But, beyond that, it should above all be remembered that it was often happy circumstances which established the power of a woman: a vacuum was created which a woman of the court moved in to fill. ‘Generally speaking, the women emerge quite specifically when a male power disappears: because there was no elder brother, because the Prince had left for a crusade, or because the latter was a minor.’ Anne of France (1461-1522), the eldest daughter of the King of France Louis XI, thus exercised a regency on behalf of her brother Charles VIII, who was then a minor. Blanche de Castille (1188-1252) was swept to power when she was faced with the infancy of her son (Louis XI, the future Saint Louis), and then when he departed for the Crusades. Isabeau of Bavaria (1371-1435) for her part reigned when her husband, the King of France Charles VI was periodically struck by incapacitating bouts of madness. More often than not it was a case, in the phrase formulated by Colette Beaune (Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense), of a power ‘in the name of’, in the same way as the King governs in the name of God and that a Knight brandishes his sword in the name of his Lord. ‘We discover, over the course of the book, a good number of female personalities whose power is found to be exercised by de jure (legally granted) or de facto delegations of power,’ explains Alain Marchandisse.

Margaret of Bavaria, a ‘strong fist’ to the rescue of the Duke of Burgundy

A book in which the latter author devotes, as it happens, a chapter, by way of ‘prolegomena to a biography to be published,’ to Margaret of Bavaria (1363-1424), ‘Duchess of Burgundy, Countess of Flanders, Artois and Burgundy Palatin, Lady of Salins and Malines’ (sic), wife of John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy. The latter, prevailed upon to travel in person amongst his principalities, felt that he should embody his power, there where he wasn’t present himself, either in the person of his oldest son Philip of Charolais, the future Philip the Good, or his wife, Margaret of Bavaria, ‘a permanent representative, in the southern principalities, of a Duke of Burgundy constantly occupied elsewhere and, in this capacity, ready to exercise the whole range of his powers,’ writes Alain Marchandisse. In the register of these delegations of power, Margaret of Bavaria occupies an intermediate position in the process of the development of female power, half way between her mother-in-law, Margaret of Male, the wife of Philip the Bold, and the famous Isabella of Portugal, the wife of Philip the Good, ‘who, at certain moments, incarnated a governance to that of a princess consort.’ Described as a ‘hideous hag’ due to a reputed less than attractive physical appearance, Margaret of Bavaria, whilst supported by a circle of advisors, took on no less than, ‘in a strong minded, masterful manner,’ according to the author, a certain number of administrative and military measures which, set up either officially or tacitly, were not without having political consequences, even if always consistent with the political policies implemented by the Duke. ‘In the same way as Isabella of Portugal, Margaret liked to close her injunctions (writs) with the expression ‘as such is our wish’, this clause expressing will through which the Duchess intended to demonstrate that she held the power to command and personal control over decision making.’

Thus, in 1410, when the Duke of Burgundy, in Charolais, realised that he would have to defend the earldom against his enemies, Margaret ordered that men and arms be dispatched in all haste whilst, as the author underlines, ‘all the inhabitants of her bailiwick reach the towns, chateaux and fortresses, with their goods, [...] that the strongholds be armed, be readied for defence, guarded [...] and that in addition all those appointed to guard the towns and strongholds swear an oath of loyalty to the Ducal cause and that everybody be compelled to observe the Duchess’ behests,’ faced with a situation the latter described as so ‘grave and perilous that it affects the life, honour, the state and the property of my Lord and his descendants and the eternal destruction of his lands and his subjects.’