Editing Mary of Burgundy (section)

==Reign==
{{see also|List of territories of the Valois dukes of Burgundy}}
[[File:Niklas Reiser 001.jpg|thumb|left|Portrait of Mary, Duchess of Burgundy, attributed to Niklas Reiser, around 1500.]]
Mary assumed the rule of her father's domains upon his defeat in battle and death on 5 January 1477. In addition to the Duchy and County of Burgundy, her territories included the duchies of [[Duchy of Limburg|Limburg]], [[Duchy of Brabant|Brabant]], [[Duchy of Luxembourg|Luxembourg]], and the counties of [[County of Namur|Namur]], [[County of Holland|Holland]], [[County of Hainaut|Hainaut]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Haar |first1=Alisa van de |title=The Golden Mean of Languages: Forging Dutch and French in the Early Modern Low Countries (1540–1620) |date=2 September 2019 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-40859-3 |page=43 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wkOxDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA43 |access-date=25 June 2022 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=A Century of Dutch Manuscript illumination |date=14 April 1968 |publisher=University of California Press |page=6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZNoiod5iQBEC&pg=PA6 |access-date=25 June 2022 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Kooi |first1=Christine |title=Reformation in the Low Countries, 1500-1620 |date=9 June 2022 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-316-51352-1 |page=21 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JtduEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA21 |access-date=25 June 2022 |language=en}}</ref> King Louis XI of France seized the opportunity to attempt to take possession of the Duchy of Burgundy proper and also the regions of [[Franche-Comté]], [[Picardy]] and [[Artois]].

She called on her people to stay loyal to the house of Burgundy (there are still extant letters that Mary wrote to the Duchy of Burgundy and Arras asking for their support).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Molinier |first1=Auguste Émile Louis Marie |title=Les sources de l'histoire de France des origines aux guerres d'Italie (1494).: Introduction generale Les Valois (suite) Louis XI et Charles VIII (1461-1494) |date=1904 |publisher=B. Franklin |page=129 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NHJJAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA129 |access-date=22 January 2023 |language=fr}}</ref> Louis XI took over Arras, but the people refused to submit without her approval. Eighteen burgesses were decapitated by the king as they were discovered trying to go to see her. He ordered a mass expulsion and renamed the town Franchise.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Knecht |first1=Robert |title=The Valois: Kings of France 1328-1589 |date=1 April 2007 |publisher=A&C Black |isbn=978-1-85285-522-2 |page=105 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JkqzOlVJVjcC&pg=PA105 |access-date=22 January 2023 |language=en}}</ref>

The king of France was anxious that Mary should marry his son Charles and thus secure the inheritance of the [[Low Countries]] for his heirs, by force of arms if necessary. By February 1477, neither her advisors nor the States General imagined that they could resist the French army. Chancellor Hugonet led a delegation to discuss the prospect of Mary's marriage to the six-year-old Dauphin (later King Charles VIII). The negotiation ended in failure as Louis XI demanded unacceptable terms, including the surrender of the Duchy of Burgundy and the French territories acquired by Philip the Good and Charles the Bold. The king then betrayed her secret letters to the burghers of Ghent, who then seized two men who were named in those letters – Hugonet and the [[Guy of Brimeu|Sire d'Humbercourt]], two of her father's most influential councilors, and despite her pleadings, executed them on 3 April 1477. They then took away her other advisors too.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kleiman |first1=Irit Ruth |title=Philippe de Commynes: Memory, Betrayal, Text |date=22 March 2013 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-1-4426-6324-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tuFNouuzk0wC&pg=PT130 |access-date=22 January 2023 |pages=1301, 131, 149|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Commire |first1=Anne |last2=Klezmer |first2=Deborah |title=Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia |date=1999 |publisher=Yorkin Publications |isbn=978-0-7876-4069-9 |page=535 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RT0OAQAAMAAJ |access-date=22 January 2023 |language=en}}</ref> Koenigsberger suspects that Louis XI might have forged the letters.{{sfn|Koenigsberger|2001|pp=49–51}}

===The Great Privilege===
Mary was compelled to sign a charter of rights known as the [[Great Privilege]] in [[Ghent]] on 10 February 1477, the occasion of her formal recognition as her father's heir (the "[[Joyous Entry]]"). Under this agreement, the provinces and towns of [[Flanders]], [[Duchy of Brabant|Brabant]], [[County of Hainaut|Hainaut]], and [[Count of Holland|Holland]] recovered all the local and communal rights that had been abolished by the decrees of the dukes of Burgundy in their efforts to create a centralised state on the French model out of their disparate holdings in the Low Countries. In particular, the [[Parliament of Mechelen]] (established formally by Charles the Bold in 1470) was abolished and replaced with the pre-existing authority of the [[Parlement of Paris]], which was considered an amenable counterweight to the encroaching centralisation undertaken by both Charles the Bold and Philip the Good. The duchess also had to undertake not to declare war, make peace, or raise taxes without the consent of these provinces and towns and only to employ native residents in official posts. The Great Privilege also determined that Nederlands would be the language of the joint States-General.

