87: The Regent of Mechelen: Margaret of Austria and the Governing of the Habsburg Netherlands

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Charles V, Edict of July 1518
“By our letters-patent given in our town of Saragossa…we have ordained that our very dear Lady and Aunt, the Lady Margaret, Archduchess of Austria, Dowager of Savoy, etc., shall sign from henceforth all letters, acts, and documents with her own hand, which are issued for us, and for our business over there…that she shall have the care of the seal of our finances, and that she alone shall provide and dispose of the appointments of this our country, for we have given and left the disposal of them to her, assisted by the chief and other members of our privy council.”


In November 1530, Margaret of Austria lay dying in Mechelen of a gangrenous infection. At fifty, she had governed the Habsburg Netherlands for most of the past twenty-three years. As her condition worsened, she dictated a final letter to her nephew, Charles V—Holy Roman Emperor, King of Spain, and ruler of territories spanning three continents.

Before he held any of these titles, Charles was simply a boy in Mechelen, raised by his aunt after his father's death and his mother's mental collapse. To understand how Charles governed his vast empire, we must first recognize that his political education was fundamentally Burgundian—shaped by Margaret's pragmatic approach to ruling the complex, fractious provinces of the Low Countries.

Born in Ghent in February 1500 to Philip the Handsome and Juana of Castile, Charles faced early family tragedy. When he was barely six, his father died suddenly in Spain. His mother, Juana, who was already showing signs of mental instability, suffered a complete breakdown. She spent the rest of her life confined to a castle at Tordesillas, unable to govern. Charles and his three sisters became de facto orphans.

Emperor Maximilian I appointed his daughter, Margaret of Austria, as regent of the Low Countries and guardian of the children. The appointment proved consequential. By age twenty-seven, Margaret had endured considerable personal tragedy. Twice widowed—first to John, Prince of Asturias, who died after only six months of marriage, and then to Philibert II, Duke of Savoy, whom she genuinely loved—Margaret understood both loss and the requirements of political survival.

What made Margaret's appointment significant was not merely her Habsburg lineage but her approach to governance. Unlike her father, Maximilian, whose attempts to centralize authority often provoked resistance, Margaret demonstrated a pragmatic understanding of how the Low Countries functioned politically.

The Low Countries consisted of seventeen distinct provinces, each possessing unique legal rights, privileges, and representative bodies. The Provincial States, the representative assemblies comprised of nobles, clergy, and city delegates, wielded considerable authority, especially regarding taxation. Margaret recognized that good governance depended on collaborating with these institutions instead of opposing them. Her strategy was based on respecting established privileges, consulting with these bodies before making important decisions, and carefully balancing the diverse interests of provinces and cities.

Contemporary accounts describe Margaret as highly educated and culturally sophisticated. She maintained an extensive library of 380 volumes, patronized leading artists and scholars, and corresponded with humanists, including Erasmus. Yet she was also remarkably practical in her political judgments.

Margaret established her court at Mechelen, creating what became known as the "Court of Savoy." There, Charles received an education befitting a Renaissance prince. His principal tutor was Adrian of Utrecht, a distinguished scholar at the University of Leuven who would later become Pope Adrian VI. Adrian provided both religious instruction and humanist learning, emphasizing the classical tradition alongside Catholic devotion.

Charles's first language was French—the language of the Burgundian court and of high culture throughout the Low Countries. This linguistic background mattered. When Charles later arrived in Spain, his inability to speak Castilian immediately marked him as foreign. But in the Netherlands, French marked him as authentically Burgundian.

Charles's immersion in Burgundian political culture was equally vital. Though the Burgundian duchy was lost to France in the 1470s, Burgundian identity remained strong in the Low Countries, centered on court ceremonial, the Order of the Golden Fleece, a French-speaking elite, and a prosperous, trade-based economy.

Charles absorbed these values. Throughout his life, he would maintain Burgundian court protocol, jealously guard the Order of the Golden Fleece's prestige, and return emotionally to the Low Countries, even as his imperial responsibilities kept him constantly traveling.

When Charles was declared of age in January 1515, the ceremony took place in Brussels—not in Spain or Vienna, but in the heart of the Low Countries. This was no accident. At fifteen, Charles saw himself as fundamentally Burgundian, ruler of the prosperous provinces that had been his home and the model for his aunt's skillful governance.

