The statue is of Margaret of York (1446-1503), daughter of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, and his wife Cecily Neville, herself the daughter of Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland. Two of Margaret’s brothers became kings of England (Edward IV and Richard III), as did one of her nephews (Edward V). She was thus closely related to all three Yorkist kings, and also to Elizabeth of York, the eldest daughter of Edward IV, whose marriage to Henry Tudor (Henry VII) was a key part of the settlement that brought the Wars of the Roses to an end.


So why is there a statue of her in a prominent location in a small town in Belgium that you've probably never heard of? The answer is because of her other title, Margaret of Burgundy.


At the age of nineteen, Margaret was married off to Charles Martin, Duke of Burgundy, known as “The Bold”, becoming his third, and last, wife. The Dukes of Burgundy had acquired lands in the north through the marriage of Charles’s great-grandfather Duke Philip (also “The Bold”) to another Margaret, this one the daughter of Louis of Male, Count of Flanders. When Louis died without a male heir, his lands passed to Philip as Margaret's husband. The Burgundians eventually moved their capital north to Flanders, specifically Mechelen.


Following the death of Charles, Margaret became a key adviser to her only step-child, Mary, helping her steer a path through competing enmities by marrying Maximilian, son of the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick III. When Mary in turn was killed in a riding accident, Margaret became the effective governor of the Low Countries on behalf of the Emperor, maintaining what was in effect a princely court on Mechelen until her death. In the years that followed, the capital moved to the nearby small and previously unimportant town of Brussels. You may have heard of it.


In the background, the Tower of Sint-Romboutskathedraal, 97 metres and 514 steps high.