Navarre M. Margarita of Navarre - one of the first women writers

Margaret of Navarre - French princess, queen of Navarre, writer, one of the first in her country - was a native of Angouleme, where she was born on April 11, 1492, and was the successor of the Angouleme branch of the Valois dynasty; her parents were Charles of Angoulensky and Louise of Savoy.

In 1509, Margaret married Prince Charles IV of Alençon, but their marriage did not last long, because... the husband died a short time after the Battle of Pavia. She married a second time on August 18, 1527, and her husband was King Henry d'Albret of Navarre. Their marriage marked the onset of a truce between the Huguenots and Catholics.

Being the sister of the French king Francis I of Valois, Navarre carried love for her brother and loyalty to him throughout her life. When the troops were defeated at the Battle of Pavia, she went to Madrid to seek his release. In 1543, a major event took place in her biography: she became an independent ruler, and a small kingdom located between Spain and France was in her possession.

Her worldview was largely shaped by the influence of the people with whom she corresponded - the Protestant Lefebvre d'Etaples and Bishop Meaux Guillaume Brisonnet. The court of the French princess turned into a center around which people of art, science, writers, humanists and bright personalities were concentrated. The Renaissance - Erasmus of Rotterdam, Maro, etc. - could always count on her hospitality and support.Freethinkers, poets, representatives of various poetic schools, among whom there were many whose work was not approved by the church, gathered under her wing.

The Queen of Navarre was one of the most educated representatives of the fair sex of her time, she spoke Latin and, most likely, Greek. She not only provided talented people with her patronage, but also significantly influenced the worldview and creative activity of many outstanding contemporaries. In a sense, she can be called the “progenitor” of the owners of literary salons, many of whom appeared in the 17th-18th centuries.

She was also one of the first French writers. A collection of poems, published in 1531, entitled “The Mirror of a Sinful Soul,” was extremely disapprovingly received by representatives of the University of Paris: the theologians of the Sorbonne recognized the work as heretical, and she was not brought to trial by the Inquisition only due to her high social status. The thesis put forward by Luther about justification by faith ran through the poetic lines as a red thread. Subsequent works - plays in the morality genre - caused a similar reaction.

Margaret of Navarre became famous as a writer throughout the continent thanks to her book “Heptameron” (“Seven Diary” in Greek). Written in the spirit of the French Renaissance, it consisted of 72 short stories, written as an imitation of Boccaccio's Decameron: divided by day of the week, seven cycles consisted of short, funny, mischievous, but at the same time instructive stories. In 1558 they were published as The Story of the Happy Lovers.

The creative legacy of Margarita of Navarre also includes “Memoirs”, in which the writer mainly praises her own merits, as well as letters that are an example of elegant style.

Material from Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia

This article is about the queen and the Renaissance writer. For an article on Margaret of Navarre, wife of Henry IV, see the article Margaret of Valois; for an article on the Queen of Sicily, see the article Margaret of Navarre (Queen of Sicily).

January 24 - December 21

Duchess of Berry

October 11 - December 21 Birth: 11 April(1492-04-11 )
Angouleme Death: 21 December(1549-12-21 ) (57 years old)
Odos, near Tarbes Genus: Valois, Angoulême branch Father: Charles of Angoulême Mother: Louise of Savoy Spouse: 1st: Charles IV of Alençon
2nd: Henry II d'Albret Children: (from 2nd) marriage: Joan III

Margaret of Navarre(fr. Marguerite de Navarre; April 11, Angoulême - December 21, Odos, near Tarbes) - French princess, sister of King Francis I, one of the first women writers in France. Also known as Marguerite de Valois(fr. Marguerite de Valois), Margaret of Angoulême(fr. Marguerite d'Angoulême) And Margarita French(fr. Marguerite de France).

Biography

She came from the Angoulême branch of the Valois dynasty. Sister of the French king Francis I of Valois. She became the wife of the prince of the blood, Duke Charles IV of Alençon, who died shortly after the Battle of Pavia, and in 1527 she remarried Henry d'Albret, King of Navarre. Daughter - Jeanne d'Albret. Grandmother of the future King Henry IV. Margaret of Navarre was distinguished by great devotion to her brother all her life; she traveled to Madrid to work for his release after the defeat at Pavia.

Her worldview was greatly influenced by the Protestants Lefebvre d'Etaples and Bishop Meaux Guillaume Brisonnet, with whom Margarita maintained correspondence. Margarita's court was an important center of French humanism.

Margaret of Navarre patronized Guillaume Budet, Clément Marot, Deperrier and other writers. She herself knew Latin (and possibly Greek) and had a great influence on many prominent people of that time; in this respect, she was the predecessor of the hostesses of literary salons of the 17th -18th centuries.

Creation

Margaret's courtyard in the city of Neraka was one of the centers of literature, science and art in Western Europe. Well educated, gifted with poetic abilities, the queen attracted poets of different schools, humanists and freethinkers persecuted by the Church. The luminaries of the European Renaissance - Marot, Decarier, Erasmus of Rotterdam - enjoyed her patronage and hospitality.

At the court of Margaret of Navarre, a translation was made from Latin of the book “The Acts of the Danes” by Saxo Grammatinus, containing the story of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, which Shakespeare used to create his play.