===Marriage===
[[File:Bildrelief (Ausschnitt) zu Inschrift 1 1477 Heirat Erzherzogs Maximilians I mit Maria von Burgund. Bildvorlage Ehrenpforte - ... Pictura poterit manere eadem quae antea in Porta honoris (SInnsbruck 1 .jpg|thumb|300px| The wedding of Mary and Maximilian, Relief No.1, The Cenotaph of Emperor Maximilian in Innsbruck]]
Mary soon made her choice among the many suitors for her hand by selecting [[Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor|Archduke Maximilian of Austria]] (future Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I), who became her co-ruler.{{sfn|Kendall|1971|p=319}} The marriage took place at Ghent on 19 August 1477, she was 20 years old, while he was two years younger.{{sfn|Armstrong|1957|p=228}} Mary's marriage into the [[House of Habsburg]] initiated two centuries of contention between France and the Habsburgs, a struggle that climaxed with the [[War of the Spanish Succession]] in the years 1701–1714.
[[File:Medal-struck-to-commemorate-the-marriage-between-Mary-and-Maximilian-reverse-silver.png|thumb|left|The reverse of a medal struck in 1477 to celebrate the marriage between Mary and Maximilian. The Virgin, with Child in her lap, stands between two Saints. Inscription 
 reads “tota pulc(h)ra es amica mea et macula non est in te”, an excerpt from the address to the betrothed woman in the [[Song of Songs]]. Likely commissioned by Maximilian as a gift to his own immaculate bride. The obverse show names and coats-of-arms of the couple.{{sfn|Eörsi|2020|p=29}}]]

When they had time, the couple indulged themselves with dancing, hunting, music and the love for animals. Mary tried to teach him iceskating, which he struggled to master. They read romances together.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Grössing |first1=Sigrid-Maria |title=Maximilian I.: Kaiser, Künstler, Kämpfer |date=2002 |publisher=Amalthea |isbn=978-3-85002-485-3 |pages=39, 72 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AjVoAAAAMAAJ |access-date=12 November 2021 |language=de}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Abernethy |first1=Susan |title=Mary, Duchess of Burgundy |url=https://www.medievalists.net/2014/01/mary-duchess-of-burgundy/ |website=Medievalists.net |access-date=12 November 2021 |date=17 January 2014}}</ref> Soon after the wedding, she brought falcons into their bedroom (which they shared instead of living in separate apartments, and which already had a dog).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lauro |first1=Brigitta |title=Die Grabstätten der Habsburger: Kunstdenkmäler einer europäischen Dynastie |date=2007 |publisher=Brandstätter |isbn=978-3-85498-433-7 |page=108 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RnvqAAAAMAAJ |access-date=12 November 2021 |language=de}}</ref> Mary nursed the children herself, ordered the menus and dined out with merchants from Dijon.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Speaight |first1=Robert |title=The Companion Guide to Burgundy |date=1975 |publisher=Collins |isbn=978-0-00-216104-6 |pages=24 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8_kJAQAAIAAJ |access-date=12 November 2021 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Speaight |first1=Robert |title=The Companion Guide to Burgundy |date=1975 |publisher=Collins |isbn=978-0-00-216104-6 |page=24 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8_kJAQAAIAAJ |access-date=12 November 2021 |language=en}}</ref> Mary cheered for her husband in tournaments, during which he proved a magnificent jouster, not just in feats of strength but in the luxury he lavished on the equipments, horses, accessories and ornaments as well.{{sfn|Terjanian|Bayer|Brandow|Demets|2019|pp=22 & 40}}<ref>{{cite book |last1=Vossen |first1=Carl |title=Maria von Burgund: des Hauses Habsburg Kronjuwel |date=1982 |publisher=Seewald |isbn=978-3-512-00636-4 |page=146 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GeobAAAAMAAJ |access-date=12 November 2021 |language=de}}</ref> At first, they talked to each other in Latin.{{sfn|Vossen|1982|p=104}}