Charles's life changed dramatically in January 1516, when his maternal grandfather, Ferdinand of Aragon, died unexpectedly. At sixteen, Charles inherited the crowns of Castile and Aragon, along with Spanish possessions in Italy and North Africa, as well as rapidly expanding territories in the Americas.

Charles had never visited Spain. He knew nothing of Spanish politics or culture. When he finally departed for Spain in September 1517, the circumstances were inauspicious. His ship was blown off course, forcing an unplanned landing on the northern Spanish coast and an arduous overland journey to meet his mother in Tordesillas.

Charles faced a complex political landscape. Cardinal Cisneros, serving as regent, tried to maintain order despite opposition from the Aragonese and Castilian Cortes. He died in November 1517, just before meeting Charles—some historians debate whether his death was natural or intentional. Listen to episode 84 for more on Spain in the final years of Ferdinand of Aragon’s reign.

Charles's Burgundian advisers, especially Guillaume de Croÿ, known as Chièvres, began to dominate official positions and siphon off wealth from Spanish appointments. The Archbishopric of Toledo, the richest ecclesiastical office in Spain, was awarded to Chièvres's sixteen-year-old nephew. Additionally, foreign courtiers secured prominent roles across the administration.

The Spanish nobility and urban oligarchies responded with mounting resentment. Their young king could not speak Spanish, surrounded himself with Flemish advisers who treated Spain as conquered territory, and showed little interest in Spanish traditions or concerns.

Emperor Maximilian died in January 1519. The imperial throne was technically an elected position chosen by seven Electors—three archbishops and four secular princes. However, in reality, the election frequently resembled an auction. Following Maximilian’s death, the leading contenders were Charles and Francis I of France. 

Margaret led the Habsburg campaign from the Netherlands, working with the Fugger bank to secure nearly one million gold guilders for the election. She efficiently coordinated diplomatic agents, mobilized military threats, and synchronized three Habsburg governments—her Dutch government, Austrian under Cardinal Lang, and Spanish under Charles.

On June 28, 1519, Charles was elected unanimously. Margaret staged elaborate celebrations, proclaiming that the Electors had chosen Charles, inspired by the Holy Ghost—carefully omitting the gold that had made that inspiration possible.

This election fundamentally transformed Charles's situation. He now ruled an unprecedented collection of territories: the seventeen provinces of the Low Countries, the Austrian hereditary lands, the kingdoms of Spain, including their Italian and American possessions, and the Holy Roman Empire itself.

Charles's election as Emperor created an impossible personal challenge of governance. His territories spanned the globe, from Peru to Hungary and from the Low Countries to North Africa. He would spend his entire reign traveling—the historian William Maltby calculated that Charles spent only 55 months in the Netherlands between 1517 and 1555, usually in blocks of one to two years.

Charles, therefore, governed through regents. In Spain, he relied first on Adrian of Utrecht, then on his wife, Isabella of Portugal, and eventually on his son, Philip. In the Austrian lands, his brother, Ferdinand, served as his representative. And in the Low Countries—crucially—he relied on Margaret.

In Spain, difficulties arose immediately in 1520. Charles needed to travel to Germany to secure his imperial coronation, but first, he required a substantial subsidy from the Castilian Cortes to fund both his journey and his ongoing obligations.

Charles summoned the Cortes to Santiago—a remote location chosen solely for its proximity to the coast, which facilitated his departure. He demanded that delegates attend with "full powers," meaning they could not claim they needed to consult their cities before voting. This was perceived as an assault on constitutional procedure.

Through pressure on individual representatives, Charles secured his subsidy. He then appointed Adrian of Utrecht—his former tutor, a foreigner and a Netherlander—as regent and sailed from Spain on May 20, 1520.

Revolt erupted across Castile within days, as cities formed communes and a revolutionary Junta, initially led by moderates like Pedro Laso de la Vega but increasingly dominated by radicals. The Comuneros demanded that Charles marry a Portuguese princess (not a foreign wife), appoint Spanish regents, reduce taxes, and respect Castilian liberties.

The movement sought to legitimize itself by appealing to Queen Juana at Tordesillas. Though sympathetic, Juana's mental condition prevented her from granting the formal authorization the rebels needed. This proved a critical weakness.

