Margaret of York: The Diabolical Duchess

by Christine Weightman

  Malines was a pleasant and prosperous city lying on the River Dyle. It was easily defended, surrounded as it was by a series of moats and walls. The city had been largely rebuilt in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth century following a great fire which had destroyed a third of the town in 1342, and the corporation had had the foresight to see that all the main roads inside the walls were paved. Domestic animals were not allowed to wander about soiling the well-kept streets, and it had the reputation of being very clean indeed. The population of about 25,000 made it one of the larger cities of the Low Countries and there was a strong industrial base to support all its commercial enterprise. There was a busy port with a series of quays and a large city crane dominated the waterfront. Malines had a long-standing feud with Brussels over its right to levy tolls on the traffic which passed up the Dyle and along the Senne to its neighbour. It competed with Brussels for the lion’s share of the trade of central Brabant. Although its cloth industry was by this date well in decline, lace-making provided work for the women of the town and carpet weaving was a growing business. Glass and pottery were manufactured on a large scale and the city had a reputation for quality metal crafts and fine leather work, which was said to rival Cordova. It had attracted skilled workers from the crushed cities of Dinant and Liège and there were several firms making armour and armaments, and also a number of bell foundries.69

  Throughout Margaret’s lifetime the great tower of St Rombout’s Church was being built. The city fathers were hoping to build a landmark of 150 metres which would rival the height of towers at Antwerp, Bruges and Louvain. By 1477 the tower had reached roof height and building continued up to 1520, but the work had to stop at a height of 92 metres because the foundations would not support any more weight. By the sixteenth century this great tower housed forty-nine bells, the forerunners of today’s fine carillon.

  It was an ideal city for the Dowager’s court but there was no ducal palace. Margaret remedied this by purchasing its largest house which had belonged to John of Burgundy, the Bishop of Cambrai. It was bought for her by Guillaume de Baume and Corneille de Barre in the November of 1477 and at the same time she purchased seven adjoining houses and all their land. During the following year the old house was totally rebuilt and greatly extended under the supervision of Anthony Keldermans, one of the family of well-known architects based in Malines. The house had cost 4,000 florins and the rebuilding must have added a great deal more to the price. The city corporation, enthusiastic at the idea of attracting the Dowager into permanent residence, offered 2,000 florins towards her expenses. Throughout her residence, she received many such gifts towards the costs of maintaining and improving her house.70

  Margaret’s house, which evolved into the ducal palace during the minority of Mary’s son Philip, had a long façade with many windows facing onto the road, now known as the Keyserstraat. It was built in red brick decorated with white stripes, having a hexagonal tower at one corner and a stone balcony supported by four griffins and four lions on the second floor. Here the Dowager could appear before her people. In front of the entrance there was a court of honour and behind the palace there were extensive gardens, and later also a tennis court, a shooting gallery and baths. Hot baths of an almost Roman style were still very popular in the Low Countries and most of the nobles had their own private baths. In Malines there were also several public baths but not as many as at Bruges, which was notorious for its public baths, many of which were also centres of prostitution.

  Margaret lived on the upper floor of the two storied building and her reception rooms were splendid. Her great council chamber was magnificent and vast, so large that it is now the site of a theatre, and it had several monumental marble fireplaces. The state rooms were painted by Baudouin van Battel of Malines, who worked for many of the noble families of Brabant, and her chair of state was upholstered in the finest black velvet. The walls of her private study were hung with violet taffeta and her library of illuminated manuscripts and printed books was kept safe behind a wrought iron grill made by Gauthier van Battel, the brother of Baudouin.

  Paintings hung on the sombre walls, surely some of the van Eycks which belonged to the Burgundian court, as well as the van der Weydens, Memlincs and Bouts which later came into the collection of Margaret of Austria. The portrait of her husband by Rogier van der Weyden, now hanging in Berlin, would have had pride of place in her collection. As well as her books and paintings Margaret had a rich collection of tapestries and plate, some of which she bought at the sales of Hugonet’s estates in September 1478.71 Within her private chambers the dowager passed her leisure time in prayer, reading and perhaps playing chess, a subject upon which she had several books in her library.

