Mary of Hungary and Music Patronage

Mary of Hungary and Music PatronageAuthor(s): Glenda Goss ThompsonSource: The Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 15, No. 4 (Winter, 1984), pp. 401-418Published by: The Sixteenth Century JournalStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2540358 .

Accessed: 29/10/2013 07:02

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

The Sixteenth Century Journal is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to TheSixteenth Century Journal.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 62.204.192.85 on Tue, 29 Oct 2013 07:02:30 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=scj

http://www.jstor.org/stable/2540358?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


The Sixteenth Century Journal 401 XV, No. 4,1984

Mary of Hungary and Music Patronage

Glenda Goss Thompson* The University of Georgia

When the Venetian ambassador to the court of Charles V wrote the final report of his mission in 1546, he noted two particular features regar- ding the sector of Charles's empire known as les pays de pardeca: the hunting and the music, which he described as "sounding with supreme delight."' Both of these activities were flourishing under the aegis of Charles's sister Mary, who governed as regent of the Netherlands from 1531 until 1556. Called Mary of Hungary by reason of her marriage to Louis (Lajos) II of Hungary (1506-1526), Mary was well known among contemporaries for her energetic riding and hunting. She was also known to prefer music above the other arts. Even e cursory examination of Mary's court records shows numerous payments involving musicians, musical instruments, and musical performances. Yet the position that music occupied at Mary's court in Brussels and its significance have been very imperfectly understood up until now. Early assessments ranged from vague allusions to a sparkling musical culture, such as that reported by the Venetian ambassador, to erroneous convictions about the small size and relative neglect of the musical establishment. Today, histories of music give Mary of Hungray only pass- ing mention if they acknowledge her at all.2 On the other hand, histories of a political and social nature recognize Mary's role in the Netherlands but with little or no reference to her cultivation of music. Characteristic are Henri Pirenne's remarks simply that Mary appreciated music and that she sponsored festivities (including music) at her elaborate chateaux built at

*A Fellowship from the American Association of University Women and a University of Georgia Research Foundation Travel Grant provided financial support for research in Vienna, Lille, and Brussels. The author is particularly indebted to Professor Jean Motat for numerous insights and suggestions offered during the preparation of this study.

1'E governatrice generale di tutti quei paesi la regina Maria, donna che ha dell'uomo assai, perche provvede alle cose della guerra, e di esse, e di fortezze, e di tutte le cose di stato dice l'opinion sna. Ha fama d'essere castissima donna: cavalca eccellentemente: e la caccia e la musica sono li suoi sommi diletti." Bernardo Navagero, Relazione, in vol. 1 of Relazioni degli Ambasciatori Veneti al Senato, ed. Eugenio Alberi (Florence, 1830), p. 299. Both terms for Mary's country, les pays de pardeca and les pays d'embas, are found in the court documents described below.

2Mary of Hungary does not appear in the standard music dictionary, The New Grove Dic- tionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie (London: Macmillan, 1980). There are brief references to her in the standard music history of the era, Music in the Renaissance, by Gustave Reese (New York: Norton, 1959), pp. 299, 303, 340, 719, 722-725.



402 The Sixteenth Century Journal

Binche and Mariemont.3 Pirenne, however, had the considerable insight to add that the regent surrounded herself with such splendor as a means of enhancing the power that Charles V had put into her hands.

As a patroness of music Mary could well furnish an example superior to many in the sixteenth century. Called by Erasmus "the woman most widely praised of her time,"4 Mary was musically literate; during her lifetime she travelled widely; for twenty-five years she governed in an area of exceptional musical talent; and she functioned as part of Europe's most widespread and enduring political organization. Mary of Hungary thus occupied an unusually advantageous position from which to encourage and influence the art of music.

The aim of this article is to examine the records from Mary of Hungary's regency in order to find out just how extensive her patronage of music really was. If Mary did take appreciable measures to cultivate this art in the Netherlands, then musicologists need to account for her actions and their musical results. Furthermore, if music patronage is demonstrated to have had a significant place in this regency, then the question of why Mary of Hungary cultivated music might profitably be addressed. While Mary of Hungary may have been a musician at heart, there may also have been other factors to contribute to her musical enthusiasm. Identifying these factors might be quite as illuminating to an understanding of sixteenth-century values as to the business of Renaissance music making.

Current State of Research Mary of Hungary is not a figure unknown to historians. A number of

biographies have depicted Mary as the devoted supporter of her brother and a competent ruler in the Netherlands5 However, aside from the abun-

3Histoire de Belgique, 3. ed. (Brussels: Maurice-Lamertin, 1923), III: 105-106. 4Quoted by Jozef Duverger, "Marie de Hongrie, Gouvernante des Pays-Bas, et la

Renaissance," Actes du XXXIIe Congres International d'Histoire de L'Art. Budapest 1969 I (1972): 716.

