Margaret of York: The Diabolical Duchess

by Christine Weightman

  Although the death of Clarence was the first case of brother murdering brother in the House of York, it was not greeted by contemporaries with much horror or astonishment, being upstaged by another assassination which took place in the same year. The removal of Clarence, even by drowning in a butt of malmsey, was nothing compared with the high drama of the Pazzi conspiracy in Florence where, with the connivance of the Pope, one of the Medici princes was murdered during mass in the cathedral. It was this event which caught the public eye rather than the removal of one whose survival since 1472 had only been due to the magnanimity of the King.

  Margaret spent most of the seven months that Clarence was in the Tower at the ducal court. After the marriage of Mary and Maximilian she remained at Ghent until September, when she left for Malines, visiting Antwerp on her way. She was at Malines late in January when the Archduke Maximilian visited the city for the first time and he was given a Joyeuse Entrée.14 She must have been celebrating this event when she heard that Clarence was dead.

  By summer Margaret was back at Bruges and when Mary’s first child was born, it was the Dowager who carried the infant Philip to his christening on 28 June.15 Maximilian, busy with the campaign against France, did not see his son until August. The heir had been named after his grandfather, Philip the Good whose reputation was honoured throughout the Low Countries, and his christening was celebrated with great splendour designed to rally the people behind their new ducal family. Stately processions escorted the child from the castle to the Church of St Donatian nearby. The infant was resplendent in crimson cloth of gold trimmed with ermine and his long train was supported by the Lady Ravenstein. On either side of Margaret, who was the godmother, walked the two godfathers, Lord Ravenstein and Pierre of St Pol, the Count of Luxembourg. Margaret was attended by her own chevalier, the Lord of Irlon and her own bodyguard. The corporation of Bruges presented the new heir with a purse containing 40,000 crowns and the gifts from the godparents were in keeping with his princely inheritance: a sword from Lord Ravenstein, a helmet and a golden lily from the Count of Luxembourg and from Margaret, a gold chain valued at 20,000 crowns.16

  In the midst of all the ceremony of the ducal christening there was an incident which well illustrates both the personal nature of ducal power and Margaret’s own shrewd appreciation of the need for public support. Rumours that the infant was a girl had been put about by French agents. Margaret’s delight in the arrival of the long awaited male heir is manifest in the promptness of her letter to Malines announcing Philip’s birth and she must have been very displeased by these rumours. She was therefore resolved to expose the lies, and as the procession was returning to the palace, she undressed the baby and showed him to the people. The Flemish were delighted to be sure that the child was a boy and were also suitably impressed by Margaret’s ‘real spirit’ (veel pit). It was not the first time nor would it be the last that Margaret showed herself capable of making a direct appeal to the people.

  Margaret and Mary continued to spend most of their time together just as they had done during Charles’ military campaigns. They were together at Ghent for the Christmas of 1478 and, in January, Margaret accompanied Mary on her Joyeuse Entrée at Dendermonde. Maximilian’s victory at Guinegatte, on 7 August 1479, succeeded in driving the French away from south Flanders and two days later Mary and Margaret attended the procession of the Holy Blood at Bruges to give thanks. Christmas 1479 found them at Brussels where Mary’s second child was born.

  This time the baby was a girl who was named after the Dowager herself. Once more Margaret was the godmother and she carried the baby to its baptism, at the great Church of St Michael and St Gudule. These two Margarets, although separated by two generations, were to have much in common. Both were married to foreign princes and both remained childless. Margaret of Austria, like her English namesake, made Malines her chief residence and, as governor of the Low Countries during the minority of Charles V, her nephew, she showed the same efficient and practical approach to government as her godmother. She would inherit her godmother’s library and her pictures, her servants and officials, even her chevalier d’honour came from the family of de Baume.17

  When Maximilian was at court, Margaret was often still in residence and she established an excellent relationship with him. She was careful to show him every consideration. In the Weisskünig Maximilian paints a pleasant picture of the ducal court where he took French lessons from Mary and Dutch lessons from the ‘old duchess’ or ‘the old lady’ (alte fuerstin’ or ‘die alte fraw).18 This is interesting on several counts, not least since it indicates that Margaret was proficient enough in Dutch to be teaching it to Maximilian. Unlike her thirteenth century predecessor Margaret, the daughter of King Edward I, who had married Duke John of Brabant,19 Margaret was never reproached for an ignorance of Dutch. Perhaps this is why she found it so easy to make the Low Countries her home and why she was such a respected figure there. The description also indicates that the Dowager had a secure and permanent place at court.

