Note 20 — Chapter I · —How the King of France cajoled the English after the Duke of Burgundy’s Death, for fear they should have interrupted him in the Conquest of the Territories belonging to the said Duke.—1477.
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The Princess Margaret had been affianced in her cradle to Charles VIII. of France, but their marriage never took place; and when her intended husband espoused Anne of Brittany, she was returned to her native land under circumstances of indignity never to be forgotten or forgiven by the House of Austria. In 1495 she was betrothed to Prince John, the heir of the Spanish monarchy, and on her passage to Spain, in 1497, to join her husband, she was nearly shipwrecked. She retained, however, sufficient composure amid the perils of her situation to indite her own epitaph, in the form of a pleasant distich:
“Ci gist Margot, la gentil’ damoiselle, Qu’a deux maris, et encore est pucelle!”
Fortunately, her epitaph was not needed, as she reached Spain in safety, and was married to the Prince of the Asturias on the 3rd of April, 1497. On the 4th of October, in the same year, her husband died; and shortly afterwards Margaret returned to her native land. She subsequently married the Duke of Savoy, who died without issue in less than three years; and Margaret passed the remainder of her life in widowhood, being appointed by her father, the emperor, to the government of the Netherlands, which she administered with great ability. She died in 1530.