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WOW2: May 2023 – Women Trailblazers and Activists, 5-1 through 5-8 [1]

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Date: 2023-05-06

May 3, 1446

– Margaret of York born, Duchess of Burgundy as Charles the Bold’s third wife, the last of the House of Valois after Charles was killed in 1477 at the Battle of Nancy in Lorraine. Margaret became protector of the duchy and adviser to her step-daughter Mary, now the Duchess of Burgundy. As Dowager Duchess, Margaret was a skillful and intelligent politician, and was much needed as her step-daughter became besieged by suitors, and Burgundy was vulnerable to attacks from all sides by the French. Margaret persuaded her brother, King Edward IV of England, to send enough troops to bolster resistance to the French advances. The French King, Louis XI, saw the danger Margaret posed to him, and tried to buy her off with a French pension and a promise of his personal protection, which she contemptuously refused. She strongly advised the new Duchess to accept the proposal of Maximilian of Habsburg, son of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III, to whom her father had betrothed her. Maximilian was ambitious and active enough, in Margaret’s opinion, to defend Mary’s legacy. They were married in August, 1477, and their first child, a son, was born in July 1478, followed in 1480 by a daughter. But in 1482, Mary broke her back in a fall from her horse, and died in March. Margaret lost her much-loved step-daughter, and Burgundy was plunged into political chaos. The Burgundians, sick of the long war with France, refused to accept Maximilian as regent for his 4-year-old son Duke Philip, or even as guardian for the children. The Three Estates of the Burgundian Lowlands signed the Treaty of Arras with Louis XI, granting him the Burgundian Lowlands, Picardy, and the county of Boulogne. Margaret was unable to get any further help from her brother because he made a truce with France. Maximilian’s only option was to make a personal peace with Louis by arranging the betrothal of his two-year-old daughter, named Margaret in honor of the Dowager Duchess, to the young Dauphin of France. The toddler was sent to be raised at the French court, taking with her as dowry the Free County of Burgundy and the County of Artois. Maximilian, summoned back to Austria by his father in 1489, left Margaret to govern the remains of Burgundy together with the Burgundian Estates, and in guardianship of the young Duke Philip. Margaret next lost her brother, the Duke of Clarence, executed by their brother King Edward in 1478. Edward died in 1483, and finally her youngest brother, Richard III, was killed at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, ending the rule of England by the House of York. She offered financial backing to challengers to the Tudors, even hiring continental mercenaries for Perkin Warbeck, supposed son of Edward IV, who likely was an impostor, but he lost the Battle of Deal in 1495, and was executed by Henry VII, the Tudor king. Henry found Margaret problematic, but she was protected by Maximilian, whose father, the Holy Roman Emperor, backed him. She died in 1503, at the age of 57, just three years before the untimely death of Duke Philip, at age 29, from typhoid fever. Margaret was a patron of dozens of illuminated manuscripts, and a patron of William Caxton, who introduced the new art of printing to England. Caxton made a special presentation copy of Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye, the first book printed in the English language, for her, which included a special engraving of Caxton presenting the book to Margaret.

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