Margaret of York: The Diabolical Duchess

by Christine Weightman

  Sir John Paston, in common with many others, thought that the Dukes of Clarence and Gloucester would soon be setting off for Flanders at the head of an army to assist both their sister and the new Duchess.16 But Edward was loathe to lose his French pension and the betrothal of his daughter Elizabeth to the Dauphin, so he adopted a policy of neutrality. Lord Hastings was despatched to Calais with reinforcements in case the garrison should be attacked by either side. No doubt he was also there to collect intelligence and to keep the King well informed concerning the course of

  the war.

  Margaret must surely have hoped that Sir John Paston would be proved right. She may well have tried to encourage English intervention by reviving the old idea of a marriage between Mary and her brother Clarence, who was once more eligible for marriage after the death of his wife Isabel Neville in December 1476. English and French contemporaries certainly considered that Margaret, ‘whose affections were fixed on her brother Clarence beyond any of the rest of her kindred exerted all her strengths and energies that Mary … might be united in marriage to that Duke.’17

  But there are few signs of these ‘strengths and energies’ being used to promote a marriage with Clarence on the Burgundian side. Whether the idea came from Margaret, from Clarence or from Louis XI, who was trying to undermine Margaret’s influence both in England and in Flanders, it is hard to determine. An English embassy led by Sir John Donne and John Morton, which arrived in Ghent late in February, certainly proposed a bridegroom for Mary, but Edward’s candidate was the Queen’s brother, Anthony Woodville.18 As a mere Earl he was not considered as a possible contender either by Mary or Margaret, neither of whom ever seem to have seriously considered any bridegroom other than the long promised Archduke Maximilian.

  Maximilian wrote on 24 January assuring Mary of his intention to marry her. Throughout the next three months embassies went to and fro between Mary and Margaret on the one side and the Emperor and Maximilian on the other. Margaret’s close involvement is shown through the prominence in the negotiations of her chevalier d’honneur Guillaume de la Baume, the Lord of Irlain. Later it was he who covered the expenses of Maximilian’s German retinue when they arrived penniless at Ghent.19

  However, in January 1477, the arrival of Maximilian was still six months away and Burgundy had to withstand the invasion by France with no help from outside. While her forces were still inadequate to drive back the French, the Duchess could only hope to buy time until the army had been rebuilt. In an effort to do this, Mary and Margaret opened negotiations with King Louis XI. They sent off a joint letter appealing to him to halt his invasion of their territories. The letter was dated 18 January and was probably an immediate response to the French assault on St Quentin.

  The letter reads like a very naive attempt by two weak women.20 They inform the King of their ‘harsh fortune’ but add that they still trust that Duke Charles would return to them. Reminding Louis that he was Mary’s god-father, they appeal to his ‘goodness and mercy’, urge him to end his assaults on their territories and to extend to them the ‘Christian and seignorial protection due to all widows and orphans’. They sign themselves as ‘your very humble small relatives to you our protector’. At first glance the letter was such an abject plea that it could do their cause little good, but was it in fact a well judged piece of diplomacy? Only the events of the next few months would show.

  Their appeal was sent off in the care of two officials, Jacques de Tinteville and Thibault Barradot,21 who tried to contact Louis at Peronne, but having missed him there, they were sent on to Paris. As a result, the letter was not delivered for some considerable time and, it seems, not before the first official ducal embassy had reached the King. This delegation included Humbercourt, Hallewijn, Gruuthuyse, Hugonet, the Bishops of Tournai and Arras and Guillaume de Clugny, the brother of the Bishop of Tournai.22

  Louis brushed aside all their protests against the French invasion, maintaining that the Burgundian lands were, in default of a male heir, forfeit to the French crown. However, his interest in Flanders and Hainault could not be based on this principle, since both these counties had come into the possession of the Dukes of Burgundy through the inheritance of the female line. Louis responded to negotiations by proposing a betrothal between Mary and the seven-year-old Dauphin (who was already betrothed to the English Princess Elizabeth), with the cession of Artois and Boulogne to France as sureties for the marriage. On these terms he would agree to renew the Franco-Burgundian treaties of 1475 and to accept Mary’s homage. In spite of these proposals, he continued with his invasion and on 26 January, three days after Louis’ meeting with the Burgundian delegation, the Hainault delegates arrived in Ghent complaining bitterly at the French attacks on their towns and villages.