5The only biography in English is by Jane de Iongh, Mary of Hungary, Second Regent of the Netherlands, trans. M. D. Herter Norton (New York: Norton, 1958). Others include Ghislaine de Boom, Marie de Hongrie (Brussels: La Renaissance du Livre, 1956): Wilhelm Strache, "Die Anfange der Konigin Marie von Ungarn, spateren Statthalterin Karls V. in den Niederlanden" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Gottingen, 1940); Theodore Ortvay, Maria II Lajos jagya kiraly neje (Budapest, 1914); and Theodore Juste, Les Pays-Bas sous Charles- Quint, Vie de Marie de Hongrie (Brussels, Decq. 1855), each with additional bibliography. Of recent work on Mary, there is the dissertation of Gernot Heiss, "Konigin Maria von Ungarn und Bohmen (1505-1558), Ihr Leben und ihre wirtschaftlichen Interessen in Osterreich, Ungarn und Bohmen" (University of Vienna, 1971) and the same author's "Politik und Ratgeber der Konigin Maria von Ungarn in den Jahren 1521-1532," Mitteilungen des Instituts fuir Oster- reichische Geschichtsforschung 82 (1974): 119-180; and "Die ungarischen, bohmischen und osterreichischen Besitzungen der Konigin Maria (1505-1558)," Mitteilungen der Oster- reichischen Staatsarchiv 27 (1974): 61-100; 29 (1976): 52-121.



Mary of Hungary & Music Patronage 403

dant but widely scattered and inadequately documented information supplied by Edmond van der Straeten in La Musique aux Pays-Bas avant le XIXe sieclej the first scholar to recognize and acknowledge Mary's role in the history of music was Emile Haraszti.7 Haraszti showed that, beginning with her musical training in the Netherlands, Mary revealed a personal ac- quaintanceship with music. As a young bride in Buda, Mary was surrounded with fine musicians. Her husband Louis played the lute, and the young composer Thomas Stoltzer set various texts at her request. On her return to Brussels in 1531, Mary began actively to cultivate music. Haraszti cited requests for musicians from her brothers Ferdinand and Charles, which Mary fulfilled; he mentioned Rogier Pathie as one of her favorite musicians who was most renowned for having organized the Fetes de Binche; and he cited musical dedications to Mary: a canon by Pietre Maessens, another by Benedictus Appenzeller, a collection of chansons by the printer Tielman Susato. Finally, he described her marvelous collection of instruments and promised to make an inventory available in a critical edition, although he was apparently unable to complete this task.

Despite an excellent beginning Haraszti did not make any mention of Mary's chapel organization; of musicians other than Pathie or Appenzeller employed or supported by the court; of music and its significance at various festivals, including the Fetes de Binche; nor of the political and historical effects of Mary's patronage. Some information on the chapel and court has since been supplied by two dissertations and on the Fetes de Binche by various articles.8

The principal documents for the present study are the accounts from the Brussels court preserved at Lille in the Archives departementales du Nord, hereafter designated AN. Mary's Pennickmaistre, Jehan de Gyn, recorded the daily expenditures of various sections of the household on sheets known as Etats journaliers de l'hotel9, listing the individuals who

6In eight volumes bound as four. With a new introduction by Edward E. Lowinsky (1867- 1888); reprint, New York: Dover, 1969).

7"Marie de Hongrie et son Ungarescha," Revue de musicologie 10-11 (1929-1930): 176-194.

'Glenda G. Thompson, "Benedictus Appenzeller: Mattre de la Chapelle to Mary of

Hungary and Chansonniert" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1975) and Ignace Bossuyt, "Alexander Utendal (ca. 1534/1545-1581)" (Ph.D. dissertation, The

Catholic University at Louvain, 1978). On the Fetes de Binche, see the essays by Daniel Devoto "Folklore et politique au Chateau Thnebreux," and Daniel Heartz, "Un Divertissement de

palais pour Charles-Quint a Binche," both in Fetes et C6r6monies au temps de Charles-Quint, vol. 2 of Les Fetes de la Renaissance (Paris: Editions du Centre National de la Recherche Scien-

tifique, 1960). pp. 311-342. Further descriptions and iconographical evidence are in Albert Van

de Put, "Two Drawings of the Fetes at Binche for Charles V and Philip (II)," Journal of the

Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 3 (1939-1940): 49-55, and Robert Wangermee, La Musique Flamande dans la soci6t6 des XVe et XVIe Siecles (Brussels: Editions Arcade, 1966), pp. 155-

158. 9The lists pertinent to this study are B. 3479, B. 3481, B. 3484, B. 3488, B. 3491, and B.

20154.




served in each section of the household together with their daily wages. De Gyn also made a yearly account of the total receipts and expenses of his of- fice. These Comptes de Jehan de Gyn, with descriptive entries for wages, pensions, travels, and ordinary and extraordinary expenses, cover the years 1532 thorugh 1540 with the exception of the lost record of 1534 (AN, B. 3355-3362). Although the eight surviving Comptes have been inventoried in summary fashion,"0 these documents have never been systematically in- vestigated, either for historical or for musicological purposes. Mary herself should be given considerable credit for the care with which records were kept, for she insisted on making copies of most correspondence, and she preserved drafts even from her Hungarian years." As the principal source for this study, de Gyn's Comptes, together with the Etats journaliers, various letters, and other records, provide plentiful details for an investigation of Mary of Hungary's patronage of music.