  The ‘old duchess’ was in fact only thirty-four years old in 1480. She was quite young enough to have married again. Her aunt Catherine Neville was still remarrying at twice her age. Yet apart from the proposed marriage to the Duke of Albany and a French rumour concerning a proposal from an unknown source in 1480, there are no other references to a second marriage for Margaret. There were several reasons for this. Primarily, a barren woman was hardly the most desirable of wives, but there were also few dukes or princes who could offer Margaret a status equivalent to her establishment as the Dowager of Burgundy. Margaret herself never seems to have considered the question either out of respect for her late husband or simply because she preferred her widowhood in the Low Countries. Both Mary and Maximilian found Margaret a valuable asset in the government of the duchy, her marriage would have caused unnecessary complications and she was perhaps too useful to lose.

  Throughout the war with France, Margaret busily raised money and men for the struggle. She was especially active in the defence of her dower properties which were threatened and besieged by France, and she called on her other dower cities such as Malines to help them. She wrote to the Malines magistrates in 1477 ordering them to send their troops as promised to ‘our cousin Lord Ravenstein’ under ‘a good chief Phelippe Ceeman [Neman or Kerman who acted as commander for the Malines troops for several years] or another as you wish’. They were to march at once for the defence of Oudenaarde. Two years later the Dowager wrote again, from Antwerp, sending a series of ordinances for the deposition and service of the Malines battalions and ordering the magistrates to see that all her commands were carried out with ‘good diligence’.20 Sixty companies of troops were sent to Le Quesnoy, where they were very useful to Maximilian and he wrote thanking Malines for their service. More men were despatched to Binche and La Motte, where they were to perform garrison duty and four arbalestriers or culvriniers were sent to Oudenaarde. These were a type of small canon or field gun, notable for their long barrels and were manufactured by the armourers of Malines. The Dowager kept troops in the field with the ducal armies for many years and letters written to Malines by Maximilian in 1481 refer to men from the city who were defending the Dowager’s lands at Le Quesnoy, Binche, Cassel and other places.21

  In spite of all the troops and money that were pumped into the war effort, the ducal armies were hard stretched and successive revolts in Utrecht and Guelders distracted Maximilian from the main war with France. Large areas of Flanders and Hainault were laid waste by the invading armies, pirates attacked the Dutch herring fleets, riots broke out in Ghent over the imposition of an unpopular beer tax and the Archduke was accused of selling off the ducal treasures to English and Italian merchants. Eager to terminate the war with France so that they could concentrate on their other problems, Mary and Maximilian resolved to try once more to draw England into an alliance. Edward too was showing himself to be more sympathetic towards the Burgundian cause and in 1480 Margaret headed an embassy to her
brother. Her presence was a public indication of the rapprochement between England and Burgundy. It certainly alarmed Louis, who immediately increased his own efforts to retain both his English alliance and negotiate a settlement with Burgundy.

  Margaret left Bruges on 24 June and was in England for more than three months. She travelled with a large retinue headed by Guillaume de Baume and the embassy included two officials who were well-known to her, Thomas Plaines and Jean Gros, the treasurer of the Order of the Golden Fleece. She received aides from the Estates to cover her expenses with the Hainault Estates contributing 4,000 livres.22 Her mission had several goals, but the immediate need was to obtain some military help in the form of English archers to reinforce Maximilian’s hard pressed armies.

