The gift of the Cité des Dames may perhaps have made some atonement for her vexation at having to attend that splendid meeting of the King and Emperor. She was very unwilling to go, and wrote to her father Maximilian, on September 22, 1513, as follows:
“If you think it necessary for me to go and I can be of service to you, I am ready to do all that it pleases you to order, but otherwise, it is not the part of a widow woman to trotter and visit armies for pleasure.”
She also owned seventeen rich Spanish velvet carpets. Among her chamber-hangings, bed-hangings, and canopies were several articles made of rich cloth of gold, bordered with crimson and embroidered with the arms and device of the “late King of Aragon.”
She had a camp (or folding) bed with hangings of cloth of gold richly embroidered with gold thread and silk, and a canopy for a camp bed covered with cloth of gold and trimmed with a fringe of black silk and gold threads; and she also owned four large pieces of cloth of gold, each differently bordered, to decorate her throne, and also one of green velvet. She had two curtains of green and grey tafetas, and four of crimson tafetas, a number of pieces of cloth of gold, four hangings for a chamber of green velvet and white damask, and two palls, one of white silk embroidered with gold, and the other gold, green, red and white; and the furnishing of a camp bed with canopy, counterpane and three curtains of green tafetas lined with black. Margaret did not despise leather hangings, for she had several pieces of “tapestry of red morocco” each 4½ ells long and just as wide, trimmed with bands of green brightened with gold, and three other pieces of “red morocco” with gilded bands. These probably came from Spain.
Plate VII.—Huche, or Bahut (Sixteenth Century).
CLUNY MUSEUM, PARIS.
A “pavilion” of grey and yellow silk threads “as a protection against the flies,” shows how early the mosquito net was known.
We should also note “packs for mules in the Spanish style,” covered with cloth of gold and silver.
Among her table-covers was one of cloth of gold and white with trimmings of crimson velvet embroidered and fringed with gold, and one of cloth of gold with a crimson satin border.
The collection of “serviettes” were exquisitely embroidered with gay coloured silks and gold threads. Some of them were trimmed with silk borders and some with narrow fringe. One, for instance, was embroidered with violet, and adorned with a violet fringe; another was embroidered in silver, blue, flesh-colour, crimson and green and had a little fringe of red, blue and gold. The two dozen beautiful cushions were of cloth of gold with gold tassels; of gold and blue lozenges; and embroidered in variously coloured silks.’