The household set up for Margaret in August 1468 was much more modest. It had a full establishment of a hundred and forty persons though not all of them were expected to be in attendance at the same time. The Duchess’ servants worked in six or three monthly shifts and at any one time only about ninety would be on duty. Her ladies, who included twelve maids-of-honour and three ladies-of-the-bedchamber, were under the surveillance of Marie, Countess of Charny. Marie was one of Duke Philip’s older illegitimate daughters. In 1447 she had married Pierre de Bauffremont, Count of Charny, a councillor for both Philip and his son Charles. Her husband was appointed as captain of Margaret’s knights-of-honour. As a famous jouster, who had won reknown at the tournament of Arras in 1435, he was a figure of seniority at the ducal court. In 1434 he had stood as proxy for Duke Philip at the baptism of Jan van Eyck’s eldest son, and throughout his life he undertook many embassies on behalf of the ducal government.
The rest of her staff were organised under three maîtres d’hôtel, two of whom were always in attendance. They were to supervise the butlerage and kitchen staff, which had a full complement of fifty with a further thirty responsible for provisioning, and twenty-three in the stables. Although the personnel of Margaret’s household would be changed many times during her time as Duchess, the size of her household remained much the same and Margaret continued to require the services of about a hundred persons to supply all her personal needs. She could also draw on the large reservoir of court servants for any special missions.
Within this household and court Margaret’s role was largely undefined. On the one hand she was a mere adornment and, with a partly paid-up dowry of 200,000 crowns, her monetary worth was about the same as the famous ducal mantle smothered with jewels worn at Trier to impress the Emperor.64 On the other hand Margaret was a deputy for the Duke himself. She received ambassadors and it was regarded as a great honour if she acted as a godparent or attended a noble wedding. In February 1470 both Charles and Margaret were present at the celebrations accompanying a double wedding between Jeanne, the daughter of Anthony, Count of La Roche to the Lord of Culembourg, and Jeanne, the daughter of the Lord of Gruuthuyse to the Count of Hoorn.65 These celebrations at Bruges were one of the last great ceremonials of Charles’ reign, and it was an important political event uniting as it did the nobility of Holland, Flanders, Burgundy and Brabant. During the long absences of the Duke on his military campaigns it was left to Margaret to maintain social contact with the major noble families in the north.
In spite of the popular debate over the value and worth of women, which had been triggered off by the controversy surrounding the Roman de la Rose published in the previous century, the Burgundian court still pretended to regard women in the old chivalric terms. Although their realms may be seized, as in the case of Jacqueline, Countess of Holland, Zeeland and Hainault, who had lost all her territories to Duke Philip the Good, they were rarely imprisoned and seldom executed.66 Since women had a wholly subservient role and were legally regarded as not responsible for their lord’s actions, they were not made to suffer if their husbands were condemned as traitors and their dower lands were usually respected. Yet it is also clear from the behaviour of powerful women like Isabelle of Portugal and Margaret herself that women could and did act on their own authority and were expected to assume a wide range of responsibilities. Simply because they were survivors and outlived most of their husbands they accumulated a vast amount of experience enabling them to play an important but often concealed role within government.
During the first years of her marriage, Margaret’s role was restricted by her inexperience, and she passed her time travelling round the country and accompanying her step-daughter. Her life was led within the castles and palaces of the Low Countries. She never visited the Duchy of Burgundy or Franche Comté. The castle within which she passed most of her short married life was Ten Waele at Ghent. If Bruges was the financial and commercial centre of Flanders, Ghent was its political capital and the ‘town most to be reckoned with in Flanders’.67 Ghent had, in spite of harsh ducal repression, continued to be the mainspring of most of the rebellions that broke out in the northern provinces. Together with Bruges and Ypres, it formed the alliance of the three members of a powerful economic and political force in the government of Flanders. The trading interests of Flanders made the county accessible to foreign influences, and more than once English or French interference in the affairs of the duchy had been made possible by the actions of the citizens of Ghent. It was for this reason that the Duke had to maintain a high presence in the city and why Margaret and Mary were obliged to remain there for long periods of time.