The Patroness Since character and musical training may well afford considerable in-

sight into an individual's actions, it seems profitable to consider Mary's per- sonality and background here.'2 It will be readily appreciated that throughout her life Mary of Hungary exhibited both loyalty and devotion to the Habsburg family and its policies. It is also apparent that from her earliest years music was a consistent feature of the courts where she lived, in the Netherlands, in Austria, in Hungary. As the daughter of Philip the Handsome and his queen, Joanna, Mary was the Habsburg offspring of parents who each encouraged music to impressive degrees at their courts in Spain and the Netherlands.'3 Essentially an orphan, however, owing to the early death of her father and the illness of her mother, Mary was raised at Malines by her aunt, Marguerite of Austria. Herself musically and literarily gifted, Marguerite attended to Mary's musical education from the child's earliest years. Marguerite's organist, Henri Bredemers, taught Mary, her sisters, and their brother, the future emperor, the art of playing keyboard instruments from the time Mary was three or four. As were her sisters,

'0L'Abb6 Dehaisnes et Jules Finot, Inventaire sommaire des Archives departementales anterieures a' 1790. Nord. Archives Civiles. Serie B (Lille: L. Danel, 1899), VII. In progress by this author is a complete index of these eight accounts, alphabetizing persons, occupations, and cities.

"For this information the author is indebted to the communications of Christiane Thomas of the Haus-, Hof- u. Staatsarchiv in Vienna. Her work with Heide Stratenwerth reveals Mary's substantial interest in record keeping. Details will appear in Editionskritische Bemerkungen for vol. 3 of the Familienkorrespondenz to be published.

"2The facts of this biographical summary are drawn from the sources cited above and from the documents of Mary's court.

"3For details, see G. van Doorslaer, "La Chapelle musicale de Philippe le Beau," Revue beige d'Archeologie et d'Histoire de lArt 4 (1934): 21-57; 139-165; and Mary Kay Duggan, "Queen Joanna and her Musicians," Musica Disciplina 30 (1976): 74-92.




Plate 1. Hans Maler, Mary of Hungary (1520). London, Society of Anti- quaries.

Mary was destined for a political marriage. By the age of six months Mary had been betrothed by her optimistic grandfather Maximilian to a child just conceived. Born Louis LI, this child was heir to the throne of Hungary. In preparation for her marriage Mary left the Netherlands at the age of eight to reside in Austria. This interlude was an important time in her young life, f or the study of Latin and for a continuation of her musical experiences. Mary now had frequent contact with her music-loving grandfather, Maximilian,




whose predilection for musical pageantry is well documented both by iconographical and written evidence."4 There was also musical instruction. At the Nebenstaat established for Mary and her future sister-in-law Anna of Hungary at Maximilian's court in Innsbruck, the organist Hans Sattler was paid to purchase a keyboard instrument for the princesses and give them lessons."5 In 1515, when Mary was ten, her engagement to Louis was celebrated in Vienna. As so often in Mary's life, musical events were interwoven with significant personal and political ones. On this glittering occasion, the celebration of a double engagement, Mary's to Louis and her brother Ferdinand's to Anna, the famous organist Paul Hofhaimer was also knighted by the Hungarian king, Wladislaus II.

The years of Mary's life as Louis' queen were among the happiest ones she ever knew, although Mary was not liked by the Hungarians. Her new subjects felt she enjoyed music and dancing, hunting and banqueting far too much and successfully encouraged Louis and his courtiers to enjoy themselves likewise. Yet even at her young age Mary revealed her musical tastes and training to be exemplary for the time. It was she who recommended that Thomas Stoltzer be named chapelmaster at the Hungarian court.'6 It was Mary again who suggested that Stoltzer give musical settings to four of Luther's translations of psalms, 12, 13, 37, and 86, which are counted among the composer's greatest works.

The happiness in Hungary all too soon ended in tragedy. At the threat of a Turkish invasion, Louis led his poorly prepared troops into battle (1526). In the rout that followed, known as the Battle of Mohaks, Louis had to flee-only to die ingloriously when his horse slipped and crushed him in the mud of the stream Csele. With the Turks now menacing Buda, Mary, too, was forced to depart in haste, an escape which she accomplished with as much dignity as possible. Pretending to be riding off on one of her frequent hunting expeditions, the young queen simply continued on up the Danube.

In the following years Mary worked to secure the Hungarian throne for her brother Ferdinand. Then, in 1530, Marguerite of Austria died. Soon Charles, now the Holy Roman Emperor, suggested to his sister Mary that she assume the regency of the Netherlands. Mary was very reluctant "to

"4See Louise E. Cuyler, The Emperor Maximilian I and Music (London: Oxford University Press, 1973).

"5Walter Senn, Musik und Theater am Hof zu Innsbruck, Geschichte der Hofkapelle vom vom 15. Jahrhundert bis zu deren Auflosung im Jahre 1748 (Innsbruck: Osterreichische Verlagsanstalt, 1954), pp. 46-47.

16Lothar Hoffmann-Erbrecht, Thomas Stoltzer, Leben und Schaffen (Kassel: Hinnenthal, 1964), pp. 26ff. Haraszti, in his article Marie de Hongrie," had also placed the great Netherlands composer Adriaen Willaert at the Hungarian court during Mary's years as queen. Although Willaert did travel in Hungary and probably visited the court, it is clear now that he was not chapelmaster to this court nor even a visitor during Mary's sojourn. For details, see The New Grove, s.v. Willaert. "




place the rope around her neck," as she viewed the task.'7 Yet born a Habsburg, Mary must have known that she was destined for political marriage or family service in exchange for some measure of worldly security. Ultimately, she agreed to Charles's proposal.