The works of Margarita of Navarre reflect her characteristic intense religious and ethical search and combine meditativeness, and sometimes mysticism, with a certain dryness of style. The poem “The Mirror of a Sinful Soul” caused sharp rejection on the part of the Sorbonne ( Le Miroir de l"ame pecheresse,), which reflected the Lutheran thesis of justification by faith; the version of the poem recalls the traditions of Petrarch. Echoes of the discussions between Erasmus and Luther about free will are heard in the “Dialogue in the Form of a Night Vision” ( Dialogue en forme de vision nocturne, , publ. ). The poem “The Ship”, rich in reminiscences from the Apostle Paul and Plato, is dedicated to the death of Francis I ( Le Navire, ). Other works include: “A Comedy Played at Mont-de-Marsan” ( La Comédie de Mont-de-Marsan, ); extensive correspondence with brother and other persons (published in). Even the farce "Sick" ( Le Malade, -) ends in the spirit of straightforward religious instruction. Most of Margarita’s poems were included in the collection “Pearls of Pearl Princesses” ( Marguerites de la Marguerite des princesses, ).

"Heptameron"

Margarita's most famous work is secular in nature and largely falls out of her literary heritage. This is a collection of seventy-two short stories “Heptameron” (“ Heptameron", in Greek "Seven Diary"), written under the influence of Boccaccio's "Decameron" and first published under the title " L'histoire des amants fortunes"without indicating the author's name after the death of Margarita, in the city; the full version, without ideological cuts, was released only in

It is generally accepted that the prototypes of the storytellers are those close to Margarita: Henry d'Albret (Irkan), her mother Louise of Savoy (Oisille), and the writer herself may have captured herself in the image of Parlamante. But this is only one of the available interpretations of the system of images framing “Heptameron” "

The book was a great success with the public. Margarita accurately and insightfully described the morals of the high society of her time, while at the same time defending the humanistic ideal of the human person. With all the variety of plots, the main place in “Heptameron” is occupied by love stories, and love is interpreted in the spirit of Neoplatonism. The tragic intonation characteristic of some of the love stories told by Margarita precedes the prose of the late 16th and early 17th centuries.

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Literature

• Lefranc A. Les idees réligieuses de Marguerite de Navarre d "apres son oeuvre poétique. - P.: .
• Jourda P. Margueite d"Angoulême, duchesse d"Alencon, reine de Navarre. - P.: .
• .
• Cazauran N. L "Heptameron de Marguerite de Navarre. - P.: .
• Mikhailov A.D. Book of short stories by the Queen of Navarre // Margaret of Navarre. Heptameron. - L.: 1982. - P. 3-20.
• Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron.
• Nicole Toussaint du Wast, Marguerite de Navarre, perle des Valois, Paris, Max Fourny, 1976.
• Mary Duclaux, Mary James Darmesteter. La Reine de Navarre, Marguerite d'Angoulême, trad. de l'anglais par Pierre Mercieux, Paris, Calmann-Lévy, 1900
• Jean-Luc Déjean, Marguerite de Navarre, Paris, Fayard, 1987
• Verdun-Louis Saulnier, "Marguerite de Navarre: Art médiéval et pensée nouvelle", Revue Universitaire, LXIII, 1954

Links

• (English)

