'VERY DEAR AND WELL BELOVED,--It has pleased the emperor, my lord and grandfather, to emancipate us and free us from his guardianship and regency, placing the government of our country and lordships... in our hands, and consenting that we be received and sworn to the principality and lordship of the same.... Therefore it is fit and reasonable that all things which concern our rights, greatness, lordship, and even the doing of justice and our other affairs, should be conducted henceforth in our name and under our title. For this cause we write to you; we require and command that all letters, acts, and other things which will be done and expedited towards you for our aforesaid affairs, shall be drawn up and despatched under our aforesaid name and title, placing at the end of the letters: Given under the seal which the emperor, my lord and grandfather, and we have used during the time of our minority.... 'CHARLES (1515)' In addressing the deputies from the States-General Charles made the following speech: 'Gentlemen, I thank you for the honour and great affection you bear me. Be good and loyal subjects, and I will be your good prince.' Margaret does not appear to have been consulted about Charles's emancipation until it was an accomplished fact, and we can well understand that, accustomed as she had been to exercise sovereign power for eight years, she felt some secret anxiety in seeing this power taken from her. Monsieur de Croy, Seigneur de Chièvres, had always opposed the princess's administration, and was anxious to exclude her from the government; it was therefore an added blow to know that he would now, as Charles's counsellor, be in a position to deprive her of her nephew's confidence. Margaret no longer presided at the State Council, and was only appealed to as a matter of form. The emperor's letters were not communicated to her, and she even heard rumours that she was accused of personal avarice and of having been unsuccessful in her rule. She keenly resented these accusations and complained to her father, and also addressed a memorandum to her nephew containing a sketch of her government, and accounts, with a full list of the gifts and payments made out of her private income.