According to Haemers and Sutch, the original marriage contract stipulated that Maximilian could not inherit her Burgundian lands if they had children – this means that, the fact the couple produced heirs would give Maximilian troubles later.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Sutch|first=Susie Speakman|contribution=Politics and Print at the Time of Philip the Fair|editor-last1=Wijsman |editor-first1=Hanno |editor-last2=Wijsman |editor-first2=Henri Willem |editor-last3=Kelders |editor-first3=Ann |last4=Sutch |first4=Susie Speakman |title=Books in Transition at the Time of Philip the Fair: Manuscripts and Printed Books in the Late Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Century Low Countries |date=2010 |publisher=Brepols |isbn=978-2-503-52984-4 |page=235 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_sxEAQAAIAAJ |access-date=17 February 2022 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Haemers |first1=Jelle |title=For the Common Good: State Power and Urban Revolts in the Reign of Mary of Burgundy, (1477-1482) |date=2009 |publisher=Isd |isbn=978-2-503-52986-8 |page=1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-IvrAAAAMAAJ |access-date=17 February 2022 |language=en}}</ref> Some report that the original marriage contract stipulated that only common children of Mary and Maximilian could claim her Burgundian inheritance after her death. But one month after their marriage, she made an amendment that designated Maximilian as the heir in the case they had no children - a clause that the estates would try to repudiate after her death.<ref>{{cite book |editor-last1=Lindsay |editor-first1=J.O. |title=The New Cambridge Modern History: 1713-63. The Old Regime. volume VII |date=1957 |publisher=CUP Archive |page=228 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WxU9AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA228 |access-date=24 October 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Steinmetz |first1=Greg |title=The Richest Man Who Ever Lived: The Life and Times of Jacob Fugger |date=4 August 2015 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-1-4516-8857-3 |page=78 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wD4jBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA78 |access-date=12 November 2021 |language=en}}</ref>

===Co-rule with Maximilian===
[[File:Francia o borgogna, maria di borgogna a cavallo, 1477 ca.JPG|thumb|left|upright=1.0|Mary of Burgundy on horseback with her falcon, medal, ca.1477]]
With Maximilian by her side, Mary's position became stronger, politically and militarily. Although he came with no money nor army, nor support from the Empire, and no prior experience in governance, his competence in military matters and his prestige as the son of an emperor boosted the stability of her realms. He took over the war effort, concerning both military and financial details.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Haemers |first1=Jelle |title=For the Common Good: State Power and Urban Revolts in the Reign of Mary of Burgundy, (1477-1482) |date=2009 |publisher=Isd |isbn=978-2-503-52986-8 |page=23,25,26,38,41,100,266 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-IvrAAAAMAAJ |access-date=17 November 2021 |language=en}}</ref>