Excerpt characterizing Margaret of Navarre

And with the easy and naive frankness of a Frenchman, the captain told Pierre the history of his ancestors, his childhood, adolescence and manhood, all his family, property, and family relationships. “Ma pauvre mere [“My poor mother.”] played, of course, an important role in this story.
– Mais tout ca ce n"est que la mise en scene de la vie, le fond c"est l"amour? L"amour! “N"est ce pas, monsieur; Pierre?” he said, perking up. “Encore un verre.” [But all this is only an introduction to life, its essence is love. Love! Isn’t it so, Monsieur Pierre? Another glass. ]
Pierre drank again and poured himself a third.
- Oh! Les femmes, les femmes! [ABOUT! women, women!] - and the captain, looking at Pierre with oily eyes, began to talk about love and his love affairs. There were a lot of them, which was easy to believe, looking at the smug, handsome face of the officer and at the enthusiastic animation with which he spoke about women. Despite the fact that all of Rambal's love stories had that dirty character in which the French see the exceptional charm and poetry of love, the captain told his stories with such sincere conviction that he alone experienced and knew all the delights of love, and described women so temptingly that Pierre listened to him with curiosity.
It was obvious that l "amour, which the Frenchman loved so much, was neither that lower and simple kind of love that Pierre once felt for his wife, nor that romantic love, inflated by himself, that he felt for Natasha (both types of this love Rambal equally despised - one was l"amour des charretiers, the other l"amour des nigauds) [the love of cab drivers, the other - the love of fools.]; l"amour, which the Frenchman worshiped, consisted mainly in the unnaturalness of relationships with women and in the combination of ugliness that gave the main charm to the feeling.
So the captain told the touching story of his love for one charming thirty-five-year-old marquise and at the same time for a charming innocent seventeen-year-old child, the daughter of a charming marquise. The struggle of generosity between mother and daughter, which ended with the mother, sacrificing herself, offering her daughter as a wife to her lover, even now, although a long-past memory, worried the captain. Then he told one episode in which the husband played the role of a lover, and he (the lover) played the role of a husband, and several comic episodes from souvenirs d'Allemagne, where asile means Unterkunft, where les maris mangent de la choux croute and where les jeunes filles sont trop blondes [memories of Germany, where husbands eat cabbage soup and where young girls are too blond.]
Finally, the last episode in Poland, still fresh in the captain’s memory, which he recounted with quick gestures and a flushed face, was that he saved the life of one Pole (in general, in the captain’s stories, the episode of saving a life occurred incessantly) and this Pole entrusted him with his charming wife (Parisienne de c?ur [Parisian at heart]), while he himself entered the French service. The captain was happy, the charming Polish woman wanted to run away with him; but, moved by generosity, the captain returned his wife to the husband, saying to him: “Je vous ai sauve la vie et je sauve votre honneur!” [I saved your life and save your honor!] Having repeated these words, the captain rubbed his eyes and shook himself, as if driving away the weakness that had seized him at this touching memory.
Listening to the captain's stories, as often happens in the late evening and under the influence of wine, Pierre followed everything that the captain said, understood everything and at the same time followed a number of personal memories that suddenly appeared to his imagination for some reason. When he listened to these stories of love, his own love for Natasha suddenly suddenly came to his mind, and, turning over the pictures of this love in his imagination, he mentally compared them with the stories of Rambal. Following the story of the struggle between duty and love, Pierre saw before him all the smallest details of his last meeting with the object of his love at the Sukharev Tower. Then this meeting had no influence on him; he never even thought about her. But now it seemed to him that this meeting had something very significant and poetic.
“Peter Kirilych, come here, I found out,” he now heard these words spoken, saw before him her eyes, her smile, her travel cap, a stray strand of hair... and something touching, touching seemed to him in all this.
Having finished his story about the charming Polish woman, the captain turned to Pierre with the question of whether he had experienced a similar feeling of self-sacrifice for love and envy of his lawful husband.
Provoked by this question, Pierre raised his head and felt the need to express the thoughts that were occupying him; he began to explain how he understood love for a woman a little differently. He said that in all his life he had loved and loves only one woman and that this woman could never belong to him.
- Tiens! [Look!] - said the captain.
Then Pierre explained that he had loved this woman from a very young age; but he did not dare to think about her, because she was too young, and he was an illegitimate son without a name. Then, when he received name and wealth, he did not dare to think about her, because he loved her too much, placed her too high above the whole world and therefore, especially above himself. Having reached this point in his story, Pierre turned to the captain with a question: does he understand this?
The captain made a gesture expressing that if he did not understand, he still asked to continue.
“L"amour platonique, les nuages... [Platonic love, clouds...],” he muttered. Was it the wine he drank, or the need for frankness, or the thought that this person does not know and will not recognize any of the characters in his story, or all together unleashed tongue to Pierre. And with a murmuring mouth and oily eyes, looking somewhere into the distance, he told his whole story: his marriage, and the story of Natasha’s love for his best friend, and her betrayal, and all his simple relationship with her. Provoked by Rambal’s questions, he also told him what he had hidden at first - his position in the world and even revealed his name to him.
What struck the captain most from Pierre’s story was that Pierre was very rich, that he had two palaces in Moscow, and that he gave up everything and did not leave Moscow, but remained in the city, hiding his name and rank.
It was late at night and they went out together. The night was warm and bright. To the left of the house the glow of the first fire that started in Moscow, on Petrovka, brightened. To the right stood high the young crescent of the month, and on the opposite side of the month hung that bright comet that was associated in Pierre’s soul with his love. At the gate stood Gerasim, the cook and two Frenchmen. Their laughter and conversation in a language incomprehensible to each other could be heard. They looked at the glow visible in the city.
There was nothing terrible about a small, distant fire in a huge city.
Looking at the high starry sky, the month, the comet and the glow, Pierre experienced joyful emotion. “Well, that’s how good it is. Well, what else do you need?!” - he thought. And suddenly, when he remembered his intention, his head began to spin, he felt sick, so he leaned against the fence so as not to fall.
Without saying goodbye to his new friend, Pierre walked away from the gate with unsteady steps and, returning to his room, lay down on the sofa and immediately fell asleep.

The glow of the first fire that started on September 2nd was watched from different roads by fleeing residents and retreating troops with different feelings.
That night the Rostovs' train stood in Mytishchi, twenty miles from Moscow. On September 1, they left so late, the road was so cluttered with carts and troops, so many things had been forgotten, for which people had been sent, that that night it was decided to spend the night five miles outside Moscow. The next morning we set off late, and again there were so many stops that we only got to Bolshie Mytishchi. At ten o'clock the gentlemen of the Rostovs and the wounded who were traveling with them all settled in the courtyards and huts of the large village. The people, the Rostovs' coachmen and the wounded's orderlies, having removed the gentlemen, had dinner, fed the horses and went out onto the porch.

On May 14, 1553, an important state event took place in the Saint-Germain Palace - Catherine de Medici, the wife of King Henry II, successfully gave birth to her tenth child. It turned out to be a daughter (the third in their family) - the future queen Margarita of Navarre, who became the prototype of the heroine of the immortal novel by Alexandre Dumas, whose real life was not much inferior to the fantasy of the famous writer.

Young heiress of the Valois family

It is known that from an early age she was distinguished by her rare beauty, sharp mind and independent disposition. Born at the height of the Renaissance, Margarita received an education that corresponded to the spirit of the times - she studied Spanish, Italian and ancient Greek, knew Latin, philosophy, literature, and also tried to write herself.

Sensuality awoke in her early, as evidenced by the stormy romance experienced by the sixteen-year-old princess with the Duke of Guise. However, their relationship was not destined to end in marriage - the hand of the heiress of the Valois family was too important a trump card in the political game of European thrones.

Ruined wedding

At first they wanted to marry her off to the Spanish heir, then to the Portuguese, but in the end the princess’s fiancé was the leader of the French Huguenots (Protestants) and the king of Navarre, Henry de Bourbon. With this marriage, the parents tried to establish at least a semblance of peace in a country constantly torn apart by religious wars between Catholics and Protestants.

