#Duchess of Burgundy

[royalty-nobility]

The Departure of the Duchess of Burgundy for the Hunt in Front of the Orangery of Versailles

Artist: Pierre-Denis Martin (French, 1663–1742)

Date: circa 1676-1700

Medium: Oil on Canvas

Collection: Museum of the History of France, Palace of Versailles

Margaret of York (3 May 1446 – 23 November 1503), also known by marriage as Margaret of Burgundy, was Duchess of Burgundy from 1468 to 1477 as the third wife of Charles the Bold, and after his death (1477) acted as a protector of the Burgundian State. She was a daughter of Richard, 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.

[dreamconsumer]

Mary of Burgundy. Unknown artist.

[rmelster]

The jewels of the Count of Charolais: Isabelle de Bourbon, his countess, and their daughter, Marie.

[henryfitzempress]

Isabel of Portugal (only daughter of Queen Philippa of England and King João of Portugal), Duchess of Burgundy in an encounter with King Charles VII of France.

[wonder-worker]

"[The isle of Voorne] constituted an important part of Margaret of York’s dower lands because of its financial revenues, its economic possibilities and its endless stock of salted herring. For the administration of the isle, the duchess used a number of experienced officers from her own and that of Maximilian’s household, as well as from regional and local institutions. Margaret maintained a close relationship with her administrators of Voorne; offices, emoluments and gifts were given in exchange for loyalty and service. In this way she managed to establish durable links between her court, her dower land, and the administrative apparatus in The Hague.

Margaret’s relationship with the town of Brielle was expressed through an exchange of financial and material gifts and favours. The town administration offered her and her retinue prestigious consumable goods and money. Not all gifts were donated spontaneously, but were more often than not the result of a process of negotiation: new privileges in exchange for money. At the same time the dowager could appeal to the town for financial loans which were financed by selling annuities. Brielle benefited from Margaret’s protection because it was not obliged to provide new subsidies. And yet, Margaret was not able to stop the decline of the port of Brielle that was losing ships and trade to Rotterdam and Schiedam.

However, we should be cautious when explaining the relationship between Margaret and Voorne merely in economic terms. Margaret showed sincere compassion for the poor and the needy in her town of Brielle. Although the financial implications resulting from this concern were small in comparison with gifts for her trustees or her expenditure for stained glass windows on the island, her financial controllers were very strict with her spontaneous acts of charity. There was a continuous tension between the application of financial rules and her princely urge for largesse.

The representation of Margaret in the glass windows was partly inspired by local efforts to remind the duchess of her duties. On the other hand, the iconography of the two windows in Brielle and Dirksland show that Margaret was genuinely interested in being commemorated and in being represented with her late husband. Thus Margaret contributed in a material way to the celebration of the liturgy and the maintenance of the building. At the same time she publicly showed her devotion and appealed to the citizens of Voorne to be loyal towards her."

-Mario Damen, "Charity against the odds. Margaret of York and the isle of Voorne (1477-1503)" Women at the Burgundian Court: Presence and Influence (Turnhout 2010) 

[une-sanz-pluis]

Tomb Effigy of Anne of Burgundy, Duchess of Bedford

Anne of Burgundy's tomb was commissioned by her brother, Philippe le Bon (or Philip the Good), Duke of Burgundy following the death of her husband, John of Lancaster, Duke of Bedford. It was originally in the church of the Celestine monastery in Paris but was moved when the order was suppressed. It is now in the Louvre.

[awkward-sultana]

(Almost) Every Costume Per Episode + Duchess Cecily's red and gold gown in 1x03,4

[lordbettany]

Me: I am NOT going to cry over another historical fiction. Me while reading every interaction of George, Richard and Margaret:

The only scene worth watching in TWQ btw!!

[richmond-rex]

Some Tudor authors/historians have tried to reassess Margaret of York recently but I still hate this type of condescending approach:

(G. Streeter, Arthur Prince of Wales: Henry VIII's Lost Brother)

Margaret of York was as much of a political player as the monarchs and princes of her age. Why should we assign her actions to emotional reasons, only changing our stance from 'insatiable hatred' to self-delusional grief that makes her desperately cling to a nephew she only met once? For one, Margaret had a family in Burgundy (her stepdaughter Mary and her children). Most important of all, as the dowager duchess of Burgundy she was as much invested in seeing to Burgundy's interests and profits as was the duchy's regent at the time, Maximilian of Austria.

In 1493, the Milanese Ambassador in France wrote:

[The admiral] persuades the king [Charles VIII] that the emperor [Maximilian I] only wants peace in order to deceive him and set up Burgundy again. He says if [Charles VIII] gives back the daughter [Margaret of Austria] one of two evils will follow, either her father [Maximilian I] will never marry her, saying that she is the wife of his Majesty [Charles VIII], and thus make out that the king's children [with Anne of Brittany] are bastards, or they will try to make King of England the boy who calls himself the son of King Edward [Perkin Warbeck], who fled thither, and give him [Margaret of Austria] to wife, so as by his means to make perpetual war in France.

Henry VII was to be directly affected by those scenarios and at the same time he was barely involved in them (as far as his own willingness to cooperate with Burgundy went) — what even to say about Margaret of York. Thanks to France and Burgundy's own particular struggle, Maximilian needed England as a tool to hurt the king of France. For that he needed his own puppet king on the English throne, regardless if he was Edward IV's son or not. It's a complex geopolitical situation that involved elaborate schemes; schemes where Margaret of York was a (most likely willing) participant but in any case, none that had to do with Margaret's feelings about her family one way or the other.

[britneyshakespeare]

I feel bad for Margaret of York that this portrait is always used to represent her

fuck ass proportions!!!

[dontdenymeshakespeare]

The Perfect Prince

A historian I met once told me that there are two types of Tudor fans: those who go forward into the Stuarts and those go back to the Plantagenets. I am the latter. Just as I’ve been obsessed with the Tudors, I’m also obsessed with the Plantagenets. The women are strong, the men are constantly at war and the age they were living is fascinating; also there’s approximately 300 years of Plantagenet…

[rmelster]

Isabella, Infanta of Portugal by birth and Duchess of Burgundy by marriage. (I picture this sketch when she was at the beginning of January 1430, barely days before she married the duke)

[henryfitzempress]

Miniature of Anne of Burgundy, duchess of Bedford, kneeling before Anne, the Virgin, and Christ. British Library Add MS 18850, f. 257v.

[thegreatyin]

exactly!!!! as it goes!!!!!!!!!!

current fallen london fandom experience feels like im standing at the corner of a party holding a sippy cup going. i thought firmament has been pretty fun and intriguing so far

[wonder-worker]

The irony of people claiming that Margaret of York supported various Pretenders against Henry VII due to her alleged undying love for Richard III is that Perkin Warbeck masqueraded as Richard of Shrewsbury, aka Edward IV's second son who had been declared illegitimate by his uncle. Supporting him would literally amount to a denial of those allegations and an invalidation of Richard III's entire claim to kingship.

It's almost as though Margaret had other reasons to challenge Henry VII. Like, idk, BURGUNDIAN INTERESTS, HER OWN ECONOMIC INTERESTS AND HER LOYALTY TO HER ADOPTED FAMILY BY MARRIAGE.

(Also, Maximilian was the one deciding Burgundian foreign policy, not Margaret, but that's another matter)