(Almost) Every Costume Per Episode + Margaret of Burgundy's light blue gown with white, yellow and silver embellishments in 1x03,4

"Margaret (of York, Duchess of Burgundy) left Bruges on 24 June and was in England for more than three months. She travelled with a large retinue headed by Guillaume de Baume and the embassy included two officials who were well-known to her, Thomas Plaines and Jean Gros, the treasurer of the Order of the Golden Fleece. She received aides from the Estates to cover her expenses with the Hainault Estates contributing 4,000 livres. Her mission had several goals, but the immediate need was to obtain some military help in the form of English archers to reinforce Maximilian’s hard pressed armies. ... King Edward sent Sir Edward Woodville, the Queen’s younger brother, aboard the royal ship ‘Falcon’ to bring his sister across the Channel. It was twelve years since she had sailed to her marriage. Sir Edward had been part of her marriage party and he had won the honours in the famous joust of the Golden Tree. This time Margaret took the shorter route from Calais to Gravesend, where she was received by Sir John Weston, the Prior of the Knights of St John. She then transferred to a royal barge which had been sent to bring her up the Thames to London. The barge was specially refitted for the occasion. The master and the twenty-four oarsmen had been supplied with new liveries in the Yorkist colours of murrey and blue with white roses embroidered on their jackets. The knights and squires who formed the escort of honour wore fine black velvet jackets which were decorated with a pattern of silver and purple. Two residences had been prepared for Margaret’s use, the palace at Greenwich where she had spent so much time before her marriage, and the London house of Coldharbour near her mother’s home at Baynard’s Castle. New beds with red and green hangings had been sent up to the Coldharbour house and the finest bedlinens and coverlets had been ordered. Curtains, screens and tapestries were provided for both the houses, including a piece of arras which depicted the story of Paris and Helen. For her travel during her stay in England, Margaret was sent ten ‘hobbeys and palfreys’ all newly harnessed and caparisoned in rich saddle cloths. The King encouraged everyone to be generous towards his sister and used ‘right large language’ with the Archbishop of Canterbury who failed to offer Margaret a gift. His own final present to his sister was a luxurious pillion saddle in blue and violet cloth of gold, fringed with ‘Venetian gold’ thread.

While she was in England, Margaret renewed her contacts with all her old friends and family. She was received by the Queen and introduced to her royal nephews and nieces. Her youngest brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who was busy dealing with Scottish incursions in the north, made time to come south to see his sister, and the King gave a state banquet at Greenwich in honour of Margaret and their mother, the old Duchess Cecily. It was also attended by Margaret’s sister Elizabeth, Duchess of Suffolk. It seems that Margaret admired the wine, for on the day after the banquet, Edward sent her ‘a pipe of our wine’ valued at 36s 8d. As well as enjoying the company of her living family, Margaret could not have failed to remember all her dead relations. It was perhaps with a chantry in mind that she persuaded Edward to introduce the reformed Order of the Observant Friars into England. Soon after her departure the King sent for the Vicar-General of the Order and offered him a site for their new monastery near to the palace of Greenwich. Building began in 1482 and the abbey chapel was dedicated to the Holy Cross. Was the dedication in honour of Margaret, and does it provide further evidence of her connection with Waltham Abbey? ... Well satisfied that the negotiations were at last completed, Margaret prepared to leave London. She paid a farewell visit to the city where she was presented with a purse containing £100. She then set off for the coast accompanied by her brother Edward who had decided to see her on her way. ... The Dowager passed a week in Kent visiting the shrine of St Thomas à Becket and staying on the private estates of Anthony Woodville, Lord Rivers. These two bibliophiles must have had much in common especially now that Rivers was the patron of Margaret’s former protégé, William Caxton. No doubt she was shown Woodville’s translation of the ‘Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers’ which was one of the first books printed on Caxton’s press at Westminster. With the King still in attendance, Margaret finally left for Dover, where the ‘Falcon’ waited to take her back to Calais. Edward seemed to be genuinely sad to see her departure and he wrote to Maximilian on 22 September announcing the return of his ‘well-beloved sister’. She left behind her in England Jacques de la Villeon, who was to act as an agent for the Burgundian ally, the Duke of Brittany."

