Mary of Hungary (governor of the Netherlands)

Mary of Austria (; ; ; ; 15 September 1505 – 18 October 1558), also known as Mary of Hungary(; ; ; ), was Queen of Hungary and Bohemia as the wife of King Louis II, and was later governor of the Habsburg Netherlands.

The daughter of Queen Joanna and King Philip the Handsome of Castile, Mary married King Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia in 1515. Their marriage was happy but short and childless. Upon her husband's death following the Battle of Mohács in 1526, Queen Mary governed Hungary as regent in the name of the new king, her brother, Ferdinand I.

Following the death of their aunt Margaret in 1530, Mary was asked by her eldest brother, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, to assume the governance of the Netherlands and guardianship over their nieces, Dorothea and Christina of Denmark. As governor of the Netherlands, Mary faced riots and a difficult relationship with the Emperor. Throughout her tenure she continuously attempted to ensure peace between the Emperor and the King of France. Although she never enjoyed governing and asked for permission to resign several times, the Queen succeeded in creating a unity between the provinces, as well as in securing for them a measure of independence from both France and the Holy Roman Empire. between ten and eleven in the morning, Archduchess Mary of Austria was the fifth child of Philip the Handsome, Duke of Burgundy, and Queen Joanna of Castile. Her birth was very difficult; the Queen's life was in danger and it took her a month to recover. On 20 September, she was baptized by Nicolas Le Ruistre, Bishop of Arras, and named after her paternal grandmother, Mary of Burgundy, who had died in 1482. Her godfather was her paternal grandfather, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor.

On 17 March 1506, Emperor Maximilian promised to marry her to the first son of King Vladislaus II of Hungary. At the same time, the two monarchs decided that a brother of Mary would marry Vladislaus' daughter Anne. Three months later, Vladislaus' wife, Anne of Foix-Candale, had a son, Louis Jagiellon. Queen Anne died and the royal physicians made great efforts to keep the sickly Louis alive.

After the death of Mary's father in September 1506, her mother's mental health began to deteriorate. Mary, along with her brother, Archduke Charles, and her sisters, Archduchesses Eleanor and Isabella, was put into the care of her paternal aunt, Archduchess Margaret, while two other siblings, Archduke Ferdinand and posthumously-born Archduchess Catherine, remained in Castile. Mary, Isabella, and Eleanor were educated together at their aunt's court in Mechelen. Their music teacher was Henry Bredemers.

Queen of Hungary and Bohemia

thumb|Queen Mary by [[Jan Cornelisz Vermeyen at The Linsky Collection]]

Mary was summoned to the court of her grandfather Maximilian in 1514. This passion would later be demonstrated during her tenure as governor of the Netherlands.

Mary and Louis fell in love when they were reunited. Austria's ambassador, Andrea de Borgo, was appointed by the Queen herself. but historian Helmut Georg Koenigsberger considers Mary's reputation for sympathy with Lutheranism to be "much-exaggerated".

Louis had inherited the crown of a country whose noblemen were fighting among themselves and against the peasantry. Hungary was deeply divided when, by the end of 1525, it became clear that the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent was planning to invade.

Regency in Hungary

The day after her husband's death, Mary notified Ferdinand of the defeat and asked him to come to Hungary. She requested troops to support her until his arrival. Ferdinand, busy in Bohemia where he had already been elected king, instead named Mary his regent in Hungary.

Mary spent the following year working to secure the election of Ferdinand as King of Hungary. On 14 February 1527, she asked for his permission to resign as regent. Permission was denied, and Mary had to remain in the post until the summer of 1527, when Ferdinand finally came to Hungary and assumed the crown, to Mary's relief.

Mary served as regent of the Netherlands so well that Charles forced her to retain the post and granted her more powers than their aunt had enjoyed. Unlike her aunt, Mary was deeply unhappy during her tenure as governor and never enjoyed her role. In May 1531, having governed for only four months, Mary told her brother Ferdinand the experience was like having a rope around her neck.

Guardianship over nieces

Assuming the regency in the Netherlands meant assuming the guardianship of her nieces, Dorothea and Christina of Denmark, the daughters of her older sister, Queen Isabella of Denmark, who had died in 1526. Upon Isabella's death, the princesses had been cared for by Archduchess Margaret. Charles now relied upon Mary to arrange marriages for them, especially for Dorothea, whom he wanted to place on the Danish throne.

In 1532, Francesco II Sforza, Duke of Milan, proposed a marriage with Christina, who was then 11 years old. Charles agreed to the marriage and allowed its immediate consummation. Mary determinedly opposed this decision, explaining to Charles that Christina was too young for consummation of the marriage. Charles ignored her, but she nevertheless managed to delay the marriage. She first told the Milanese envoy that her niece was ill and then took her to another part of the Netherlands for "serious affairs". Christina was finally married on 28 September 1532, but Mary managed to postpone her departure until 11 March 1533.

Her determination sometimes caused clashes of wills with Charles. In most matters of patronage, Mary had to defer to Charles, which is why his relations in this area were not much better with Mary than with their aunt Margaret.

Riots

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| align="left"| "Whoever is in charge of this country should be very sociable with everyone in order to gain the goodwill both of the nobility and the commonality; for this country does not render the obedience which is due to a monarchy, nor is there an oligarchical order nor even that of a republic. And thus a woman, especially if she is a widow, cannot do what should be done."

| align="left"| Mary to Charles on the occasion of his abdication as sovereign of the Netherlands. Brussels, 1555.

Mary became worried about losing authority and was having trouble with the finances in February 1534. She complained that the budget could not be balanced even during the times of peace. Charles assured her that she was doing her best.

