Mary of Burgundy (; ; 13 February 1457 – 27 March 1482), nicknamed the Rich, was a member of the House of Valois-Burgundy, and ruler in her own right (suo jure) over much of the Valois-Burgundian lands, from 1477 to 1482. Her effective rule extended over major part of the Burgundian Netherlands, while she also claimed the rest of the Burgundian inheritance, including domains that were seized by her cousin, the French king Louis XI in 1477, such as the Duchy of Burgundy, the Free County of Burgundy and several other lands, both within the Kingdom of France and the Holy Roman Empire.
As the only child of Charles the Bold, ruler of the Valois-Burgundian State, and his wife Isabella of Bourbon, Mary became the heiress of Valois-Burgundian lands, and at the age of 19, upon the death of her father in the Battle of Nancy on 5 January 1477, she claimed the entire inheritance, being accepted as the new ruler in several domains. Her claims were not recognized by the French king Louis XI, who quickly seized various Valois-Burgundian domains, not only those that belonged to the French realm (such as the Duchy of Burgundy), but also some that belonged to the Holy Roman Empire (such as the Free County of Burgundy). Those disputes led to the War of the Burgundian Succession.
In order to counter the appetites of the French king, she married Maximilian of Austria, son of the emperor Frederick III, thus securing the support of the Habsburgs in her struggle against the ambitions of Louis XI and his successors. "The threatened disintegration of the Burgundian state was prevented, and in the end Maximilian even extended its frontiers." This became a turning point in European politics, leading to a long French–Habsburg rivalry that would endure for centuries. Mary and Maximilian succeeded in securing much of the Burgundian Netherlands, but were not able to recapture domains already seized by the French king. After Mary's death in a riding accident in 1482, her domains, titles and claims were inherited by her young son Philip I the Handsome.
Early years
Mary of Burgundy was born in Brussels at the ducal Palace of Coudenberg, to Charles the Bold, then known as the Count of Charolais, and his wife Isabella of Bourbon. Her birth, according to the court chronicler Georges Chastellain, was attended by a clap of thunder ringing from the otherwise clear twilight sky. Her godfather was Louis, Dauphin of France, in exile in Burgundy at that time; he named her for his mother Marie of Anjou. Reactions to the child's birth were mixed: the baby's grandfather, Duke Philip the Good, was unimpressed, and "chose not to attend the [baptism] as it was only for a girl", whereas her grandmother Isabella of Portugal was delighted at the birth of a granddaughter. Her illegitimate aunt Anne was assigned to be responsible for Mary's education and assigned Jeanne de Clito to be her governess. Jeanne remained a friend to Mary later in life and was one of her most constant companions.
Heir presumptive Philip the Good died in 1467 and Mary's father assumed control of the Burgundian State. Since her father had no living sons at the time of his accession, Mary became his heir presumptive. Her father controlled a vast and wealthy domain made up of the Duchy of Burgundy, the Free County of Burgundy, and the majority of the Low Countries. As a result, her hand in marriage was eagerly sought by a number of princes. The first proposal was received by her father when she was only five years old, in this case to marry the future King Ferdinand II of Aragon. Later she was approached by Charles, Duke of Berry; his older brother, King Louis XI of France, was intensely annoyed by Charles's move and attempted to prevent the necessary papal dispensation for consanguinity.
As soon as Louis succeeded in producing a male heir who survived infancy, the future King Charles VIII of France, Louis wanted him to be the one to marry Mary, even though he was thirteen years younger than Mary. Nicholas I, Duke of Lorraine, was nine years older than Mary and controlled a duchy that lay alongside Burgundian territory, but his plan to combine his domain with hers was ended by his death in 1473 (he started having stomach pains three days before his death; poison was suspected). Another suitor was George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence (supported by his sister Margaret of York, Mary's stepmother), but his brother Edward IV, King of England, prevented the match for both political and personal reasons (he initially wanted to support his brother-in-law Anthony Woodville). The king's move angered the duke, who seemed to lose control and restarted conflicts with his brother, which ultimately led to his death.
Reign
Mary assumed the rule of her father's domains upon his defeat in battle and death on 5 January 1477. In addition to the Duchy and County of Burgundy, her territories included the duchies of Limburg, Brabant, Luxembourg, and the counties of Namur, Holland, Hainaut. King Louis XI of France seized the opportunity to attempt to take possession of the Duchy of Burgundy proper and also the regions of Franche-Comté, Picardy, and Artois.
She called on her people to stay loyal to the house of Burgundy (there are still extant letters that Mary wrote to the Duchy of Burgundy and Arras asking for their support). Louis XI took over Arras, but the people refused to submit without her approval. Eighteen burgesses were decapitated by the king as they were discovered trying to go to see her. He ordered a mass expulsion and renamed the town Franchise.