Christine Weightman, "Margaret of York: The Diabolical Duchess"

“Tudor historians ... write at length about Margaret (of York)’s involvement in the plots against Henry VII. They presented all attempts to overthrow Henry as part of her own malicious and obsessive vendetta against him. Polydore Vergil expressed the general view most succinctly when he stated that Margaret, ‘pursued Henry with insatiable hatred and with fiery wrath never desisted from employing every scheme which might harm him as a representative of the hostile faction.’

Edward Hall, who followed Polydore Vergil very closely, elaborated on this and added several fearsome phrases for ‘this diabolicall duches.’ Margaret was ‘lyke a dogge revertynge to her olde vomyte’ and ‘lyke a spyder that dayly weaueth when hys calle is tarne’. Hall examined the dowager’s motives in a paragraph which has been echoed by many later historians:

This lady Margaret although she knewe the familye and stocke of the house of Yorke to be in maner distroyed & vtterly defaced by her brother kyng Richard, yet not being saciate nor content with the long hatred & continual malice of her parentes which subuerted and ouerthrew almost the progeny and lignage of kyng Henry the vi and the house of Lancaster, nor yet remembryng the newe affinitie & strong alliaunce that was lately concluded, by the whiche the heyres of bothe the houses and progenies were vnited & conioyned together in lawfull matrimony, lyke one forgetryng bothe God & charite, inflamed with malice diabolicall instinction, inuented & practiced all mischiefes, displeasures and damages that she could deuyse against the kyng of England. And farther in her fury and frantyke moode (accordyng to the saiyng of the wise man, there is no malice equiualent nor aboue the malice of a woman) she wrought all the wayes possible how to sucke his bloud and copasse his destruccion as the principal head of her aduerse parte & contrary faccion, as though he should be a dewe sacrifice or an host immolated for the mutuall murder & shamefull homicide comitted and perpetrated by her brother and progeny.

In this extract Hall elevated Henry by comparing him with the sacrificial Lamb of God, and relegated Margaret firmly to the role of the devil’s agent.

Another major analogy for the Dowager, which became entrenched in the history books, originated with Bernard André, the blind tutor of Prince Arthur, Henry VII’s eldest son. As befitted a classical scholar he portrayed Margaret as the goddess Juno, notorious for her implacable desire for revenge, ceaselessly attacking the noble Henry who was cast in the role of Hercules. In the ‘Twelve Triumphs of Henry VII’, an epic poem also ascribed to André, Margaret was also compared to Menalippe, the Queen of the Amazons, another of Hercules’ enemies, and also to one of the heads of the monster Geryon, the other two heads being those of Philip and Maximilian. Here at least there was a recognition of how closely Margaret worked with the rulers of Burgundy.

...More recent English historians have echoed the Tudor line with considerable regularity. Even the charitable Hume considered that the Dowager’s behaviour towards Henry showed ‘a spirit of faction who entrenched somewhat the probity which shone forth in other parts of her character’. For Professor Mackie, Margaret was ‘always ready to play the kindly aunt to Henry’s enemies’. Writers in other fields have picked up this general verdict. The art historian, Professor Wilenski, suggested that Dirk Bouts portrayed Margaret as the wicked queen in his great dyptich ‘The Judgment of Otho’ because she was ‘rancourous and given to political intrigue’.

The source for all these opinions on the Dowager’s character was no less a person than Henry VII himself. He expressed his attitude towards Margaret with great conviction in a letter written to Sir Gilbert Talbot in 1493:

"not forgetting the great malice that the Lady Margaret of Burgundy beareth continually against us, as she showed lately in sending hither a feigned boy surmising him to have been the son of the Duke of Clarence … And forseeing now the perseverance of the same her malice, by the untrue contriving eftsoon of another feigned lad called Perkin Warbeck … wherethrough she intendeth by promising unto the Flemings and other of the Archduke’s obeissance to whom she laboureth daily to take her way, and by her promise to certain aliens, captains of strange nations, to have duchies, counties, baronies, and other lands, within this our royaume to induce them thereby to land here."

