Erasmus 500 years on: Charles V writes to Margaret of Austria, lobbying for Erasmus’ pension

Erasmus was entitled to a pension from emperor Charles V, but had not received it since he had left Brabant (Leuven) in the fall of 1521, despite numerous reminders he sent out. Finally, in the summer of 1523, Charles wrote to his aunt Margaret of Austria, urging her in a French letter to pay the pension to “Érasme de Roterdame” (Allen ep. 1380). What is more, Charles “desire[d] that the same Erasmus should receive favourable treatment on account of his great learning and literary skill” (translation CWE), because he wanted to keep him in his service at all costs:

[…] désirons icelui Érasme estre fauorablement traictié par raison de ses grandes doctrines et littératures, vous requérons et ordonnons le faire payer et satisfaire de ce que iusques oires luy peult estre deu de sadicte pension, affin que à faulte d’icelui payement il n’ait occasion de laisser nostre service.

(Allen ep. 1380)

Erasmus learned of this letter in January 1524 at the latest: so slow and inefficient could communication be 500 years ago… Even worse, Margaret refused to pay the pension as long as Erasmus did not return to the Low Countries. In 1533, Erasmus made the sum of Charles’ debt to him, about 3000 livre tournois (French pounds), a substantial amount of money that he never received, as he never saw Brabant again.