Margaret of Austria - Rozsa Gaston

Descriere

n◆ Royalty ◆ Power ◆ Politics ◆ Love ◆ Strugglen n nn nBestselling biographer and historian Sarah Gristwood, author of The Tudors in Love, calls this tale of early 16th-century Europe's most brilliant power broker Compelling and wholly convincing-at once a vividly readable novel and a long-overdue presentation of Europe's unsung heroine to the broad audience she deserves.n n nn nMargaret of Austria was the most significant political negotiator of early 16th-century Europe. About as Austrian as French fries are French, she was born in Brussels in 1480, raised in France, married and widowed in Spain, then married and widowed again in Savoy by age twenty-four.n n nn nIn 1506 Margaret's life turned upside down when her brother Philip of Burgundy unexpectedly died in Spain. With their mother Juana of Castile insane, four children, heirs to the Habsburg empire, were left behind in the Burgundian-Habsburg Netherlands.n n nn nMargaret stepped in and took the reins.n n nn nAppointed by her father, Maximilian I, Margaret became governor of the Netherlands, then widened her role to broker the 1508 Treaty of Cambrai where Europe's princes united against Venice.n n nn nFerdinand of Spain, Henry Tudor then Henry VIII of England, Louis XII of France, and Louise of Savoy for Francis I all came to Margaret's negotiation table. Under her deft diplomacy princes saw reason and wars were averted.n n nn nEnjoying political power, Margaret avoided remarriage. Then Henry VIII's right-hand man Charles Brandon turned her world upside down.n n nn nMargaret's court attracted Europe's brightest, including the young Anne Boleyn. Yet halfway through her rule Margaret was ousted by enemies. She won back her position with a comeback strategy as astute today as it was in 1517.n n nn nJourney to the Renaissance with Margaret of Austria, who shot the fortunes of the House of Habsburg to the stars while setting a winning precedent for female rule in the Netherlands.n