As the revolt continued into 1521, it became more radical. Towns renounced obedience to their noble lords. The movement increasingly targeted aristocratic privilege. This social-revolutionary turn drove the Castilian nobility back to the royalist side, despite their own grievances against Charles's government.

The decisive battle at Villalar in April 1521 saw royalist forces crush the Comunero army. The leaders were executed, and the revolt collapsed—though Toledo held out until 1522.

The contrast with the Low Countries is striking. While Spain revolted against its foreign teenage king, the Netherlands stayed peaceful under Margaret. The key was legitimacy: Charles was Burgundian, raised in Mechelen, fluent in French, and educated in Burgundian political culture. 

In 1520, Charles appointed Margaret as governor-general of the Netherlands, a role she held until she died in 1530. She was the only regent Charles appointed indefinitely and repeatedly, reflecting his trust in her and his understanding that the Netherlands needed someone with a profound grasp of its political complexities.

Margaret's administrative structure was complex. The Council of State comprised about 12 high-ranking southern magnates who advised on war and diplomacy. Parallel to it was the Secret Council, staffed by bureaucrats and jurists, handling internal matters with little noble involvement. 

The Provincial States remained crucial intermediaries. The States of Holland, for instance, met increasingly often during this period—they needed to negotiate war subsidies with Margaret's government and developed growing institutional sophistication in response.

An essential test of Margaret’s political skill was the prolonged conflict with Guelders—a territory to the northeast that persistently refused Habsburg authority.

The Guelders situation had deep roots. Duke Charles of Egmont, who came to power in 1492, maintained his independence, in part, through French support. For Maximilian and Philip the Handsome, Guelders was an unacceptable gap in Habsburg control of the Low Countries. Philip won a military victory over Guelders in 1505 but couldn't consolidate control before he died in 1506.

The most destructive period occurred in 1517 when Guelders's mercenary troops—the infamous Black Band—raided Friesland and Holland. These skilled soldiers caused extensive destruction, looting towns and terrorizing rural areas. The raid ended with the burning of Asperen, causing widespread outrage across Holland.

The States of Holland reacted with fury and suspicion, questioning why the government couldn't stop invasions. Conspiracy theories circulated: nobles might be prolonging the war for profit, or perhaps the practice of stillsaeten—private truces exempting noble lands—meant aristocrats had no incentive to end the conflict while civilians suffered. The most provocative claim was that Holland's military commander was sabotaging defenses, as he was a distant cousin of Charles of Egmont.

Modern historians, particularly James D. Tracy, argue that Maximilian and Margaret were right to demand stern measures against Guelders. Charles of Egmont was genuinely dangerous, backed by France, and could not be controlled through diplomatic accommodation. In Tracy's assessment, the critics in the States General who opposed funding wars against Guelders were strategically naive.

However, what matters is not whether the critics were correct, but how Margaret managed their suspicions. She could not simply override the States' concerns—she needed their cooperation for military funding. She negotiated by granting States’ reps access to accounts, allowing civilians in strategic talks, and making commitments on how the military was used—such as directing funds toward an offensive against Guelders, not just defense, per their wishes.

Margaret also pursued reforms to address popular grievances. She worked to abolish stillsaeten, though with limited success against entrenched noble privilege. She appointed commissioners of muster to verify that troops being paid were actually in existence. She insisted on accounting transparency.

This approach defined Margaret's leadership style: operating within institutional limits, addressing grievances when feasible, keeping communication open even with critics, and gaining support by showcasing competence instead of relying on authority.

The Guelders conflict would not be fully resolved until 1543, when Charles V finally conquered the territory through the Treaty of Venlo. Margaret's careful management prevented the conflict from destabilizing Habsburg rule during the crucial decades in which Charles was establishing his authority.

The situation facing Margaret became more complex in the mid-1520s because of Charles's wars in Italy against Francis I of France. This conflict had direct implications for the Netherlands.

In February 1525, Charles's forces won a stunning victory at Pavia, capturing Francis I. The French king was imprisoned in Spain, and Charles appeared to have achieved a decisive triumph. In January 1526, Francis signed the Treaty of Madrid, agreeing to extraordinary terms: he would cede Burgundy to Charles, renounce French claims to Italy, marry Charles's sister Eleanor, and surrender his two sons as hostages to ensure compliance.

