Mary, Duchess of Burgundy (1457-1482). Mary was born at Brussels, the only child of Charles the Bold. In 1477 her father died in battle and Mary inherited the very considerable duchy of Burgundy. She was courted by many princes, notably Charles, Dauphin of France, but she eventually married Archduke Maximillian of Austria. This brought the Low Countries, possessions of Burgundy, into Hapsburg rule - an act which led to two hundred years of rivalry between France and Austria which in turn ended in the War of the Spanish Succession in the early 1700s. Mary died after a fall form her horse at the age of 25. By that time she had borne three children, the eldest of which (Philip the Handsome) inherited the duchy of Burgundy. This woodcut illustration comes from van Opmeer's Opus chronographicum orbis universi, published at Amsterdam in 1611.