The wedding took place, but did not bring the desired peace. On the contrary, it ended with the terrible and bloody Night of St. Bartholomew, on which Catholics destroyed more than 30 thousand Huguenots - co-religionists and political allies of the young husband. As a result, to save his life, he had to leave Paris straight from his marriage bed and flee to his family castle in Navarre.

Margaret of Navarre, who assisted her husband in every possible way in organizing the escape, nevertheless refused to follow his example and even, exposing herself to danger, saved several Protestant nobles from death. She showed fortitude by resisting the demands of numerous relatives who insisted on dissolving the marriage.

Spouses and political partners

Separated from Henry literally on the wedding day, but legally receiving the rights and title of Queen of Navarre, Margarita, having stayed in Paris for almost a year and waiting until the passions subsided, left for the Navarre residence of Nerache, where her husband had been hiding all this time. There, surrounded by a brilliant court, Margaret of Navarre served as a political mediator between her brother, who by that time had taken the French throne under the name of Henry III, and her own husband.

The success of the mission entrusted to her largely depended on how trusting and warm the relationship was between the spouses, but this was where the queen’s excessive sensuality spoiled the matter, pushing her into the arms of one or another lover. The husband, who was also not distinguished by a Puritan disposition, turned a blind eye to his wife’s adventures, but this could not help but introduce alienation into their relationship, and therefore weakened her influence as a political mediator.

Humiliating reprimand

One of these adventures - a stormy romance with the Marquis de Chanvallon - became known to Henry III. For this, Margarita received a reprimand from him during her next visit to Paris in 1583. Her brother reproached her for neglecting her duty towards her family and for failing to fulfill the political tasks assigned to her. He said that to all this she preferred love affairs that would compromise the Valois family in the eyes of all of Europe.

After listening to her brother’s moral teachings and bowing, Margaret of Navarre silently left. She herself was a queen and did not need anyone's instructions, even those voiced from above the throne. This was followed by her temporary break with the Parisian court, which, however, did not entail any political complications.

Rejected Spouse

Returning to Navarre, Margarita was displeased to discover that during her absence the situation at court had changed significantly, and in an extremely unfavorable way for her. If before for her frivolous husband, love affairs were just a moment's fun, now the next favorite - Countess de Guiche - was so successful that she took her place not only on the marital bed, but also, most annoyingly, in the eyes of the courtiers. Proud by nature, Margarita of Navarre (Margot, as Alexandre Dumas christened her) could not put up with such humiliation.

The situation was aggravated by the sudden death of the next contender for the French throne, François Alençon, as a result of which her husband became the legal heir. Considering the childlessness of the then reigning Henry III, he had every reason to receive the crown in the future. Thus, Margarita’s role as a mediator between the two courts was losing relevance, and as a woman she had long ceased to interest him.

Duke of Guise and Margaret of Navarre

The portrait of the queen, painted during her lifetime (it is the first in the article), conveys features full of dignity and hidden strength - qualities that are evidenced by her behavior at the most difficult moment of her life. Finding herself out of work, rejected by her husband, but without losing her royal dignity, Margarita retired to Angen - her own county, located in the south of France.

There, giving vent to her pent-up resentment, she declared support for the Catholic League, a religious organization whose goal, among other things, was to limit royal power. Thus, she became in opposition to both her husband and brother, Henry III.

Immediately, the Duke of Guise, who headed this organization and who, as mentioned above, was Margarita’s first lover, appeared in her palace. Their romance, interrupted for more than 15 years, resumed with renewed vigor. However, this time it was not destined to last long.

Having learned about her sister's entry into the Catholic League, the French king was furious and ordered her to be taken into custody, placing her in the castle of Husson, located in Auvergne. However, she did not have to stay in the role of a prisoner for very long - the gallant de Guise returned her freedom. But to do this, he did not storm the walls of the castle, but simply bought it, making his lady love the mistress of her former prison. He forced the guards to swear allegiance to her.

Years spent in Husson

Very soon, de Guise was killed in a battle with royal troops sent by Henry III to suppress the religious and political movement that he did not like. The French king himself, who was killed in 1589 by the Dominican monk Jacques Clément, did not survive him much. His death created turmoil in the state.

Paris was captured by Spanish troops, with the help of which Madrid tried to push its protege to the throne. The legitimate heir to the crown, the husband of Margaret of Navarre, Henry de Bourbon, at the head of the forces loyal to him, tried to resist this intervention.

In this extremely tense situation, it made no sense for the queen to appear either in Paris or in Navarre. For the next 18 years she lived in the castle of Husson, of which she became the owner under such unusual circumstances. In 1589, her husband managed, having overcome the resistance of the opposition and suppressed the intervention, to ascend the French throne, becoming King Henry IV, but fate did not prepare a place for Margarita next to him. A year later, citing his wife’s childlessness, the newly-crowned monarch obtained a divorce from Pope Clement VIII.

Back in Paris

After the divorce, Henry and Margaret of Navarre ceased to be spouses, but each of them remained a representative of the royal family, he was a Bourbon, she was a Valois, and therefore together they were perceived by contemporaries as members of the same family. The ex-husband continued to maintain a relationship with her and constantly involved Margarita in various ceremonial events.

For greater convenience, as well as to be in the thick of court life, she moved to Paris, where she spent the rest of her life, surrounding herself with the best writers and scientists of her time. Here she herself often took up the pen. Many of the works that Margarita of Navarre created in those years are widely popular even today.