By this time, the Burgundian side had lost a lot of military captains owing to defections to France both before and after Charles the Bold's death. The loss of the Duchy of Burgundy cut down the whole government's backbone, consisting of high administrators and military commanders who came from the French-speaking nobility in Burgundy and Picardy.<ref name=Lassalmonie/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Vaughan |first1=Richard |last2=Paravicini |first2=Werner |title=Charles the Bold: The Last Valois Duke of Burgundy |date=2002 |publisher=Boydell Press |isbn=978-0-85115-918-8 |pages=232, 233 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GsKuCHXRuPMC&pg=PA233 |access-date=17 November 2021 |language=en}}</ref> [[Philip of Cleves, Lord of Ravenstein|Philip of Cleves]], her cousin and childhood friend (who had been put forth as a bridegroom candidate for Mary by his father [[Adolph of Cleves, Lord of Ravenstein|Adolf of Cleves]]; Mary and Philip were rumoured to be former love interests, although this is disputed by Arie de Fouw), whom she appointed as Stadtholder-General in 1477, now acted as Maximilian's lieutenant as Admiral of the Netherlands.<ref>{{cite book |last1=de Fouw |first1=Arie |title=Philips Van Kleef, een Bijdrage tot de kennis van zijn leven en karakter, academisch proefschrift |date=1937 |publisher=J.B. Wolters' uitgevers-maatschappij |isbn= |pages=15, 21, 22 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Sicking |first1=L. H. J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Jdjsok-J5dYC&pg=PA66 |title=Neptune and the Netherlands: State, Economy, and War at Sea in the Renaissance |date=1 January 2004 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-13850-6 |pages=66, 67 |language=en |author-link=Louis Sicking |access-date=17 November 2021}}</ref>  Despite the reputation of the Burgundian court as luxurious and rich, Charles the Bold had lost his whole fortune in his last three disastrous campaigns. The Low Countries were rich but the Estates were reluctant to pay. Moreover, the Burgundian state had lost one quarter of its tax revenue and due to new restrictions, a half of its government revenue in total.<ref name=Lassalmonie>{{cite journal |last1=Lassalmonie |first1=Jean-François |title=Amable Sablon du Corail, La Guerre, le prince et ses sujets. Les finances des Pays-Bas bourguignons sous Marie de Bourgogne et Maximilien d'Autriche (1477-1493), Turnhout, Brepols, 2019, 632 p., ISBN 978-2-503-58098-2 |journal=2021/4 |date=2021 |issue=68–4 |pages=189–191 |doi=10.3917/rhmc.684.0191 |s2cid=247271703 |url=https://www.cairn.info/revue-d-histoire-moderne-et-contemporaine-2021-4-page-189.htm |access-date=16 August 2022|doi-access=free }}</ref> Thus the initial financial situation was very tense and Mary had to pawn a lot of her heirlooms to finance their armies.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wee |first1=H. Van der |title=The Growth of the Antwerp Market and the European Economy: Fourteenth-Sixteenth Centuries |date=29 June 2013 |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |isbn=978-94-015-3864-0 |page=109 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dcvrCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA109 |access-date=27 October 2021 |language=en}}</ref> She also had to yield to the estates' demands regarding some of their privileges, in exchange for final support for Maximilian's war against France.{{sfn|Terjanian|Bayer|Brandow|Demets|2019|p=42}}

Violet Soen shows that by political manipulation, Mary managed to tie the powerful [[House of Croÿ|Croÿ family]] to the crown.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Soen |first1=Violet |title=14. The House of Croÿ and Mary of Burgundy. Or How to Keep Noble Elites at the Burgundian-Habsburg Court (1477-1482) |journal=Marie de Bourgogne/Mary of Burgundy |series=Burgundica |date=January 2021 |volume=31 |pages=237–250 |doi=10.1484/M.BURG-EB.5.122543 |isbn=978-2-503-58808-7 |s2cid=244627826 |url=https://www.mwpweb.eu/1/8/resources/publication_3524_1.pdf |access-date=16 August 2022 |archive-date=16 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220816175218/https://www.mwpweb.eu/1/8/resources/publication_3524_1.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Mary would not gain back the Duchy of Burgundy, occupied by the French king, but she was able to keep her remaining lands intact.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Davies |first1=Norman |title=Vanished Kingdoms: The History of Half-Forgotten Europe |date=27 October 2011 |publisher=Penguin Books Limited |isbn=978-0-14-196048-7 |page=52 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z4G_Cz9TF88C&pg=PR52 |language=en}}</ref>{{sfn|Terjanian|Bayer|Brandow|Demets|2019|pp=42 & 64}}<ref>{{cite book |last1=Spijkers |first1=J.H. |title=Punished and corrected as an example to all: On the treatment of rebellious nobles during and after the Flemish Revolts (1482-1492) |date=2014 |publisher=Leiden University |page=102|url=https://studenttheses.universiteitleiden.nl/handle/1887/32074 |access-date=27 October 2021}}</ref> In 1478–1479, Maximilian carried out a campaign against the French and reconquered [[Le Quesnoy]], [[Condé-sur-l'Escaut|Conde]] and [[Antoing]].<ref>{{cite book |editor-last1=Loades |editor-first1=Judith |title=Medieval History, Volume 4 |date=1994 |publisher=Headstart History |isbn=9781859431252 |page=126 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=srFmAAAAMAAJ}}</ref> He defeated the French forces at [[Battle of Guinegate (1479)|Guinegate]] (modern [[Enguinegatte]]), on 7 August 1479.<ref name="eb1911">{{cite EB1911|wstitle= Maximilian I. (emperor) |volume= 17 |last= Holland |first= Arthur William | pages = 922&ndash;923; see page 922 lines five and six| quote=}}</ref> Despite winning, he had to abandon the siege of Thérouanne and disband his army, either because the Netherlanders did not want him to become too strong or because his treasury was empty. In addition, he proved as ruthless as Charles in suppressing rebellions in the Low Countries.{{sfn|Davies|2011|p=52}} When conflicts broke out again between the [[Hook and Cod wars|Hooks and the Cods]], the archduke was able to put the conflict under control and assured the Cod domination, disregarding the Great Privilege in the process.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Blockmans |first1=Willem Pieter |last2=Blockmans |first2=Wim |last3=Prevenier |first3=Walter |title=The Promised Lands: The Low Countries Under Burgundian Rule, 1369-1530 |date=1999 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |isbn=978-0-8122-1382-9 |page=199 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uj9nGDCiW64C&pg=PA199 |access-date=12 November 2021 |language=en}}</ref> After a five-year hiatus (because most of the members had either died in Charles the Bold's wars or defected to France),{{sfn|Terjanian|Bayer|Brandow|Demets|2019|p=28}} the Order of the Golden Fleece also got reorganized by Maximilian, as the new sovereign of the order.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Monter |first1=William |title=The Rise of Female Kings in Europe, 1300-1800 |date=24 January 2012 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-17807-4 |page=138 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WWgUMnlqKKwC&pg=PT138 |language=en}}</ref>