As regent, Mary of Hungary distinguished her rule from Marguerite of Austria's at the outset. She established her household in Brussels rather than in Marguerite's apartments at Malines, allegedly because of the proximity of the Foret de Soignes, where boar and bird abounded. Much space in the accounts is taken up with matters of the hunt: payments to hunters, to fellows for bringing game back to the court, for repair of hunting equipment, for medical attention after the hunting dogs had injured some poor peasant, for domestic animals to replace those the dogs had killed. Mary gained public renown for her intense love of a sport beloved also of her grandparents. Clement Marot called her "chaste Diane, ennemye d'oyseuse, "18 and another contemporary vividly described both the skill and the character of the huntress:

She was, even in that age of manly women, remarkable for her intrepid spirit and her iron frame .... Hunting and hawking she loved like Mary of Burgundy, and her horsemanship must have delighted the knightly heart of her grandsire Maximilian. Not only could she bring down her deer with unerring aim, but taking up her sleeves, and drawing her knife, she would cut the animal's throat and rip up its belly in as good style of the best of the royal foresters ....19

The image of strong character described in this account was discerned by Hans Maler when he painted Mary as a mere girl of fourteen. As the years passed and their vicissitudes took a toll on her femininity, Mary, pic- tured later on the dedication page of a chanson anthology printed in Ant- werp, came to have the hard look of an authoritative ruler.20

The enjoyment of the hunt is one of the very few personal things we know about Mary of Hungary, a woman who lived a life of devotion to her family. As regent for Charles, Mary was to govern along with three councils, State, Privy, and Finance, which the emperor had newly established with her coming in 1531. Beginning just at the time when Charles was

"7[L'Empereur] fera comme bon S. et pere, exsepte qu'il m'a mis la corde au col que me suis acordee a acsepter la serge... .," Mary to Ferdinand, Ghent, May 5, 1531, Die Korrespondenze Ferdinands I, vol. 3 of Familienkorrespondenz 1531 u. 1532, ed. by Herwig Wolfram and Christiane Thomas (Vienna: Holzhausen, 1973), p. 121.

18"Clement Marot a la Royne de Hongrie venue en France," Oeuvres lyriques, ed. C. A. Mayer (London: The Athlone Press, 1964), p. 295, line 3.

19Juste, Vie de Marie de Hongrie, pp. 37-38. 20See plates 1 and 2. The various portraits of Mary are discussed by Gustav GlIck,

Bildnisse aus dem Hause Habsburg," Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen SammIungen in Wien, NF 8 (1934): 173-196.




relieved of the last of his youthful ministers, Mary's rule was to be distinguished further from Marguerite's by its commitment to carrying out the emperor's desires and demands. Now the three councils were collateral, and Mary's powers of decision were severely limited. Charles's primary concern was for the preservation of his empire, and to this end he left Mary with a double mandate: to reinforce sovereign authority and to combat the Reform. As Pirenne noted, the political and religious unity to be achieved by these separate but inter-related goals would equally benefit the Habsburg ruler.21

Governing through a tumultuous period in the history of the Netherlands, Mary worked tirelessly to preserve the national unity of the country and the imperial unity of her brother's domains. She managed to preserve freedom of the seas for Dutch shipping in a crisis precipitated by Christian of Denmark. In 1538-1540, she tried, although unsuccessfully, to negotiate with the people of Ghent, who wanted to maintain their own economic individuality in the face of imperial capitalism. It was she more than any other single individual who crafted the Augsburg Transaction in 1548, an attempt to strengthen the bonds of unity between the German empire and the Netherlands. Nor did she back away from matching wits and military might with the aggressor against the empire, Francis I. On one occasion she even prepared to go to the front lines herself in defensive armor, an incident that caused an admiring ambassador to call her the most com- bative woman he had ever met.

Mary of Hungary also worked for the Habsburg goal of religious unity. She put aside an apparent sympathy for the Reformation, one serious enough to cause Pope Paul III to complain to the emperor, to carry out the tortures and executions mandated by her brother's placards against heresy.22 In the midst of these concerns Mary responded willingly to her brothers' calls for assistance in building their own musical establishments. Characteristic of the many requests was Ferdinand's letter addressed to Mary in 1542 asking for un honneste homme to assist his aging kapellmeister, Arnold von Bruck.23 Mary recommended Pietre Maessens for the position, a composer whose canon, Salve suprema trinitas, was later dedicated to the regent. Three years earlier Charles had written that the organist sent to his court by Mary had died, "which is a pity for he was skillful in his art and very suitable in my chapel."24 He went on to ask help in finding a replacement.

2"Histoire III: 107-108. 22David P. Daniel, to whose encouragement and suggestions the present article is much in-

debted, has analyzed Mary's Lutheran sympathies in "The Lutheran Reformation in Slovakia" (Ph.D. dissertation, The Pennsylvania State University, 1972), pp. 122-143.

23The New Grove, s.v. "Maessens." 24Vienna, Haus-, Hof-, und Staatsarchiv, Belgien PA neue 29 (Alt 36), October 15, 1539.




