The First Governess of the Netherlands, Margaret of Austria

by Eleanor E. Tremayne

The fleet was detained until the following winter to carry the destined bride of the young Prince of Asturias to Spain. Margaret was now in her eighteenth year, and already distinguished for those intellectual qualities which made her later one of the most remarkable women of her time. She must have been a lovely girl, tall and fair, with masses of waving golden hair, a brilliant complexion, soft brown eyes, and a rather long narrow face, with the full under-lip so peculiar to the house of Austria. It is no wonder that Prince John fell in love with her, or that his parents welcomed her with admiration. In the spring of 1497 Margaret left Flushing and started on her long journey to Spain. She had an even worse voyage than her sister-in-law. A fearful storm arose, and her vessel was nearly wrecked. When the tempest had somewhat subsided, she and her companions amused themselves with each writing her own epitaph. Margaret composed the following well-known distich, which she bound to her arm for identification, and jokingly said might be engraved on her tomb, in case her body should be washed ashore:—

'Cy gist Margot la gentil' Damoiselle,

Qu' ha deux marys et encor est pucelle.'

Fortunately this witty epitaph was not needed. The fleet passed the English Channel in the beginning of February, and was compelled through stress of weather to take refuge in the harbour of Southampton. On February the 3rd Henry VII. wrote the following letter to the Princess Margaret:—

Most illustrious and most excellent Princess, our dearest and most beloved cousin,—With all our heart we send to greet you, and to recommend ourself. We have received through the most renowned, most prudent, and most discreet ambassador of our most beloved cousins the King and Queen of Spain, at our Court, the letters of the admiral and ambassador of the said King and Queen, who accompany your Excellence. By them we are informed that your Highness, enjoying the best of health, has entered with your whole fleet and suite our harbour of Southampton. Our subjects of that neighbourhood had already communicated to us the arrival of your Highness. As soon as we heard of it, we sent our well-beloved and trustworthy vassals and servants, the seneschal of our palace, and Sir Charles Somerset, our captain and guardian of our body, and also a doctor utriusque juris, and keeper of our Privy Seal, to see, visit, and consult you in our name, and to tell you how agreeable and delightful to us was the arrival of your Excellence in our dominions, especially as it has pleased God to give you and your company (to whom we recommend ourself likewise) good health and cheerful spirits. Our servants are to place at your disposal our person, our realm, and all that is to be found in it. They are to provide you with whatever you wish, and serve and obey you as ourself. You will more fully learn our intentions from them and from the letters of the Spanish ambassador who resides at our Court.'

The following is in the king's handwriting:—

'Dearest and most beloved cousin,—Desirous the more to assure your Excellence that your visit to us and to our realm is so agreeable and delightful to us, that the arrival of our own daughter could not give us greater joy, we write this portion of our letter with our own hand, in order to be able the better to express to you that you are very welcome, and that you may more perfectly understand our good wishes. We most earnestly entreat and beseech your Highness, from the bottom of our heart, to be as cheerful as though you were with the dearest and most beloved King and Queen of Spain, our cousins, and that you will stay in whatever part of our realms as cheerfully and without fear as though you were in Spain. In all and everything you want, do not spare us and our realms, for you will render us a great and most acceptable service by accepting anything from us.—Palace, Westminster, 3rd February.'[9]

The king then begs her to stay at Southampton, and even offers to pay her a visit there:—

'Most illustrious and most excellent Princess, our most noble and most beloved cousin,—We have received to-day the letter of the 2nd instant, which your Highness has written from the harbour of Southampton, and are much pleased with it. We are also very glad to learn the good news contained in your letter and the letter of the illustrious ambassador, whom our dearest cousins, the King and Queen of Spain, your most pious parents, have ordered to accompany you. He informs us of your prosperity and good success. We, on our part, have sent to inform you of our inviolable friendship, and to tell you how agreeable in every respect your arrival in our harbour has been to us. On Friday we sent you our servants and domestics, with injunctions to serve you in the same way as they serve ourselves; and a short time after they had left we wrote to your Excellence a letter with our own hand, to give you a hearty welcome in our harbour. We beseech you to have a cheerful face and a glad heart, to be happy and enjoy yourself as safely as though you were our own daughter, or had already reached the dominions of our said cousins the King and Queen of Spain, your pious parents. We pray your Highness, with all our heart, to dispose of us and of everything that is to be found in our realms, and to spare us in nothing, even if the thing is not to be had in our dominions, and to order any service which we are able to execute. For, by doing so, you will bestow on us a signal and most acceptable favour. As we hear that the wind is contrary to the continuation of your voyage, wishing that your Highness would repose and rest, our advice is, that you take lodgings in our said town of Southampton, and remain there until the wind becomes favourable and the weather clears up. We believe that the movement and the roaring of the sea is disagreeable to your Highness and to the ladies who accompany you. If you accept our proposal, and remain so long in our said town of Southampton that we can be informed of it, and have time to go and to see you before your departure, we certainly will go and pay your Highness a visit. In a personal communication we could best open our mind to you, and tell you how much we are delighted that you have safely arrived in our port, and how glad we are that the (friendship) with you and our dearest cousins the King and Queen of Spain, your most benign parents, is increasing from day to day. We desire to communicate to you in the best manner our news, and to hear from you of your welfare. May your Highness be as well and as happy as we wish.—From our Palace of Westminster.... February.'[10]

We have no account of Margaret's accepting Henry's invitation, or of their meeting at this time. After these various adventures the princess at length arrived safely at the port of Santander in the early days of March 1497. An ambassador was sent to meet her with a train of one hundred and twenty mules laden with plate and tapestries. The young Prince of Asturias, accompanied by the king his father, hastened towards the north to meet his bride, whom they met at Reynosa and escorted to Burgos. When Margaret saw her future husband and the king approach, she attempted to kiss the latter's hands, which he tried to prevent her from doing, but she persevered, and kissed the king's hands as well as those of her future husband. On her arrival at Burgos she was received with the greatest marks of pleasure and satisfaction by the queen and the whole Court. Preparations were at once made for solemnising the marriage after the expiration of Lent, in a style of magnificence never before witnessed. The wedding ceremony took place on Palm Sunday, the 3rd of April, and was performed by the Archbishop of Toledo in the presence of the grandees and principal nobility of Castile, the foreign ambassadors and delegates from Aragon. Among these latter were the magistrates of the principal cities, wearing their municipal insignia and crimson robes of office, who seem to have had quite as important parts assigned by their democratic communities as any of the nobility or gentry. The wedding was followed by a brilliant succession of fêtes, tourneys, tilts of reeds, and other warlike spectacles, in which the matchless chivalry of Spain poured into the lists to display their prowess in the presence of their future queen. The chronicles of the day remark on the striking contrast exhibited at these entertainments between the gay and familiar manners of Margaret and her Flemish nobles, and the pomp and stately ceremonial of the Castilian Court, to which the Austrian princess, brought up as she had been at the Court of France, could never be wholly reconciled. The following quaint passage is from Abarca's Reyes de Aragon:—'And although they left the princess all her servants, freedom in behaviour and diversions, she was warned that in the ceremonial affairs she was not to treat the royal personages and grandees with the familiarity and openness usual with the houses of Austria, Burgundy, and France, but with the gravity and measured dignity of the kings and realms of Spain.'