Margaret of Austria, Duchess of Savoy

Margaret of Austria (German: Margarete; French: Marguerite; Dutch: Margaretha; Spanish: Margarita; 10 January 1480 – 1 December 1530) was Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands from 1507 to 1515 and again from 1519 until her death in 1530. She was the first of many female regents in the Netherlands. She was variously the Princess of Asturias, Duchess of Savoy, and was born an Archduchess of Austria.

Her life until her mid-twenties was dominated by her importance in political marriages, and the early death of many of her close family. She was engaged for three marriage alliances, and completed two, but both husbands died within a few years: six months in 1497 in the case of John, Prince of Asturias, and three years with Philibert II, Duke of Savoy, from 1501. Her mother had died when she was two, and her only brother in 1506.

Thereafter she made a success, according to most historians, of the highly important role of regent or governor of the Habsburg Netherlands, for firstly her father Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, then her nephew Charles V, who were both forced to spend most of their time in Germany and other parts of the growing Habsburg empire.

She spent most of her life in the Netherlands. Her usual name comes from being a member of the Austrian Habsburg family; she hardly went there, and probably neither spoke nor read German, unlike French and Castilian. The German texts in her extensive library were in French translations.

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