PHILIPPE AGED 16 MARGARET AGED 14
IMPERIAL MUSEUM, VIENNA
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Jean le Maire relates that the autumn of 1491 was very cold and the grapes did not ripen. One day when Margaret was at table she overheard the gentlemen of her suite discussing this fact, and with a play on the words remarked sadly that it was not surprising if the vines (sarments de vigne) were green this year, as vows (serments) were of no value (referring to the king's broken word).

Before Margaret left France she was made to swear on the Cross and the Gospels that she would renounce for ever all pretensions to her marriage with Charles. At last she set out on her long journey back to Flanders. Charles took care that she was treated with every respect. Anne of Brittany showed her great sympathy, and tried by all means in her power to make Margaret forget her mortification. At the moment of departure Anne ordered Jeanne de Jambes, her most skilful maid of honour, to make an embroidered coif to offer the princess, as well as some gold ornaments, the whole valued at the large sum of £450.[5]

The French nobles who had been attached to Margaret's person for nearly twelve years accompanied her on her journey. The little princess was calm, but she bore a grudge against France which she never forgot, and which is noticeable in all her later dealings with her first husband's kingdom. When she passed through the town of Arras the citizens cried, 'Noël, Noël,' a French cry that annoyed Margaret; she called back to them, 'Do not cry Noël, but long live Burgundy!'

Thus she was escorted to St. Quentin, from thence to Cambray, Valenciennes, and finally to Malines, where she was received by her brother Philip and by Margaret of York, the widow of her grandfather, Charles the Bold. 'When she alighted from her litter near a mill by a small stream which divided the royal and archducal dwelling, she thanked the said lords and ladies who had brought and accompanied her, begging them all to recommend her very humbly to the king their master, bearing no ill-will because of his separation from her, believing that marriages ought to be voluntary.'

However, Margaret always showed great regard for Anne of Brittany, and even more so when the queen married Louis XII. The documents of the period abound in exchange of civilities between the princesses. Thus ended Margaret's first matrimonial adventure. Her former husband did not long survive his marriage with Anne, but died almost suddenly in April 1498, and left no children. His widow fulfilled the clause in her marriage contract, and married his successor, who ascended the throne as Louis XII.

CHAPTER II

PRINCESS OF ASTURIAS