Mary's various efforts were such that, at her death, the archbishop delivering the funeral sermon made particular note of her remarkable energy:

Truly I know of no one in the world in whom laziness found less welcome, and who, in organizing her time, gave less to drinking, eating, sleeping, and relaxing than she.25

If Jehan de Gyn's Comptes make frequent reference to medicines and to doc- tors to treat the regent's tremblement de coeur, we can sympathize with the despondency to which she was often prey, given her devotion to her tasks and Charles's demands to do more than the possible.26

Music at the Court of Mary of Hungary Mary's court was clearly a world dominated by imperial concerns. Yet

from numerous payments in the accounts and from the impressions left on her contemporaries, it is also evident that music was granted a distinctly important position at her court. Indisputable and substantial evidence of this position lies in MaFy's collection of musical instruments. An inventory compiled at the end of her life by the court organist shows nearly two hundred items in this collection, which included twenty viols, fifty cornetti, and over fifty flutes plus clavichords, lutes, sackbuts, shawms, and even the horn of a unicorn!27 Mary had left Buda in haste, taking few material possessions with her. In the years before accepting the regency, she seldom remained in one place for long. This collection of instruments then must have been amassed almost entirely during her years as regent in Brussels. This assump- tion is borne out by de Gyn's accounts, which include purchase payments for organs, harpsichords, flutes, sackbuts, shawms, and cornetti. His records also show that the instruments were in use since amounts are designated for their maintenace, tuning, and repair. Some payments show that certain instruments were products of Netherlands craftsmen; others were imported products. In 1535 flutes and shawms were bought in Augsburg for the court; a few years later a harpsichord was purchased in Paris and specified for use in Mary's own chamber.

The Comptes also name many of the musicians engaged to play these instruments, musicians who tended to come from outside the Netherlands. The regent brought three shawm players from Germany in 1535 and a lutenist from Austria. One of her organists came from Germany, and another was hired away from her rival, Francis I of France. Two Italians, brothers from Milan, were recruited to play cornetto. (Perhaps significantly, the majority of cornettists employed by French royalty were also Italian

25Messire F. Richardot, Sermon Funebre fait aus Obseques de la Roine Marie Douairiere de Hongrie" (Antwerp: Christoph Plantin, 1559), fo. 20v.

26"I1 faut faire plus que le possible." Charles to Mary, Septmber 10, 1536, Correspondenz des Kaisers Karl V, ed. Karl Lanz (1844-1846; reprint, Frankfurt: Minerva, 1966), II: 666.

2Van der Straeten, La Musique VII: 439-444




players.) At Mary's court where most of the singers appear to have been Netherlanders, these instrumentalists testified both to the cosmopolitan tastes of the patroness and to her active efforts to recruit musical talent. These foreigners also provided an important means for the dissemination of musical ideas. The freshness of foreign accomplishments did have certain disadvantages, such as the expense of homesick musicians returning to visit family and friends; on one occasion a little German page brought to Brussels to play sackbut did not like court life and ran away. Mary had to dispatch messengers to Antwerp, Maestricht, and Covalentz before finally locating the little scamp at Cologne (AN, B. 3360, fo. 226v-227r).

When these musicians played may be learned from de Gyn's accounts and from contemporary practice at other courts. One of the most important courtly occasions for music was the fete, events for which Mary became renowned. These fetes normally honored some imperial family member, often coincided with the visit of neighboring royalty, and frequently involved the Flemish nobility, whose majority in the Council of State made it politically advantageous to court its favor. One such occasion, witnessed by the emperor himself as well as various nobles, took place in 1543.

His Majesty and the said Queen came to the window of His same Majesty's room, where in the middle of court there was conducted a combat on foot, by the Marquis of Berghes, the Lord of Trazagnies, and Caresmu, intermediaries, against all comers, which lasted until night. That ended, His same Majesty went to the chapel, where the Lord of Arenbergi, who is of those of Marche, was married to Mademoiselle of Berghes .... The banquet ended, there took place abundant masques and everyone danced; then were given the prizes of combat . ... That done, the Queen led the bride to her chambers where there was a banquet.28

It is clear from iconographical evidence and analogous events recorded elsewhere that tournaments, weddings, banquets, masques, and dances, such as are described here, each involved music.29 Although the details of many performances at Mary's court are often lacking, it can be said that her court composers are widely represented in contemporary music prints and manuscripts by the kinds of compositions appropriate to such occasions: love songs, usually fitted with texts of courtly love, drinking songs, dances, and music specifically notated for instruments such as lute and keyboard.30

28Collection des Voyages des Souverains des Pays-Bas, publiee par Louis Prosper Gachard, Academie royale des sciences, des lettres, et des beaux-arts de Belgique. Commission royale d'histoire. Publications in quarto (Brussels: F. Hayez, 1876), II: 271-272.

29Walter Salmen, Musikleben im 16. Jahrhundert, vol. 3, Pt. 9 of Musikgeschichte in Bildern (Leipzig: VEB Deutscher Verlag fur Musik, 1976), P. 22.

30For a modern edition of some of these compositions, see Benedictus Appenzeller, Chan- sons, ed. Glenda Goss Thompson, vol. 14 of Monumenta Musica Neerlandica (Amsterdam; Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis, 1982).




Plate 2. Vingt et six chansons musicales et nouvelles (Antwerp: Tielman Susato, [1543[), fo. lv. Brussels, Bibliotheque royale, Reserve precieuse.

