1 Epistle ii.:  Le Despourveu a Madame la Duchesse
     d’Alencon, in the OEuvres de Clement Marot, 1700, vol. i.
     p. 99.

Shortly afterwards we find him furnishing her with information respecting the royal army, which had entered Hainault and was fighting there. (1)

     1 Epistle iii.:  Du Camp d’ Attigny a ma dite Dame d’
     Alencon, ibid., vol. i. p. 104.

Lenglet-Dufresnoy, in his edition of Marot’s works, originated the theory that the numerous poems composed by Marot in honour of Margaret supply proofs of an amorous intrigue between the pair.  Other authorities have endorsed this view; but M. Le Roux de Lincy asserts that in the pieces referred to, and others in which Marot incidentally speaks of Margaret, he can find no trace either of the fancy ascribed to her for the poet or of the passion which the latter may have felt for her.  Like all those who surrounded the Duchess of Alencon, Marot, he remarks, exalted her beauty, art, and talent to the clouds; but whenever it is to her that his verses are directly addressed, he does not depart from the respect he owes to her.  To give some likelihood to his conjectures, Lenglet-Dufresnoy had to suppose that Marot addressed Margaret in certain verses which were not intended for her.  In the epistles previously mentioned, and in several short pieces, rondeaux, epigrams, new years’ addresses, and epitaphs really written to or for the sister of Francis I., one only finds respectful praise, such as the humble courtier may fittingly offer to his patroness.  There is nothing whatever, adds M. Le Roux de Lincy, to promote the suspicion that a passion, either unfortunate or favoured, inspired a single one of these compositions.

The campaign in which Francis I. was engaged at the time when Marot’s connection with Margaret began, and concerning which the poet supplied her with information, was destined to influence the whole reign, since it furnished the occasion of the first open quarrel between Francis I. and the companion of his childhood, Charles de Bourbon, Count of Montpensier, and Constable of France.  Yielding too readily on this occasion to the persuasions of his mother, Francis intrusted to Margaret’s husband the command of the vanguard, a post which the Constable considered his own by virtue of his office.  He felt mortally offended at the preference given to the Duke of Alencon, and from that day forward he and Francis were enemies for ever.

Whilst the King was secretly jealous of Bourbon, who was one of the handsomest, richest, and bravest men in the kingdom, Louise of Savoy, although forty-four years of age, was in love with him.  The Constable, then thirty-two, had lost his wife, Susan de Bourbon, from whom he had inherited vast possessions.  To these Louise of Savoy, finding her passion disregarded, laid claim, as being a nearer relative of the deceased.  A marriage, as Chancellor Duprat suggested, would have