intentions against Naples, and claimed his aid in accordance with the treaty, the King of Aragon pretended to be shocked and surprised, and quietly set to work to circumvent his plans and to side with his enemies.