Margaret of Valois

Portrait of Margaret of Valois by an anonymous painter after François Clouet , second half of the 16th century, Musée Condé

Margaret of Valois ( French Marguerite de Valois ; born May 14, 1553 in Saint-Germain-en-Laye , † March 27, 1615 in Paris ), also known under the name of la Reine Margot , was Queen of France and Navarre and Duchess of Valois .

The life of Margaret of Valois - after the death of Henry III. last offspring of the Valois dynasty - was marked by scandals, intrigues and tragedies. As a devout member of the Catholic Church, married to the Huguenot King Henry of Navarre , she was the plaything of religious and political parties in the struggle for power in France due to the French wars of religion.

Her life is mainly known through the memoirs she wrote, which give an almost authentic picture of her time in the years 1565 to 1582. The rest of her life is documented, among other things, by the letters she has received. Contemporaries described her as proud, "generous and generous to lavish". She was also considered to be “thirsty for knowledge, gifted with speech, quick-witted and open-minded towards the sciences”.

Margarete lived a lifestyle that was unconventional for her time, which contributed to numerous rumors and mockery at the French royal court. She herself did not oppose this talk, so that her person was often portrayed as vicious and immoral in later publications. Today's historians attest to her, however, that she only took the freedoms that were common for male members of the nobility at the time.

family

Margarete von Valois was born as the seventh child and thus the youngest surviving daughter of Henry II and Catherine of Medici . She received her first name in honor of her godmother Marguerite de Valois-Angoulême , an aunt on her father's side. Through her two sisters Elisabeth and Claudia and her brothers Franz II , Karl IX. and Heinrich III. she was the sister of four European kings and queens and a duchess.

Margarete hardly knew her father because he died at a tournament on the occasion of the wedding of her sister Elisabeth to the Spanish King Philip II when she was only six years old. Her relationship with her mother was very ambivalent throughout her life and was characterized by a mixture of fear and admiration. She was deeply in love with her sisters and younger brother François-Hercule , while the relationship with her older brother Heinrich was characterized by rivalry from youth and even turned into hateful enmity at times in later years. Only little is known about the relationship with her second oldest brother Karl. What is certain is that he was the one who invented Margarete's nickname Margot and was the only one to use it.

The relationship with her husband was marked by ups and downs, which were often influenced by the numerous mistresses of Henry of Navarre. She often stood by his side loyally and supported him and his goals to the best of her ability, even though it was not politically opportune for her. At other times, however, she openly took a stand against him or tried to thwart his plans. It wasn't until a few years after their marriage was annulled that a lasting friendly relationship developed between the two.

Life

Childhood and youth

Margaret at the age of about seven, portrait of François Clouet around 1560, Musée Condé

Margarete spent the first years of life together with her siblings and Maria Stuart in the castle of Saint-Germain-en-Laye under the care of her governess Charlotte de Vienne, Baronne de Curton, who became their first lady-in-waiting after Margaret's wedding. After both Elisabeth and Maria married and left Saint-Germain-en-Laye, they moved to the Louvre in 1559 , where her two brothers Heinrich and François-Hercule kept her company. She received a comprehensive, classically humanistic upbringing, which later made itself felt, among other things, in the fact that she was fluent in Latin, Greek, Italian and Spanish.

As the daughter of one of the most influential and powerful ruling houses in Europe, the princess was a sought-after marriage candidate even as a child. In 1560, her parents had the idea of marrying her to the Spanish Infante Don Carlos . When the portraits of several potential wives were presented to him at the age of 15, he decided on Margarete with the words “Más hermosa es la pequeña” (German: “The little one is the prettiest”). But the plans came to nothing, as did Emperor Maximilian II's plan in 1563 to marry his son Rudolf to Margarete.

At the beginning of the religious conflicts in France, Catherine de Medici sent her daughter and her youngest son François-Hercule to Amboise in 1562, while Heinrich and Karl stayed with their mother in the Louvre. From January 1564, Margarete accompanied her royal brother Karl on a journey through the provinces of his empire until May 1566.

After returning to Paris, a youth liaison developed between Margarete and the young Duke Henri I de Lorraine, duc de Guise . This was even contemplating marriage. A marriage between him and Margarete was completely unimaginable for the French royal family, as Henry's family was a leading force in the relentless Catholic league that fought the French Huguenots. The ruling house, on the other hand, was anxious at that time to create a political balance between Huguenots and Catholics in the empire. Henri de Lorraine was quickly dismissed from court service and only a little later married to the godchild of the king's mother, Catherine de Clèves .

As early as 1565, plans to marry Margaret to King Sebastian I of Portugal had failed. Efforts to wed her to her widower Philip II of Spain after the death of her sister Elisabeth also failed.

Marriage and Bartholomew's Night

For purely dynastic interests, King Charles IX aspired. and his mother from 1570 a wedding of the Catholic educated Margaret to the Protestant Heinrich von Navarra. The aim of this connection was to bring about a reconciliation between the French Protestants and Catholics and thus to seal the peace of Saint-Germain after the third Huguenot War. This plan was very unusual for the time, because a marriage of members of different religious affiliations was completely unusual in the marriage policy of the European ruling houses.

Long and tough marriage negotiations began, led by Heinrich's mother Johanna and Margarete's mother Katharina in Tours and Blois . At the beginning of the talks, both sides relied on the fact that the other side was ready to convert to the other's faith, but this turned out to be a false hope. It was already agreed in a preliminary contract that was concluded in Blois in April 1572 that no conversion to religion was necessary.