Mary put forth her most spectacular effort in festival production at a strategic moment in Habsburg politics, to assist Charles in introducing his son Philip II to his future subjects in the Netherlands. The fame of the resulting fete, which took place at Binche, has come down to the twentieth century, and legends of it survive in the costumed character from the same town known as the Gille de Binche. Contemporaries marvelled at the sump- tuousness of the Fetes de Binche, which took place in the splendid environ- ment of Mary's palace.3" Although few musical details were recorded, it is clear that music was a significant element in the festivities, which ranged over the many rooms as well as the surrounding grounds. In fact, one of Mary's organists, Rogier Pathie, had a principal role in planning the nine




days of events, during which young Philip was represented as a mysterious knight with a magic sword who finally triumphed over the castle of a wick- ed enchanter. Among the specific musical references, one is the description of an allemand danced by various lords and ladies of the court. This particular entertainment, performed before Mary, Charles, their sister Eleonore, Philip, and assembled courtiers, lasted an entire evening. Like other events during the Fetes, this one appears to have been allegorical, a dramatization of the European political situation in the 1540s. With eight dancers dressed as savages and representing the dreaded Turk and two groups of four knights each representing Europe divided against itself (Habsburg vs. Tudor and Valois), the message seemed to be that the Euro- pean powers could avoid political disaster only by uniting their Christian forces against the Infidel. The allemand itself ended ominously, the knights' ladies being captured despite the combined efforts of their formerly divided ranks. Not until the following day were the damsels rescued from the fort where they were held prisoners.

The use of music to convey political meaning through allegory, as in this episode, was an important part of royal life in the sixteenth century.32 Valois, Tudor, and Medici as well as Habsburg staged splendid festivals and elaborate entries and tournaments rich with political associations. Such spectacle made legendary the meeting of the European powers at the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520. In the long history of musical pageantry at the French court the sixteenth-century fetes of Catherine de Medici stand out for being politically explicit and musically elaborate. In the later history of French musical pageantry music became a tool with which the roi soleil sought to propagandize the grandeur of his reign and his person.33 Mary of Hungary's fetes, particularly the Fetes de Binche, appear to have been no less politically calculated than other court fetes of the time. Through music in alliance with other arts, the regent seems to have made the most of her opportunities to glorify the empire.

Music was not, however, reserved only for secular occasions at Mary's court but was also bound up with religious and ceremonial events. In these capacities music had a daily function at the court, as the music and musicians of Mary's active chapel attest. The chapel was the chief section of the household, the one that appears at the head of each Etat journalier, and significantly, an organization where religious functions joined political and musical ones. The very presence of the chapel in the courtly establishment

3"The sources for the following account, which is particularly indebted to Daniel Heartz, have been given in note 8 above.

32See the work of Roy Strong, Splendour at Court, Renaissance Spectacle and Illusion (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1973), and Frances A. Yates, The French Academies of the Sixeenth Century (1947; reprint, Nendeln, Liechtenstein, 1968).

33Music as the political tool of Louis XIV is the subject of Robert M. Isherwood's Music in the Service of the King (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1973).




gave tangible evidence of the bond unifying church and state, a bond the emperor himself wished to revitalize.34 In addition, the chapel's musical components served as a testimony to the cultural sophistication of the patroness and the respect due her. For Mary of Hungary, who was taking over the reins of government in the Netherlands at a time when the emperor would be absent for long periods, an increase in the proportions of the chapel would perhaps be a welcome reinforcement of Habsburg authority with Catholic legitimacy. This organization that melded political and religious interests could also present a united front against Lutheran reform. Both purposes would serve to fulfill the political mandate Charles had left his sister.

If political power was indeed the reason for the emphasis given the chapel during Mary's regency, then the Habsburgs were not alone in perceiving the value of an impressive musical and religious organization to achieve this end. One recent study has given political interpretation to similar activities of Duke Ercole d'Este in Ferrara.35 The duke, who came to power in 1471, lost no time in building and staffing his chapel, allegedly in an effort to make his court a "seat of power and propaganda." Encouraging public religious display was apparently one means the devout duke used to facilitate effective government over his state. His increased musical forces were also a political statement to Galeazzo Maria Sforza, the flamboyant ruler of the rival state of Milan, with whom he came into direct competition for talented musical personnel.

Whatever the motivations, it is certainly clear that the regent's chapel was an organization rejuvenated after Mary returned to the Netherlands. The chapel of Mary's predecessor, Marguerite of Austria, had not been musically self-reliant.36 Drawing musicians from young Charles's domestic chapel, Marguerite had finally added a few performers of her own. By 1527 she was employing three adult singers, three choirboys, and an organist. None of these musicians seems to have composed for her chapel. During Mary's authority, the chapel of the regent of the Netherlands achieved

34See Frances A. Yates, "Charles V and the Idea of the Empire," Astraea, The Imperial Theme in the Sixteenth Century (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1975), pp. 1-28.

35This account of Duke Ercole is taken from the study by Lewis Lockwood, "Strategies of music patronage in the fifteenth century: the capella of Ercole I d'Este," Music in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, ed. Lain Fenlon (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), pp. 227-248.