The king of France was anxious that Mary should marry his son Charles and thus secure the inheritance of the Low Countries for his heirs, by force of arms if necessary. By February 1477, neither her advisors nor the States General imagined that they could resist the French army. Chancellor Hugonet led a delegation to discuss the prospect of Mary's marriage to the six-year-old Dauphin (later King Charles VIII). The negotiation ended in failure as Louis XI demanded unacceptable terms, including the surrender of the Duchy of Burgundy and the French territories acquired by Philip the Good and Charles the Bold. The king then betrayed her secret letters to the burghers of Ghent, who then seized two men who were named in those letters – Hugonet and the Sire d'Humbercourt, two of her father's most influential councilors, and despite her pleadings, executed them on 3 April 1477. They then took away her other advisors too. Koenigsberger suspects that Louis XI might have forged the letters.
The Great Privilege Mary was compelled to sign a charter of rights known as the Great Privilege in Ghent on 10 February 1477, the occasion of her formal recognition as her father's heir (the "joyous entry"). Under this agreement, the provinces and towns of Flanders, Brabant, Hainaut, and Holland recovered all the local and communal rights that had been abolished by the decrees of the dukes of Burgundy in their efforts to create a centralised state on the French model out of their disparate holdings in the Low Countries. In particular, the Parliament of Mechelen (established formally by Charles the Bold in 1470) was abolished and replaced with the pre-existing authority of the Parlement of Paris, which was considered an amenable counterweight to the encroaching centralisation undertaken by both Charles the Bold and Philip the Good. The duchess also had to undertake not to declare war, make peace, or raise taxes without the consent of these provinces and towns and only to employ native residents in official posts. The Great Privilege also determined that Nederlands would be the language of the joint States-General.
Marriage
Mary soon made her choice among the many suitors for her hand by selecting Archduke Maximilian of Austria (future Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I), who became her co-ruler. Mary and Maximilian were second cousins as Mary's father, Charles the Bold, and Maximilian's mother, Eleanor of Portugal, were grandchildren of John I of Portugal and Philippa of Lancaster. The marriage took place at Ghent on 19 August 1477, she was 20 years old, while he was two years younger. Mary's marriage into the House of Habsburg initiated two centuries of contention between France and the Habsburgs, a struggle that climaxed with the War of the Spanish Succession in the years 1701–1714.
When they had time, the couple indulged themselves with dancing, hunting, music and the love for animals. Mary tried to teach him iceskating, which he struggled to master. They read romances together. Soon after the wedding, she brought falcons into their bedroom (which they shared instead of living in separate apartments, and which already had a dog). Mary nursed the children herself, ordered the menus and dined out with merchants from Dijon. Mary cheered for her husband in tournaments, during which he proved a magnificent jouster, not just in feats of strength but in the luxury he lavished on the equipments, horses, accessories and ornaments as well. At first, they talked to each other in Latin.
According to Haemers and Sutch, the original marriage contract stipulated that Maximilian could not inherit her Burgundian lands if they had children – this means that, the fact the couple produced heirs would give Maximilian troubles later. Some report that the original marriage contract stipulated that only common children of Mary and Maximilian could claim her Burgundian inheritance after her death. But one month after their marriage, she made an amendment that designated Maximilian as the heir in the case they had no children - a clause that the estates would try to repudiate after her death.
Co-rule with Maximilian
With Maximilian by her side, Mary's position became stronger, politically and militarily. Although he came with no money nor army, nor support from the Empire, and no prior experience in governance, his competence in military matters and his prestige as the son of an emperor boosted the stability of her realms. He took over the war effort, concerning both military and financial details.
By this time, the Burgundian side had lost a lot of military captains owing to defections to France both before and after Charles the Bold's death. The loss of the Duchy of Burgundy cut down the whole government's backbone, consisting of high administrators and military commanders who came from the French-speaking nobility in Burgundy and Picardy. Philip of Cleves, her cousin and childhood friend (who had been put forth as a bridegroom candidate for Mary by his father Adolf of Cleves; Mary and Philip were rumoured to be former love interests, although this is disputed by Arie de Fouw), whom she appointed as Stadtholder-General in 1477, now acted as Maximilian's lieutenant as Admiral of the Netherlands. Despite the reputation of the Burgundian court as luxurious and rich, Charles the Bold had lost his whole fortune in his last three disastrous campaigns. The Low Countries were rich but the Estates were reluctant to pay. Moreover, the Burgundian state had lost one quarter of its tax revenue and due to new restrictions, a half of its government revenue in total. Thus the initial financial situation was very tense and Mary had to pawn a lot of her heirlooms to finance their armies. She also had to yield to the estates' demands regarding some of their privileges, in exchange for final support for Maximilian's war against France.
Violet Soen shows that by political manipulation, Mary managed to tie the powerful Croÿ family to the crown.