Although Margarete found her future husband unpolished and ugly and complained about his foul smell, she consented to the marriage under her mother's pressure; at least that is what she claimed in later years, although there is nothing to be read about it in her memoirs and they tend to convey a different picture.

The final marriage contract was signed in Paris on August 17, 1572 and set a very high dowry for Margaret: Charles IX. committed herself to a payment of 300,000 goldécu , Catherine de Medici to 200,000 livres . Another 25,000 livres were to be paid each by their brothers Heinrich and François-Hercule. In return, Margarete undertook to waive all inheritance claims regarding the family assets. However, it appears that the agreed dowry has not been paid at all or only in part. The signing of the contract was followed by an official engagement ceremony in the Louvre under the direction of Charles' de Bourbon , Archbishop of Rouen and uncle of the groom.

The scene described by Margarete in her memoirs in her bedroom during Bartholomew's Night in a 19th century painting by Alexandre-Évariste Fragonard in the Louvre

The following day the wedding ceremony took place without waiting for the Pope's dispensation, which was actually necessary . The ceremony was held in the forecourt of the Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral because Henry of Navarre refused to attend a Catholic mass in the church building. The rumor that Margarete was forced to nod by her brother Heinrich when asked whether she wanted to take her fiancé as a husband, comes from a later time and was brought into the world by the historiographer Pierre Matthieu . The ceremony was followed by festivities and popular amusements lasting several days, which lasted until August 21, 1572.

In the wake of Henry of Navarre, numerous Huguenots had come to Paris to attend the wedding. A failed assassination attempt on the Calvinist admiral Gaspard de Coligny triggered the Bartholomew Night , during which numerous Huguenots were killed. For this reason the marriage of Margarete von Valois went down in the annals as the Parisian Blood Wedding . Henry of Navarre was captured and forced to be a Catholic. Katharina von Medici suggested to her daughter to have the marriage annulled because of the bloody massacre, which Margarete refused and instead was loyal to her husband. Despite converting to Catholicism, he was held prisoner in the Louvre together with Margarete and her younger brother François-Hercule.

Margarete's memoirs are one of the few contemporary accounts of the events of St. Bartholomew's Night and, along with a text by Jean de Mergey, secretary to Cardinal François de La Rochefoucauld , the only known report that describes the events within the Louvre. Margarete says that Gabriel de Levis, Viscount de Leran, a Huguenot from her husband's wedding suite, got into her bedroom during the night when he was pursued by her brother Karl's royal soldiers. Her intercession spared his life. This scene was later used in a modified form in Alexandre Dumas ' novel La rein Margot .

Conspiracy against the king and the trip to Flanders

Portrait of Margaret from 1572. This is a copy by an anonymous painter in Blois Castle . The original from the François Clouet school is in the Musée Crozatier.

Henry III. was elected King of Poland and Lithuania at the instigation of Catherine de Medici in 1573 and left Paris for Krakow. At the same time, a political grouping of moderate Protestants and Catholics was formed in the ranks of the French nobility, which was called Les Malcontents ("The Dissatisfied"). They advocated a lasting reconciliation between the two religions in France and for more rights for the Protestant side. Both Heinrich von Navarra and Margarete and François-Hercule, although still under arrest in the Louvre, actively participated in this alliance. Before Charles IX. died in May 1574, the Malcontents were the driving force of a conspiracy known as the Complot du Mardis Gras (also: Complot de Vincennes ). Its aim was not to let Henry, who was still in Poland, but to François-Hercule ascend the throne as the next French king, because he had a reputation for being more tolerant than his older brother in matters of religion. The conspiracy was uncovered in February 1574, ironically by Margarete herself, who reported it to her mother Katharina, although her motives for it are still unclear. As a result, François-Hercule and Heinrich von Navarra were arrested at Vincennes Castle . A first attempt at escape by the two conspirators failed and two of their supporters - Joseph Boniface de La Môle and Count Annibal de Coconas - were executed for it. A second escape plan devised by Margarete also failed, but this time without any consequences for those involved. At the instigation of Catherine de Medici, a commission of members of parliament was formed to investigate the conspiracy case in detail. To this end, Margarete wrote the Mémoire justificatif pour Henri de Bourbon for her husband in April 1574 , a defense document that was supposed to serve him well during the investigation and that convinced the commission that he and François-Hercule had not been involved in the plot . The two were brought back to Paris and were under even stricter surveillance than had been the case immediately after St. Bartholomew's Night.

Despite stricter conditions of detention, François-Hercule was able to flee to Dreux on September 15, 1575 with Margarete's help from the Louvre . Since Henry III. Suspected her of complicity, Margarete was placed under house arrest and under strict surveillance, although it could not be proven that she had participated in her brother's escape.

Heinrich von Navarra did the same to François-Hercule in February 1576 - however, he managed to escape from Paris without the help of his wife, who was not informed of the escape plans. Nevertheless, she was again under suspicion of having contributed to the success of the project. Heinrich's flight also meant a two-year separation of the couple and their estrangement.

François-Hercule had meanwhile openly sided with the Protestants. The dissatisfied Protestant groups gathered around him and later also around Heinrich von Navarra and prepared for new military ventures. Margarete was still under house arrest in the Louvre at the time. It was only when François-Hercule refused to negotiate peace while his sister was a prisoner that Henry III voted. a lifting of the arrest. Together with her mother, Margarete attended the subsequent peace negotiations between the royal family and representatives of the Huguenots, which resulted in the Edict of Beaulieu in May 1576 .