The grim exterior of the castle at Ghent reflected the toughness of the city, but inside many improvements had made it a most comfortable palace and, after 1472, the Duchess spent every Christmas there.68 The tapestries which had shone in the hall at Bruges adorned the walls whenever the Duchess was in residence (they usually travelled with the ducal household). During the first year of her marriage, while work was started on her rooms at Ghent, Margaret stayed at Maele, one of the original castles of the Counts of Flanders. In the summer of 1472 she entertained the English ambassador there, an appropriate place for him to visit since the castle chapel was dedicated to St Thomas à Becket. It was shortly after this visit that a serious fire broke out in the Duchess’ rooms. It was considered sufficiently important for the Duke to ride over from Bruges to reassure her and to assess the damage personally.
Margaret claimed that the fire had destroyed her personal property to the value of 50,000 to 60,000 crowns and that she had lost rings, jewels, tapestries, robes and furs and had hardly anything left. The Estates raised aides to replace her losses. Antwerp and Brabant sent an extra 4,000 ridders. This was in addition to their standard levy of 12,000 ridders, payable every year for eight years for the maintenance of the Duchess and her household. Similar arrangements were made with all the provinces, Flanders paid 40,000 ridders over sixteen years and Hainault 28,000 livres over fourteen years. On the occasion of the fire contributions came directly from several cities with Lille, Douai and Orchies finding 2,000 francs and Malines sending 600 crowns.69 The castle of Maele was so badly damaged that the Duchess left it for the more southerly Bellemotte and there is no evidence that she ever returned there.
Only the castles of Ghent, Brussels and Hesdin were large enough to accommodate the households of both the Duke and the Duchess at the same time. At Brussels the palace of Coudenberg had been almost doubled in size during the reign of Philip the Good. The corporation of Brussels was eager to persuade their Dukes to spend more time in their city and they paid for the building of the great hall, vast enough to hold assemblies of the whole ducal court.70 Coudenberg was surrounded by an extensive park, known as the Warende, which was itself part of the enormous hunting forest of Soignes covering much of central Brabant.
Compared to Bruges and Ghent, Brussels was a very loyal city and by 1470 it was one of the largest in the ducal territories. Its town hall had been doubled in size by the addition of the left wing, for which Charles and his first fiancée, Catherine of France, had laid the foundation stone in 1440. The massive Church of St Michael and St Gudule, whose twin towers featured in miniatures of the Duchess Margaret, was used for ducal baptisms and marriages. The Church of Our Lady on the Sablon, close to the ducal palace, was built by the guild of crossbowmen, an important element of the ducal armies. Brussels’ craftsmen were famous for the manufacture of arms, armour and leatherwork and it was also a city of art. Rogier van der Weyden was the chief civic artist and there were several famous book-making studios. However, although she made many visits to the city, Margaret never stayed at Brussels for long periods as she did at Ghent and Hesdin.
Hesdin had also been greatly extended by Philip the Good.71 He held many fêtes there and the palace was certainly designed to appeal to his sense of humour. The River Cauche provided the source for the waterfalls and fountains which adorned the gardens, and its
waters were even brought inside the palace to cause amusement by drenching unsuspecting guests and wetting the ladies by spraying water up their skirts. There were statues which spurted paint, a book of poetry that squirted black ink, a staircase which tipped people into bags of feathers, corridors where rain and snow fell from the ceiling and a wooden hermit who spoke when addressed. More prosaic amusements included distorting mirrors, secret trap doors and sacks which burst over the heads of guests. It is difficult to imagine these delights appealing to the sombre Duke Charles or to his unsmiling Duchess. Perhaps its fine park, the gardens and excellent hunting country around were sufficient attraction, together with much of the ducal library which was kept there. Margaret passed her first Christmas in Burgundy at Hesdin, where she was joined by both Mary and the Dowager Isabelle. Charles was detained at Brussels receiving the submission of Ghent. Margaret returned for the Christmas of 1470 when Charles joined her but after this, apart from a brief sojourn in 1471, Hesdin was deserted for Le Crotoy and Arques.