"Heptameron" - a collection of 72 short stories and which is undoubtedly an imitation of Boccaccio's "Decameron" - is perhaps the most famous among them. What gives it a special piquancy is the documentary nature of the narrative, present in the writer’s story about the love adventures she actually experienced. Her memoirs, which were published several times and translated into different languages, have always enjoyed great success among readers.

last years of life

From the memoirs of contemporaries it is known that Margaret of Navarre remained true to herself in the main passion of her life until the end of her days. Even in old age, she had numerous love affairs, and her favorites were often so young that the uninitiated could mistake them for grandchildren gathered around their beloved grandmother.

In March 1615 she fell ill. It all started with a slight cold, which then developed a complication that resulted in pneumonia. This illness became the cause of death, which cut short the bright and eventful life that Margarita of Navarre lived. The biography of this woman subsequently formed the basis of the famous novel by Alexandre Dumas, with whose light hand she went down in history under the name of Queen Margot.

There is no typo in the title. History knows two Margarets of Navarre. One - received immortality: formally - due to involvement in the bloody events of St. Bartholomew's Night, in fact - thanks to Alexandre Dumas's novel “Queen Margot”. By the way, the novel in France is not nearly as famous as in Russia.
The second Margarita, who was called “the good genius of the French Renaissance,” was the beautiful Margot’s grandmother and was no less smart and beautiful. And since she was also virtuous, her descendants forgot her faster than her cruel and dissolute granddaughter. Moreover, they endowed the younger Margarita with all the virtues that the older one possessed: education, intelligence, a tender heart.
History has strange preferences.