In 1577 Margarete traveled to Flanders to promote François-Hercule and his throne ambitions in the Spanish Netherlands . Opposite Heinrich III. and her mother, she pretended to want to travel to the cure, and was accompanied by Philippe de Montespan, Princess of Roche-sur-Yon and her lady-in-waiting Hélène de Tournon. Most of Margarete's memoirs deal with this stay in Flanders, although it only lasted from late May to around mid-December. Ultimately, Margarete's diplomatic efforts were unsuccessful because Heinrich III. denied his younger brother the support necessary to put his plans into practice.

Heinrich von Navarra had already asked his wife several times after her house arrest to come to his court in Nérac . But both Heinrich III. and Katharina, too, had feared that Margaret might become a kind of hostage with whom the royal family could be blackmailed once she was in Navarre. That is why they had done everything in their power to prevent Margarete from leaving for Nérac and for this reason very quickly consented to their plans to travel to Flanders. But after Margaret's return, they could no longer give reasons that prevented the couple from seeing each other again. Rather, the king hoped that Margarete would influence her husband in future negotiations between Protestants and Catholics in the interests of the royal family, if it was a matter of mediating between the parties.

Nérac

In 1578 Margarete was allowed to travel to Gascony, accompanied by her mother and Chancellor Guy Faur, seigneur de Pibrac, to see her husband again. The couple met again for the first time in the Guyenne , but Heinrich von Navarra did not initially show much interest in his wife. He treated them politely and courteously, but avoided meeting them too often.

After Katharina von Medici left for Paris, the royal couple stayed for a short time at Pau Castle . Catholicism was forbidden there, however, and although an exception was made for Margarete and Catholic masses were read for her in a small chapel, she felt very uncomfortable according to her memoir. Only when the court moved to Nérac in the Duchy of Albret did their situation improve, because the Albret belonged to the territory of the French kingdom and the religious rules there were much more tolerant.

Under Margarete's influence, the court quickly developed into a meeting place for respected writers and philosophers such as Guillaume de Saluste du Bartas and Michel de Montaigne . The Queen introduced the ideas of Neo-Platonism in Nérac , organized literary circles and gave numerous lavish parties. Their splendid court attitudes, paired with extravagant events and the highly pronounced kind of gallantry customary there, made a name for themselves throughout Europe, so that they are even said to have inspired William Shakespeare to his comedy Lost Loves Labor . When it came to the Seventh Huguenot War in 1579 , many contemporaries blamed the intrigue at the Néracer court and the Queen of Navarre for it, which is why it was also called Guerre des Amoureux ("War of the Lovers"). Today's historians do not see the causes in Margarete's assumed resentment against her brother Heinrich, but rather in an inadequate implementation of the agreements that were enshrined in the Peace of Bergerac in 1577 . They even count it among their merits that these religious disputes lasted only briefly and finally culminated in the Peace of Fleix in 1580, in the negotiation of which they themselves participated.

If the relationship between Henry of Navarre and his wife gradually became closer and friendlier after their reunion, it deteriorated again during the time in Nérac. The decisive factor for this was Heinrich's new mistress Françoise de Montmorency , Baroness de Fosseux, known as "la Fosseuse", who took Heinrich's full attention and ousted Margarete from her husband's favor. From 1580 the queen consoled herself with a romantic relationship with Jacques de Harlay, seigneur de Champvallon, the stable master of her younger brother François-Hercule; a relationship that she - after a short break - resumed after his marriage to Cathérine de La Marck in 1582.

Return to Paris and exile from the royal court

At the invitation of her mother and brother Heinrich, Margarete left in January 1582 to visit the French court in Paris. The king's offer was based less on family courtesy than on political calculation and the renewed attempt to win Margaret as an ally for the interests of the Catholic League. Heinrich still blamed his sister for the lovers' war , and the reception that she was given when she arrived at the Louvre at the end of May was accordingly reserved.

But Heinrich's efforts to get Margarete on his side failed and contributed to the fact that the relationship between him and his sister remained shattered. To make matters worse, rumors about Margarete's allegedly vicious private life made the rounds, which were additionally nourished by her resumed liaison with Jacques de Harlay. When she fell ill in June 1583 and had to stay in bed, many speculated that she was expecting an illegitimate child. On August 8th, a scandal broke out during a ball in the Louvre: Heinrich publicly accused his sister of a dissolute lifestyle, listed all of her subordinate lovers and banned her from the court. This incident was an unprecedented occurrence and caused a sensation all over Europe, especially at the royal courts, Heinrich's behavior met with complete incomprehension.

Deeply humiliated, Margarete then left Paris for the Vendôme , but was captured by royal soldiers near Palaiseau at her brother's behest and arrested in Montargis Castle . Heinrich Margarete's ladies-in-waiting were still extremely angry and instructed her mistress how to behave in accordance with her royal origins and showed no ambition to release his sister after this renewed insult of her person. Margarete's arrest in Montargis was only lifted through the intervention of Catherine de Medici. A return to Nérac was out of the question for the time being. Henry of Navarre refused to take his wife back with him while Henry III. did not apologize for the unjustified allegations. Margarete was therefore forced to take quarters in different cities for eight months and wait for the dispute to be settled. Her husband did not allow her to return to Nérac until April 1584, after the French king made territorial concessions to the Crown of Navarre in reparation.

Margarete's reception at the Navarres court was not particularly warm. Heinrich again showed no interest in his wife and devoted himself exclusively to his new mistress Diane d'Andouins , Comtesse de Guiche, who was called "La belle Corisande".

