Margarethe von Tyrol (1318-1369), also known as Margaret the Ugly, is a very interseting female character. We often meet in the History strong and brave women playing political and miltary roles, but they often have also some bad characterization, they are Bloody, as the Queen Mary, or Ugly, as Margaret of Tirol. Her nickname, "Maultasch", means in German "Bigmouth"!She was the daughter of Henry III, the Count of Tyrol and Duke of Kärnten. In 1330 she was given in marriage to John Henry of Luxemburg and suceeded to her father in Kärnten and South Tyrol. The North Tyrol went to Albert II and Otto of Absburg, Dukes of Austria.
In 1342 Margaret left the first husband and got spliced with the Margrave Ludwig, Duke of , Wittelsbach and son of the Emperor Ludwig the Bavarian. So the Absburg could take the control of Kärnten, but Karl IV of Luxembourg, brother of John Henry, menace the Tyrol for revenge. At the death of her second husband, Ludwig, and of their son Mainard III, she gave to the Absburg (Rudolph IV) her Country, the Tyrol.
No coins were minted in the period of the Margarethe Maultasch.
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This portrait is in the National Gallery in London. According to the National Gallery, this painting is a satire on an old woman trying to hang on to her youth based on a drawing by Leonardo Da Vinci, and is not a portrait of any particular person. I don't know where it was first described as a portrait of Margareth Maultasch. This far more bland portrait by an unknow artist was painted during her lifetime. There's no sign of her pocket mouth or ugliness here. Maybe the stories of her ugliness were due to her unpopularity for bucking the trends of her time, or maybe this artist was only trying to flatter a rich and powerful patron (from Dawnwich Horror of Dawn Albright, see biblio).
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