Let's start with Margot Jr. Margaret of Valois, the youngest daughter of King Henry II of France and Queen Catherine de Medici, was born in 1556. Beautiful (all her contemporaries recognized this!) the girl received a more than excellent education: she spoke Latin and Greek fluently, was fond of philosophy and literature, and was well versed in the secrets of black magic and poisons.
All this made her the true daughter of Catherine, a Florentine from the famous family of Medici intriguers and poisoners. And Margot inherited her unbridled passion from her father, who, if you believe the scandalous chronicles of that time, did not miss a single more or less pretty woman.
Princess Margarita had her first lover when the girl was... thirteen years old. According to some sources, it was her own older brother Heinrich. According to others - cousin, Duke of Guise. One way or another, the matter remained purely within the family, and given the free morals that then reigned in the court circles of France, nothing scandalous happened. This is the rotation of life, its normal course. When the princess grows up, she will be married off for dynastic reasons, and the past is the past and can only concern the philistines, but certainly not those of royal blood.
Margaret's elder sister, Elizabeth, had already been betrothed to the Spanish infanta, but the plans of her mother, the de facto ruler of France after the death of King Henry, suddenly changed and Princess Elizabeth became the wife of the Spanish king, and not his son. The unfortunate young woman died at twenty-three years of age, rumored to have been poisoned by her own jealous husband. Almost simultaneously, her former fiancé-stepson also died, also, apparently, not without outside help.
Margarita mourned her sister, irritating the imperturbable Queen Mother: sentimentality was not one of the main virtues of Catherine de Medici. But when she told her youngest daughter the name of her future husband, Margarita was horrified. Her future fate could turn out to be almost a greater tragedy than the fate of her older sister.
Catherine decided to stage the reconciliation of two mortally warring religions - Catholicism and Protestantism - whose confrontation was tearing France apart. To do this, it was only necessary to become related to the Protestant royal house of Navarre (then an independent state) and make the young King Henry a relative and vassal of the French crown. And when the Protestants calm down and decide that religious strife is a thing of the past, as long as a Catholic wife and a Protestant husband peacefully share the marital bed, they will strike a decisive and merciless blow, cutting out the Protestant “heresy” at the root, in the literal and figurative sense of the word .
Catherine didn’t really care about her daughter’s happiness or unhappiness. In addition to Margarita, she had three more sons (more precisely, she remained, since the eldest, Francis, died before reaching the age of sixteen), the dynastic future of France seemed reliably secured, and all the cunning plans of the Florentine had so far brought her only success.
It didn’t cost anything to seduce the young King of Navarre, since he couldn’t resist women at all, but his mother, Dowager Queen Jeanne of Navarre... This lady simply had to be poisoned, since she absolutely did not want to enter into family ties with the Catholic royal court. The young King Henry knew perfectly well who poisoned his mother and why, but, nevertheless, he did not give up the idea of ​​marriage with Margaret of Valois. Mainly, apparently, because he was crazy about one of the queen’s ladies-in-waiting and was ready to do anything just not to be separated from his sweetheart.
But there were other reasons why the young king’s associates pushed him towards this strange alliance. Protestants in those days were no more humane than Catholics and also believed that “heresy” should be burned out with a hot iron. The Protestant conspiracy grew and became stronger, but... Queen Catherine's spies turned out to be more agile and less picky about their means. The Florentine woman was delighted: the enemy himself was rushing into the trap prepared for him.
The magnificent wedding took place in Paris in August 1672, just two months after the death of Queen Jeanne. Almost all the noble Protestants of France came to this celebration, naively assuming that they would now be able to carry out the long-prepared coup, take their rightful places at court and finally deal with the Catholics. Alas, they had to part with this illusion too soon.
Before the wedding bells had time to ring, another ringing - the alarm - notified Paris of the beginning of St. Bartholomew's Night, the same one on which several tens of thousands of Protestants were mercilessly killed, and the few who miraculously survived hastened to either flee to the provinces or convert to Catholicism. Among the latter was the young King of Navarre, who was saved from death only thanks to the whim of his wife. No, Queen Margot did not inflame with mad passion for her lawful husband, she saved him in spite of an overly domineering mother and an unfaithful lover, the Duke of Guise, who dared to neglect the invitation to a love date.
I saved her and didn’t regret it. The political marriage, concluded with mutual disgust, gradually transformed into a completely decent marital union, with some even glimpses of mutual feeling. The main reason for this was the amazing similarity of the characters of the spouses. Henry of Navarre was extremely amorous - Queen Margot was in no way inferior to him in this. Henry was ready to give his life and honor for a woman's affection - Margarita did the same in relation to her countless lovers.
Both husband and wife were equally tolerant of each other’s extramarital amusements, and often even supported each other. It didn’t cost Henry anything to hide one of Margaret’s admirers in his bedroom, so that he would not collide with his rival in the queen’s bedchamber. Margarita maintained the warmest relations with everyone - without exception! - her husband’s mistresses, and she even called one of them, the youngest, her daughter.
However, perhaps this was explained by the fact that Margaret was barren, and Henry’s by-products multiplied at an astonishing rate. You will inevitably become tolerant!
In addition, while Catherine de Medici was alive, and her third son Henry occupied the French throne, the Navarre couple had a hard time. For Catherine, the marriage of Henry and Margot no longer made any sense and she longed to get rid of her son-in-law and replace him with someone more beneficial for the dynasty. However, she would not have objected to her daughter being tonsured as a nun - Margot had already fulfilled her role, having served as bait for the Protestants, there was no other need for her.
A worthy daughter of her mother, Margarita perfectly understood the precariousness and danger of her position and placed her main bet on her albeit unfaithful, but “promising” husband. Her brother, King Henry III of France, had no children; the heir to the throne, the king's younger brother, preferred boys and was not married even nominally. Moreover, like all men of the Valois family, he was not in good health and could give his soul to God any day. And then Henry of Navarre became the direct heir to the throne, and she, Margot, became the potential queen of France...
Henry himself understood all this perfectly well. For this reason, he fawned over his wife’s almighty mother-in-law and brothers, for this reason he converted from Protestantism to Catholicism, for this reason he endured his wife’s more than extravagant antics and put up with her childlessness. Conspiracies in favor of the king's younger brother, which periodically arose at the French court, were drawn up with the invariable participation of Henry of Navarre and Margot.
One of these conspiracies almost broke the heart of the beautiful queen forever: her lover, Count Lerac de La Mole, was beheaded because he sincerely believed in the seriousness of Henry of Navarre’s intentions to immediately take the throne and rushed to help his queen put another crown on her head, in addition to Navarrese.
Of course, Henry, as always, remained on the sidelines, and the handsome de La Mole, after monstrous torture, lost his life. Margarita carried his embalmed head and heart with her until the end of her life in a special scented morocco bag. Very romantic, of course, only these relics became the beginning of the monstrous collection subsequently collected by Queen Margot: she collected the hearts of her lovers in the literal sense of the word.
De La Mole was replaced by the dashing and handsome de Bussy, one of the closest courtiers of the king's younger brother. Of course, he too found himself involved in another conspiracy, but, unlike the romantically meek de La Mole, he managed to give a worthy rebuff to those who came to kill him, and fled with Henry, Margot and the king’s younger brother from Paris.
Alas, fate was not favorable to him for long: de Bussy’s heart took its rightful place in another morocco bag on Queen Margot’s belt. The usual courtly phrase of lovers: “I am ready to give my life for you,” among the favorites of the Queen of Navarre turned out to be invariably prophetic. Sooner or later they really gave their lives for her. Did they regret it in the last minutes? Who knows...
The true reason for Henry of Navarre’s compliance and condescension towards his wife was quite accurately formulated by him himself in a letter to one of his Protestant friends:
“So that I am not accused of preaching immoral rules to tame jealous husbands and take advantage of their trust, I will explain the reasons that prompt me to behave so strangely. I was a king without a kingdom and at the head of a party that had to be supported, most often without troops and without money to hire them. Seeing the approaching thunderstorm, I had no other means to deflect it except submission. In such cases, a kind wife brought me considerable benefit. Her intercession always softened her mother's or her brothers' annoyance with me. On the other hand, her beauty constantly attracted many daredevils to me, who were kept with me by the ease of her behavior; its severity could harm the success of our party. Judge after this whether I should have spared her, although she sometimes reached the point of ridiculousness in her coquetry. There were also those among her admirers at whom she herself laughed, honoring me with power of attorney and informing me about their funny passion...”