Margaret initially celebrated the treaty. Bonfires were lit throughout the Netherlands, and processions gave thanks that France had been humbled. The recovery of Burgundy—the ancestral duchy lost to France in the 1470s—carried powerful symbolic significance for the Habsburg Netherlands.

However, Francis I had no intention of honoring these terms. Even before leaving Spanish custody, he secretly repudiated any agreements made under duress. Once back in France, he openly refused to cede Burgundy, and French nobles declared that the king lacked authority to alienate French territory.

The conflict escalated into the War of the League of Cognac (1526-29), where France allied with the Pope, Venice, Florence, and Milan to oppose Charles. For the Netherlands, this signaled a threat from French forces approaching from the south. Although Charles achieved victory at Pavia, Margaret was still responsible for defending against the French invasion.

This situation put fiscal pressure on the Netherlands, as Charles needed subsidies to fund armies in Italy and defend against French threats to the Low Countries. The Provincial States grew resistant, questioning why they should fund distant Italy's wars when their own territories faced invasion.

Margaret faced the challenge of balancing Charles's financial demands with the States' growing frustration over the costs of imperial policy. By 1529, the Italian Wars had stalled. Charles's armies had sacked Rome in 1527—an event that stunned Europe—and the Pope was effectively held captive by imperial forces. However, France was still undefeated, and neither side could afford to continue fighting indefinitely.

Margaret seized on an English diplomatic initiative to begin secret negotiations. In July 1529, she traveled to Cambrai to meet Louise of Savoy—Francis I's mother, Margaret's childhood friend from her years at the French court, and her sister-in-law through her marriage to Philibert of Savoy.

The women negotiated for three weeks. The treaty required Charles to relinquish his claim to Burgundy, which would stay French. France recognized Habsburg sovereignty over Flanders, Artois, and Franche-Comté, ending French feudal overlordship. Francis agreed to pay for his sons' release and help pay Charles's debts to England.

In the Netherlands, the treaty meant security. The southern border was stabilized, and French threats to intervene in Dutch affairs were ended. On July 24, 1529, the terms were published. Fanfares blared through Cambrai's streets, and heralds proclaimed: "*La paix est faite!*"—"Peace has been made!"

On November 30, 1530, Margaret of Austria's doctors administered opium before attempting to amputate her gangrenous leg. The dose was reportedly so strong that she never regained consciousness. She died between midnight and one o'clock on December 1, at age fifty.

Before the surgery, Margaret had meticulously arranged her affairs. She designated Charles V as her sole heir and dictated a final letter to her nephew. In it, she urged him above all to maintain peace with France and England and to report on her stewardship:

“I leave you your lands over here, which, during your absence, I have not only maintained as you left them at your departure, but have greatly augmented; I turn back to you the government of these, in which I believe I have loyally acquitted myself, and so much so that I hope for divine remuneration, for your contentment, monseigneur, and for the good will of your subjects.”


Her claim was justified. Under Margaret's governance, the Netherlands remained stable and prosperous while Charles struggled with revolts in Spain and religious conflicts in Germany. She respected provincial privileges, negotiated with representative institutions rather than imposing demands, and carefully balanced the competing interests of nobles and urban factions.

Margaret was buried in Bourg-en-Bresse, in the elaborate mausoleum she had commissioned for herself and her beloved second husband, Philibert of Savoy. The tomb features two reclining effigies—the upper one showing Margaret in formal regalia as Duchess of Savoy, the lower depicting her as if asleep, with her hair down.

For Charles, Margaret's death was both a personal loss and a political challenge. She had been the closest thing to a mother he ever knew and had provided continuity in governing the Netherlands while he managed an empire that kept him constantly traveling.

Charles appointed his sister, Mary of Hungary, as the new governor. Mary would prove equally capable, serving until 1555, though she lacked Margaret's deep knowledge of the Netherlands' political culture and established relationships with provincial elites.

Yet this stability masked growing tensions. Imperial fiscal demands strained provincial subsidies. Religious persecution angered merchants who valued stability over orthodoxy. Governing through regents while Charles was absent raised concerns about unresponsive authority. These tensions—between demands and resistance, orthodoxy and pragmatism, centralization and autonomy—would eventually erupt in the Dutch Revolt of 1568.

Before we get there, though, we will take a step back to examine the culture of the Burgundian lands, a culture instrumental in bringing about the Northern Renaissance. In the next episode, we will discuss the life and impact of the artist Jan van Eyck. 



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