  While the Burgundian embassy was meeting the French King, preparations were in full swing at Ghent for the assembly of the Estates.23 Mary and Margaret both attended the opening session on 26 January and, after the announcement of the death of Duke Charles, Mary appealed for their loyalty and help against France. The Great Privilege and her other gestures of conciliation were largely successful and during the first week of the assembly a levy of 100,000 men was promised for the war against France, 34,000 of whom were to be recruited at once. The delegates from Hainault were particularly strong in their support of the Duchess and in their resolution to drive back the French.

  On the other hand the Flemish delegates were anxious to avoid the costs of yet another wasteful war and it was their arguments which persuaded the Estates to send another delegation to Louis, including their own representatives, which was instructed to try to negotiate a peace. This embassy left at the end of February and reached Louis at Lens on 3 March but were obliged to follow him to Arras, which was surrendered to the French the following day.24 Some of the delegates from the Estates believed that Hugonet and Humbercourt were responsible for surrendering the city and anger with these two officials was growing. Both Humbercourt and Hugonet owned lands under French suzerainty and they may well have taken the opportunity of their first meeting with Louis to do homage for their lands. This, and the surrender of Arras, led to accusations of treason being levelled against them.

  By the time the delegation from the Estates arrived at his court, Louis had received the first letter from Mary and Margaret and he had also conquered large areas of Burgundy. Confident now of the success of all his plans, he determined to isolate the young Duchess from all her most experienced advisers and so force her to accept a settlement agreeable to France. He therefore retracted his earlier marriage offer, preferring to maintain his original marriage treaty with England and set to work to make things more difficult for Mary within the Low Countries. Olivier le Daim, Louis’ barber-valet, who had risen to become the Captain of Meulun and was one of the King’s most trusted agents, was despatched to stir up trouble, first at Tournai and later at Ghent.25 Louis himself fostered the distrust which already existed between the delegates from the Estates and the Duchess’ advisers by showing the delegates a secret letter, purporting to come from Mary, informing Louis that her chief advisers were Ravenstein, Humbercourt, Hugonet and the Dowager and that he should deal only through these persons.26 Thus the wily Louis identified Mary’s most resolute supporters and set about reducing their influence. He was particularly keen to undermine Margaret’s position and he warned the delegates that she was planning a marriage between Clarence and Mary. He even suggested that she was planning to kidnap her stepdaughter and have her taken to England. He used the same story to undermine Margaret’s credibility with her brother Edward.27

  When the delegation from the Estates arrived back in Ghent it seemed at first as if Louis’ scheming would be wholly successful. The presence of the Estates General had raised the political temperature within the city and the pressure for the arrest and punishment of hated ducal officials increased. There were daily parades and demonstrations by craftsmen denouncing bad government and corruption. In an attempt to rally support about her p
erson, Mary was formally inaugurated as Countess of Flanders and Duchess of Burgundy.28 However uproar broke out when the Pensioner of Ghent, the city’s chief delegate to the Estates, confronted Mary with the secret letter and denounced the advisers who were named in it. When Mary denied the existence of the letter, the Pensioner produced the copy that had been obligingly provided by Louis. It looked as if the Duchess had been trying to deal with the French King behind the backs of both the Grand Council and the Estates and that she was acting through those very advisers who were held most responsible for all the bad government of the past. Popular demands for revenge and satisfaction could no longer be contained. Leading citizens of Ghent, who had submitted to Charles in 1468, were dragged out and executed and threats were made against many other ducal officials.

