Editing Margaret of York (section)

==Dowager duchess==
[[Image:Kaiser-maximilian-und-maria-von-burgund 1-920x1035.jpg|250px|thumb|right|[[Mary of Burgundy|Mary the Rich, Duchess of Burgundy]] and [[Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor|Maximilian of Austria]]]]

It was in the wake of her husband's death that Margaret proved truly invaluable to Burgundy. She had always been regarded as a skillful and intelligent politician; now, she went beyond even that. To her step-daughter, Mary, now Duchess of Burgundy, she gave guidance and help using her own experiences in the court of Edward IV, where she had largely avoided being used as a pawn and contributed to the arrangement of her own marriage; against the wave of marriage offers that flooded to the two duchesses in [[Ghent]] (from the recently widowed Duke of Clarence, from [[Charles VIII of France|Charles]], the 7-year-old Dauphin of France, and from a brother of Edward IV's wife, [[Elizabeth Woodville]]) she stood firm and advised Mary to marry Maximilian of Austria. Maximilian, the 18-year-old son of the Holy Roman Emperor [[Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor|Frederick III]] to whom Charles the Bold had betrothed Mary, was ambitious and active enough, in Margaret's opinion, to defend Mary's legacy.

She strongly advised Mary to accept Maximilian's suit and marry him immediately; he arrived in Burgundy on 5 August 1477, and by 17 August had arrived at Ten Waele Castle, in Ghent. He met Mary there—they were both "pale as death", but found each other to their mutual liking—and Margaret took part in the traditional courtly games of love, telling Maximilian before the assembled nobility that his bride "had about her a carnation it behoved him to discover." The carnation duly proved to be in the Duchess's bodice, from which Maximilian carefully removed it. The pair were married the next day, on 18 August.

Burgundy was far from safe: the Duchy of Burgundy itself had already been conquered by the French, who were continuing to attack from all sides, taking advantage of the state's instability. Margaret now moved to secure military support from her brother, Edward IV; he sent enough support to allow Mary and Maximilian to resist the French advances any further, although the Duchy itself remained lost. Louis XI, recognising the danger Margaret posed to him, attempted to buy her off with a French pension and a promise of personally protecting her; she contemptuously refused, and instead sailed in summer 1480 to London, where she was again attended by Richard Boyville<ref>Calendar of Patent Rolls, Edward IV (1477–85), page 217.</ref> and negotiated a resumption of the Anglo-Burgundian alliance and renewed trade. Nor did she stop there in supporting Mary and Maximilian; when, on 22 July 1478, Mary gave birth to a son and heir, [[Philip I of Castile|Philip]], Louis XI had rumours spread that the child was, in fact, a girl. Margaret, who was standing godmother to the child, matter-of-factly disproved the rumour: as the Christening party left the church of St Donat, she conclusively proved that the child was an undoubted male, by undressing him and presenting him to the assembled crowd. In 1480, the next child of Mary and Maximilian was a girl: the Duke and Duchess named her [[Margaret of Habsburg (1480-1530)|Margaret]], after the dowager Duchess.

[[File:Mechelen Stadsschouwburg.jpg|thumb|left|The palace at [[Mechelen]] where she spent much of her widowhood, and died]]