  The Dowager’s household was large, probably over one hundred and fifty persons. At its head was her knight of honour, Guillaume de Baume whose family continued to serve at the ducal court for several generations. Under his command there was a small bodyguard of knights and archers, captained by Olivier de Famars, who escorted Margaret on her travels. She was attended by ladies of honour, maids and valets as well as having her own chaplains, almoner and confessors. From 1490 her confessor was Jan Briart of Ath a well-known theologian.

  The Dowager employed several doctors, including Lambert de Poorter and William Roelandts, and a number of surgeons whose chief task was bleeding their mistress to preserve the balance of her ‘humours’. Margaret had an intelligent interest in preventative medicine, especially in how to avoid the epidemics of plague which swept through the Low Countries during her lifetime. The pestilence was particularly bad in 1479 and it was at this time that ‘Mastur John de Wymus Doctor Servant to the Lady Margret of Borgon’ wrote out a regime for her to follow. She was advised not to walk at midday, or when it was hot or cloudy, and never to walk with a full stomach or to do anything at a fast pace. She was also warned never to sleep during the daytime, to avoid swift changes of temperature and to abstain from eating sweet milk and cheese. Doubtless she also drank the various mixtures devised to ward off the plague, remedies which included herbs like feverfew, burnet, sorrel, rue and marigolds.72

  In addition to all her personal attendants there was the usual staff of a great household including the footmen, stable boys and farriers who looked after the dogs, horses and falcons. Many of the staff lived outside the palace in the town. Each morning and evening the porter checked the servants as they came in and out. At noon all the staff dined at the palace and a strict etiquette was maintained on the rights and privileges of every member of the household. Margaret usually dined alone using her ivory and ebony handled knives. She concluded each meal by sipping her ‘spices of the table’ or digestive powders. She was sufficiently interested in her food to award a pension of £73 to her jam maker, Gontier Postel, who was commended for his special ‘jams and conserves of roses and other flavours’.

  The citizens of Malines benefited greatly from the presence of the Dowager. They were granted trading privileges from England and from the Emperor and received special concessions from Maximilian and from his son Philip the Fair which put them on the same terms as their great rival Brussels.73 They could expect visits from the ducal court, great nobles and foreign embassies. The Imperial and the English ambassadors called frequently. All this brought wealth and prosperity to the town. Understandably the corporation was anxious when Margaret left to visit her other properties, writing to enquire after her health and urging her to return to them. There was great rejoicing when she returned from England in 1480 for alarming rumours had circulated that she had chosen to remain in her native land.74

  However there was little that would have tempted Margaret away from Burgundy where, within a year of her husband’s death, she had established herself in a very grand estate. She was one of the richest widows in Europe, she had secured a very generous dower settlement and had a comfortable and opulent household. All this had been achieved in the midst of a national crisis and while she was being so pathetically ‘beggared’ by t
he King of France.

  CHAPTER 5

  Madame La Grande

  ‘THE UNSTEADFASTNESS OF THIS WORLD BEING.’

  The years 1477-1494 were one of the most troubled periods in the whole history of the Burgundian Netherlands. The war with France continued with few respites and civil unrest resulted in a series of confrontations which led ultimately to the imprisonment of Archduke Maximilian. Throughout these difficult years Margaret remained a prominent centre of loyalty to Mary and Maximilian and their heirs. Indeed there were times when her court at Malines was one of the few places where ducal power and authority was entirely secure.

