A tragic hunt

March 27th, 1482 was the death date of Mary, the Duchess of Burgundy, only child of Charles the Bold, stepdaughter of Margaret of York. She was a great heiress and in 1477, she wed Maximilian, the Archduke of Austria, having heeded Margaret’s advice to avoid an alliance with the French. She and Maximilian had three children, but she died at only twenty-five in a tragic accident. She and her husband had been out hawking when her horse tripped, threw her, and then fell on top of her, breaking her spine. She died several days later. Her eldest son Philip became Duke of Burgundy and would wed Juana, sister of Katherine of Aragon, known to history as Juana la Loca, Juana the mad. G.W. Gortner has written an excellent novel about Juana, called The Last Queen.