Agen

Diane d'Andouins knew how to keep Henry of Navarre away from his wife. He chose Pau Castle as a domicile for himself and his mistress, while Margarete stayed in Nérac Castle. When her brother François-Hercule, the last male heir to the throne of the Valois dynasty, died in June 1584, Henry of Navarra officially became heir to the throne of Henry III, whose marriage to Louise de Lorraine-Vaudémont had remained childless. Margarete's role as a mediator between her husband and the French royal family was obsolete, which weakened her influence at the Navarre court. The loss of her beloved younger brother was therefore doubly difficult for her.

In March 1585 Margarete Nérac left for Agen , which was part of her Apanage , with the plan to establish herself as a kind of sovereign in the Auvergne with the support of the Catholic League . By turning to the league, however, she drew both the anger of her husband and that of her brother Heinrich.

She succeeded in winning the population and the nobility of Agen for themselves and thus against their husband and to convince them that the city had to be fortified against the attacks of the Huguenots to be feared. However, when she began to turn Agen into a fortress , increased taxes to finance the extensive construction work and refused to allow citizens to leave the city, she turned the local population against her. A revolt threatened, which she could only avoid by hastily escaping to the fortress of Carlat near Aurillac in November 1585. From there she tried, supported by a few nobles, with a hastily assembled army of her own to bring the entire Agenais under her control, but in the end she did not succeed.

When her brother Heinrich's troops approached, Margarete had to flee again and withdrew to the Ybois Castle near Issoire , a property of her mother Katharina. There she was captured in October 1586 by royal soldiers under the leadership of Jean Timoléon de Beaufort-Montboissier, vicomte de Lamothe, marquis de Canillac, and taken to the fortress of Usson in what is now the Puy-de-Dôme department , where she is in the November of the same year arrived.

Usson

From November 1586 to July 1605 Margarete had to spend in exile at the fortress in Usson . But she gradually managed to come to terms with the new situation. When Jean Timoléon de Beaufort-Montboissier eased the conditions of detention, later historians attributed this to the fact that Margarete had seduced her guard, a rumor that has so far not been supported by evidence. He eventually went over to the Catholic League and handed over the fortress Usson to Margarete, who then ran a court there similar to that in Nérac with musicians, writers and intellectuals. She even ran a theater there, but she remained socially isolated and was plagued by great financial worries.

She could no longer hope for any support from her mother, who had always stood by her side in the past. Katharina von Medici was planning to marry her favorite granddaughter Christine de Lorraine with Heinrich von Navarra in order to consolidate the relationship between the French royal dynasty of the Valois and the Navarre royal family, with the still existing marriage between the designated heir to the throne and her own daughter Ways stood. There were even rumors that Margarete had to fear for her life, since the queen mother would not shrink from murder in order to achieve her goal.

After the death of Henry III. In August 1589, Margarete's husband ascended the French royal throne as Henry IV, and Margaret - despite her exile - nominally became Queen of France. However, Henry's official anointing as king did not take place in Chartres Cathedral until February 1594 , after he converted to Catholicism according to the will of his predecessor.

Henry IV had already contacted Margarete in 1593 in order to negotiate the annulment of his childless marriage with her. He toyed with the idea of marrying his mistress at the time, Gabrielle d'Estrées , who gave birth to him in June 1594 and thus a potential heir to the throne. For the first time in a long time, Margarete found herself in a negotiating position that enabled her to influence the fortunes of the French royal family, and so she refused to consent to the annulment of the marriage for a long time. This was only applied for on February 7, 1599 in her name. The reasons given were a close relationship (Margarete and her husband were both great-grandchildren Charles' de Valois ), childlessness and the alleged lack of consent of the bride to be married. Pope Clement VIII then declared the marriage null and void on September 24, 1599, and Margarete was awarded a substantial severance payment for her consent. She was awarded the Agenois, Condomois and Rouergue as well as the Duchy of Valois as compensation. In addition, she received a pension, and Henry IV paid off her debts that had accrued to date; the titles of "Queen of France" and "Duchess of Valois" were retained.

In 1593/94 Brantôme , who regularly visited Margarete as well as Honoré d'Urfé in Usson and greatly admired her, had sent a version of his Discour (see lit. ). On the grounds that she wanted to correct some of the facts described therein, she began to write her memoirs in 1594, which she dedicated to Brantôme. She also started studying religious scriptures.

The last few years in Paris

Margaret during the coronation ceremony of Mary of Medici on a painting by Peter Paul Rubens

In July 1605, Margaret received Henry IV's permission to leave Usson and move into Madrid Castle in Boulogne sur Seine (today: Neuilly-sur-Seine ). However, she only stayed there for a few months before moving into the Hôtel de Sens in Paris without authorization.

Her return to the capital of the French kingdom was not only due to the fact that she wanted to participate in court life again, there were also tangible financial interests behind it. Margarete fought over her maternal inheritance because Katharina von Medici died in 1589. There were documents that she had disinherited her daughter. Henry III. had therefore declared all of Catherine's property to be the heir of Charles' de Valois , the illegitimate son of his brother Charles IX, during his lifetime . Margarete, however, was in possession of documents that clearly stated that the entire inheritance of her mother should go to her. In Paris Margarete succeeded in enforcing her claim to part of the inheritance in court, so that she could henceforth finance her living from her mother's estate.

In 1607 she moved into her own, self-built hotel on the left bank of the Seine opposite the Louvre. There she gave numerous large receptions with theater and ballet performances and organized evening table parties with writers, scholars and philosophers. Margarete ran the first Paris salon and was active as a patron of young poets and poets.

