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with France, and finally over the route and timing of her journey. But early in 1499 – crossing by land the France of which she had once been called queen – she returned to Flanders. Nineteen years old and once again cheated of married life.
    She arrived just in time to stand godmother (alongside her own godmother Margaret of York) to her brother Philip of Burgundy’s son by Juana of Aragon, the eventual heir to both Spain, through his mother, and to his father’s Netherlands territories. For the Habsburg dynasty the birth of baby Charles was a triumph but on a personal level the marriage of Philip and Juana was a disaster. Not perhaps for the husband, who had from the first treated his wife with a contempt bordering on cruelty but for Juana, who responded to this harsh treatment with a devotion to Philip so slavish – and if hostile reports are to be believed, so hysterically jealous – that it became the chief grounds for the allegations of her insanity.
    Margaret’s personal sympathies were probably torn. In any case, she was soon given her own residence at the castle of le Quesnoy, away from the court. Politically, in March 1501 the Spanish ambassador Fuensalida was able to report disgruntledly that Madame Margaret ‘simply follows her brother’s fancies in all things’. When later asked by the Spanish to mediate between the warring couple, she sent word to Ferdinand that there was nothing she could do. As the Spanish ambassador reported ominously, ‘she is returning to her own lands now because she is not able to suffer here the things that she sees going on . . .’
    Margaret of Austria was not going to remain in the Netherlands forever. Discussions, conducted by her father and brother, about yet another marriage had begun while she was still in Spain, with mentions of the Duke of Milan, the kings of Scotland, Hungary and even France, since Margaret’s childhood husband Charles VIII had died and a new king held the French throne. In the end, the choice of Margaret’s next husband fell on the young Duke of Savoy, Philibert, brother of Margaret’s erstwhile playmate Louise of Savoy.
    The duchy of Savoy was the gateway to Italy, the stage of much of the competitive fighting between the great European powers, and so the match gave Margaret of Austria’s relatives access to a strategically vital territory. Moreover while Philibert was technically a vassal of Maximilian’s, his French upbringing at Anne de Beaujeu’s hands meant he was very much under the sway of that country. This was something Margaret’s father and brother may have been eager to change.
    Margaret showed no eagerness to remarry. But although this third marriage would prove to be the least important on the great European stage, it would be the one which gave her most happiness. Philibert, a party-loving daredevil just a few months younger than she, shared, with Margaret’s brother, the sobriquet of ‘the Handsome’. The marriage contract was signed in Brussels on 26 September 1501 and Margaret of Austria set off in October (accompanied for the first half league by Margaret of York, the last time they would meet). At the beginning of December she met Philibert near Geneva and was received enthusiastically. For the first time Margaret had a partner who shared her vitality. Touring the duchy together, they settled down at the castle of Pont l’Aine near Borg in the spring of 1503.
    But there was another side to Philibert’s gaiety. His time was occupied in hunting, jousting and dancing; he had no interest in attending to the business of the duchy. That was dealt with by his illegitimate half-brother, René, until the advent of Margaret, who had no intention of leaving the ‘Bastard of Savoy’ his authority. Whether or not her hostility was justified, she used every weapon at her disposal against him, even involving her father to have René