Individual Details

Biography

An illegitimate daughter of Emperor Charles V and Johanna Maria van der Gheynst who was a servant of Charles de Lalaing, Seigneur de Montigny, Margarete was brought up in Brussels by the family Douwrin. She was taught to speak French, Italian and Spanish but was unable to speak Flemish.

In 1529, aged only seven, she was engaged to Alessandro de' Medici, a nephew of Pope Leo X. In 1533 she was acknowledged by her father and allowed to call herself Margarete of Austria. On 29 February 1536, aged fourteen, she married the almost thirty- year-old Alessandro de' Medici. However, a year later she became a widow when he was murdered, widely hated for his extravagances. Margarete withdrew to Prato, a few miles from Milan. To please Pope Paul III, at sixteen years of age she became engaged to his grandson, Ottavio Farnese, who was only thirteen, and became Marquess of Novara.

In October 1538 she went to Rome for her nuptials, and still dressed in mourning she was presented to the Pope. It seemed ominous when, at her wedding on 4 November 1538, she failed to say 'yes' with the exchange of rings. Even though her second marriage was as unhappy as her first, in 1545 she gave birth to twins; however only one, Alessandro, survived.

In 1547 her husband inherited the Duchies of Parma and Piacenza. In May 1559 her half-brother, Philip II, King of Spain, placed her in charge of The Netherlands. This appointment was meant for only seventeen months, but she stayed in charge for nine years. She was never appreciated but resented as the daughter of a servant, as well as for her devoutness and the fact that she kept a Spanish secretary. Margarete was in an impossible position when Philip II placed a Spanish garrison in Piacenza and took her son Alessandro to Spain.