After 1471 Charles was away from the Low Countries more often and Margaret gradually assumed a more prominent role. By 1476 she was playing a very visible part in the ducal administration. The problems arising from the failures of Charles’ foreign policy were the main cause of her increasing activity. The Duke, following the aims and ambitions of his three predecessors, continued to strive to extend and consolidate his feudal territories. The Dukes of Burgundy held their lands from two sovereigns, from the Emperor and from the King of France. Since their various counties and duchies were physically separated by estates belonging to other lords, the Dukes had to ensure that they could move their troops and goods easily from one territory to another. They were frequently involved in disputes over rights of passage and they therefore struggled to join their lands together.
By 1468 the lands which Charles held from the Emperor were very extensive and he was much involved in the politics of the Empire. Some of the German nobles looked to him for support against the Emperor and thought that the energetic Charles would make a better defender against the inroads of the Turks.72 Charles was hopeful that he might achieve some sort of imperial crown as a Vicar of the Empire or even as the King of the Romans. He seems to have had hopes of inserting himself into the imperial succession between the Emperor Frederick III and his son the Archduke Maximilian of Austria, whose marriage to Mary would eventually ensure the union of the Empire and the Low Countries.73 The Habsburg-Valois merger that Charles envisaged would indeed take place but only after his death and not on terms favourable to Burgundy, since it involved the loss of most of the French lands.
In order to safeguard his French possessions while pursuing an expansionist policy within the Empire, Charles needed allies who would hold France in check; hence his alliance with England and his marriage to Margaret. Margaret’s very presence in Burgundy acted as a warning to France. It was this fact which lay behind Louis XI’s personal antagonism towards Margaret and also her own resolute opposition to France after 1477. By the treaty of Peronne in 1468, Charles had achieved all that he wanted with regard to France and thereafter he was only concerned with maintaining the status quo. He was now at liberty to embark on his policy of expansion in the Rhinelands. By May 1469 he had negotiated the treaty of St Omer giving him control over Alsace, and in 1472 he secured power in Lorraine. The betrothal of Mary to Nicholas, Duke of Lorraine, was intended to consolidate his gains. But this was the peak of Charles’ success and after 1472 he found himself forced onto the defensive. His failure to secure Alsace was the result of many factors, not least among them the tactless and belligerent attitude of Peter von Hagenbach the ducal bailiff there. In Lorraine too he was involved in a lengthy war of succession following the death of Nicholas.
Throughout the Rhinelands, Charles found himself facing an enemy whose power and significance he entirely failed to appreciate. The League of Constance was an alliance composed of Swiss and German cities and princes, who were encouraged by Louis XI in their efforts to extricate their territories from Burgundian influence.74 The mainspring of this determined opposition from the cities lay within the Low Countries themselves. The treatment of the cities of Dinant, Ghent and Liège by the Dukes of Burgundy had sent a shiver of horror through all the cities of the Rhine, none of whom wanted to find themselves subjected to the heavy taxation and ruthless punishments that had been meted out to those disobedient cities. Dinant stood as a terrible warning, even before Charles inherited the duchy. Philip had watched while his son’s army had sacked and plundered the city for several days, its leading citizens were tied back-to-back in pairs and hurled from the citadel. Refugees from Dinant, and later from Liège, had found shelter all along the Rhine and in other cities of the Low Countries. Wherever they went they carried with them accounts of the horrors which they had suffered. The assault and destruction of Liège in 1468 added to the stories of Charles’ cruelty. No wonder Ghent had submitted in January 1469 and Tournai paid to be left in peace.75
Margaret played her own small role in the control of the cities. Her visits were the gentler side of ducal influence and the means whereby city officials were kept under careful surveillance. This meant a close supervision of all local appointments. In 1472 she wrote to Dijon urging the appointment of a ducal nominee to the position of procureur, but on this occasion she did not succeed.76 She was later to show a similar firm interest in the administration of her dower towns.
Margaret’s role in foreign affairs was largely confined to the reception of embassies, heralds and foreign rulers. In 1472, throughout the negotiations for the treaty of St Omer, she entertained Duke Sigismund at Hesdin. The Duke of Guelders and his son were both guests, even enforced guests, of the Duchess, and after Charles had seized Guelders for himself the dispossessed son became, for a short time, a permanent resident at Margaret’s court.77 However, Charles did not involve Margaret in his negotiations with the Emperor. She was absent from the important meeting at Trier, though she travelled to Aachen two years later and perhaps it was then that she offered her beautiful votive coronet to the shrine of Our Lady in the cathedral.78 The presentation of a Burgundian crown in Charlemagne’s great basilica would have been a gesture not lost on her contemporaries, who were well aware of Charles’ ambitions.
