Although the King of Navarre had not always lived in perfect accord with his wife, he none the less keenly felt the loss he had sustained by her death.  Olhagaray represents him when deprived of Margaret as no longer showing the same firm purpose of life, but as sad, discontented, and altering his plans at every trifle.(2) He gave orders that Margaret’s remains should be interred in the Cathedral of Lescar, some four and a half miles from the Chateau of Pau, with which it is said to have been at that time connected by a subterranean passage.  Several of the Navarrese sovereigns had already been buried there, for the See was a kind of primacy, the Bishops being ex-officio presidents of the States of Beam.(3)

1 M. Lalanne, in his edition of Brantome’s works, maintains that Margaret did not die at Odos, near Tarbes, but at Audaux, near Orthez, basing this contention on the fact that Brantome calls the castle “Audos in Beam,” and that Odos is in Bigorre.  Tradition, however, has always pointed to the latter locality, though, on the other hand, it is stated that less than half a century after Margaret’s death Odos was nothing but a ruin, and had long been in that condition.  In 1596 Henry IV. gave the property to John de Lassalle, by whose descendants the chateau was restored (Bascle de Lagreze’s Chateau de Pau, &c.).

     2 Histoire de Foix et de Bearn, &c., p. 506.

     3 Lescar having ceased to be a bishopric since 1790, its
     church, which still exists, no longer ranks as a cathedral.

It was in this quaint old cathedral church, dating, so archaeologists assert, from the eleventh century, that Margaret’s remains were interred with all due pomp and ceremony.  The Duchess of Estouteville headed the procession, followed by the Duke of Montpensier, the Duke of Nevers, the Duke of Aumale, the Duke of Etampes, the Marquis of Maine, and M. de Rohan.  Then came the grands deuils or chief mourners, led by the Duke of Vendome, and three lords carrying the crown, sceptre, and hand of justice.  The Viscount of Lavedan officiated as grand master of the ceremonies, and special seats were assigned to the States of Navarre, Foix, Beam, and Bigorre, and to the chancellor, counsellors, and barons of the country; whilst on a platform surrounded by lighted tapers there was displayed an effigy of the Queen robed in black.(1) After the ceremony a banquet was served in accordance with Bearnese custom, the chief mourners being invited to the Duke of Vendome’s table, whilst the others were served in different rooms.(2)

     1 Lettres de Marguerite (Pieces justificatives.  No. xi.).

     2 Bascle de Lagreze’s Chateau de Pau, &c.

A few years later—­in June 1555—­the remains of King Henry, Margaret’s husband, were in turn brought to Lescar for burial.  The tombs of husband and wife, however, have alike vanished, having been swept away during the religious wars, when Lescar was repeatedly stormed and sacked, when Huguenot and Catholic, in turn triumphant, vented their religious frenzy upon the graves of their former sovereigns; and to-day the only tombs to be found in the old cathedral are those of personages interred there since the middle of the seventeenth century.