Margaret of York (3 May 1446 – 23 November 1503), also known as Margaret of Burgundy, was Duchess of Burgundy from 1468 to 1477 as the third wife of Charles the Bold, and after his death acted as a protector of the Burgundian State. She was a daughter of Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York, and of Cecily Neville, and the sister of two kings of England, Edward IV and Richard III. Born at Fotheringhay Castle, Northamptonshire, in the Kingdom of England, she died at Mechelen in the Low Countries.
Early life
Isabella of Portugal, Duchess of Burgundy, the mother of Charles the Bold, was, through her blood ties and her perception of Burgundian interests, pro-English. As a granddaughter of John of Gaunt, she was consequently sympathetic to the House of Lancaster. She believed that Burgundian trade, from which the Burgundian State drew its vast wealth, depended upon friendly relations with England. For this reason she was prepared to favour any English faction which was willing to favour Burgundy. By 1454, she favoured the House of York, headed by Margaret's father, Richard, 3rd Duke of York. Although the King of England, Henry VI, was the head of the House of Lancaster, his wife, Margaret of Anjou, was a niece of Burgundy's bitter enemy, Charles VII of France, and was herself an enemy of the Burgundians. The Duke of York, by contrast, shared Burgundy's enmity towards the French, and preferred the Burgundians.
Because of this, when the Duke of York came to power in 1453–1454, during Henry VI's first period of insanity, negotiations were made between himself and Isabella for a marriage between Charles the Bold, then Count of Charolais, and one of York's unmarried daughters, of whom the 8-year-old Margaret was the youngest. The negotiations petered out, however, due to power struggles in England, and the preference of Charles's father, Philip the Good, for a French alliance. Philip had Charles betrothed to Isabella of Bourbon, the daughter of Charles I, Duke of Bourbon, and Agnes of Burgundy, in late March 1454, and the pair were married on 31 October 1454.
Margaret, being a useful bargaining tool to her family, was still unmarried at age 19, when Isabella of Bourbon died in September 1465. She had borne Charles only a daughter, Mary, which made it an imperative for him to remarry and father a son. The situation had changed since 1454: Charles was now highly respected by his father, who had in his old age entrusted the rule of Burgundy to his son. Charles was pro-English, and wished to make an English marriage and alliance against the French. For her own part, Margaret's family were far more powerful and secure than they had been in 1454: her father had been killed at the Battle of Wakefield on 30 December 1460, but her brother was now King Edward IV, opposed ineffectively only by Margaret of Anjou and her son, Edward of Westminster. This made Margaret a far more valuable bride than she had been as the mere daughter of a duke. Because of this, Charles sent his close advisor, Guillaume de Clugny, to London weeks after the death of his wife, to propose to Edward IV a marriage between himself and Margaret. Edward responded warmly, and in spring 1466 sent his brother-in-law, Lord Scales, to Burgundy, where Scales made a formal offer of Margaret's hand in marriage to Charles, and put forward Edward's own proposal of a reciprocal marriage between Charles' daughter Mary and Edward's brother, George, 1st Duke of Clarence.
Marriage
The marriage did not take place immediately, however. Continued talks were required, particularly since Charles was unwilling to marry his only child and potential heiress to George, Duke of Clarence, and these talks were undertaken by Anthony, Grand Bastard of Burgundy, Charles's half-brother. But added problems were introduced by the French: Louis XI did not want an alliance between Burgundy and England, his two greatest enemies. Louis accordingly tried to break the two apart, by offering the hand of his elder daughter, Anne, to Charles, that of his younger daughter, Joan, to Edward's youngest brother, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and that of his brother-in-law, Philip of Bresse, to Margaret. Edward showed interest in the latter two propositions, offending Charles the Bold, and delaying the Anglo-Burgundian relations.
Instead, in 1466, Margaret was betrothed to Peter, Constable of Portugal, whom the rebellious Catalans had invited to become their King. Peter was himself a nephew of Duchess Isabella of Burgundy, and the betrothal thus signified an attempt to placate Burgundy. It was not to be, however; worn out by illness, disappointments, sorrow and overwork, Peter died on 29 June 1466, leaving Margaret available once more.
By 1467, the situation had changed again. Philip the Good had died, and Charles the Bold had become Duke of Burgundy. Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, had turned against Edward IV, and was plotting against him with French support. Edward in such circumstances needed the support of Charles, and provided no further obstacles to the marriage negotiations, formally agreeing to it in October 1467. Negotiations between the Duke's mother, Isabella, and the King of England's in-laws, Lord Scales and Earl Rivers, then proceeded between December 1467 and June 1468.