Margaret’s chief importance in Burgundy derived from the value of the Anglo-Burgundian alliance and it was in the relations between Burgundy and England that she was to play such an active role for thirty-five years. The fact that she remained so respected within Burgundy in spite of the problems in the alliance and her continued childlessness is evidence of her own intelligence and abilities. Charles’ marriage to Margaret was intended to secure a lasting alliance with England, yet within a year the Duke’s confidence in the value of his wife’s connections must have been severely shaken. In the summer of 1468 Edward seemed to be very securely established on the English throne. The deposed King Henry was held in the Tower and Queen Margaret and her son Edward were penniless petitioners at the court of Louis XI, who had shown little inclination to support the Lancastrian cause. But after the rejection of the Anglo-French alliance, Louis became much more sympathetic towards the Lancastrian Queen. Warwick also had not been pleased by Margaret’s marriage to Charles, and it was his alliance with the King of France which was to prove so dangerous for both Edward and Burgundy.
Although Warwick had escorted his cousin on her farewell ride through London he was far from satisfied. In an effort to reconcile Warwick to the Burgundian alliance and to his role as the King’s most important ambassador, Edward sent Warwick to the Low Countries in March 1469. The main purpose of the mission was to offer the Order of the Garter to Charles in response to Charles’ offer of the Golden Fleece to Edward. Warwick was received with great honour first by the Dowager Isabelle and later at Hesdin by Charles and Margaret. There were no signs at these meetings of the ‘deadly hatred’ which was rumoured to exist between Charles and Warwick.79 It is likely, however, that two proud and ruthless me
n would hardly find each other very sympathetic. Warwick may well have used his visit to Burgundy for his own ends, making contact with the Lancastrian exiles the Dukes of Exeter and Somerset, who were still pensioners of the Burgundian court, and trying to discover whether Charles was likely to intervene to support his brother-in-law.
Warwick may also have warned Margaret of her brother Clarence’s increasing dissatisfaction with his position at court. Clarence had been repeatedly disappointed over his marriage prospects, French and Scottish princesses and the Burgundian heiress had all slipped from his grasp. Nor had he succeeded in securing the hand of an English heiress, all of whom, it seemed, were being married off to the Queen’s numerous relatives. Warwick’s proposal that Clarence should marry his own eldest daughter, the heiress Isabel Neville, had not found favour with the King and once again Clarence felt thwarted. His status as heir-apparent had been lost with the birth of the Princess Elizabeth, and it was surely only a matter of time before a son was born to the Queen, finally removing all his hopes of inheriting the throne. By the time of Warwick’s visit to Burgundy, Clarence had decided to defy his brother and marry Isabel. Even as Warwick was being entertained by the mechanical contrivances at Hesdin, his envoys were busy in Rome obtaining the necessary dispensation for the marriage of such close cousins.80
Had Warwick attempted to ascertain Margaret’s views on these matters, she would surely have counselled patience and loyalty to the King, both of which she always showed in good measure. But patience was not one of the nineteen-year old Clarence’s virtues and, by the end of June, Warwick’s own supporters were informed of the impending marriage and rumours had become widespread. Edward summoned them both to appear before him to establish that they were not ‘of any such disposition towards us as rumour here runneth’.81 Now openly in defiance, Warwick and Clarence left England for Calais and on 11 July, Isabel Neville and George, Duke of Clarence, were married there by the bride’s uncle, George Neville, Archbishop of York. Immediately after the wedding the rebels issued a proclamation denouncing the bad government of England which they blamed on the evil advice of the Queen’s parents, Earl Rivers and Lady Jacquetta, and her eldest brother Anthony Lord Scales. This was a virtual declaration of war and was accompanied by well-orchestrated rebellions in the north, the Midlands and Kent. Throughout this period Margaret kept closely in touch with the events in England. Early in July she received another English embassy at Ghent and she was still there when the news of the rebellion reached her.82
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