The Queen complained to Charles in August 1537 that the Low Countries were no longer governable and said he should come himself. In fact, Mary handled the crisis quite well and kept a cool head in public. In October, she travelled to the north of France to meet her brother-in-law, King Francis I of France, the second husband of her sister Eleanor. On October 23, they signed a treaty. Francis thereby promised Mary that he would not help those who rebelled against her, while the Queen promised to compensate certain French noblemen who lost their land in the Low Countries during the Italian Wars.

Military policies

In 1534, Mary prepared a proposal for a defensive union of all the provinces in her councils. She made the proposal at the States General in Mechelen in July, citing her brother, who had requested the provinces assist each other. The plan had to be given up and, after Mary and Eleanor's failure to negotiate peace between the Empire and France, Mary's letters to Charles began to resemble the theatrical outbursts of their aunt Margaret. One such incident led to Charles's loss of the city of Metz to France. Mary was forced to wage war against France in 1537 and to deal with the Revolt of Ghent between 1538 and 1540. Mary's appointment as Governor of the Netherlands was renewed on 14 October 1540, after the revolt in Ghent had been subdued.

Creation of a permanent navy

Mary, the Admiral Maximilian of Burgundy and the Councillor Cornelis de Schepper were the team behind the professionalization process that characterized the Low Countries' maritime policy in the 1550–1555 period. The central government led by Mary tried to make provinces recognize the authority of the Admiralty. Mary favoured de Schepper over Maximilian but there were no distrust between the two men and the three formed an excellent team. Maximilian had too much responsibilities in various provinces, so perhaps this was why he appreciated help from others. De Schepper played the role of the mastermind, who formulated every memorandum and document regarding naval policies. From 1550 to 1555 (the year he died), he was the equal of the Admiral in equipping warships and organizing convoys. During this period, Schepper's activities focused on Flanders while Maximilian focused on Holland and Zeeland (initially, his authority was only recognized in Zeeland and Flanders but as he also the Stadtholder of Holland, he was able to exercise this authority in this province too). Their efforts resulted in the creation of a permanent navy. Mary proved herself a pragmatic and energetic leader in the process.

Resignation

thumb|left|alt=a large crowd gathers around a man on a throne|Mary (seated) attending the abdication of her brother Charles

The Queen had to mediate between her brothers in 1555, when Charles decided to abdicate as emperor and leave the government of the Netherlands to his son Philip, despite Ferdinand's objections. When Mary learned of Charles's decision, she informed him that she too would resign. Both Charles and Philip urged her to remain in the post, but she refused. She chronicled the difficulties she had faced due to her gender, the fact that she could not act as she thought she should have because of disagreements with Charles, and her age. Furthermore, she did not wish to accommodate to the ways of her nephew after years of getting used to Charles's demands. The actual reason for Mary's resignation was her numerous disagreements with her nephew. She asked for Charles's permission to leave the Netherlands upon her resignation, fearing that she would be drawn into politics again if she remained. She remained in the Netherlands one more year.

Mary did not enjoy her retirement for long; Eleanor died in her arms in February 1558. The grief-stricken queen travelled to Charles to ask him for advice about her future. Charles told her that he wanted her to resume regency in the Netherlands, and promised a home and a large income, but Mary declined the offer. Her nephew Philip then urged her advisor to convince her to return. When Charles became ill in August, Mary accepted the offer and decided that she would become governor once again.

In September, Mary was fully prepared to depart for the Netherlands and resume her post when she was informed of Charles's death. Distressed by the death of another sibling, the Queen, who had suffered from a heart disease most of her life, had two heart attacks in October. Both were so severe that her doctors thought that she had died. When Joanna visited her, Mary was still determined to fulfill the promise she had given to Charles and assume the regency in the Netherlands, but she was weak and feverish. She died only few weeks later, in Cigales on 18 October 1558. She requested that her heart-shaped gold medallion, once worn by her husband, be melted down and the gold distributed to the poor.

Queen Mary was first buried in the Monastery of Saint Benedict in Valladolid. Fifteen years after her death, Philip ordered that the remains be transferred to El Escorial.

Queen Mary of Hungary was a great patron of music. She supported both sacred and secular music at her court in the Netherlands, where her maître de chapelle was Benedictus Appenzeller. Several elaborate music manuscripts that she commissioned during her governance are preserved in Spain in the monastery of Montserrat.

Appearance and personality

According to Koenigsberger, having inherited the Habsburg lip and not very feminine looks, Mary was not considered physically attractive. Her portraits, letters, and comments by her contemporaries do not assign her the easy Burgundian charm possessed by her grandmother, Mary of Burgundy, and her aunt Margaret. Nevertheless, she proved to be a determined and skilful politician, as well as an enthusiastic patron of literature, music, and hunting. The contemporary historian Pierre de Bourdeille though found her beautiful and charming, despite the slight tendency towards mannishness. People close to her also found her charming. What made her perceived as masculine (and usually attracted criticism as going beyond "acceptable female behavior") was "her authoritarian manner, her overly public life and her masculine activities".

Arms

File:Coat of Arms of Mary of Austria as Queen of Hungary.svg|Coat of arms used as Queen Consort

File:Coat of Arms of Mary of Austria as Dowager Queen of Hungary.svg|Coat of arms used as Dowager Queen

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Notes

References

Footnotes

Bibliography

thumb|Mary's coat of arms as queen dowager

Federinov, Bertrand et Gilles Docquier (eds), Marie de Hongrie. Politique et culture sous la Renaissance aux Pays-Bas (Mariemont 2009) (Monographies du Musée royal de Mariemont, 17).
Fuchs, Martina und Orsolya Réthelyi (eds.), Maria von Ungarn (1505–1558). Eine Renaissancefürstin (Münster, Achendorff, 2007) (Geschichte in der Epoche Karls V., 8).

External links