BY ELEANOR E. TREMAYNE WITH TWENTY ILLUSTRATIONS New York : G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS London : METHUEN & CO. 1908...

Three of the craftiest royal rogues in Christendom strove hard to cozen and outwit each other in the last years of the fifteenth and the earlier years of the sixteenth century. No betrayal was too false, no trick too undignified, no hypocrisy too contemptible for Ferdinand of Aragon, Maximilian of Austria, and Henry Tudor if unfair advantage could be gained by them; and the details of their diplomacy convey to modern students less an impression of serious State negotiations than of the paltry do

In the year 1491 an interview took place in the little town of Baugy in Poitou, between a youth of twenty-one and a girl of twelve. The fate of more than one kingdom was involved in this farewell meeting between two playfellows who had been companions and friends for nearly nine years. The youth had tears in his eyes as he hesitatingly made his excuses and unfolded his plan. He told his fair-haired companion that though he loved her with all his heart, yet he had made up his mind to send her bac

Charles VIII. was hardly free from his sister's tutelage when he dreamt of conquering the kingdom of Naples, which he claimed as heir to the house of Anjou. An embassy which he received from Ludovico Sforza, afterwards Duke of Milan, made him the more determined to carry out this project. By the Treaty of Barcelona (January 1493) Charles had agreed to restore to Ferdinand of Aragon the counties of Roussillon and Cerdagne in return for Ferdinand's assurance that he would leave him a free hand in

On the 7th of March 1500, between seven and eight o'clock in the evening, a brilliant procession wound its way through a covered passage from the Archducal Palace in the old town of Ghent to the church of Saint John. The line of route was lit by more than a thousand torches which flashed on the gorgeous clothes and jewels of the princes and high officers of state who had come to grace the baptism of the infant son of the Archduke Philip and Joanna of Castile. The baby's step-great-grandmother, M

Besides her many poems Margaret has perpetuated the memory of the chief phases in her life by means of devices, a symbolical language much in vogue in the Middle Ages. When she returned to Flanders, after her first marriage with Charles VIII. was annulled, the device she chose was a high mountain with a hurricane raging round the summit, and underneath, 'Perflant altissima venti.' This device ingeniously expressed the idea that those in a high position are more exposed than others to the winds o

By King Philip's death the Netherlands were left without a ruler, for his eldest son Charles was barely six years old. A few weeks later, at eight o'clock on the morning of the 18th of October 1506, the deputies from the provinces assembled at Malines in the Salle de la Cour to discuss the desirability of appointing a regent for the Netherlands, and a governor for King Philip's children. The fair-haired child the Archduke Charles was present with the members of his family, his Council, and the K

Though Margaret's time was now fully occupied by her new duties, she did not forget the work she had begun at Brou. Early in 1508, immediately after her arrival in Brussels, she made a will, designating the church of the monastery of Saint Nicolas de Tolentin at Brou, near Bourg-en-Bresse, as her place of sepulture, where she wished to be buried near 'her very dear lord and husband.' 'The Duke Philibert of Savoy to lie between her and his mother, Madame de Bourbon.' By an endowment she ensured t

After a reign of twenty-three years Henry VII. died at Richmond on the 21st of April 1509, and the whole aspect of affairs was suddenly changed. He, like his rival Ferdinand, had been avaricious from deliberate policy; and his avarice was largely instrumental in founding England's coming greatness, for the accumulated riches he left to his son lent force to the new position assumed by England as the balancing power, courted by both the great Continental rivals. The new king, Henry VIII. , was a

After the reduction of Tournay and Therouenne in the autumn of 1513, Henry VIII. and Maximilian met Margaret at Lille. She was accompanied by the Archduke Charles and a large retinue. This was Henry's first meeting with his wife's nephew; it was also Margaret's first introduction to the man whose engaging manners and brilliant personality nearly made her give up the resolution to which she had adhered for so many years, and marry again. Amongst Henry's VIII. 's officers was Sir Charles Brandon,

Soon after midnight on the 2nd of January 1515 Francis, Duke of Valois, was aroused by an excited crowd rushing into his chamber and hailing him King of France. 'May you have a happy New Year!' cried his friend Fleurange, 'Les belles étrennes!' The new king was in his twenty-first year, and in May 1514 had married Louis XII. 's eldest daughter Claude, thus securing Brittany to the French crown. Young, brave, and handsome, with fascinating manners, passionately fond of beauty in every form, he wa