36The best available study of the music at the court of Marguerite of Austria in the Netherlands is Martin Picker's The Chanson Albums of Marguerite of Austria (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1965). The records of Marguerite's court preserved at Lille, although summarized in various volumes of the Inventaire sommaire, have not been subjected to the kind of systematic study that would provide the details about performance and musicians needed for the most accurate assessment and comparisons. It is hoped that the renewed interest in Marguerite, marked by the conference on Marguerite of Austria held in Malines, Belgium, October, 1982, will result in studies of this nature.




musical independence from the emperor's. Her chapel now included its own choir and its own scribes and composers who refurbished the musical reper- tory. Mary's organization thus began to resemble the splendid chapels of her father and grandfather, representing a continuation of a long and impressive musical tradition.

The enlargement of Mary's chapel membership has gone almost com- pletely unnoticed in scholarly literature.37 Yet an examination of the rolls preserved in the Etats journaliers shows an unmistakable increase in size and musical independence of this organization. By 1535 Mary had recruited twice as many choirboys and more than three times the number of singers employed by Marguerite, a respectable choir that could perform complex polyphonic works. De Gyn's Comptes gives the sources for some of these works. In 1535 the scribe Pierre van den Hove, called Alamire, sold the regent a good number of books for use in her chapel (AN B. 3357, fo. 184v). At various times each of two successive mattres des enffans received reim- bursement for books of masses and magnificats purchased for the chapel. As principal composer for the court, one of these men, Benedictus Ap- penzeller, composed a substantial number of polyphonic magnificats, masses, and motets himself. Most of these are preserved in manuscripts that today belong to the Benedictine Monastery at Montserrat. Containing music by Appenzeller, Mary's organist Pathie, and other respected composers of the time, these manuscripts, which are only beginning to be in- vestigated, are thought to have been compiled at her court and to represent the music performed by her chapel. I

With its music books, instruments, choirboys and priest-singers, the chapel accompanied Mary on her frequent peregrinations about the realm, presumably to comply with the emperor's request that mass and vespers be celebrated daily in plainsong and polyphony.38 The activity and visibility of this important religious organization with its considerable musical compo- nent could hardly have failed to impress foreigners and reassure subjects alike with the grandeur of the Habsburg establishment.

That the chapel members also had responsibility for composing and performing ceremonial music is suggested by certain compositions of the mattre des enffans de la chappelle known as state motets. These works are polyphonic compositions with texts that acknowledge specific events or individuals of the day. They were probably used at solemn but not necessarily liturgical ceremonies. One of these motets names Francis I. Its date and wording indicate that the music commemorates the peace arranged between

37In Les musiciens beiges (Brussels: [1848]), I: 144, Edouard Fetis stated that Mary's chapel did not contain many musicians and that she found her situation too difficult to give much attention to the arts. Only Joseph Schmidt-G6rg seems to have recognized the change in Mary of Hungary's chapel by comparison with the regents before and after her. See Nicolas Gombert, Kapellmeister Kaiser Karls V. Leben und Werk (Tutzing: Hans Schneider, 1971), p. 29.

38Van der Straeten, La Musique VII: 278-279.




Habsburg and Valois in 1538.39 A token meeting among Pope Paul III, Charles V, and Francis at Nice and Aigues-Morte in that year was followed by another between Francis and Mary of Hungary at Compiegne and Cam- brai. Accompanying the French king on this later occasion was his wife Eleonore, Mary's musically-gifted older sister, for whom the regent had a particular affection. The days spent hunting and banqueting during this en- counter perhaps offered the opportunity for a performance of this motet, which extravagantly praises the king. At the closing phrase, "Optamus memores europa, asia, affrica/ Totus Orbis Franciscisci/ Pareat Imperiis," musical imitation is used among the voices as though to reflect the far cor- ners of the world named in the text. A change to hymn-like style and a new meter sets off the concluding words, "Pareat Imperiis." Another state motet, also by Mary's maltre des enffans Appenzeller, celebrates Erasmus in a moving lament, with parts being given an unusually low range and words from Lamentations 5:16 (Cecidit corona capitis nostri) interwoven with those of a contemporary text. This humanist, who had long admired Mary of Hungary, had dcedicated to her the book Vidua Christiana in 1530. Other motets glorify the Habsburgs themselves. Oramus te rex, glorie Christe is probably addressed to Charles V. Its text continues:

qui in anxietate constituti sumus ut conservare digneris Regem nostrum (some lines read Im- peratorum nostrum) victoriosissimum et reducere feliciter Ipsum enim nobis protectorem.

The work is thought to be a prayer to the emperor who finally brought peace to the Netherlands after the persistent and terrible violence caused by Martin le Noir, the Duke of Cleves, and other insurgents.40

Another work, although not technically a state motet since it has a liturgically appropriate text, may nevertheless have been intended to glorify Mary herself. The text addresses Mary the Virgin (Sancte Maria, succurre miseris), and the music is dedicated to Mary of Hungary "in gratitude" by this composer who served her more than two decades. Although other political works may have been composed by Mary's musicians, these works are among the least likely to have survived into the present century, since their use was usually limited to a single occasion. Nevertheless, the few such compositions that do remain demonstrate how closely interwoven sixteenth-century art and politics could be.

The Implications of Mary's Patronage The extent of Mary of Hungary's patronage of music in the

Netherlands is demonstrated by numerous details in the surviving

39These works and others like them from the sixteenth century are discussed by Albert Dunning in Die Staatsmotette 1480-1555 (Utrecht: Ossthoek, 1970).

