She was a woman of talent and courage; both proved
by the couplet she composed for her own epitaph, at the very
moment of a dangerous accident which happened during her journey
into Spain to join her second affianced spouse.

"Ci-git Margot la genre demoiselle,
Qui eut deux maris, et si mourut pucelle."

"Here gentle Margot quietly is laid,
Who had two husbands, and yet died a maid."

She was received with the greatest joy by the people of the
Netherlands; and she governed them as peaceably as circumstances
allowed. Supported by England, she firmly maintained her authority
against the threats of France; and she carried on in person all
the negotiations between Louis XII., Maximilian, the pope Julius
II., and Ferdinand of Aragon, for the famous League of Venice.
These negotiations took place in 1508, at Cambray; where Margaret,
if we are to credit an expression to that effect in one of her
letters, was more than once on the point of having serious
differences with the cardinal of Amboise, minister of Louis XII.
But, besides her attention to the interests of her father on
this important occasion, she also succeeded in repressing the
rising pretensions of Charles of Egmont; and, assisted by the
interference of the king of France, she obliged him to give up
some places in Holland which he illegally held.

From this period the alliance between England and Spain raised
the commerce and manufactures of the southern provinces of the
Netherlands to a high degree of prosperity, while the northern
parts of the country were still kept down by their various
dissensions. Holland was at war with the Hanseatic towns. The
Frisons continued to struggle for freedom against the heirs of
Albert of Saxony. Utrecht was at variance with its bishop, and
finally recognized Charles of Egmont as its protector. The
consequence of all these causes was that the south took the start
in a course of prosperity, which was, however, soon to become
common to the whole nation.

A new rupture with France, in 1513, united Maximilian, Margaret,
and Henry VIII. of England, in one common cause. An English and
Belgian army, in which Maximilian figured as a spectator (taking
care to be paid by England), marched for the destruction of
Therouenne, and defeated and dispersed the French at the battle
of Spurs. But Louis XII. soon persuaded Henry to make a separate
peace; and the unconquerable duke of Guelders made Margaret and
the emperor pay the pena