  Yet in spite of all the troubles in the Low Countries, Margaret never lost contact with her native land. After her marriage she only visited England once, but she remained a figure to be reckoned with in English affairs. Both Edward IV and his brother, the Duke of Clarence, named daughters after her, a sign of their esteem and respect and a recognition of her role in healing the family rift of 1470. No documentary evidence has remained of her personal contacts with England, though there are signs that her commercial dealings continued steadily, at least until the death of Richard III. But she had plenty of opportunities to keep herself well informed of what was going on. English embassies were often in the Low Countries, though frequently the news they brought must have been both alarming and astonishing.

  At few times can she have been more perplexed than at the news which reached her in June 1477. Coming as it did in the midst of the succession crisis in Burgundy, Margaret would have had little opportunity to react or to intervene. To hear that Clarence on whom ‘her affections were fixed beyond any of the rest of her kindred’ had been arrested and imprisoned in the Tower, must surely have caused her a great deal of concern.1 Only six years earlier she had worked hard to secure his return to the family allegiance, and when she had seen him last in 1475, his old treason appeared to have been forgiven and forgotten. There is, it is true, little to support the opinion of the Croyland chronicler that Margaret was particularly fond of Clarence. She had certainly passed much of her youth in the company of her brothers George and Richard and, during the 1460s, she and George had both been in residence at Greenwich where their annuities and expenses had been paid out by the same royal officials.2 However from the beginning of the negotiations for Margaret’s marriage to Charles, their interests had begun to diverge.

  It was the King and the Woodvilles who had promoted the Burgundian marriage and Clarence’s interests had been set aside. He had been present at the famous Smithfield Tournament and he had accompanied his sister on her departure at least as far as Canterbury, but none of her brothers had accompanied her to Bruges, where her presenter had been Anthony Woodville. By the time that Margaret had sailed from Margate, Clarence had already begun his drift into rebellion. He may well have considered that Margaret’s marriage had been given priority over his own, and he was hardly a man to show patience and understanding, as is only too clear in his dealings with his brother Richard over the Beauchamp fortune.3

  In spite of their divergence of interest over her marriage and his later treason, Margaret may still have had a personal attachment to Clarence, who was certainly handsome and likeable, ‘seemly of person, right witty and well visaged, a great almsgiver and a great builder’.4 He was also apparently more chaste than either of his two brothers (he left no illegitimate children). But there is little to show that she was eager to arrange a marriage between him and her stepdaughter in 1477.5 A marriage between Mary and Clarence would only have been really valuable to Burgundy if it could have secured full military support for the duchy and this was most unlikely.

  There was also little to commend the match to Edward IV since Mary already had, through her father, a very substantial claim to the English throne, and any children born to Clarence and Mary would have been a real threat to the inheritance of Edward’s own children. Moreover the English King was resolved to maintain his French pension and the French marriage for his daughter. By early March both Margaret and Mary were pushing ahead with the Habsburg marriage and any consideration of Clarence had been at most a passing fancy. A more positive indication of her interest in her brother George is the dedication to him of ‘The Game and the Playe of Chesse’ printed by her protégé William Caxton.6 Caxton brought this book with him when he came to England, and its inscription to Clarence suggests that Margaret had recommended him to the patronage of her brother, though the author’s emphasis on the proper duties of each piece on the board may indicate that the book was intended as an instructive homily. By the time Caxton arrived in London it was too late and Clarence’s fortunes were already in decline.

  The cause of Clarence’s fall in 1477 is obscure but there were many problems between the King and his brother. Clarence may have had private ambitions to become the next Duke of Burgundy and if so, once more his matrimonial advantage was being set aside, this time for the sake of the marriage of his niece Elizabeth to the Dauphin. There was another marriage proposal for Clarence which may have aggravated the situation. The King of Scotland was proposing a double marriage between the House of Stuart and the House of York: Clarence was to marry Margaret, James III’s sister, and his brother Alexander, Duke of Albany, was to marry Margaret, the Dowager of Burgundy (Albany was portrayed kneeling behind King James III on the altar-piece painted by Hugo van der Goes).7 King Edward rejected these proposals on the grounds that both Margaret and Clarence were too recently widowed to consider remarriage:

  We thank him as heartily as we can, and for as much also as after the old usages of this our realm no estate nor person honourable communeth of marriage within a year of their doole, we therefore as yet cannot conveniently speak in this matter.8

  Edward replied to the Scottish proposals without consulting either Margaret or Clarence. He had no intention of promoting his unreliable brother, nor of becoming involved in Burgundian matters. If Clarence ever heard anything of this proposal he could only have been irritated.

