One day, in a fit of rare generosity (for he was very impecunious), he made her a present of 100,000 crowns. Margaret will be ungrateful, he says, 'if she is not well pleased with him.' He tells her his most secret thoughts ... that he intends soliciting the papal tiara, for the Pope 'cannot live long.' He wishes to be nominated coadjutor of the Sovereign Pontiff, so as 'to be assured of having the Papacy and becoming a priest and afterwards made holy.' With this intention he begins to 'win over the cardinals' with two or three thousand ducats, and he sends 'a messenger to the King of Aragon, begging him to help him to get what he wants.'
But this confidence between the emperor and his daughter was often broken. Maximilian sometimes complains that she treats him badly and 'takes him for a Frenchman!' She was not always his 'good daughter;' she sometimes speaks too plainly and asks him when he intends sending an answer to the English ambassadors, who have been kept waiting for eight months, and reminds him ironically 'that it is time to move in this business.' On another occasion she writes these words in a letter which he calls 'rude and ungracious': 'I know that it is not my business to interfere in your said affairs, as I am an inexperienced woman in such matters, nevertheless the great duty I have towards you emboldens me to ... beg of you ... to take care whilst there is yet time.'
But in spite of these small recriminations each tried to help the other, as we see from the numerous requests they constantly made to each other in favour of various persons in whom they were interested. In spite of the Netherlands' general prosperity, both Margaret and her father suffered greatly from lack of funds, as is shown in nearly every page of the correspondence. Maximilian hardly writes a letter without mentioning that he has need of 'a sum of money.' One day he humbly begs for 10,000 florins, another time for 70,000 or 80,000, which he must have. He knows, he says, that the States complain that he only thinks of 'knavery and taking their money for nothing,' but all the same he begs Margaret to do all in her power to find him the sum he requires. His lamentations, resources, and importunity in begging are most pitiable. 'We must,' he says, 'in order to raise money quickly, pawn two gold chains set with many valuable and precious stones, one (chain) being larger than the other.' Sometimes Margaret was as hardly pressed for funds as her father, and several of her letters have this sad ending, 'The treasurer does not know where to turn for money; he has no "deniers" (old Roman coins) left.' The Swiss and German infantry were unpaid, and Maximilian for this reason kept out of the way, and fled to the Tyrolese mountains on the pretext of hunting. His daughter wrote to him severely: 'I hoped that you would have come here, but from what I see, you are going further and further away, which displeases me, for it was very necessary that you should come here.' At another time she tells him that she will be forced to become 'bankrupt' if she cannot quickly raise '24,000 florins from the King of England.' She has appealed to the States in vain; for some 'cannot agree,' whilst others 'have settled nothing yet ... for they are obstinate and disagreeable.'
Even the ambassadors were hampered by lack of means. André de Burgo could not go to Lyons, where he was afraid to stay for want of money. 'It is a pity,' he says, 'for so good and loyal a servant of your house to have so often to beg and ask for the wherewithal to live, as God's poor do ... he is ashamed not to be able to pay his creditors, and shall be reduced to sell half his plate to some Jew.'
Even Mercurin de Gattinare had to give up an important journey, and states he will have to go 'bankrupt' if he cannot sell a gold chain. For Anne of Brittany's accouchement the other ambassadors had ordered coloured clothes; he alone has to appear in black garments, and is much distressed. 'I have only black,' he writes in Italian, 'and have no means of buying colours.'
Besides these oft-recurring complaints, the correspondence is full of the hatred which Margaret and her father still felt for France. Maximilian never liked the French, and his letters abound in maledictions against them. He tries to stir up his daughter's aversion, and congratulates her 'on the goodwill and diligence she has shown in resisting them. We have,' he says, 'more experience of the French than you have ... and we would rather you were deceived by their fair speeches than ourselves, so that you would take more care in future.' He knows their 'treachery and falseness,' for they only act by abuse, dissimulation, and deceit, as they have done for the last hundred years past, and will still be doing a hundred years hence.
Maximilian himself served as a private soldier in the King of England's army on the Continent, and advised Henry VIII. to land at Crotoy, where he proposed meeting him 'on condition that his said brother gave him the money he had promised, and that he sent the second portion with the first.' Margaret certainly shared her father's aversion for all things French, although she disguised it in writing to Louis XII. She secretly rejoices at every French defeat, and when she hears of the victory of Guinegate, 'she is more happy than she can say.' She also reminds Maximilian of old wrongs to rouse up his wrath, and ironically recalls 'the good faith and loyalty of the French.' Several times she points out how easy it would be to conquer their hereditary enemy: 'There is no boundary between our country and France, and you know the deep inveterate hatred the French bear us.'
These words express all Margaret's hatred and ambition, and show one of the reasons why she took such a special care of Prince Charles's education. In him she hoped to see realised all her dreams of the future greatness of Austria and Burgundy. With infinite trouble she directed his masters and mistresses, was herself present at their lessons, and often interceded with Maximilian on their behalf. Thus she recommends Anne de Beaumont 'for the first vacant post over the ladies of the household ... or a good annual pension, as a reward for her past services, which ought to be noticed'; she also praises Louis Vacca 'for great and worthy service which he has daily rendered as tutor for eight years, teaching Monseigneur with such great care and diligence, as a good and loyal servitor should.'
We read of the child's rapid progress in his lessons, and also of a fever he caught after attending his sister Isabel's wedding, at which 'he behaved as a good brother, accompanying his sister in the dances so perfectly, and perhaps rather more than was good for him.' A few days later 'he began to get better,' and it is hoped that he 'will soon be restored to health,' as he has such a good appetite 'that now it is difficult to satisfy him.' He is learning to shoot, but it is dangerous for the passers-by, as he shot a man by mistake, 'when Monseigneur, my nephew, went to play at Wure. On Whit-Monday he fired off his gun, and had the misfortune to kill a workman of this town, a drunkard and ill-conditioned man ... which has caused my said Lord and me much sorrow and regret, but there is no help for it.'
When the boy went hunting near Malines Maximilian wrote joyfully: 'We are well pleased that our son Charles takes so much pleasure in hunting,' but at the same time he recommends, 'when the weather is mild, to send him to Anvers and Louvain to take the air, and to pass the time, to ride on horseback for his health and strength.'