The King repeated his opinions in his instructions to his ambassador to France, who was told to inform the French King that the Dowager was misleading Maximilian and was wholly responsible for the past and for the threatened invasions of England. Although Henry had, by this date, very valid reasons for regarding Burgundy as a source of danger, his motives for accusing the Dowager rather than Maximilian were entirely diplomatic and totally ignored the fact that Margaret and Maximilian worked very closely together in their attempts to dethrone Henry.

Henry VII had an exaggerated notion of Margaret’s political influence, although he was not the first to respect and fear her authority. Louis XI of France had emphasised her role in diplomatic affairs and from the moment of her marriage to Duke Charles, the French King had regarded her as an active agent of the Anglo-Burgundian alliance. After 1477, Louis recognised the Dowager as one of the most vigorous opponents of France [...].

- Christine Weightman, “Margaret of York: the Diabolical Duchess”

Favourite medieval princesses (2/10):

Margaret of York, Duchesse de Bourgogne.

MARGARET OF BURGUNDY

MARGARET OF BURGUNDY, QUEEN OF FRANCE

c.1290-1315

Les Rois Maudits (The Accursed Kings)

            Margaret of Burgundy was the Queen of France and Navarre, and was the first wife of King Louis X and I. She was a princess of the House of Burgundy, the oldest daughter of Robert II Duke of Burgundy an Anges of France (who was the youngest daughter of Louis IX of France). In 1305, Margaret married her cousin Louis I and had their daughter Joan.

            In 1314, the Tour de Nesle affair was revealed, it was a well-known scandal for the French royal family. The daughters-in-law of King Philip IV, Margaret, Blanche, and Joan were all accused of adultery. The three women were said to have conducted their affairs with Norman knights in a tower in Paris.

            It was Isabella of France (wife of King Edward II of England) who became a witness against those involved in the affair. Isabella had given her sisters-in-law a purse, the Norman knights were found in possession of them after the three ladies had given it to them as a gift The affair was exposed and the knights were tortured and then executed.

            Margaret, Blanche, and Joan were found guilty and imprisoned. Margaret spent the last two years of her life in prison. The women were imprisoned in poor conditions and mistreated, which resulted Margaret catching a virus and passing away. She died aged 24 or 25. Joan’s paternity became in doubt after the affair.  

            Margaret of Burgundy is one of the characters in Les Rois Maudits (The Accursed Kings) by Maurice Druon and was portrayed in the miniseries 1972 and 2005.

#margaretofburgundyqueenoffrance #margaretofburgundy #lesroismaudits #theaccursedkings #mauricedruon

Made what is undoubtedly the nerdiest fanvid I've ever done (see the end), featuring The White Queen and The White Princess.

Been reading about Jacqueline of Hainault's mother, Margaret of Burgundy, and came across this paragraph:

According to some chronicles, Margaret was involved in a conspiracy to murder her nephew [Philip the Good Duke of Burgundy] in this period. A member of her entourage, the Hainault nobleman Gilles de Potelle, was convicted for it in May 1433. Margaret’s actual involvement is unclear, but it does not seem completely unlikely, in view of the political climate of the period, and of other conspiracies and political murders in which Margaret and her daughter Jacqueline were possibly involved. Margreet Brandsma, "Riches and power? Princely widows in the Burgundian period. The case of Margaret of Burgundy (1374–1441)", The Medieval Low Countries 5

when we will get a novel about these ladies we deserve featuring mother/daughter bonding via plotting assassinations?

Can you do Queen Joan, Princess Isabella and Queen Margaret’s clothes from Knightfall (2017-2019)?

I never watched past the first episode bc it was too male-coded for my personal taste but I think I already have a request for Isabella anyway. I will see what I can do.

Figures Hidden in a Royal Book

BL Royal 19 E V is a medieval manuscript that once belonged to Edward IV. It was compiled for him in Bruges in 1480. The content is the Romuleon, a translation of a history of Rome, and amongst the tales of Emperors and Empresses, it contains the symbols of its royal owner–the Arms of England, an image of the Garter, the motto ‘Honny soit qui mal y pense’ (note the unstandardised medieval…

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Stained glass windows with Habsburg females

Photo by Michel Lefrancq, wikipedia bears fallowing description:

A part of the stained glass windows of the Assumption in collegiate church Sainte Waudru (Mons, Belgium) by Eve Claix, Ca 1510 depicting Holy Queens Elizabeth of Hungary, Catherine of Alexandria and Queen Juanna of Castille.

