Margarethe, Archduchess of Austria
(1480-1530)
Born: 10 JAN 1479/80 Brussels, Belgium
Died: 1 DEC 1530 Mechelen
Married: 3 APR 1497, Burgos
Juan, Crown Prince d'Aragon+Castile
Born: 3 JUN 1478 Sevilla, Spain
Died: 4 OCT 1497 Salamanca
Married: 2 DEC 1501, Romainmotier
Philibert II, Duke de Savoy
Born: 10 APR 1480 Pont d'Ain
Died: 10 SEP 1504 Pont d'Ain
After her mother's death, Margaret was virtually
kidnapped by the King of France, and taken to France, to be raised as the
bride of the Dauphin (the future Charles VIII).
When he married Anne of Britanny instead, she was sent back to her
father, Maximilian I.
When she was on her way to Spain, a few years later,
to marry the Infante Juan, the only son of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella
of Castille, her ship was caught in a
storm. Margaret did not panic; instead, she wrote an elegant
couplet, and slipped it into her bracelet ( so that her body could be identified
if she drowned):
Ci-git Margot, la gente demoiselle/ Qu'eux deux maris, et si morut pucelle
(Here lies Margot, the noble maid/ Who had two husbands and never got laid)
The marriage to Juan of Spain lasted only three
months before the bridegroom died, supposedly of too much sex, but probably
of tuberculosis ( which can sometimes cause
an increase in sexual desire).
Margaret soon married Philibert, Duke
of Savoy. The marriage was very happy - life with Philibert was an
unending round of balls and parties, tournaments and banquets
- but he soon died, in a hunting accident (!) Margaret put on
the widow's weeds familiar from most of her portraits, and never married
again, although she was young and had
plenty of offers. Instead, she devoted herself to ruling the
Netherlands as Regent for her nephew, the future Emperor Charles V, and
raising him and his sisters Eleanor, Mary,
Isabella. (Their brother Ferdinand and sister Catherine were being
raised in Spain.)
Source: Sandra Wise
|