40Ibid., pp. 217-218.




documents of her court. These documents show that Mary created an at- mosphere thoroughly congenial to musical performance and creativity by staging festive occasions for musical participation and by magnifying the performing resources of the Netherlands court. The impressive number of instruments she accumulated, the instrumentalists she imported, the singers and composers she added to the chapel together with the musical compositions emanating from her court all bear out the image of a music-loving patroness who actively nurtured the special talents of the musically gifted.

With such clear evidence that Mary indeed fostered an expansive level of musical activity, the question of what benefit she derived from cultivating this art may be asked. Why did she encourage expenditures for fetes, instruments, and performers in times of military crises, inflation, and religious turmoil? It might be replied that she wished to give her courtiers and herself some relief from the weightier responsibilities of their times. As a musically intelligent individual from a family with a long and rich musical tradition, Mary perhaps cultivated music because she enjoyed the art. Moreover, cultivation of music was not only a family legacy but also the current fashion. The widespread attention given the fine arts generally is an important feature of sixteenth-century life that must be attributed in some degree to the influence of the ideals of humanism.

Yet cultural sophistication also caused intense personal rivalries between individuals. Such competition arose between Duke Ercole and Galeazzo Maria Sforza, for example. Mary of Hungary, a politically astute ruler who kept careful records, handled sensitive diplomatic negotiations, and devised military strategy, would hardly have been naive in the realm of artistic accomplishment. Her own training and the fact that she assisted her brothers Charles and Ferdinand in recruiting musical personnel for their chapels indicate that Mary was conscious of musical matters of her day.

It may be noted that the two principal European rivals of the Habsburgs, Francis I and Henry VIII, were renowned for their magnificent musical establishments. Contemporary reports tell of the remarkable performances of their respective chapels when the two kings met in 1520 at the Field of the Cloth of Gold.4' By 1547 Henry VIII had enlarged his musical establishment to include nearly sixty musicians.42 By the same year Francis too had enlarged his court to allow for three distinct groups of musicians who served either the chapel, the chamber, or the stable.43 Presumably

4"See the essays by Paul Kast, "Remarques sur la musique et les musiciens de la chappelle de Francois Ier au Camp du Drap d'Or," and Hugh Baillie, "Les musiciens de la chapelle royale d'Henri VIII au camp du Drap d'Or," in Fetes et Ceremonies au temps de Charles-Quint, Les Fetes de la Renaissance, 2 (Paris: Editions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1960): 135-160.

42The New Grove, s.v. "Henry VIII." 43Henri Prunieres, "La Musique de la Chambre et de l'ecurie sous le Regne de Francois Ier,

1516-1547," L'annee musicale I (1911):' 215-249.




Mary would have been especially well informed of the French expansion since her sister Eleonore was Francis's queen.

In the sixteenth century competitive rulers could hardly ignore the challenge of upholding the cultural sophisitication of their individual realms. Thus, splendour at court, as the title of a monograph on the subject goes, became an essential public relations tool in this century, a kind of propaganda that reassured subjects and impressed rivals." In the book of this title Roy Strong points out that one way for a Renaissance prince to project not only a favorable public image but actually a mirage of power was through the extravagant display of courtly magnificence at tournaments, masques, ballets, and entries. He further notes that the fundamental objec- tive of the court fate, to which Mary contributed so famously, was "power conceived as art." To these observations it can be added that court chapels too furnished important opportunities to flaunt impressive musical forces.

In the face of these considerations, it could be concluded that one of the most important benefits which Mary of Hungary derived from cultivating music was a political one. As an art to which her family had long been devoted, music was perhaps the art most appropriate to enhance the Habsburg image, immortalize its name, commemorate its legal transac- tions, and impress its rivals. The steps that Mary took to include music in her fates, to acquire musical instruments for her court, to enlarge the musical membership of her chapel, and to encourage, if not actually commission, compositions for political occasions suggest that this regent had a keen appreciation of the cultural expectations of a Habsburg ruler and an astute sense of how the art of music might be used to enhance the imperial image, a task to which she was clearly devoted. Although Machiavellian, Mary of Hungary's actions elicited praise at her funeral. Commenting on the regent's efforts to encourage music and other matters of art and learn- ing, Archbishop Richardot pointed out that such actions "give singular lustre to the virtue and splendor of Princes and . .. are of the greatest utility to their estates and countries."45 Mary's particular attentions to music imply that cultural achievements played a serious role in Habsburg politics.

Coda For performers today Mary of Hungary's importance rests in the

specific musical compositions and the performance situations she engendered. To these things musicologists would add that there is a need to consider the effects that her tastes and individual requirements may have had on musical style. Thanks to Mary of Hungray's patronage, her composers wrote, her scribes copied, and her performers played. Togther they

"Strong, Splendour at Court, especially Chapter II: "The Politics of Spectacle," pp. 19-76. ""Sermon Funebre," fo. 28r.




produced a music "sounding with supreme delight," much of which survives and can profitably be revived for performance and study.

This investigation also suggests that Mary of Hungary's cultivation of music was not simply an encouragement of sybaritic pleasures but an enhancement of the stature of the empire she served. Assessments of the music as well as the political affairs of this court should henceforth take into consideration this revised perspective on Mary of Hungary and her music patronage.



Mary of Hungary and Music Patronage

Documents