  The main purpose of the embassy was to achieve a full Anglo-Burgundian alliance and commit Edward to military intervention against France. She was also to negotiate a treaty of marriage between the ducal heir Philip and Edward’s daughter Anne of York. This proposal had first been discussed in August 1479, when Edward agreed to send 500 archers to help Maximilian.23 The negotiations for the marriage were not easy. The Archduchess and her husband were hoping for a dowry of 200,000 crowns, the same as the one Edward had promised with Margaret in 1468. Edward, on the other hand, was expecting to pay no dowry at all and even to be offered a Burgundian replacement for his French annuity. The marriage negotiations were the focus of the embassy and the chronicler of the Abbey of the Dunes thought that Margaret would be bringing her niece Anne home with her.24 Maximilian, however, viewed Margaret’s visit to England as a two-edged weapon which could be used to force Louis into negotiations for a realistic peace with Burgundy, and while Margaret was busy in England he kept up the diplomatic pressure on France.

  King Edward sent Sir Edward Woodville, the Queen’s younger brother, aboard the royal ship ‘Falcon’ to bring his sister across the Channel. It was twelve years since she had sailed to her marriage. Sir Edward had been part of her marriage party and he had won the honours in the famous joust of the Golden Tree. This time Margaret took the shorter route from Calais to Gravesend, where she was received by Sir John Weston, the Prior of the Knights of St John.25 She then transferred to a royal barge which had been sent to bring her up the Thames to London.

  The barge was specially refitted for the occasion. The master and the twenty-four oarsmen had been supplied with new liveries in the Yorkist colours of murrey and blue with white roses embroidered on their jackets. The knights and squires who formed the escort of honour wore fine black velvet jackets which were decorated with a pattern of silver and purple.26 Two residences had been prepared for Margaret’s use, the palace at Greenwich where she had spent so much time before her marriage, and the London house of Coldharbour near her mother’s home at Baynard’s Castle. New beds with red and green hangings had been sent up to the Coldharbour house and the finest bedlinens and coverlets had been ordered. Curtains, screens and tapestries were provided for both the houses, including a piece of arras which depicted the story of Paris and Helen. For her travel during her stay in England, Margaret was sent ten ‘hobbeys and palfreys’ all newly harnessed and caparisoned in rich saddle cloths. The King encouraged everyone to be generous towards his sister and used ‘right large language’ with the Archbishop of Canterbury who failed to offer Margaret a gift. His own final present to his sister was a luxurious pillion saddle in blue and violet cloth of gold, fringed with ‘Venetian gold’ thread.27

  While she was in England, Margaret renewed her contacts with all her old friends and family. She was received by the Queen and introduced to her royal nephews and nieces. Her youngest brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who was busy dealing with Scottish incursions in the north, made time to come south to see his sister, and the King gave a state banquet at Greenwich in honour of Margaret and their mother, the old Duchess Cecily. It was also attended by Margaret’s sister Elizabeth, Duchess of Suffolk. It seems that Margaret admired the wine, for on the day after the banquet, Edward sent her ‘a pipe of our wine’ valued at 36s 8d. As well as enjoying the company of her living family, Margaret could not have failed to remember all her dead relations. It was perhaps with a chantry in mind that she persuaded Edward to introduce the reformed Order of the Observant Friars into England. Soon after her departure the King sent for the Vicar-General of the Order and offered him a site for their new monastery near to the palace of Greenwich.28 Building began in 1482 and the abbey chapel was dedicated to the Holy Cross. Was the dedication in honour of Margaret, and does it provide further evidence of her connection with Waltham Abbey?29

  Margaret’s visit to England was not merely a social occasion. She proved to be a conscientious and earnest ambassador and was very fully involved in the tricky diplomatic negotiations.30 The Burgundians were well aware that Edward was keenly attached to his French annuity and knew that throughout the Anglo-Burgundian negotiations he was still in close correspondence with Louis XI. The King was using Margaret’s presence in England to achieve a better deal with France. Even while the Dowager was in London, Lord Howard returned from France accompanied by a French delegation who brought over the King’s annuity and promised to pay a further annuity of 15,000 crowns to the Princess Elizabeth until her marriage to the Dauphin should take place.

