Marguerite d’Angouleme must first be considered as the real power behind the supreme authority of her period, her brother the king; secondly, as a furtherer of the development and encouragement of good literature, good taste, high art, and pure morals; thirdly, as a critic of importance.  She is entitled to the first consideration by the fact that as the confidential adviser of Francis I. she moulded his opinions and checked his evil tendencies:  the affairs of the kingdom were therefore, to a large extent, in her hands.  She collected and partly organized the chaotic mass of material thrown upon the sixteenth-century world, leaving its moulding into a classic French form to the next century; and by her spirit of tolerance she endeavored to further all moral development:  thus is she entitled to the second consideration.  Gifted with rare delicacy of taste, solidity of judgment, and the ability to select, discriminate, and adapt, she set the standards of style and tone:  therefore, she is entitled to the third consideration.

The love of Marguerite for her brother, and her unselfish devotion to his interests, is a precedent unparalleled in French history until the time of Madame de Sevigne.  In all her letters we find the same tenderness, gentleness, passion, inexhaustible emotion, sympathy, and compassion that distinguished her actions.

In her Contes (the Heptameron) de la Reine de Navarre we have an accurate representation of society, its manners and style of conversation; in it we find, also, remnants of the brutality and grossness of the Middle Ages, as well as reflections of the higher tendencies and aspirations of the later time.  In having a thorough knowledge of the tricks, deceits, and follies of the professional lovers of the day, and of their object in courting women, Marguerite was able to warn her contemporaries and thus guard them against immorality and its dangers.  In her works she upheld the purity of ideal love, exposing the questionable and selfish designs of the clever professional seducers.  A specimen may be cited to show her style of writing and the trend of her thought: 

“Emarsuite has just related the history of a gentleman and a young girl who, being unable to be united, had both embraced the religious life.  When the story is ended, Hircan, instead of showing himself affected, cries:  ’Then there are more fools and mad women than there ever were!’ ‘Do you call it folly,’ says Oisille, ’to love honestly in youth and then to turn all love to God?’ ...  ’And yet I have the opinion,’ says Parlemente, ’that no man will ever love God perfectly who has not perfectly loved some creature in this world.’  ’What do you by loving perfectly?’ asks Saffredant; ’do you call perfect lovers who are bashful and adore ladies from a distance, without daring to express their wishes?’ ‘I call those perfect lovers,’ replies Parlemente, ’who seek some perfection in what they love—­whether goodness, beauty or kindness—­and