However, within the marriage, Mary retained her political primacy. Her subjects looked at Maximilian's foreigner status and his military ambitions with suspicion. They feared that he would prolong the war to regain the Duchy of Burgundy,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Tracy |first1=James D. |title=Emperor Charles V, Impresario of War: Campaign Strategy, International Finance, and Domestic Politics |date=14 November 2002 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-81431-7 |page=71 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tXKMvr09dB4C&pg=PA71 |access-date=27 October 2021 |language=en}}</ref> and also that new successes would strengthen him and make him a second coming of Charles the Bold, whose legacy had left them with a feeling of distaste – a fear that would prove not unreasonable, considering his autocratic and militaristic tendencies during his later regency.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ellis |first1=Edward Sylvester |last2=Horne |first2=Charles Francis |title=The Story of the Greatest Nations: A Comprehensive History, Extending from the Earliest Times to the Present, Founded on the Most Modern Authorities, and Including Chronological Summaries and Pronouncing Vocabularies for Each Nation; and the World's Famous Events, Told in a Series of Brief Sketches Forming a Single Continuous Story of History and Illumined by a Complete Series of Notable Illustrations from the Great Historic Paintings of All Lands |date=1914 |publisher=Niglutsch |page=1903 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y8RLAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA1857 |access-date=27 October 2021 |language=en}}</ref> Moreover, according to [[Philippe de Commines]], Maximilian was too young, in a foreign land, had been "brought up very badly" and thus did not have the slightest idea how to conduct affairs of the state.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fried |first1=Johannes |title=The Middle Ages |date=13 January 2015 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-05562-9 |page=501 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XkiYBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA501 |access-date=8 November 2021 |language=en}}</ref> Mary and Margaret tried to teach him French and Dutch but he proved a lazy student. Mary accompanied Maximilian on his many journeys, acting as the buffer between the German-speaking prince and their subjects.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Carson |first1=Patricia |title=Flanders in Creative Contrasts |date=1990 |publisher=Davidsfonds |isbn=978-90-6152-545-5 |page=132 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4h7smKQ25RQC |access-date=12 November 2021 |language=en}}</ref> According to Juan Luis Vives, a near contemporary author, when her subjects approached her on political matters, she would consult her husband "whose will she regarded as law", but she was always able to administer everything according to her own wishes and Maximilian, a mild husband, would never oppose her will.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ylä-Anttila |first1=Tupu |title=Habsburg female regents in the early 16th century |date=1970 |publisher=University of Helsinki |page=36 |url=https://helda.helsinki.fi/bitstream/handle/10138/307398/HABSBURG.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |access-date=25 October 2021}}</ref> She managed internal affairs and attended all assemblies where the couple needed to raise revenue. Burgundian coinage showed that Maximilian was never endowed with the official rank that contemporary royal husbands such as Ferdinand of Aragon achieved in their wives' possessions.{{sfn|Monter|2012|p=138}} Apparently, she could impose her will on her spouse in military matters as well, as shown in the two times she tried to do this. In one case, recounted by Maximilian in the manuscript of the ''Weisskunig'', his advisors tried to prevent him from unleashing war against a stronger French army who had concentrated at the front, but he was determined to carry it out. The advisors asked for help from Mary, who told him he could go but should come back to say farewell to her first. When he went back, she had him promptly locked up in his own apartment. After long negotiations, he agreed to go dancing instead and was let out.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Karaskova |first1=Olga |title=Marie de Bourgogne et le Grand Héritage : l'iconographie princière face aux défis d'un pouvoir en transition (1477-1530), Volume 1 |date=2014a |publisher=Université Lille Nord de France, Université Charles-de-Gaulle – Lille 3, École doctorale Sciences de l'Homme et de la Société, Centre des recherches IRHiS – UMR 8529, Institut de Recherches Historiques du Septentrion, Musée de l'Ermitage |pages=139, 140 |url=https://www.academia.edu/43869730 |access-date=27 October 2021}}</ref> In her official images and presentation, she was presented as an active, commanding ruler, usually on horseback and with a hawk. She adopted a more pacifistic image than her father, but her position as the rightful ruler was emphasized while Maximilian, armored and armed, tended to be shown behind his wife. This was in contrast with the profile portraits that Maximilian commissioned during his later reign as emperor, where she was often shown as the passive side.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|last1=Roberts|first1=Ann M. |title=Excavating the Medieval Image: Manuscripts, Artists, Audiences: Essays in Honor of Sandra Hindman |editor=David S. Areford|date=30 November 2017 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-351-15846-6 |pages=135–150 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EfhADwAAQBAJ&pg=RA3-PA6 |language=en}}</ref>