During this time, Louis XI did all he could to prevent the marriage, demanding that the Pope refuse to give a dispensation for the marriage (the pair were cousins in the fourth degree), promising trade favours to the English, undermining Edward's credit with the international bankers to prevent him being able to pay for Margaret's dowry, encouraging a Lancastrian invasion of Wales, and slandering Margaret, claiming that she was not a virgin and had borne a bastard son. He was ignored, and a dispensation was secured after Burgundian bribes secured Papal acquiescence. A complex agreement was drawn up between England and Burgundy, covering mutual defence, trade, currency exchange, fishing rights and freedom of travel, all based on the marriage between the Duke and Margaret. By the terms of the marriage contract, Margaret retained her rights to the English throne, and her dowry was promised to Burgundy even if she died within the first year (often, the dowry would return to the bride's family under such circumstances). For his own part, Charles dowered Margaret with the cities of Mechelen, Oudenaarde and Dendermonde.
The marriage contract was completed in February 1468, and signed by Edward IV in March. The Papal dispensation arrived in late May, and preparations to send Margaret to Burgundy began. There was little enthusiasm for it outside Burgundy – the French naturally detested this union between their two enemies, whilst the English merchants, who still suffered from restrictions on the sale of their cloth in England, showed their disapproval by attacking Dutch and Flemish merchants amongst them.
Margaret left Margate for Sluys on 23 June 1468. Lord Scales and Richard Boyville were among those who escorted her to meet her future bridegroom. Despite Louis XI having ordered his ships to seize her on her journey, her convoy crossed without incident, reaching Sluys on the evening of the 25th. The following day, she met with her bridegroom's mother, Isabella, and daughter, Mary; the meeting was a success, and the three of them would remain close friends for the rest of their lives. On 27 June, she met Charles for the first time, and the pair were privately married between 5am and 6am on 3 July, in the house of a wealthy merchant of Damme. Charles then left for Bruges, allowing the new Duchess the honour of entering separately a few hours later.
The celebrations that followed were extravagant even by the standards of the Burgundians, who were already noted for their opulence and generous festivities. The bride made her Joyous Entry in a golden litter drawn by white horses, wearing upon her head a coronet. During this procession, she charmed the burghers of Bruges when she chose to wave to them rather than shut herself away from the wind and rain. In the city itself, wine spurted freely from sculpted archers and artificial pelicans in artificial trees; the canals were decorated with torches, and the bridges decked with flowers; the arms of the happy couple were displayed everywhere, accompanied by the mottoes of the pair: Charles's Je l'ay emprins ("I have undertaken it") and Margaret's Bien en aviengne ("May good come of it"). The celebrations also included the "Tournament of the Golden Tree" that was arranged around an elaborately detailed allegory, designed to honor the bride.
Crown of Margaret of York
When the Duke and Duchess appeared there, both wore magnificent crowns. Margaret's crown was adorned with pearls, and with enamelled white roses for the House of York set between red, green and white enamelled letters of the Latinization of her name ("Margarita de York", m ar ga ri ta de yo rk), with gold Cs and Ms, entwined with lovers' knots. Though it seems to have been made some years earlier, Margaret wore this crown at her wedding to Charles the Bold in Bruges in 1468. Its original leather case still bears traces of old gilt. The initials CM as well as the coats of arms of York and Burgundy are again found on the lid. The rest of the case is decorated with tendrils and small dragons embossed in the leather.
The crown is much too small to fit around a head, and was probably intended to be worn around a pointed hennin, or on top of piled-up hair. It may always have been intended to be presented at some point after the coronation as a votive crown for a famous statue of the Virgin Mary. Margaret presented the crown to the Church of Our Lady during a visit to Aachen in 1475. Today the statue, placed next to the altar in the cathedral, wears the crown on festive days. In 1475 a matching crown was fashioned for the child.Demand, Ursula, Ulrike Paschell, and Ulrike Schulte. Little Guide to the Treasury of Aachen Cathedral, English. Aachen: Aachen Cathedral, 1995. Pages 38–39.
Margaret's donation of the crown to Aachen spared it the fate of much royal regalia in the English Civil War which saw the destruction of all the main English Crown Jewels. It thus remains one of only two medieval royal English crowns still surviving, the other being the Crown of Princess Blanche, now in the Munich Residenz in Germany. Margaret's crown can still be seen in the Aachen Cathedral Treasury.
Charles's crown was larger and accompanied by a golden gown encrusted with diamonds, pearls and jewels. The parades, the streets lined with tapestries hung from houses, the feasting, the masques, and the jewels impressed all observers as "the marriage of the century". It is re-enacted at Bruges for tourists every five years as the Procession of the Golden Tree.
Duchess of Burgundy
Although the marriage produced no children, Margaret proved a valuable asset to Burgundy. Immediately after her wedding, she journeyed with her step-daughter 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 May 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 Isabella warned her son to refuse the offer, which he did, giving Louis XI an excuse for further machinations against Burgundy.