singer. He remained at the Confraternity in 's-Hertogenbosch until 1492, at which time he simultaneously became a full member of the Confraternity, and joined the Grande chapelle of Holy Roman Emperor Maxmilian. He was to remain in the employ of the Habsburgs, and the Grande chapelle, for the rest of his life. The Grande chapelle The Grande chapelle, the musical establishment of the Burgundian-Habsburg court, already had a distinguished history by the time Philip the Handsome inherited it in 1494. This was the central institution of the Burgundian School, the venue in which composers such as Dufay and Busnois had worked and already left a body of music; music by Ockeghem had also recently been copied into manuscripts associated with the group immediately before La Rue's hire. In addition, music by the composers favored by the previous dukes of Burgundy such as Charles the Bold – Adrien Basin, Gilles Joye, Hayne van Ghizeghem, and Robert Morton – was also probably still being performed and studied. It was a formidable musical organization, equalling in quality the papal chapel in Rome itself, and its quality continued to improve into the 16th century, with the addition of composers such as Marbrianus de Orto, Nicolas Champion, Gilles Reingot, Antonius Divitis, and Alexander Agricola. This was the musical environment into which La Rue entered his full maturity as a composer. Once La Rue was engaged with the Grande chapelle, he made two trips to Spain. On the second trip, in 1506, he was shipwrecked in the English Channel, and spent three months at the court of Henry VII of England. After two more years in Spain, in the service of Juana of Castile – Joanna the Mad – he returned to the Netherlands in 1508, probably because Juana had been forced out of power (her husband, Philip, had died of typhus in 1506). Juana was inconsolable, unable to leave the corpse of her dead husband, and had become quite insane; why La Rue stayed as long as he did is not known, but it is not impossible that his dark, intensely expressive music was one of the few things that brought her solace. In addition, he was treated well. Juana promoted him to premier chapelain, the head of the chapel, and paid him twice what the other singers received; paying the singers was apparently one of the only practical administrative matters she was able to