Читать книгу The First Governess of the Netherlands, Margaret of Austria - Eleanor E. Tremayne - Страница 6

'Madame ma bonne tante, il faut bien que je me plaigne à vous comme à celle en qui j'ay mon espérance, de ma cousine que l'on m'a voulu oster, qui est tout le passe-temps que j'ay, et quand je l'auray perdue je ne scay plus que je feray. Parquoi je vous prie que veuillez tenir la main pour moy qu'elle ne me soit ostée, car plus grand déplaisir ne me scauroit-on faire. Lachault est venu qui a apporté lettres adressantes à madite cousine, par lesquelles le Roy lui escrivoit qu'elle s'en allast; toutefois je ne l'ay pas voulu souffrir, jusques à ce que vous en eusse advertie, en espérant que m'y seriez en aide, comme j'ay en cela et en autre chose ma parfaite fiance, vous priant, Madame ma bonne tante, que quelque part que je soye ne parte point de vostre bonne grâce, car toujours en aurai-je besoin, à laquelle bien fort me veut recommander. Madame de Molitart m'a dit que voulais que je sois mieux traitée que je ne fus oncques, qui est une chose qui m'a fort réjouie, puisque avez encore souvenance de moy, vous disant adieu, Madame ma bonne tante, que je prie qu'il vous doint le plus aimé de vos désirs. Escrit à Melun, le dix-septième jour de Mars. Vostre bonne humble et léable nièce Marguerite.

'A Madame ma bonne tante.'

PHILIPPE AGED 16 MARGARET AGED 14

IMPERIAL MUSEUM, VIENNA

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Jean le Maire relates that the autumn of 1491 was very cold and the grapes did not ripen. One day when Margaret was at table she overheard the gentlemen of her suite discussing this fact, and with a play on the words remarked sadly that it was not surprising if the vines (sarments de vigne) were green this year, as vows (serments) were of no value (referring to the king's broken word).

Before Margaret left France she was made to swear on the Cross and the Gospels that she would renounce for ever all pretensions to her marriage with Charles. At last she set out on her long journey back to Flanders. Charles took care that she was treated with every respect. Anne of Brittany showed her great sympathy, and tried by all means in her power to make Margaret forget her mortification. At the moment of departure Anne ordered Jeanne de Jambes, her most skilful maid of honour, to make an embroidered coif to offer the princess, as well as some gold ornaments, the whole valued at the large sum of £450.[5]

The French nobles who had been attached to Margaret's person for nearly twelve years accompanied her on her journey. The little princess was calm, but she bore a grudge against France which she never forgot, and which is noticeable in all her later dealings with her first husband's kingdom. When she passed through the town of Arras the citizens cried, 'Noël, Noël,' a French cry that annoyed Margaret; she called back to them, 'Do not cry Noël, but long live Burgundy!'

Thus she was escorted to St. Quentin, from thence to Cambray, Valenciennes, and finally to Malines, where she was received by her brother Philip and by Margaret of York, the widow of her grandfather, Charles the Bold. 'When she alighted from her litter near a mill by a small stream which divided the royal and archducal dwelling, she thanked the said lords and ladies who had brought and accompanied her, begging them all to recommend her very humbly to the king their master, bearing no ill-will because of his separation from her, believing that marriages ought to be voluntary.'

However, Margaret always showed great regard for Anne of Brittany, and even more so when the queen married Louis XII. The documents of the period abound in exchange of civilities between the princesses. Thus ended Margaret's first matrimonial adventure. Her former husband did not long survive his marriage with Anne, but died almost suddenly in April 1498, and left no children. His widow fulfilled the clause in her marriage contract, and married his successor, who ascended the throne as Louis XII.