Margaret was however dealt a devastating blow in 1482: her much-loved step-daughter, Mary, fell from her horse whilst hunting, and broke her back. The injuries were fatal, and Mary died on 27 March. From a personal point of view, this was a harsh blow to Margaret; politically, Mary's death weakened the Burgundian state further. The Burgundians were now sick of war, and unwilling to accept the rule of Maximilian as regent for his son, the 4-year-old Duke Philip, or even as guardian of the children. They forced his hand: on 23 December 1482, the Three Estates of the Lowlands signed the [[Treaty of Arras (1482)|Treaty of Arras]] with Louis XI, granting him the [[Burgundian Netherlands|Burgundian Lowlands]], [[Picardy]] and the [[county of Boulogne]]. Margaret was unable to secure assistance from Edward IV, who had made a truce with France; consequently, she and Maximilian were forced to accept the ''fait accompli''. Maximilian brokered a personal peace with Louis by arranging for his daughter, Margaret, to be betrothed to the young Dauphin of France; she was sent to be raised at the French court, taking with her the [[Free County of Burgundy]] and the [[County of Artois]] with her as a dowry.
[[File:Brussel, KBB, ms. 9296, f.17r.jpg|thumb|250px|Miniature of Margaret praying in front of the [[Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula|Church of St. Gudula]] of [[Brussels]]]]
This was not the end of the problems for Margaret and Maximilian: the Netherlanders still disliked his rule of the territory. In 1488, he was taken prisoner in Bruges by the citizens. Margaret called on the emperor for help.<ref>{{cite contribution|contribution=The devotion of a lonely duchess| last1=Blockmans|first1=Wim|title=Margaret of York, Simon Marmion, and The Visions of Tondal: Papers Delivered at a Symposium Organized by the Department of Manuscripts of the J. Paul Getty Museum in collaboration with the Huntington Library and Art Collections, June 21–24, 1990 |editor= Thomas Kren |date=16 July 1992 |publisher=Getty Publications |isbn=978-0-89236-204-2 |page=33 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sbRDAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA33 |access-date=2 November 2021 |language=en}}</ref> Later he was released after making concessions and also because Bruges feared his father's army. The next year, he was summoned back to Austria by his father, the Emperor; Burgundy was left to be governed by Margaret together with the Burgundian Estates, both of whom also undertook the guardianship of the young Duke Philip. She would later welcome his daughter, Margaret, after her rejection by the French court in 1493. Her residence in Mechelen thus became a princely court. This was also the place Philip the Fair's children would be educated when he departed for Spain in 1501. Margaret of Austria, her godchild, would continue to choose Mechelen as residence (and thus the capital city of the Low Countries) as a widowed governor in 1507. Blockmans opines that Margaret of York was the model of Margaret of Austria as well as later widowed female governors, as they inherited her residence, library and household.{{sfn|Blockmans|1992|p=33}} Another indication of the close relationship between Margaret and Maximilian was a book recounting Macedonian monarchy and the Hellenistic kingdom, written by Justinius, that she gave him, with the inscription "Your loyal mother". The sign that showed this book was intended for Maximilian was the imperial coat of arms, which he could not have carried before his father's death in 1493, as well as the codex style, the subject, the language.<ref>{{cite contribution|contribution=A Renaissance Manuscript in the Hands of Margaret of York| last1=Beroles|first1=Albert|title=Margaret of York, Simon Marmion, and The Visions of Tondal: Papers Delivered at a Symposium Organized by the Department of Manuscripts of the J. Paul Getty Museum in collaboration with the Huntington Library and Art Collections, June 21–24, 1990 |editor= Thomas Kren |date=16 July 1992 |publisher=Getty Publications |isbn=978-0-89236-204-2 |page=33 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sbRDAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA101 |access-date=2 November 2021 |language=en}}</ref>

By this time, Margaret had already suffered more personal tragedies. Her brother, the Duke of Clarence, had been executed by Edward IV in 1478; Edward himself had died of illness in 1483 and finally, her younger brother Richard, who took the throne as Richard III was in 1485 killed at the Battle of Bosworth by the leader of the House of Lancaster, [[Henry VII of England|Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond]], a cousin and nephew of Henry VI, who went on to become Henry VII, and to marry the daughter of Edward IV, [[Elizabeth of York]]. With the death of Richard, the House of York ceased to rule in England. Margaret consequently was a staunch supporter of anyone willing to challenge Tudor, and backed both [[Lambert Simnel]] and [[Perkin Warbeck]], even going so far as to acknowledge Warbeck as her nephew, the younger son of Edward IV, the Duke of York. She offered financial backing to support his attempt to take the throne, hiring [[Continental Europe|continental]] [[mercenaries]] to accompany him on an expedition to England in 1495. Warbeck suffered a significant defeat at the [[Battle of Deal]], and then [[Siege of Waterford (1495)|failed to take Waterford]] in Ireland. Warbeck was probably an imposter and would be locked up in the Tower of London and subsequently executed by Henry VII. Henry in fact found Margaret undoubtedly problematic, but there was little he could do since she was protected by her step-son-in-law Maximilian.

Margaret died on 23 November 1503, at the age of 57, shortly after the return of her step-grandson, Philip the Handsome, to Burgundy. Her death in that year allowed her to be spared the grief of Philip's untimely death of typhoid fever in 1506. She was buried in the Church of the Cordeliers in Mechelen.