In order to bolster support for the government, she focused the most on public appearances, especially public shows of piety.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Church |first1=Catholic |last2=Spierinc |first2=Nicolas |last3=Nacional |first3=Áustria Biblioteca |title=The Hours of Mary of Burgundy: Codex Vindobonensis 1857, Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek |date=1995 |publisher=Harvey Miller |isbn=978-1-872501-87-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=spnpAAAAMAAJ |access-date=22 March 2022 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Demets |first1=Lisa |title=Maria van Bourgondië |url=https://www.brabantserfgoed.nl/maria-van-bourgondie |access-date=22 March 2022 |work=Brabants Erfgoed |date=1 September 2020 |language=nl}}</ref>

The 1482 winter was harsh and France had declared a salt blockade, but the political situation in the Netherlands was overall positive; the French aggression was temporarily checked, and internal peace was in large measure restored.<ref>{{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Mary, duchess of Burgundy |volume= 17 | page= 824 }}</ref>

Towards the end of her rule, there was an event that exarcebated the division between the central government and other factions: the murder of Jehan (or Jan) van Dadizeele, on 20 October 1481. At the time, there were angry accusations against Maximilian and Filips van Horne (1421-1488),Lord of Gaasbeek, one of his closest counsellors.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Weightman |first1=Christine |title=Margaret of York: The Diabolical Duchess |date=15 June 2009 |publisher=Amberley Publishing Limited |isbn=978-1-4456-0968-3 |page=50 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KmCoAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA50-IA28 |access-date=19 July 2023 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Gunn |first1=Steven J. |last2=Janse |first2=A. |title=The Court as a Stage: England and the Low Countries in the Later Middle Ages |date=2006 |publisher=Boydell Press |isbn=978-1-84383-191-4 |page=129 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wclKy8jT28EC&pg=PA129 |access-date=19 July 2023 |language=en}}</ref> In 2023, a letter written by Frederik van Horn  and preserved at the ''Gelders Archief'' (found by Haemers and van Driel) shows that van Horn was the person who committed the murder. According to van Horn, after the murder of Dadizeele, Mary wrote a letter to him, declaring that Dadizeele was a villain and a traitor who tried to replace her and Maximilian's faithful servants with the people he chose, as he saw fit, and that she would see the killing as revenge for herself. Haemers opines that she herself seemed to be preparing to kill Dadizeele (in the case van Horn was honest about Mary's letter – at the time, he was trying to justify his act and get a pardon), but in reality, was not the perpetrator. Ultimately, Mary chose to pardon and defend Frederik van Horn. This decision would later help to lead to [[Flemish revolts against Maximilian of Austria|the Flemish revolts against Maximilian (1482–1492)]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Haemers |first1=Jelle |last2=van Driel |first2=Maarten |title=Cold case na 542 jaar opgelost, dankzij ontdekking in het Gelders Archief - Gelders Archief |url=https://www.geldersarchief.nl/over-ons/actueel/weblog/790-cold-case-na-542-jaar-opgelost-dankzij-ontdekking-in-het-gelders-archief |website=www.geldersarchief.nl |access-date=19 July 2023}}</ref>