I mostly agree but I will clerify few points. The window depicts Queen Joanna of Castile with all four daughters depicted behind her:

surounded by several saints. The woman before them is probably Virgin Mary.

Above Joanna is is probably her namesake saint John the Baptist(holding lamb), above girls is St. Queen Elizabeth of Hungary(holding two crowns), then St. Catherine of Alexandria holding bridal veil and bit of her wheel is behind head of one of the girls:

Thus only one missing her namesake saint is Eleanor. But i tried to find if saint Eleanor existed and the google proved unconclusive.

According to one webpage it is another name for St. Helena, the rest seem to think the name has french origin, with nothing to do with St. Helana or any other saint.

However, the name might not derive from female saint at all but from male saint(like Joanna's is). In Eleanor's case probably St. Leonard of Noblac. He is usually depicted as an abbot holding some type of chains, often also with a book. Thus he is not here.

This is how it would look if we made the gaps smaller:

After i tried fixing the damage, removed the gaps and backrground:

(the damage was right across Joanna's face, i tried guys.) I believe the fashion points to late 1500s, or extremely early into 1510s, long before girls were of the age they are depicted at.

(This is kind of typical of this type of depictions-daughters behind their mother). Thus after Joanna left, probably after she got locked up, and the youngest-Catherine seems as an afterthought.

She was born in 1507. I would date this aproximately 1507-1510. Which is not far from c.1510 estimate.

Closest match is this portrait of Margaret, but in stained glass you see later shapes of netherlandish subtype of french hood.

(Problem is that experts disagree upon when it was created. It used to be dated as c.1505, c.1506, but for example now museum of fine arts Gent-which owns it- has it as 15/16 century. I think the reason for 15th century notion is that it got atributed to artist called Master of 1499. But obviously the artist was active for more than one year!)

But Joanna and girls are not the only Habsburg royals depicted.

I will get to Habsburg men in Saint Waltrude when i find good closeup of them. I keep finding bad ones. But there are more royal ladies.

Photo from same place(Saint-Waltrude) can be found on pinterest:

It is thought to depict Mary of Burgundy and Margaret of Austia.

Reason for it is that the mother(on right) is beneath St. Mary Magdalene(holding a jar), while the daughter(on left) is beneath St. Margaret(atribute is ment to be the dragon by her feet-it is more of a weird lizard thing).

This is best i could come up with(it is photoshopped):

(because the gowns were not fitting together when you removed the gaps).

Obviously Mary of Burgundy is depicted posthumously in outfit not from her lifetime-but possibly using portrait for the face. Imo, this window was created tiny bit after the previous, but it might be just a year or two. It leans a tiny bit more towards 1510s. I think the artist finished one window then moved to the next one, which Habsburgs commissioned.

I hope you have enjoyed this. Tell me what you think.

(Almost) Every Costume Per Episode + Margaret of Burgundy’s blue, white and gold gown in 1x03

[Edward IV] was directly responsible for the introduction into England of the admired continental order of Observant Franciscans. The moving spirit in this venture was probably his sister, Duchess Margaret of Burgundy, who had strong connections with the Order, and who spent much time at Greenwich during her visit to England between July and September 1480: she may well have felt that her brother’s soul stood in need of prayer."

-Charles Ross, "Edward IV" (italics by me)

introducing a new religious continental order to England not because you actually give a fuck about it but because your younger sister pressured you to do it is SO on brand <3

Netherlandish/French, 15th century Portrait of a Lady ca.1470-80 The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Previous scholarship offers two unconvincing suggestions as to the sitter's identity: Margaret of York (1446 -1503), Duchess of Burgundy, and Mary of Burgundy (1457 -1482), Margaret's stepdaughter. The picture remains without a secure attribution, preserving, somewhat unfortunately, the air of mystery surrounding the portrait.

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.

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!!