A Noble Residence for a Female Regent: Margaret of Austria and the 'Court of Savoy' in Mechelen

This chapter investigates the principal residence, the ‘Court of Savoy’, of Archduchess Margaret of Austria (1480–1530), governor-general and regent of the Burgundian–Habsburgian Netherlands (Fig. 1.1). ¹ Margaret of Austria is the first of a series of female regents who resided and ruled in this economically important part of the Holy Roman Empire. ² Margaret’s residence in Mechelen was one of the most significant princely courts in the early sixteenth-century Netherlands, which attracted the attention of humanists, international diplomats and artists alike.