In 1580, however, this indulgence in the whims of the Queen of Navarre led to a real war between Henry and Margot's brother - also Henry, King of France. Margarita was offended by her brother for bringing to the attention of her husband a connection with two courtiers at the same time (as if the husband himself did not know about this!) and achieved the start of hostilities. More precisely, she slipped Henry of Navarre another young mistress, who encouraged him to engage in military fun.
The war lasted seven months, ended in an “honorable draw” and... the pregnancy of a new favorite, who forgot to whom she owed her happiness and decided that she was quite capable of replacing Margarita not only on the bed, but also on the Navarre throne. Henry did not dissuade his mistress, but did not give her too rash promises, since he knew for sure that Margarita could be safely relied on in difficult times.
Since only three people knew about the favorite’s pregnancy: she, the King of Navarre and Queen Margot, one night the king woke up Margarita and asked her extremely affectionately:
- My dear, I know that there is nothing secret from you. Be so kind as to stand up and help our girl: she seems to be giving birth. I am sure that, seeing her in this position, you will forgive her for everything that has happened. You know how much I love her. I ask you, do me this favor.
Margarita, who knew how to be royally majestic, replied that she respected her husband too much to consider his child a dishonor for herself, that she would immediately take care of both the woman in labor and the baby, and she strongly advised the king himself to immediately leave with the whole court to hunt , so that unnecessary rumors do not spread too far.
The king did just that. In his absence, his mistress gave birth to a stillborn girl and soon disappeared from the circle of Navarrese courtiers. And Queen Margot, leaving her husband to have fun in Navarre, returned to Paris, where she began another fatal affair, closely connected with a cunning plan for revenge on her beloved husband. The fear that Margarita experienced during the pregnancy of Henry’s next passion forced her to renounce her previous indulgence and try to somehow repay her overly loving husband.
In 1584, the younger brother of the King of France died. Henry of Navarre became the legal heir to the throne and marked this event... with an official announcement that he intended to divorce his wife and legally marry a certain Countess de Grammont, who had already given birth to an illegitimate son.
Margarita was seriously frightened, but realized in time that without her, Henry’s rights to the French throne were more than illusory, and quickly calmed down. With some delay, Henry realized the same thing, so the marriage union, steeply mixed with blood and adultery, remained unbreakable... for the time being.
In 1589, Henry finally ascended to the French throne. His predecessor, Queen Margot's brother, had been stabbed to death in a church by a fanatical monk; Catherine de' Medici, the formidable dowager queen, had died a few years earlier, with the terrible knowledge that her hated son-in-law would eventually take the throne. Four years earlier, Margarita gave birth to a son from her next lover, christened Ange (Angel), and gave him up to be raised in a modest provincial noble family.
(Subsequently, this child will become a monk, join the Capuchin Order and take an active part in the conspiracy that led to the death of King Henry the Fourth, the legal husband of his mother. History loves such bizarre interweaving of destinies).
Margarita spent all these four years in the provinces in appalling poverty, forced to give herself to a cook for a piece of bread or to a footman for some services. Finally, she was rescued from this humiliating state by the Marquis de Cannillac, who brought Margarita to his castle and turned there into... the mistress of a real den of robbers. The words of Margarita’s older brother Karl, spoken by him during his sister’s wedding, turned out to be prophetic:
- Now my Margot will go into the hands of the Huguenots of the whole kingdom!
In 1599, the marriage of Henry and Margaret was dissolved due to the childlessness (!) of the spouse. After that, she lived for another sixteen years, changing lovers, flaunting outfits and obsequiously ingratiating herself with the new queen of France, Marie de Medici, her second cousin.
By the end of her life, one of the most beautiful women in France turned into an always drunk and heavily made-up old woman, one look at whom inspired disgust in normal people. And if anything set Queen Margot apart from her peers, it was only an impressive collection of men’s hearts, which she replenished almost until her last hour.
But none of the admirers wanted to keep her heart for themselves.
* *
*
But in the history of France there was another woman named Margarita and born princess of Valois. She was the elder sister of King Francis I, who came to the throne in 1515, just as the culture of France began to experience a revival - the Renaissance. France of this era gave the world the greatest philosophers, writers, artists and scientists. And in this brilliant row, a special place belongs to Princess Margaret.
The daughter of the Count of Angoulême, a prince of the blood, and Louise of Savoy, a beautiful, ambitious and intelligent woman, Margarita received an excellent education for that time. With the best teachers, the girl studied Latin, Greek, Italian, Spanish and German. The mother personally supervised Margarita’s upbringing and education, taught her to read, and encouraged all the children’s attempts at literary creativity. In this area, Margarita began to show her strength early and her undoubted literary talent awakened just as early.
At the age of seventeen, Margarita was married to Count Karl of Alençon - without love, even without inclination, but for purely business reasons. In this way, the protracted land dispute between the count and the French court was simply resolved. A lively, witty, well-educated young woman found herself imprisoned in her husband’s cold and gloomy castle, and her husband spent much more time on military campaigns than in his home. It seems that there was no marital relationship as such, which, however, did not yet burden Margarita too much. She was much more depressed by loneliness - not so much physical as spiritual.
Margaret's life changed dramatically after her younger brother Francis ascended the throne. For some time she became the first person at court and with all her ardor rushed to participate in the political and cultural life of France. Men did not excite her, but she was keenly interested in the ideas of humanism, the first successes of printing, the philosophical works of Erasmus of Rotterdam and the novels of Francois Rabelais.
In 1524, after fifteen years of a joyless marriage, Margarita was widowed: the Count of Alençon died in the Battle of Pavia, during which the French king himself, Margarita’s brother, was captured by the Spaniards. She had to become a diplomat and go to the Spanish king Charles the Fifth to seek the release of her brother.
After a year of tense negotiations, King Francis gained his freedom. And his sister has a new husband, with whom she has finally found family happiness. The second husband of Margaret of Valois was Henry de Albret, King of Navarre. From this marriage were born a daughter, Jeanne, the future Queen of Navarre and the mother of the French King Henry the Fourth, the husband of the above-mentioned Queen Margot, and a son, Jean, who did not live even six months.
Margarita's marriage significantly affected the fate of French society. Her marriage did not allow her to live at the French court, and from the distant border of Navarre it was very difficult to influence political and cultural processes in France. Always the intercessor of the Protestants, Margarita suffered, seeing how they gradually lost their hard-won positions at court. A convinced humanist, she could not help but see the bitterness and coarsening of morals.
Together with Margarita, the Renaissance in its best forms left the French court, but hitherto unprecedented intellectual life began to bubble up in Pau, the main city of Navarre. It was there that Queen Margaret gathered her circle of humanists, and it was there that the poems of one of the greatest poets of France, Pierre de Ronsard, were first read. There, a translation into French of the famous “Decameron” by the Italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio was published. And there the literary talent of Margarita herself flourished magnificently.
She tried her hand at various genres, her creative heritage is varied and unequal: poetry, allegorical poems, plays. But her best work, undoubtedly, is “Heptameron” - a book containing seventy-two short stories that are both frivolous and lyrical. For a long time the book was considered an indecent and obscene work, but this is not the author’s fault. Margarita wrote as they spoke at her brother's court and in Navarrese society. At that time they did not and could not write differently. The significance of this lively and fascinating book also lies in the fact that it is actually the first prose work in the French language, which was just being formed at that time, and, moreover, written by a woman.
Margaret of Navarre - queen, writer, philanthropist, good genius of French humanists and Protestants - died at the age of fifty-seven years, in 1549. With her death, an entire era in the life of France ended. Five years after this, Margarita of Valois, the daughter and sister of kings, the future wife of the grandson of Margarita of Navarre, Queen Margot, was born in Paris. She did nothing for France, but is known much more than her namesake, who did a lot for the country.
This is human memory, and nothing can be done about it.