  Clarence may have disagreed with the royal policy of non-intervention in the Franco-Burgundian war. Paston expected him to be sent to Burgundy with an army and this idea could have been circulated by Clarence himself. The additional rumours, that Margaret and English lords were conspiring to kidnap Mary and marry her off to Clarence, may also have served to fuel Edward’s suspicions even if he publicly disregarded them. There is a certain similarity in the impact of these French rumours both in Ghent and London. In Flanders they resulted in Margaret’s exile from the Burgundian court and in England the arrest of Clarence came at much the same time.

  However the main reason for his arrest was that the relations between Edward and his brother had reached breaking point. Royal suspicion and Clarence’s own genuine distress over the death of his wife in December 1476 caused the headstrong Duke to fear for his own safety. In his panic he precipitated the events which led to his death in the famous barrel of malmsey wine. He openly challenged royal justice, he accused persons of poisoning his late wife and he publicly defied the King. He may also have threatened the succession, reviving the rumours that Edward’s marriage to Elizabeth Woodville was invalid due to Edward’s pre-contract with another. There were plenty of reasons for his arrest in June 1477, besides any involvement he may have had with Burgundy. But the Burgundian angle is persistent. Clarence was also accused of planning to send his heir, the two year old Edward, to safety in Burgundy.9 This may have been seen by contemporaries as a plausible idea, since George had himself been sent there in 1461. However, Burgundy of 1477 was a far cry from the peaceful country of the previous decade. It is unlikely that Clarence would have thought of despatching his son to a country in the throes of invasion and civil war.

  The Duke’s contemporaries and the early Tudor historians were perplexed by his arrest and subsequent death. Polydore Vergil claimed that no one could give him a satisfactory explanation why Clarence had been killed. The Croyland chronicler laid the blame squarely on King Edward himself ‘for not a
single person uttered a word against the Duke except the King, and not one individual made answer to the King except the Duke’.10 It was indeed ‘a sad strife carried on before these two brothers of such high estate’. Edward had finally had more than he could tolerate from his provocative brother and being especially angered at ‘the conduct of the before named Duke as being derogatory to the laws of the realm and dangerous to judges and jurors throughout the kingdom’ he decided to arrest and imprison him.

  As Clarence was held at the Tower for seven months, Edward’s original intention may have been merely to intimidate rather than to kill him. He was executed in January 1478, during the last days of the festivities accompanying the marriage of Edward’s second son Richard to Anne Mowbray, the infant heiress of the Duke of Norfolk. Was the famous malmsey wine a gift from someone at court who thought the Duke should not be entirely excluded from the celebrations?11 The conclusion that the Woodvilles finally persuaded Edward to kill Clarence because of their fears for the succession as long as he was still alive, is convincing. During the seven months that he was in the Tower there is no evidence that Margaret or anyone else intervened to save his life. His mother was silent, his sister Elizabeth, Duchess of Suffolk, was satisfied by grants of lands and his brother, Richard of Gloucester, was one of the chief beneficiaries of his removal, acquiring some of his lands and his offices.12 Richard salved his conscience by founding chantries at Middleham and Barnard Castle, where prayers would be said for Clarence’s soul and for his other deceased relatives.13 Margaret no doubt made similar intercessions in her private prayers. Nobody however acted to protect Clarence. The handsome Duke had made too many enemies and had too few friends.