Since the relationship with her ex-husband had improved again, she was also very friendly with Maria de 'Medici , who became the second wife of Henry IV after the death of Gabrielle d'Estrées. Margaret was there on May 13, 1610 in the Saint-Denis basilica when Mary was crowned Queen, and she chose her as godmother for her son Gaston , who was baptized on June 15, 1614 by Cardinal Jean IV. De Bonsi. In 1606 Margarete had Maria's son Ludwig XIII. Determined in her will to be her sole heir, and after the murder of Henry IV she supported Maria von Medici during the first years of her reign for the still underage Louis XIII. For example, she received several foreign ambassadors on behalf of the French court, and during the General Estates in 1614 she was commissioned by the regent to negotiate with church dignitaries. Her work during these meetings was also her last public appearance on the political stage in France.

Margaret of Valois died unexpectedly on March 27, 1615 after an illness at the age of 61 in Paris. The official burial in the basilica of Saint-Denis did not take place until July 20, 1616. When the royal tombs of Saint-Denis were sacked during the French Revolution , their grave was opened and looted on October 17, 1793, and their remains were buried in a mass grave outside the church. During the Bourbon restoration after 1815, the bones and mortal remains buried in the two pits outside the cathedral were recovered and, since they could no longer be assigned to individual individuals, were buried in a common ossuary in the cathedral's crypt .

Lover

In positive contemporary representations, Margarete's beauty was repeatedly emphasized. Brantôme writes about them: "[...] je croy que toutes celles qui sont, qui seront et jamais ont esté, près de la sienne sont laides, et ne sont point beautez [...]". (German: "[...] I believe that all women who are, who will be and who have ever been, look ugly around them and cannot be considered beauties [...]"). Because of this beauty, which is much cited by both admirers and opponents, Margarete had numerous admirers who were portrayed as lovers in many publications, although the affection was only one-sided or the relationship was purely platonic. Even flirting were often interpreted as a love affair.

One of the few proven lovers of Margarete is Henri I de Lorraine; Portrait of an anonymous painter in Versailles , around 1566–1568

There is evidence that the 17-year-old Margarete had a liaison with Henri I de Lorraine. After the connection became known, he was immediately removed from the royal court and married to Catherine de Clèves. A very brief sexual relationship between Margarete and Joseph de Boniface, a favorite of her brother François-Hercule, is also considered true today. As a member of the Malcontents , he was executed for conspiracy in 1574. It is also proven in today's research that Louis de Clermont, seigneur de Bussy d'Amboise , who was murdered in 1579 , was another favorite of François-Hercules, Margarete's lover. Although she denies this fact in her memoir, there are numerous other contemporary reports about it. The relationship between the two was well known in Paris. The list of proven galans concludes with the aforementioned Jacques de Harlay.

However, many other men have been attributed to the queen as lovers, without any evidence of this. These men include Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne , with whom Margarete is said to have had a liaison during her time in Nérac, as well as the Auvergnatian Vogt Francois Robert de Lignerac, seigneur de Pleaux, who supported her with soldiers during her stay in Aurillac . Jean Timoléon de Beaufort-Montboissier, Margarete's guard during her exile in Usson, is one of these unproven affairs. Contemporary historians interpreted the gradual easing of the conditions of detention and the subsequent handover of Usson into the hands of Margarete in such a way that the queen must have seduced her guardian in order to be able to effect such things. Another accepted but not proven lover is Jean de Larte de Galart, seigneur d'Aubiac, after whose execution Margarete wrote a poem to honor his memory. In addition, there are various men, not known by name, such as pages and servants of the royal court of low level of education, who were ascribed to her on the basis of the font La Ruelle mal assortie . It is also unclear whether Margarete von Valois had a relationship with her favorite, a Sieur de Saint-Julien, during her last years in Paris, who was shot in front of her in 1606 by one of his predecessors.

On the other hand, the assertion of several pamphleteers that the Queen also had a lesbian relationship with Françoise de Clermont, Duchess of Uzès , who was evidently just her lady-in-waiting and a very close friend, was completely wrong .

Works and achievements

Culture

In addition to Christine de Pizan and Marguerite de Valois-Angôuleme, there were very few women in the history before Margarete von Valois who had a lasting literary legacy to date. She was both the first member of a European royal family whose life was not only described by the reports of an appointed historiographer, and the first woman in the world whose personal memoirs were published in the form of an autobiography . First published in French in 1628 - 13 years after her death - under the title Les mémoires de la roine Marguerite by Auger de Mauléon, Margarete's notes became a true bestseller, which was sold in more than 30 different editions and also during the 17th century was published in English. With the exception of a few gaps on 145 pages, the first edition described Margaret's life from 1565 to 1582. It gave an almost authentic picture of this section of French history, but described some events differently than they have happened - from the point of view of today's research . For example, the memoirs do not mention that Margarete's return trip from Flanders in 1577 was very turbulent, as political opponents of her brother François-Hercule tried to capture her in order to thwart François' plans for the Spanish Netherlands. Margarete also presented her love affair with Louis de Clermont, seigneur de Bussy d'Amboise, as a purely friendly relationship, although this did not correspond to reality. It is not clear whether the omissions, inaccuracies and contradictions to the current state of research were the intent of the author or are merely due to the fact that the autobiography was written from memory without being able to compare it with contemporary records.

The reason for writing her memoir, of which no original manuscript is known so far, gave the Queen some descriptions in Brantômes Discours , which she wanted to correct. It appears, however, that Brantôme never received her notes because he made no changes to it prior to the publication of his work.