  Edward used all his wiles to extract the maximum benefit from both France and Burgundy. He offered an immediate invasion of France in return for a substitute annuity from Burgundy. He also made it clear that he had no intention of paying out a dowry for his daughter Anne. Faced with these excessive demands the Dowager played for time. She sent back messengers to consult with Mary and Maximilian. Michel de Berghes, one of Maximilian’s closest advisers, was sent across to reinforce the delegation. The Burgundians argued that they would only pay an annuity to Edward if the French pension had been lost as a direct consequence of an English invasion of France. They tried to persuade the King that it would be dishonourable for him to offer no dowry with his daughter, but they were determined to get an alliance even if they had to pay heavily for it. They also wanted Louis to know that an Anglo-Burgundian treaty was imminent. In spite of the counter embassy and the annuity from France, Margaret was able to assure Maximilian that Edward was certainly moving towards their side and that she was very hopeful of reaching a satisfactory accord.

  Throughout the summer the negotiations dragged on. Margaret must have been very relieved when between the 1 and 5 August a series of deals were finally agreed.31 In answer to the immediate request for armed help, the Burgundians were permitted to recruit 6,000 English archers at their own expense. The King agreed that 2,000 men could be recruited at once and, on sureties from the whole Burgundian delegation promising that he would be repaid by Christmas, he provided an immediate loan of 2,000 crowns to cover their wages and the expense of shipping them across the Channel. Margaret began to recruit these men straight away but she had only enough money to raise 1,500 archers and 30 men at arms. On 8 August she signed indentures with three captains: Sir John Middleton, Sir John Dichefield, later the governor and captain of Guernsey, and Sir Thomas Everingham. The latter was to take his men from Hull to Sluis and the other two were to embark from Dover. Some of these soldiers were in the Low Countries in time for Maximilian’s summer campaign against Guelders, but the number recruited fell far short of the hoped for 6,000.32

  On the question of the Anglo-Burgundian alliance, Margaret persuaded Edward to make a commitment. The King agreed to support the claims of Mary and Maximilian for the return of Artois and the Duchy of Burgundy. He also promised that if France failed to agree to make peace by Easter 1481, then Edward would declare war in support of Burgundy. In return Mary and Maximilian promised to pay 25,000 crowns within six months if Edward’s French pension should be cancelled and they would thereafter continue to pay Edward his annuity. The Burgundian promises were guaranteed by the Estates of Holland, Zeeland, Flanders and Brabant.33

  The marriage treaty was agreed on 5 August. Anne would marry Ph
ilip in six years time, bringing with her a dowry of 100,000 crowns, only half of the dowry agreed for Margaret. Half of this dowry was to be paid within two years of the marriage; even here, Margaret was unable to get terms as favourable to Burgundy as the 1468 treaty had been. Moreover supplementary treaties signed a few days later related the dowry payments to the French annuity, signifying that Edward would in fact pay no dowry at all. Furthermore, from the age of twelve until her marriage, Anne was to receive an income of 6,000 crowns a year from Burgundy for her living expenses and all the costs of her transport to the Low Countries were to be born by the duchy. As a symbol of the marriage agreement, Margaret bought a ring for the infant princess. It was ‘a beautiful ring in the style of a circlet with eight fine diamonds and a central rose of three hanging pearls with a gold chain on which the ring may be hung’ and it cost about ten times more than the gracieuse ring which was given to Philip in Anne’s name.

  Edward was certainly driving a hard bargain but he was in a strong position to do so. By 1480 the Yorkist King was very secure on his throne while the position of Burgundy was considerably weaker than it had been in 1468.34 To obtain any agreement Margaret and her team had had to work hard. In addition to the main negotiations there were several minor matters to be resolved such as the debt still owing on Margaret’s own dowry and the restoration of the French lands of Pierre de St Pol, Count of Luxembourg and cousin of Elizabeth Woodville.35 Edward was prepared to add his support to the Count’s claims but on the subject of her dowry Margaret made no progress. She seems to have accepted that there would be no more payments and she returned to Edward the letters of 1474 in which he acknowledged his debts. But from the Burgundian archives it is clear that Margaret kept the originals of these letters, so perhaps she hoped to press the matter at a future date. Once more Edward renewed and extended her commercial licences, allowing her to export from England 1,000 oxen, 200 sheep and 630 ‘sleyghtewolles’, all free of customs duties. The imported livestock were fattened up on the Dowager’s pastures near Dendermonde.36