  Of the four ducal advisers named in the secret letter, Ravenstein had too much power and influence in the Low Countries to be attacked openly. Margaret was in a more difficult position, she was now merely the Dowager and she had been closely involved in the recruitment of the ducal armies. Moreover, the accusation that she was plotting to marry the Duchess to her brother Clarence amounted to a charge of treason. Realising that her presence would only inflame matters and make things more difficult for Mary, and also alarmed at the possibility of a direct attack upon herself, Margaret was forced to leave Ghent. In her train she took some of the threatened officials such as Olivier de La Marche, who later recorded his relief at being able to escape. ‘As for me I was advised not to fall into their hands and I went to Malines with Madame’.29

  Margaret did not leave without making a public protest and she insisted on receiving a personal message from Mary who was, by this time, a virtual prisoner in her own castle. On the square outside the castle gates, Margaret made a spirited defence of her own position declaring that although she was a foreigner by birth, she was no foreigner in her heart nor in her courage.30 Escorted by her personal bodyguard of 300 English archers and followed by a convoy of carts and carriages, she then rode off to her dower town of Oudenaarde. On her arrival she organised a solemn and impressive service in honour of the late Duke. The long procession, which took place at night, wound its way through a city draped in black velvet and illuminated by torches and flambeaux. It included twenty paupers dressed in new black mourning clothes, paid for by Margaret.31 Oudenaarde was in southern Flanders and nearer to the French invaders. When the French reached Binche, another of Margaret’s dower towns in Hainault, she removed her court further north to Malines in Brabant, which was to become her principal residence during the twenty-six years of her widowhood.

  With Margaret out of Ghent the anger was turned against the remaining officials, especially against the hated ‘foreigners’ Hugonet and Humbercourt who were now without protection. They were arrested on 19 March together with Jan van Melle, the ducal treasurer for Ghent, and the Papal Pronotary, Guillaume de Clugny.32 These four men were particularly unpopular. Humbercourt had been in charge of both Dinant and Liège after their suppression and was hated throughout the Low Countries. Hugonet, one of the late Duke’s most talented officials, was regarded as the chief enforcer of the harsh taxation through the unpopular central courts at Malines. He was also notorious for his interminable Latin speeches and he had harangued and threatened the Estates General whenever they had resisted the ducal will. Jan van Melle was known as the most corrupt official in Ghent where he had enriched himself as a tax collector. When his house was plundered, the contents were estimated to be worth the equivalent of twenty-three years’ earnings for a skilled craftsman and one of his fur and velvet cloaks alone was valued at a year’s wages.33 Both Guillaume de Clugny and his brother Ferry, the Bishop of Tournai, were blamed for forcing unpopular levies on the Church and also simply because they were well-known ducal administrators. All these men were paying for Charles’ unpopular policies and for his failures.

  Humbercourt pleaded that he could only be tried by his peers in the Order of the Golden Fleece, but his protests were ignored. Guillaume de Clugny was more successful in pleading benefit of clergy. They were all well aware of what lay in store for them. In the days before and after their arrests, there had been daily executions of minor officials. All this was taking place during Easter week and the townspeople paraded every day with banners and arms. Mary did not lack courage, going into the Square to plead in public for her officials. She also tried to get a proper commission established in an attempt to give them a fair trial, but there was no time for this to operate.34

  Accused of surrendering Arras to the French, of trying to force Mary to marry the Dauphin and of trying to kidnap her when she was out hunting, the three counsellors were found guilty of treason. In spite of Mary’s tears, Humbercourt and Hugonet were tortured and condemned to death. The executions took place on 3 April. Van Melle died at 9 am and Hugonet at 12 pm. The latter, who had risen to power as a protégé of the old Chancellor Rolin, met his fate with resignation. He wrote to his wife, ‘I expect to die today and to leave this world as one could say, to satisfy the people’.35 At 5 pm Humbercourt perished on the same scaffold. The cautious magistrates of Ghent ensured that they received pardons from the Duchess for any offence they might have committed on that day.

