And that's not surprising, given that Maximilian originally spoke no French when coming to Burgundy, just as Mary did not speak any German - they talked in Latin while he learned French as fast as he could. (She never learned German.) Now I don't know whether he learned it by hear or actually employed a teacher, but you can indeed tell that Latin was the language he had learned first.
To amuse you linguistically some more: remember, when Margaret of Austria went by ship to Spain (as the doomed Juana went to Flanders) in order to marry Juana's brother Juan, son and heir of Isabella and Ferdinand, who would die not a year later, there was so much terrible wheather that she thought she might die, and composed her own epitaph which she sowed into her dress so she could be identified if the ship got wrecked. It was a ditty going:
Cy-gist Margot, la gentil' demoiselle Qu'ha deux marys et encore est pucelle.
(As biographer Ursula Traumatino noted, one thing Margaret and Dad Maximilian shared was the ability to laugh at themselves.)
Now, a century later, one Pére Hilarion de Coste, who in 1647 published a collection called "Éloge des Reines et Princesses illustres, thought this sounded too undignified, and also he disapproved of the word "pucelle". So he published a more dignified version:
Ci-git sous ce tombeau La belle Marguerite Qu, mariée dans l'eau Mourut vierge d'élite.
*rolls eyes*
BTW, the vid about Margaret I linked many entries ago has in a comment an English translation without mentioning whom by which manages a good rhyme: "Here lies Margaret the willing bride. Twice married but a virgin when she died."
Margaret's personal self chosen motto is also a pun: Fortune Infortune Fort: Une. She wrote occasional poetry all her life,on a Fritzian level, i.e. it would not have been remembered if she hadn't been royalty but she evidently enjoyed it and it helped her vent. When Dad died, Margaret wrote a lament for him comme sa fille unicque et soul enfant in which she goes through her series of losses:
Les deux premiers si furent les coeurs marris Prince d'Espagne et le duc de Savoye Que plus bel homme au monde ne scavoye. Et le troisiem: mon seul frère etoit Roy des Espagnes et de Naples à bon droit. La! tu 'las mis en semblable erroy Car tu n'espragnes prince ne du ne roy.
Pour le quatriemme, o Mort trop oultrageuse! Tu as estain la fleur chevalreuse Et as vancu celui qui fust vaninqueur Maximilian, ce très noble Empereur Qui en bouté à nul ne se compère: C'estoy César, mon seul seigneur et père. Mais tu l'as en trop pitieux estat SèpulturÈ au chasteau Neustadt.
Margaret and Maximilian had had their arguments, but they always reconciled, and starting with the time about her second widowhood, she'd become (in addition to being the Governor of the Netherlands) her father's closest advisor. Here is one example of him asking her for advice on a question sounding oddly familiar to Fredericians, for he wants to know whether she thinks it's a good idea to, well, see for yourself:
„...pour ce que par pluiseurs fois nous avez escript que voulsissions bailler l’investiture au jeune duc de Clèves des duchiez de Jülich et des Mons*, [...]. Et pour ce que ces matières sont de grande importance, nous vous requérons que semblablement y vueillez bien panser, et à ceste cause envoyer devers nous ung de voz conseilliers ou secrétaires privez, par lequel nous vueillez amplement advertir de vostre bon advis sur ce.“
*Mons = Mountain = Berg; you can see Maximilian is translating the name in his head directly into Latin. cahn: Jülich & Berg = the territories FW wants to have from the Imperials. The Emperor never granting them to him is a more important reason than not getting notified in time of the MT/FS wedding as to why he's all "here stands one who will avenge me" in 1736. And why if Fritz had gone and invaded Jülich and Berg, no one would have been surprised.