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History knows many famous and great women. Among them there are rulers, scientists, actresses, writers and amazing beauties. Margaret of Navarre did not commit great deeds, but many people know about her. In history, several representatives of the fair sex are known under this name. Today we will talk about the first wife of King Henry IV.

Childhood and youth

Margaret of Navarre belonged to the family. She was the youngest child in the family. Her mother is the famous queen of France and one of the most influential women in Europe in the 16th century - Catherine de Medici. Father - Henry II of Valois.

Since childhood, Margarita was distinguished by her beauty and charm. For this she was nicknamed the pearl of France. She captivated not only with her pleasant appearance, but also with her wit. Smart beyond her years, the future queen studied literature, philosophy, medicine and spoke several languages: ancient Greek, Italian, Spanish.

Marriage

Parents predicted one of several candidates as a husband for Margarita: the Spanish heir and the future King of Navarre. Rumors about the frivolity of the bride ruined matrimonial plans with Spain and Portugal, and Margarita was married to Henry of Bourbon. The marriage was a forced political union, and there was no talk of any feelings of the newlyweds.

The 16th century in France was a time of struggle between Protestants and Catholics. Two years before her marriage, Marguerite de Valois began a serious affair with Duke Henry of Guise. She was ready to marry him, but her parents forbade her to even think about this marriage. This marriage could upset the delicate balance established between the two opposing groups, since the Duke was the unofficial head of the Catholics in France.

In 1572, nineteen-year-old Margaret became the wife of Henry of Navarre, one of the leaders of the Protestants (Huguenots). He was 18 years old at that time.

"Bloody Wedding"

Many Huguenots, including their leaders, arrived in Paris for the celebration. Henry de Guise and his supporters took advantage of this. The event, which occurred on August 24, 1572, went down in history as St. Bartholomew's Night, when Catholics attacked and killed Protestants who had come to the wedding. Historians believe that the inspirer and organizer of this massacre was Catherine de Medici. Apparently, Margaret of Navarre, whose biography is full of tragic and terrible events, was unaware of the plans of her mother and de Guise. Some researchers are even sure that the Queen of France hoped that her daughter would die along with Henry, and this would give her additional trump cards in the fight against the hated Huguenots. But Margarita showed amazing courage and composure. She did not allow her husband to be killed, refusing to divorce him, as the family insisted. The Queen of Navarre also saved several of his people. Whatever their relationship was later, Henry IV never forgot to whom he owed salvation on that terrible night.

Margaret - Queen of Navarre: life under supervision

After the events of August 24, Henry was forced to flee Paris. Margarita remained virtually a hostage to her own family. She was suspected of helping her husband escape. And this was true. Only 6 years later she was able to reunite with her husband, when a temporary peace was concluded between Protestants and Catholics. Until 1582 she lived in Navarre, where she created a brilliant court. At the insistence of her mother, she returned to Paris, but after a quarrel with King Henry III, who believed that she was busy with herself and did little to help the family in political affairs, Margarita went to Navarre to join her husband. But Henry was already attracted to someone else, and the queen found herself out of work.

She went to her county, Agen. Margaret of Navarre again began a relationship with and took part in intrigues against her husband and brother, King Henry III. She spent the next 18 years in the castle of Husson, where she was initially a prisoner for a short time. With the help of the Duke of Guise, she gained freedom and became the mistress of the fortress.

Divorce from Henry IV and last years of life

In 1584, Henry IV was crowned at Chartres Cathedral. After a quarrel with Margarita in 1585, their relationship was effectively severed. The childless king needed to take care of an heir. For large compensation, he obtained a divorce in 1599. Despite the fact that the relationship between Margaret and Henry in marriage was difficult, after his death, the Queen of Navarre (this title was left to her) supported the second wife of her ex-husband,

Margaret of Navarre, whose biography is extremely interesting, died in 1615. She spent her last years in Paris and until the end remained an active participant in the political life of France.

Margaret of Navarre and her image in art

During her life, she captivated with her beauty and wit; after her death, the biography of this amazing woman became an inspiration for many works of art. Margarita of Navarre (Margot) became the central character in the novel by Alexandre Dumas the Elder. Her appearance is highly romanticized here, many facts of her biography are distorted to suit the writer’s creative plan or simply made up. But the image turned out to be unusually whole and alive. "Queen Margot" is rightfully considered one of Dumas's best novels.