Master of the Guild of St George (attr.): Margaret of Austria aged fourteen, c. 1494

Margaret of Austria

Archduchess of Austria; governor of the Netherlands from 1507

Born in Brussels on 10 January 1480
Died in Mechelen (Eng. Mechlin, Fr. Malines; Belgium) on 1 December 1530

The daughter of Emperor Maximilian I and Mary of Burgundy, she was brought up at the French court. At the age of seventeen she was married to the Spanish infante Don Juan of Asturias, who died five months later. In 1500 she travelled to the Netherlands and married again, but her second husband also died soon afterwards. In 1507 her father appointed her regent of the Netherlands, where she became a notable patron of the arts.

Master of the Guild of St George (attr.): Margaret of Austria aged fourteen, c. 1494