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MARGUERITE DE VALOIS
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See also:MARGUERITE DE See also:VALOIS . The name Marguerite was See also:common in the Valois See also:dynasty, and during the 16th See also:century there were three princesses, all of whom figure in the See also:political as well as in the See also:literary See also:history of the See also:time, and who have
II
been not unfrequently confounded. The first and last are the most important, but all deserve some See also:account.
I. MARGUERITE D'See also:ANGOULEME (1492—1549). This, the most celebrated of the Marguerites, See also:bore no less than four surnames. By See also:family she was entitled to the name of Marguerite de Valois; as the daughter of See also: In 1527 she married Henri d'Albret, titular king of Navarre, who was considerably younger than herself, and whose See also:character was not faultless, but who seems on the whole, despite See also:slander, to have both loved and valued his wife. Navarre was not reconquered for the couple as Francis had promised, but ample apanages were assigned to Marguerite, and at See also:Nerac and See also:Pau See also:miniature courts were kept up, which yielded to none in See also:Europe in the intellectual brilliancy of their frequenters. Marguerite was at once one of the See also:chief patronesses of letters that See also:France possessed, and the chief See also:refuge and defender of See also:advocates of the Reformed doctrines. See also:Round her gathered C. See also:Marot, Bonaventure See also:Des Periers, N. Denisot, J. Peletier, V. Brodeau, and many other men of letters, while she protected See also:Rabelais, E. See also:Dolet, &c. For a time her See also:influence with her brother, to whom she was entirely devoted, and whom she visited when he was imprisoned in See also:Spain, was effectual, but latterly political rather than religious considerations made him discourage Lutheranism, and a fierce persecution was begun against both Protestants and freethinkers, a persecution which drove Des Periers to See also:suicide and brought Dolet to the stake. Marguerite herself, however, was protected by her brother, and her See also:personal inclinations seem to have been rather towards a mystical See also:pietism than towards dogmatic See also:Protestant sentiments. Nevertheless bigotry and the See also:desire to tarnish the reputation of See also:women of letters have led to the bringing of odious accusations against her character, for which there is not the smallest See also:foundation. Marguerite died at Odot-en-Bigorre on the 21st of See also:September 1549. By her first husband she had no See also:children, by her second a son who died in See also:infancy, and a daughter, Jeanne d'Albret, who became the mother of Henry IV. Although the poets of the time are unwearied in celebrating her charms, she does not, from the portraits which exist, appear to have been regularly beautiful, but as to her sweetness of disposition and strength of mind there is universal consent. Her literary See also:work consists of the Heptameron, of poems entitled See also:Les Marguerites de la marguerite des princesses, and of Letters. The Heptameron, constructed, as its name indicates, on the lines of the Decameron of See also:Boccaccio, consists of seventy-two See also:short stories told to each other by a See also:company of ladies and gentlemen who are stopped in the See also:journey homewards from See also:Cauterets by the swelling of a See also:river. It was not printed till 1558, ten years after the author's See also:death, and then under the See also:title of Les Amants fortunes. See also:Internal See also:evidence is strongly in favour of its having been a See also:joint work, in which more than one of the men of letters who composed Marguerite's See also:household took part. It is a delightful See also:book, and strongly characteristic of the See also:French See also:Renaissance. The sensuality which characterized the See also:period appears in it, but in a less coarse See also:form than in the See also:great work of Rabelais; and there is a poetical spirit which, except in rare instances, is absent from Pantagruel. The Letters are interesting and See also:good. The Marguerites consist of a very See also:miscellaneous collection of poems, mysteries, farces, devotional poems of considerable' length, spiritual and miscellaneous songs, &c. The Dernieres poesies, not printed till 1896 (by M. A. Lefranc), are interesting and characteristic, consisting of See also:verse-epistles, comedies (pieces in dramatic form on the death of Francis I., &c.), Les Prisons, a See also:long allegorical poem of amorous-religious-See also:historical See also:tenor; some miscellaneous verse chiefly in diza.ins, and a later and remarkablepiece, Le Navire, expressing her despair at her brother's death. Of the other See also:works, never yet completely edited, the best See also:editions are, for the Heptameron, See also:Leroux de Lincy (1855); for the Leltres, Genin (1841–1842); and for the Marguerites, &c., See also:Frank (1873), See also:English See also:translations of the Heptameron are rather numerous: one appeared in 1887 by A. Machen, with an introduction by See also:Miss A'. M. F. See also:Robinson (Mme See also:Darmesteter) and another (See also:anonymous) in 1894, with an See also:essay by G. See also:Saintsbury. The religious poem, Le Miroir de l'dme pecheresse was translated by See also:Queen See also: II. The second MARGUERITE (1523—1574), daughter of Fran-cis I., was born on the 5th of See also:June, 1523, at St Germain-en-Laye, and, at an See also:age the lateness of which caused lampoons, married See also:Emmanuel Philibert, duke of Savoy, in 1559. Like her aunt and her niece she was a good See also:scholar and strongly interested in men of letters. She is noteworthy as having given the chief impulse at the court of her brother Henry II. to the first efforts of the Pleiade (see See also:RONSARD), and as having continued her patronage of literature at See also:Turin. The poet Marc See also:Antonio Flaminio, for instance, congratulates himself in See also:pretty Latin verses on her singing his poems. Her Letters have been published by A. G. Spinelli. The Memoires are contained in the collection of See also:Michaud and Poujoulat, and have been published separately by Guessard (the best, 1842), Lalanne, See also:Caboche, &c. An English See also:translation with introduction by See also:Violet Fane appeared in 1892. Her character, and still more her circumstances, made the See also:pen very unamiably busy with her in her lifetime, the chief of many lampoons being the famous See also:Divorce satirique, variously attributed to See also:Agrippa d'See also:Aubigne, See also:Palma Cayet, and others. The chief See also:recent book on her is See also:Saint Poucy's Histoire de Marguerite de Valois (1887). (G. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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