Margaret of York - Duchess of Burgundy

Duchess of Burgundy

Although the marriage produced no children, Margaret proved a valuable asset to Burgundy. Immediately after her wedding, she journeyed with her stepdaughter Mary through Flanders, Brabant and Hainaut, visiting the great towns: Ursel, Ghent, Dendermonde, Asse, Brussels, Oudenaarde and Kortrijk were all impressed by her intelligence and capability. Less valuable, perhaps, were the family connections she brought. In 1469, her brother, Edward IV, attempted to present Charles the Bold with the Order of the Garter, an honour which would have made Charles guilty of treason against Louis XI had he accepted it; although the Dowager Duchess Isabel warned her son to refuse the offer, which he did, giving Louis XI an excuse for further machinations against Burgundy. In the same year, Edward IV and his brother the Duke of Gloucester were forced to flee England, when their brother the Duke of Clarence, and his father-in-law the Earl of Warwick, rebelled and drove the King into exile; Charles was forced to intercede on the part of his brother-in-law, ordering the London merchants to swear loyalty to Edward under threat of losing their trading rights in Burgundy, a threat that proved successful. But the next year, Margaret was left despairing when Clarence and Warwick supported a French-backed Lancastrian invasion of England: although she, together with her mother Cecily, Dowager Duchess of York, attempted to reconcile Clarence and Edward IV, the rebellion continued, and on 2 October 1470 the Lancastrians were returned to power and Edward had fled to Margaret and Charles in Burgundy.

Her brother's overthrow lessened Margaret's dynastic worth; this, together with regard for her brother, made her plead passionately to her husband that he support Edward and make measures to restore him. Nonetheless, her husband paid little attention to her begging; when he decided to support Edward, it was when he had decided for himself that it was in his best interests to oppose the Lancastrian rule of England, backed as it was by a France which had in early December 1470 been encouraged by the English situation to declare war on Burgundy. Even so, by 4 January 1471, Charles had agreed to support the King-in-exile in regaining the English throne, and this renewal of friendship between the two men was followed by Edward visiting Margaret at Hesdin until 13 January, the first time the pair had seen one another since Margaret's departure from England. By April, Edward was back in England: Margaret followed events carefully, requesting meticulous details of events in England, and was pleased to note the reconciliation between Clarence and Edward. She also provided her mother-in-law, Isabel, with information on the progress of Edward's campaign to regain the throne: it was she, for example, who replied to Isabel's questions over alleged disrespectful treatment of the Earl of Warwick, by explaining that Edward had "heard that nobody in the city believed that Warwick and his brother were dead, so he had their bodies brought to St Paul's where they were laid out and uncovered from the chest upwards in the sight of everybody." Edward IV was successfully restored; Edward of Westminster, the son and heir of Henry VI, had died in battle, and Henry VI, who had been briefly restored, died in his cell in the Tower of London two weeks later. The two deaths brought to an end the direct line of the House of Lancaster.

By this time, Isabel's health was beginning to fail; in June 1471, she drew up her will, in which she bequeathed her favourite residence of La-Motte-au-Bois to Margaret. Yet, at the same time, Isabel and Charles struck against Margaret's family: with Henry VI and his son dead, Isabel was one of the most senior members of the House of Lancaster, and had a good claim to the English throne; this claim she legally transferred to Charles in July, which would allow Charles later that year to officially claim the English throne, in despite of his brother-in-law the Yorkist King of England. However, Charles chose not to press the claim, finding it more to his advantage to maintain his support of Edward IV.

By 1477, Margaret's position as Duchess of Burgundy was no longer as brilliant as it had been: after Isabel's death in 1471, Charles had become increasingly tyrannical and grandiose, dreaming of assembling a Kingdom of Lotharingia from the North Sea to the Mediterranean; to accomplish this, he warred continuously with his neighbours, who responded by allying against him. Meanwhile, Louis XI had proved masterful at destabilising the Duchy: Edward IV had been detached from his alliance, Charles' reputation and banking credit had been undermined by Louis, and Burgundian trade was choked by French embargoes. By 1476, the Duke was regarded as a tyrant by his people, who were suffering from the French refusal to export their wine and bread to Burgundy, and who dreaded his terrible reprisals against rebels being unleashed on them. In 1476, he arranged for his daughter and heiress, Mary, to be betrothed to Maximilian of Habsburg; on 5 January 1477, he was dead in battle outside Nancy, in Lorraine.