  Both Humbercourt and Hugonet had been associated with Margaret for the whole of her married life. They had taken part in the negotiations which had led to her marriage. Their execution could certainly be seen as a threat against the Dowager herself. Both Margaret and the Duchess did their best for the families of the dead officials. On 24 April Mary wrote to the magistrates of Malines, asking them to give shelter and protection to the widow and children of ‘our very dear and faithful cousin the lord of Humbercourt’. The widow, Antoinette de Rembures, and her family went to Malines under the protection of the Dowager.36 The deaths of these men, together with another sixteen of Charles’ servants, finally satisfied the people and even provoked a certain reaction in favour of the Duchess. Gruuthuyse used his influence to persuade Bruges to withdraw their support from the hard men of Ghent. On 2 April Mary was allowed to leave for her inauguration at Bruges and she stayed away from Ghent until 26 April.

  Meanwhile both Mary and Margaret pressed ahead with the plans for the Duchess’ marriage to the Archduke of Austria. On 26 March, in the midst of all the troubles in Ghent, Mary had written to Maximilian urging him to hasten to her aid. On the day of her inauguration at Bruges, she received a personal reply from the Imperial ambassador informing her that Frederick III had publicly invited the bishops and nobles of the Empire to accompany his son to his wedding in the Low Countries.37 But there were still rival candidates for the Duchess’ hand and Maximilian had not yet set off on his journey. Louis XI had withdrawn his proposal for a marriage with the Dauphin, but he offered other French princes such as the Count of Angoulême. Closer to home there were candidates whose names were put forward by the different factions within the Low Countries.

  The Ghent Council supported either a French marriage or a marriage to Adolphe of Egmond, the heir to the Duchy of Guelders. After the Burgundian seizure of Guelders, Adolphe and his brother had been kept under the eye of the Burgundian court. He was well-known and popular in Ghent, where he had been made an honorary citizen. His candidature was supported by the French agent Olivier le Daim whose intention was to thwart the Imperial marriage while supporting the wishes of the Flemish. Moreover, the English, hostile to the prospect of a Franco-Burgundian marriage, might also support Adolphe of Egmond. Adolphe was appointed as leader of the Flemish militia, but his candidature came to an end when he was killed at the siege of Tournai on 27 June.38 Another suitor from the Low Countries was Philip of Cleves, the son of Lord Ravenstein, and Mary’s childhood companion and cousin. How much his candidature was merely a matter of gossip or even a calculated effort to hasten Maximilian’s arrival it is hard to judge. Certainly Philip welcomed Maximilian when he came to the Low Countries. He was made Lieutenant General of all the Burgundian forces, fought valiantly for Maximili
an at Guinegatte in 1478 and helped to restore order after the uprising in Liège. During the first decade of Maximilian’s government, Philip cooperated very closely indeed. Lord Ravenstein certainly did not push his son’s candidature with any real determination.39

  While Europe speculated on the fate of both Mary and Burgundy, Mary and Margaret stuck to their decision that only an Imperial marriage could save Burgundy from France and they resolved to follow the policy which had been laid down for them by Charles. They were supported in their determination to bring about the long planned marriage by Lord Gruuthuyse, who acted as one of the chief negotiators for the marriage.40 Margaret also took the matter firmly in hand and although away from court she pressed ahead with the negotiations and arrangements throughout March and April. She communicated with the Emperor promising ‘on the word of a princess’ to support the match.41

  An Imperial embassy visited her court at Malines on 15 April on their way to the Duchess at Bruges. Margaret’s chevalier d’honneur and chamberlain Guillaume de Baume was a signatory to the marriage treaty, and from the very beginning the Dowager made her total commitment to Maximilian very clear. On his arrival she promised loyalty and fealty to the Archduke and she helped Maximilian to alter the marriage treaty so as to give him more authority within the Low Countries. The original marriage treaty has not survived.42 It was destroyed, perhaps by Mary and Maximilian themselves because it cut Maximilian out of the succession, leaving all the Burgundian lands to the children of the marriage and specifying that all Burgundian possessions must be under Burgundian rule. This was overruled by an act of 17 September, annulling the relevant articles and leaving all Mary’s lands and goods to her husband. The act was signed and sealed by Margaret, Mary and Maximilian. The only Burgundian official to sign this agreement was Guillaume de Baume.