We don't have Margaret's reply letter to this question, but one where she advises him on another question, re: Milan, and here Dad was so impressed that he wrote back, in another case where you can see his mixing in Latin into his French:
„Tant y a que noz sumus content de vous, outant que ung père se doyt contenter de sa bonne fylle, et voluns bien que tout le monde le sayche. En oultre désirant que continués en vostre gouvernement comme avés faet jusques issy au présent et vous nous faerés très singulier plaisir dont volentié vous assertissons, et adiu. Faet de la main, le IIIe jour de février, de vostre bon père MAXI.“
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Re: Random replies from last post
Date: 2021-11-08 08:07 am (UTC)To amuse you linguistically some more: remember, when Margaret of Austria went by ship to Spain (as the doomed Juana went to Flanders) in order to marry Juana's brother Juan, son and heir of Isabella and Ferdinand, who would die not a year later, there was so much terrible wheather that she thought she might die, and composed her own epitaph which she sowed into her dress so she could be identified if the ship got wrecked. It was a ditty going:
Cy-gist Margot, la gentil' demoiselle
Qu'ha deux marys et encore est pucelle.
(As biographer Ursula Traumatino noted, one thing Margaret and Dad Maximilian shared was the ability to laugh at themselves.)
Now, a century later, one Pére Hilarion de Coste, who in 1647 published a collection called "Éloge des Reines et Princesses illustres, thought this sounded too undignified, and also he disapproved of the word "pucelle". So he published a more dignified version:
Ci-git sous ce tombeau
La belle Marguerite
Qu, mariée dans l'eau
Mourut vierge d'élite.
*rolls eyes*
BTW, the vid about Margaret I linked many entries ago has in a comment an English translation without mentioning whom by which manages a good rhyme: "Here lies Margaret the willing bride. Twice married but a virgin when she died."
Margaret's personal self chosen motto is also a pun: Fortune Infortune Fort: Une. She wrote occasional poetry all her life,on a Fritzian level, i.e. it would not have been remembered if she hadn't been royalty but she evidently enjoyed it and it helped her vent. When Dad died, Margaret wrote a lament for him comme sa fille unicque et soul enfant in which she goes through her series of losses:
Les deux premiers si furent les coeurs marris
Prince d'Espagne et le duc de Savoye
Que plus bel homme au monde ne scavoye.
Et le troisiem: mon seul frère etoit
Roy des Espagnes et de Naples à bon droit.
La! tu 'las mis en semblable erroy
Car tu n'espragnes prince ne du ne roy.
Pour le quatriemme, o Mort trop oultrageuse!
Tu as estain la fleur chevalreuse
Et as vancu celui qui fust vaninqueur
Maximilian, ce très noble Empereur
Qui en bouté à nul ne se compère:
C'estoy César, mon seul seigneur et père.
Mais tu l'as en trop pitieux estat
SèpulturÈ au chasteau Neustadt.
Margaret and Maximilian had had their arguments, but they always reconciled, and starting with the time about her second widowhood, she'd become (in addition to being the Governor of the Netherlands) her father's closest advisor. Here is one example of him asking her for advice on a question sounding oddly familiar to Fredericians, for he wants to know whether she thinks it's a good idea to, well, see for yourself:
„...pour ce que par pluiseurs fois nous avez escript que voulsissions bailler l’investiture au jeune duc de Clèves des duchiez de Jülich et des Mons*, [...]. Et pour ce que ces matières sont de grande importance, nous vous requérons que semblablement y vueillez bien panser, et à ceste cause envoyer devers nous ung de voz conseilliers ou secrétaires privez, par lequel nous vueillez amplement advertir de vostre bon advis sur ce.“
*Mons = Mountain = Berg; you can see Maximilian is translating the name in his head directly into Latin.
We don't have Margaret's reply letter to this question, but one where she advises him on another question, re: Milan, and here Dad was so impressed that he wrote back, in another case where you can see his mixing in Latin into his French:
„Tant y a que noz sumus content de vous, outant que ung père se doyt contenter de sa bonne fylle, et voluns bien que tout le monde le sayche. En oultre désirant que continués en vostre
gouvernement comme avés faet jusques issy au présent et vous nous faerés très singulier plaisir
dont volentié vous assertissons, et adiu. Faet de la main, le IIIe jour de février, de vostre bon père MAXI.“