With the Mémoire justificatif pour Henri de Bourbon , Margarete von Valois also wrote a letter of defense for her husband Henry IV after the Complot du Vincennes in April 1574 , which contributed significantly to his acquittal of the accusation of conspiring against the king has been. In addition, the feminist text Discours docte et subtle dicté promptement par la pure Marguerite from 1614, various poems and numerous letters from her have survived . The latter were published as often as her memoirs.

On the other hand, it is still controversial among historians and literary scholars whether La Ruelle mal assortie also came from her pen. This anonymously published pamphlet reproduces the short and comical dialogue between an educated woman and her uneducated lover and was long considered the work of Margarete. But more recent studies in particular come to the conclusion that it was only incorrectly ascribed to her.

Margarete was not only involved in the literary field. Long after her time, she was still regarded as the most important patroness of France, because her promotion of cultural interests went far beyond what is usual for queens. Her special focus was on the work of women and feminist works. Numerous French artists, philosophers and intellectuals benefited from their support, including the composer Claudio Monteverdi , the philosophers Scipion Dupleix and Michel de Montaigne as well as the writer Marie de Gournay , Saint Vincent de Paul or poets such as Philippe Desportes , François de Malherbe , Antoinette de La Tour and Guillaume de Saluste Du Bartas .

politics

Margaret of Valois often played an important role as mediator in negotiations between French Catholics and Protestants. Among other things, she was instrumental in bringing about the Edict of Beaulieu in 1576 and in the Peace of Fleix in 1581. Although she rendered valuable services to the French royal family, she gradually lost their trust.

Others

Various buildings, some of which have survived, can also be attributed to Margaret of Valois. She was responsible for the construction of a particularly lavishly furnished city palace in the Faubourg de Saint-Germain-des-Prés as well as the construction of a hotel on the right bank of the Seine, of which the Chapelle des Beaux-Arts is still preserved today. In addition, she had a hotel in Issy significantly redesigned and thus laid the foundation for today's Séminaire de Saint-Sulpice.

In addition, she was active as a patron of church institutions, especially in the last years of her life. Their generous donations formed the basis for the foundation of three monasteries: the Collège de la Compagnie de Jesus in Agen, a monastery of the Little Augustinians (1609) in Paris and a monastery of the Daughters of the Heart of Jesus.

reception

Numerous works by writers, historians, composers and poets have been inspired by the person of Margaret of Valois. Not only because her behavior made a name for herself, especially among contemporaries, and was an important political figure during the Huguenot Wars, but because the entire French royal family has always been the focus of public interest, she is mentioned in numerous publications.

Contemporary representations

In addition to many works about the French wars of religion and about the life and work of her brother Heinrich III. and her husband Heinrich IV., in which she is mentioned because of the family relationships, writings with Margaret as the main theme were already written during her lifetime. The representations of her person vary greatly. Pierre de Bourdeille, seigneur de Brantôme praised them and their qualities in his Discours V. Sur la royne de France et de Navarre, Marguerite, fille unique maintenant et seule restée de la maison de France , and Margarete's admirer Honoré d ' Urfé was inspired by her person in his character Galanthée in the shepherd novel L'Astrée , published in 1607 . But a pamphlet with the title Le divorce satirique de la reyne Marguerite , written in 1606/07 but published anonymously only in 1663, portrays them as vicious, licentious and immoral. It lists the alleged reasons for the annulment of the marriage, all of which are a result of Margarete's dissolute Lifestyle and its promiscuity are described. Théodore Agrippa d'Aubigné in his Tragiques and the chronicler Pierre de L'Estoile also commented negatively on them .

Representations from the 17th to 19th centuries

1647 appeared Hilarion de Costes work Les Eloges et les vies of reynes, the princesses, et Piete des dames illustrious s, s Courage & s Doctrine, qui ont fleury de nostre temps & du temps de nos Peres , which among other things with Margarete concerned and referred to her as “la plus sçavante de toutes les Dames de son siecle” (German: “the most educated woman of her century”).

During the 18th century, Margarete had almost been forgotten as an artistic motif. It was not until 1829 that Prosper Mérimées La Chronique de Charles IX ( The Bartholomew Night ) appeared again, a work that received much attention and also dealt with her person. In 1834 Gédéon Tallemant des Réaux ' Les historiettes de Tallemant de Réaux were published, which paint an unflattering picture of the Queen, followed in 1836 by Giacomo Meyerbeer's opera Les Huguenots (German: Die Huguenots ). After Jeanne Galzy had published the romanticizing biography Margot, reine sans royaume in 1852 , Alexandre Dumas' novel La reine Margot (German: The Bartholomew Night ) appeared in the same year and made Margarete known worldwide under her nickname from childhood, together with the play of the same name. The story spread the image of a very clever but promiscuous woman who falls victim to her sexual appetites, and thus spread the prevailing opinion of the late 17th century.

Representations since the 20th century

In the first half of the 20th century, Hugh Noel Williams' biography Queen Margot: Wife of Henry of Navarre and La vie de Marguerite de Valois: Reine de Navarre et de France (1553–1615) by Jean-Hippolyte Mariéjol published two extensive biographies . Both try to take into account all aspects of Margarete von Valois' life equally, even if, from the point of view of the current state of research, they adopt some errors from earlier, uncritical publications. She also plays an important (secondary) role in Heinrich Mann's two-volume novel Henri Quatre from 1935/38.

As early as 1949 Edouard Bourdet, who, like Margarete, was born in the castle of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, published a play in two acts entitled Margot . From 1956 Guy Breton published the series Histoires d'amour de l'histoire de France with great success , which again passed on the image of the vicious queen. It was followed in 1965 by Jean Babelon's book La Reine Margot , which reproduces Margarete's life in a narrative style, but tries to portray herself in a more neutral way.