On the 18th of November 1517, ten days after Ximenes' death, Charles, accompanied by a gorgeous train of nobles, ambassadors, and the flower of the Spanish army, made his state entry into Valladolid, the capital of Old Castile. The splendid procession slowly wound its way through the narrow streets of the town. First came thirty falconers, with birds on wrist, some wearing the king's livery of white, yellow, and red, others the red and green of Ferdinand, then two hundred of the royal guard, a c

Almost at the same time that Charles was crowned at Aix, the most enterprising and accomplished of the Turkish sultans, Solyman the Magnificent, ascended the Ottoman throne. The world has seldom seen such a brilliant constellation of rulers as now filled the principal thrones of Europe. Leo X. , Charles V. , Francis I. , Henry VIII. , and Solyman the Magnificent each possessed talents which would have made them conspicuous in any age, but which together made the history of Europe during the firs

On September the 24th, 1524, Margaret's youngest niece, Katharine, who had lived most of her life shut up with her mad mother in the gloomy palace of Tordesillas, was married to John III. , King of Portugal. The marriage took place at Anyaguia, in the presence of Charles, who had but lately recovered from a bad attack of fever. In a letter to the Duke of Bourbon on September 5th, he says: 'Regarding my own person, I would most willingly have gone to Barcelona according to your wish, if my affair

The eventful year 1526 was not to close without further troubles for the House of Austria. The Sultan Solyman, taking advantage of the war in Italy and the consequent absorption of the principal rulers of Europe, had pushed his conquests in the east until his vast hosts encamped before the walls of Vienna. Louis II. , King of Hungary, who had married Margaret's niece Mary, seeing his kingdom thus invaded by the Turks, sent urgent appeals for help to all Christian princes. But either the neighbou

Before Charles left Spain for Italy he had concluded a separate treaty with the Pope at Barcelona, the terms of which were more advantageous to the Holy See than Clement VII. could have expected, considering the emperor's recent successes. But Charles was anxious to atone for the insults and outrages committed during the siege of Rome, and if possible win the Pope as an ally, and get him to oppose his aunt Katharine's divorce. Amongst other articles he promised to restore all property belonging

The church of Brou, near the town of Bourg en Bresse, was built by Margaret of Austria in the beginning of the sixteenth century, as a monument to her husband, Philibert of Savoy, and in fulfilment of a vow made by Duke Philibert's mother, Margaret of Bourbon, in 1480. The first stone was laid by Margaret in 1506, and the building finished in 1530; but the work did not really begin until 1513, and the interior decoration was not completed before 1532. Whilst in Flanders Margaret carefully watche

des Tableaux, Livres, Joyaux, et Meubles de Marguerite D'Autriche, fille de Marie de Bourgogne et de Maximilien, empereur d'Allemagne , fait et conclud en la ville d'anvers le XVII d'avril MVCXXIIII ; document inédit, publié par M. le Cte de Laborde, membre de l'Institut. Et Premièrement: Chappelle. 1. Une grande et haulte croix d'argent dorée, avec son pied fait à feuillage de chardons pesant viii m vi o xv e (Une petite croix, une paix, deux calicés, deux boetes à nosties, un eaubenoistier, de

FROM MARGARET'S COLLECTION SENT TO BROU (1533) The following religious pictures are from the Study and Library of the late Madame:— From the Study. A small illuminated picture in cyprus wood. An ivory picture of divers mysteries, which has two shutters, on which are painted the Dukes Philip and Charles of Burgundy. Another picture of Our Lady very well done, with a red mantle, the background black, and the edges gilt. A small double picture of cyprus (wood): one the Ascension of Our Saviour, and

OF MANUSCRIPTS MOSTLY ILLUMINATED AND BOUND IN VELVET WITH GILT CLASPS IN MARGARET OF AUSTRIA'S LIBRARY AT MALINES, ARRANGED ACCORDING TO THE COLOUR OF THEIR BINDING . [170] Velours cramoisy. Le livre des Euvangilles. Froissart. (4 vols.) Les dix livres de la première décade de Titus Livius. (1 vol.) La seconde et tierce décade de Titus Livius. (1 vol.) Lancelot du Lac. (2 vols.) La Forteresse de la Foy. La Décrétaille. Le premier Livre des batailles tunikes. Jehan Davenant. (?) Le Doon. Le Régi

from Maximilian i. to Margaret of Austria , and from Margaret to Various Persons Maximilian's letters to Margaret were written in French, but a kind of French-German jargon. Margaret had been brought up in France, and had no knowledge of German, so her father, who knew very little French, was obliged to use this language in corresponding with her, and often mixed up French and German words in a most grotesque fashion. The following few letters and extracts are from M. le Glay's Correspondance de