The Portrait of Queen Margaret placed as frontispiece to the present volume is from a crayon drawing by Clouet, preserved at the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris.

Ernest A. Vizetelly.

London,

1893.

Explanation of the Initials appended to the Notes.

B.J...Bibliophile Jacob, i.e.  Paul Lacroix.

D.....F.  Dillaye.

F.....Felix Frank.

L.....Le Roux de Lincy.

M.....Anatole de Montaiglon.

Ed....E.  A. Vizetelly.

MARGARET OF ANGOULEME, QUEEN OF NAVARRE.

I.

Louise of Savoy; her marriage with the Count of Angouleme—­ Birth of her children Margaret and Francis—­Their father’s early death—­Louise and her children at Amboise—­Margaret’s studies and her brother’s pastimes—­Marriage of Margaret with the Duke of Alencon—­Her estrangement from her husband—­ Accession of Francis I.—­The Duke of Alencon at Marignano—­ Margaret’s Court at Alencon—­Her personal appearance—­Her interest in the Reformation and her connection with Clement Marot—­Lawsuit between Louise of Savoy and the Constable de Bourbon.

In dealing with the life and work of Margaret of Angouleme (1) it is necessary at the outset to refer to the mother whose influence and companionship served so greatly to mould her daughter’s career.

1 This Life of Margaret is based upon the memoir by M, Le Roux de Lincy prefixed to the edition of the Heptameron issued by the Societe des Bibliophiles Francais, but various errors have been rectified, and advantage has been taken of the researches of later biographers.

Louise of Savoy, daughter of Count Philip of Bresse, subsequently Duke of Savoy, was born at Le Pont d’Ain in 1477, and upon the death of her mother, Margaret de Bourbon, she married Charles d’Orleans, Count of Angouleme, to whom she brought the slender dowry of thirty-five thousand livres. (1) She was then but twelve years old, her husband being some twenty years her senior.  He had been banished from the French Court for his participation in the insurrection of Brittany, and was living in straitened circumstances.  Still, on either side the alliance was an honourable one.  Louise belonged to a sovereign house, while the Count of Angouleme was a prince of the blood royal of France by virtue of his descent from King Charles V., his grandfather having been that monarch’s second son, the notorious Duke Louis of Orleans, (2) who was murdered in Paris in 1417 at the instigation of John the Bold of Burgundy.

     1 The value of the Paris livre at this date was twenty
     sols, so that the amount would be equivalent to about L1400.

     2 This was the prince described by Brantome as a “great
     debaucher of the ladies of the Court, and invariably of the
     greatest among them.”—­Vies des Dames galantes (Disc. i.).