It was only in the 1990s that it was the subject of serious studies again. Philippe Erlanger's La Reine Margot ou la Rébellion , Janine Garrisson's Marguerite de Valois (German: Queen Margot - The eventful life of Marguerite de Valois ) and Éliane Viennot's Marguerite de Valois, histoire d'une femme, histoire d'un mythe are particularly critical deal with the traditional stereotype of the queen as a sinful and immoral person. There are also several scientific publications, the main focus of which is on Margarete's memoirs.

Margarete as a film motif

Dumas' novel has been made into a film several times. The director Camille de Morlhon brought the material to the screen for the first time in 1909/10 as a silent film under the title La Reine Margot with Pierre Magnier and Berthe Bovy as the main actors. In 1914 a film of the same name with Léontine Massart followed . The novel also served as a literary template for a film in 1920, but it is now lost . Another film version came in 1954 with Jeanne Moreau and Louis de Funès under the title Bartholomäusnacht in the cinemas, followed in 1961 by a French TV film directed by René Lucot . The best-known film adaptation to date was made by the director Patrice Chéreau in 1994 with La Reine Margot (German: The Night of Bartholomew ) with Isabelle Adjani in the lead role. The latest film adaptation called Henri 4 by Jo Baier dates back to 2010.

The myth

By the end of the 17th century, Margarete von Valois had a legendary reputation thanks to her contemporary publications, although opinions about her were divided. While one side received the greatest admiration, the other side expressed itself extremely contemptuously of her. The different views ran through all publications for the next 200 years or so and contributed to Margarete becoming a myth by the 19th century. This status culminated in a growing list of alleged lovers of the Queen. Because of her good relationship with two of her brothers during her youth, she was even accused of having incestuous relationships with them. The image of Margarete as an immoral and depraved woman existed well into the 20th century, despite the publication of serious biographies.

literature

Work editions

• Margarete von Valois: History of Margaretha von Valois, wife of Henry IV. Written by herself. Along with additions and additions from other French sources . Edited and with an afterword by Michael Andermatt. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1996.
• Marguerite de Valois: Correspondance, 1569-1614 . With notes by Éliane Viennot. Honoré Champion, Paris 1998, ISBN 2-85203-955-9 .
• Marguerite de Valois: Mémoires et lettres de Marguerite de Valois . Jules Renouard, Paris 1842 ( online ).
• Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois, Queen of Navarre . Adaptation by an anonymous author from 1813, LC Page and Company, Boston 1899 ( online ).

Main literature

• Jean Babelon: La Reine Margot . Berger-Levrault, Paris 1965.
• Pierre de Bourdeille, seigneur de Brantôme: Discours V. Sur la royne de France et de Navarre, Marguerite, fille unique maintenant et seule restée de la maison de France . In: Œuvres complètes de Pierre de Bourdeille, abbé et segneur de Brantôme . Volume 10, unaltered reprint of the edition by Librairie Plon, Paris 1890. Kraus Reprint, Liechtenstein 1977, pp. 185-252 ( online ).
• Jean Castarède: La Triple vie de la rein Margot: amoureuse, comploteuse, écrivain . Ed. de la Seine, Paris 1994, ISBN 2-7382-0677-8 .
• Hilarion de Coste: La reyne Marguerite, duchesse de Valois . In: Les Eloges et les vies des reynes, des princesses, et des dames illustres en pieté, en Courage & en Doctrine, qui ont fleury de nostre temps, & du temps de nos Peres . Volume 2, 2nd edition. Sébastien et Gabriel Cramoisy, Paris 1647, pp. 401-419 ( online ).
• Philippe Erlanger: La Reine Margot ou la Rébellion . Perrin, Paris 1972.
• Janine Garrisson: Queen Margot - The eventful life of Marguerite de Valois . Benziger, Solothurn and Düsseldorf 1995, ISBN 3-545-34134-8 .
• Jean-Hippolyte Mariéjol: La vie de Marguerite de Valois: Reine de Navarre et de France (1553-1615) . Reprint of the edition by Hachette, Paris 1928. Slatkine Reprints, Geneva 1970.
• Éliane Viennot: Marguerite de Valois, histoire d'une femme, histoire d'un mythe . Editions Payot & Rivages, Paris 1994, ISBN 2-228-88894-X .
• Hugh Noel Williams: Queen Margot: Wife of Henry of Navarre . Reprinted from the 1907 edition of Harper & Bros. Kessinger Publishing, Whitefish 2005, ISBN 1-4179-5253-9 ( online ).

