MAEGAKET OF AUSTRIA MARGARET OF PARMA 157 and slain on the same day in the battle of Bar- net, and the queen took sanctuary in Beaulieu abbey. Some of the Lancastrian leaders, who a strong force, induced her to join them ; id while seeking to effect a junction with their "iends in Wales, they were assailed and de- feated at Tewkesbury, May 4, 1471, by Edward IV. Margaret fell into the hands of the vic- tor, her son having previously been slain. Her husband was put to death a few weeks later. ~"ie was imprisoned in the tower, and afterward Windsor and at Wallingford, till Nov. 3, L475, when she was ransomed by Louis XL, rho paid 50,000 crowns for her liberty, her ither having ceded Provence to him for the irpose. She formally renounced all the rights ?r English marriage had given her, and resided deep seclusion at Reculee, near Angers, one of the possessions of her father, seldom leaving lat retreat. Her last days were passed in the chateau of Dampierre, to the lord of which father at his death had consigned her. See
- Life and Times of Margaret of Anjou," by
Mary Ann Hookham (2 vols., London, 1872). MARGARET OF AUSTRIA, daughter of Maxi- milian L, emperor of Germany, and of Mary of Burgundy, born in the Low Countries, Jan. 10, 1480, died there, Dec. 1, 1530. Before she was three years old she was, by the treaty of Arras, concluded between her father and Louis XI. of France, affianced to the dauphin, with a large territorial dowry. To prepare her for her future station, she was educated at the French court; but Charles VIII. broke the contract, and returned her to her father, in order that he might wed Anne of Brittany, whom Maximilian himself was seeking in mar- riage. This gross insult, which happened in 1491, was never forgiven by the house of Aus- tria. In 1495 a treaty of alliance was made between Maximilian and Ferdinand and Isa- slla, one of the terms of which was that Fohn, prince of the Asturias, and heir appa- 3nt of the Spanish sovereigns, should marry [argaret. Sailing for Spain in winter, the r eather was so stormy that many of the ves- 1s composing the fleet were wrecked, and that which bore the princess was in great dan- 3r of being lost ; but she was so cool that she r rote her own epitaph : " Ci gist Margot, la gentil' damoiselle Qu'a deux maris, et encore est pucelle." iding in Spain in March, 1497, Margaret r as married to Prince John on April 3. Their don was of brief endurance, as John died of 3ver on Oct. 4. In a few months Margaret ive birth to a still-born child, and in 1499 she turned to the Netherlands. In 1501 she mar- ied Philibert the Fair, duke of Savoy, who ied without issue in 1504. On the death of brother Philip in 1506, she was made re- it of the Netherlands by her father, and su- >erintendent of the education of her nephew,
- he future emperor Charles V., and his sis-
ter Mary. She was an able ruler, and was con- cerned in some of the principal negotiations of that time, proving herself a vindictive ene- my of France, and a zealous servant of the house of Austria. In connection with Louise of Savoy, mother of the king of France, she negotiated the treaty of Cambray, in 1529, be- tween Francis I. and Charles V., which was called the "ladies' peace," the terms of which were most humiliating to the French. Through- out her life she showed a fondness for literary pursuits, and wrote well in prose and verse. MARGARET OF DENMARK, called the Semi- ramis of the North, queen of the united king- doms of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, born in Copenhagen in 1353, died in Flensburg, Oct. 28, 1412. She was the third daughter of Wal- demar III., king of Denmark, and at the age of 10 was married to Haco, king of Norway. Upon the death in 1387 of Olaf, the offspring of this marriage, and the king of Denmark and Norway, she procured her election as queen of the former kingdom, and by skilful manage- ment soon after secured the crown of Norway. In 1388 the Swedes, who were oppressed by their king Albert, having offered her the throne of that kingdom, she defeated Albert, who after seven years' imprisonment was released on condition of formally resigning his crown. Thenceforth she reigned with absolute author- ity. When urged to secure an heir to her thrones by another marriage, she promised to designate a successor, and at the assembly of the estates of the three kingdoms at Calmar, in 1397, presented to the deputies her grand- nephew Eric as her appointed heir. On this occasion, by her eloquence and address, she procured the adoption of a fundamental law, called the " Union of Calmar," establishing a perpetual union of the three kingdoms. Eric was at the same time associated with her in the government. Although holding extreme opinions on the royal prerogative, Margaret was in the main a just, magnanimous, and suc- cessful sovereign. MARGARET OF PARMA, regent of the Nether- lands under Philip II. of Spain, born in Brus- sels in 1522, died at Ortona, Italy, in 1586. She was the natural daughter of Charles V. by Margaret van der Geenst, a lady of a noble Flemish family in Oudenarde, and received an education suited to her rank in the household of Mary, queen dowager of Hungary. In 1536 she became the wife of Alessandro de' Medici, duke of Florence, a man of profligate habits, and her senior by about 12 years. Within a year of the marriage Alessandro was assas- sinated by his kinsman, Lorenzino de' Medi- ci, and the young widow, upon reaching the age of 20, was united to Ottavio Farnese, then 13 years old, receiving as her dowry the duchies of Parma and Piacenza. Toward Far- nese she entertained feelings of contempt. Her birth, her masculine bearing, her un- doubted capacity and training in the astute school of Italian politics, and above all her orthodoxy in matters of religion, suggested