further reading

• Cathleen M. Bauschatz: Plaisir et Proffict in the Reading and Writing of Marguerite de Valois . In: Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature . Volume 7, No. 1, 1988, ISSN  0732-7730 , pp. 27-48.
• Élise Bergeron: Questions de genre dans les Mémoires de Marguerite de Valois . McGill University, Montréal 1999 ( PDF, 5.3 MB ).
• Jacqueline Boucher: Deux épouses et reines à la fin du XVIe siècle: Louise de Lorraine et Marguerite de France . University of Saint-Etienne, 1995, ISBN 2-86272-080-1 .
• Jenifer Ann Branton-Desris: A la découverte d'une perle francaise: L'identité de Marguerite de Valois définie par son choix de références . University of Maine, Orono 2001. ( PDF, 3.3 MB )
• Danielle Haase Dubosc, Éliane Viennot (eds.): Femmes et pouvoirs sous l'Ancien Régime . Rivages, Paris 1991, ISBN 2-86930-488-9 .
• Michel Moisan: L'exil auvergnat de Marguerite de Valois . Créer, Nonette 1999, ISBN 2-909797-42-2 .
• Stéphanie Pinard Friess: Mémoires et Histoire. Laisser ses Mémoires à l'histoire et entrer dans la legend: le cas de la "pure Margot" . Laval University, Laval 2002.
• Robert J. Sealy: The Myth of the Reine Margot: Toward the Elimination of a Legend . Peter Lang, New York 1994, ISBN 0-8204-2480-3 .
• Éliane Viennot: Une intellectuelle, auteure et mécène parmi d'autres: Marguerite de Valois (1553-1615) . In: Clio. Histoires, femmes et sociétés . No. 13, 2001, Toulouse-Le Mirail University, Toulouse 2001, ISSN  1777-5299 , pp. 125-134 ( online ).

Web links

Commons : Margarete von Valois  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Margarete von Valois in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by Margarete von Valois in the Gutenberg-DE project
• Collection of materials on Margaret of Valois by Éliane Viennot (French)
• Collection of materials on Margarete von Valois at infionline.net ( Memento from April 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
• Essay on Margarete von Valois by Éliane Viennot, 2002 (French)

References and comments

1. ↑ Maike Vogt-Lüerssen : Women in the Renaissance . 1st edition. Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2006, ISBN 3-8334-6567-0 , p. 390.
2. ↑ Harenberg - The book of 1000 women. Ideas, ideals and achievements in biographies, pictures and documents . Meyers Lexikonverlag, Mannheim 2004, ISBN 3-411-76099-0 , p. 599.
3. ↑ É. Viennot: Marguerite de Valois, histoire d'une femme, histoire d'un mythe , p. 27.
4. ^ HN Williams: Queen Margot: Wife of Henry of Navarre , p. 3.
5. ↑ JA Branton-Desris: A la découverte d'une perle francaise , p. 7.
6. ↑ É. Viennot: Marguerite de Valois histoire d'une femme, histoire d'un mythe , p. 23.
7. ↑ J. Babelon: La Reine Margot , p. 18.
8. ↑ H. de Coste: Les Eloges et les vies des reynes, des princesses, et des dames illustres en pieté , p. 402.
9. ^ HN Williams: Queen Margot: Wife of Henry of Navarre , p. 11.
10. ↑ There is only one other example of this type in history: the marriage of Maria Stuart and James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell .
11. ↑ HN Williams: Queen Margot: Wife of Henry of Navarre , pp. 70-71.
12. ↑ Maike Vogt-Lüerssen: Women in the Renaissance . 1st edition. Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2006, ISBN 3-8334-6567-0 , p. 395.
13. ↑ Margarete stated in the application for the annulment of her marriage, among other things, that she had never consented to the marriage.
14. ^ HN Williams: Wife of Henry of Navarre , p. 71.
15. ↑ The subsequent dispensation was made by Pope Gregory XIII. only granted after Heinrich converted to Catholicism.
16. ↑ ^{a b c} S. Pinard Friess: Mémoires et Histoire ( Memento from September 21, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
17. ↑ JA Branton-Desris: A la découverte d'une perle francaise . P. 14.
18. ^ HN Williams: Queen Margot: Wife of Henry of Navarre , pp. 278-279.
19. ^ E. Viennot: Une intellectuelle, auteure et mécène parmi d'autres: Marguerite de Valois (1553-1615) .
20. ↑ Janine Garrisson: Queen Margot. The eventful life of Marguerite de Valois , pp. 36, 252–253, 295–296.
21. ^ Digitized version of the papal bull , accessed on August 16, 2011.
22. ^ HN Williams: Queen Margot: Wife of Henry of Navarre , p. 336.
23. ^ E. Viennot: Marguerite de Valois, histoire d'une femme, histoire d'un mythe , p. 214.
24. ^ H. de Coste: Les Eloges et les vies des reynes, ... , pp. 416-417.
25. ↑ P. de Bourdeille: Discours V. Sur la royne de France et de Navarre, Marguerite, ... , p. 187.
26. ↑ infionline.net ( memento of April 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on May 26, 2007.
27. ^ Jean-Claude Arnould: La mémoire dans les Mémoires de la pure Marguerite de Valois. In: Marguerite de France, Pure de Navarre et son temps. Actes du Colloque d'Agen (October 12-13, 1991), organized by the société des Seiziémistes and the Center Matteo Bandello d'Agen. Center Matteo Bandello, Agen 1994, ISBN 2-9504816-1-2 , p. 217.
28. ↑ É. Viennot: Marguerite de Valois, histoire d'une femme, histoire d'un mythe.
29. ↑ Cf. Gédéon Tallemant des Réaux: La Reine Marguerite . In: Les historiettes de Tallemant de Réaux. Memories for the history of the XVIIe siècle . Volume 1. Levasseur, Paris 1834, pp. 87-91 ( online ).
30. ↑ É. Viennot: Marguerite de France (1553–1615) on siefar.org, accessed January 15, 2012.
31. ↑ Moshe Sluhovsky: From Marguerite de Valois to La Reine Margot. In: Rethinking History . Volume 4, No. 2, 2000, ISSN  1364-2529 , doi : 10.1080 / 13642520050074830 , p. 201.

predecessor	Office	Successor
Louise de Lorraine-Vaudémont	Queen of France and Navarre 1589–1599	Maria de 'Medici

This article was added to the list of excellent articles on August 14, 2007 in this version .