Margaret of Angoulême

“ But the face is one which can be imagined as much more beautiful than it seems in the not very attractive portraiture of the time, and her actual attractions are attested by her contemporaries with something more than the homage-to-order which literary men have never failed to pay to ladies who are patronesses of letters. Besides Margaret of Valois, she is known as Margaret of Angoulême, from her place of birth and her father’s title ”

“ Margaret of Alençon, from the fief of her first husband; Margaret of Navarre, of which country, like her grand-niece, she was queen, by her second marriage with Henry d’Albret; and even Margaret of Orleans, as belonging to the Orleans branch of the royal house. She was not, like her nieces, Margaret of France, as her father never reigned, and Brantôme properly denies her the title, but others sometimes give it. When it is necessary to call her anything besides the simple “Margaret,” Angoulême is at once the most appropriate and the most distinctive designation. ”

“ In dealing with the life and work of Margaret of Angouleme (1) it is necessary at the outset to refer to the mother whose influence and companionship served so greatly to mould her daughter’s career.
1 This Life of Margaret is based upon the memoir by M, Le Roux de Lincy prefixed to the edition of the Heptameron issued by the Société des Bibliophiles Français, but various errors have been rectified, and advantage has been taken of the researches of later biographers. ”

“ Margaret at length is herself in fault. This last message is too hard for her. She beseeches Briçonnet to speak more plainly in a letter which pathetically endeavours to copy his own extraordinary style. "Demetaphorise yourself," she entreats him. "The poor wanderer cannot understand the good which is in the desert, for lack of knowing that she is deserted. Prithee, for kindness' sake, run not so swiftly through the desert that she cannot follow you . . . in order that the abyss invoked by the abyss may whelm in its abysm the poor wanderer Margaret." ”

“ An intermittent fever, common and fatal in those days of imperfect drainage, carried off the Count of Angoulême at forty, and left Louisa a widow in her twentieth year. For some weeks it appeared as though her two little children might be left utterly desolate, for, broken down with long nursing and a most bitter sorrow, the young Countess fell seriously ill. She was, however, too young, too vigorous, to die of grief. She recovered, finding in her children sufficient motive for existence. Retiring to her dower-house of Romorantin, Louisa busied herself in training Margaret. ”

“ Margaret of Scotland, mistaken for Marguerite Larrivée, is confused with Marguerite of Valois, Duchess of Angoulême, and this princess is, in her turn, confused with the Duchess of Angoulême, daughter of Louis XVI. and Marie-Antoinette, Marguerite Larrivée—Margaret of Scotland—Marguerite, Duchess of Angoulême—the Duchess of Angoulême.
“I am rather proud of having found that out, Paillot. Tradition should always be taken into account. But when we own Queen Marguerite’s house, we will furbish up the memory of that good Philippe Tricouillard a little.” ”

“ For home was still to Margaret in France. She had no children in her Castles of Béarn. Her little son had died soon after birth. Her daughter, Jeanne, was not quite two years old when Francis placed the poor solemn baby in a castle of her own at Plessis-les-Tours, afraid to leave her with her parents, lest Henry d'Albret should betroth her to a prince of Spain. Margaret was childless, and her husband was unfaithful. ”

“ Margaret was in great distress. Even for her brother's sake she could not counsel the surrender of Burgundy. And yet, unless she could satisfy Charles, there seemed nothing but perpetual imprisonment for Francis. No other king would come forward as a champion. Soliman as yet had made no sign, nor would he be likely to leave Turkey in the winter; and before another summer came her brother might be dead. Louisa, at home, had concluded a peace with Henry of England; but that wary king would only risk his moral support. ”

“ She is, I think, the wisest not only of the women but of the men in France. No one knows more than she, either of the conduct of State affairs or of the secrets of religion. But I fear she is nigh to death."
With every year she had grown a little weaker, but still she was alive. So long as her brother lived, Margaret believed she could not die, nor continue living after his decease. In this winter of 1545 she was far from him in Béarn, tortured with rheumatism, sleeplessness, and fever; weakening with the slow consumption that were away her life. But all her thoughts were for Francis. ”

“ Francis, with his ideas of splendour and chivalry, desired a different queen for his sumptuous court. And her he found in Margaret, a woman then of three-and-twenty, both learned and witty, and with a charm more attractive than beauty in her slender carriage and tender smile—Margaret, young, de moult joyeuse vie, et la meilleure compagnie possible. Margaret was virtually the Queen of France. ”

“ The King is dead."
Without tears or more ado, she sought her chamber, and, kneeling on the floor, dwelt long and earnestly in prayer. She sought no human help or sympathy. She only entreated to be left alone. That prayer should be granted; henceforth, indeed, the loving, ardent sister should be quite alone.
While Margaret was kneeling on the floor of her convent cell, weeping for her loss and praying for her dead brother, her brother passionately loved and desperately mourned, the Court of France, with the Dauphin at its head, scarcely cared to conceal its rejoicing. ”

“ The alliance was openly countenanced by Louis XII., and the young Duke of Valois—as Francis of Angoulême was now called—readily acceded to it. Margaret brought with her a dowry of sixty thousand livres, payable in four instalments, and Charles, who was on the point of attaining his twenty-first year, was declared a major and placed in possession of his estates. (1) The marriage was solemnised at Blois in October 1509.
1 Odolant Desnos’s Mémoires historiques sur Alençon, vol. ii. p. 231
Margaret did not find in her husband a mind comparable to her own. ”

“ It is only at this moment that we fully appreciate the intense and all-absorbing devotion of Margaret to her brother. This whim of his ran counter to every interest of her husband, of her subjects, even of her child. They are all nothing to her. She cannot conceive that they should oppose their will to that of Francis. Even the passionate anger and grief of the little princess did not touch her mother's heart. Jeanne, still ailing, frightened, not yet twelve years old, wept bitterly at the thought of being given to the care of a stranger, different in language and manners. ”

“ They did not venture to leave her in so frenzied a mood; and invented well-meaning lies among themselves, assuring her the King was well, was better, much better. Only half-convinced, Margaret rose, and, having despatched another messenger, passed towards the convent chapel. She was still in the Cloisters, giving a last direction to her secretary, when she heard, from a distant corner of the Cloister, a sound of very bitter weeping. Margaret, ever compassionate, went swiftly to the place ”

“ It was difficult for Margaret to satisfy at once her husband, her brother, her Lutheran teachers, and her own liberal conscience. Sometimes that credulous and tolerant conscience led her sorely astray. In this year of 1545 she sheltered in her hospitable Court two would-be Lutherans, dressed as monks, named Quentin and Pocques. These men speedily rose to eminence at Nérac. Their vague spiritualism, their insidious, amorous mysticism, was quite to the taste of the little Court there. ”

“ The ardent, chivalrous Leonor was a disappointed woman. Still, she had a certain hold upon her husband, though infinitely less than belonged to pretty Anne de Pisseleu, now Duchess d'Estampes and the King's acknowledged mistress. Francis had these two women; Louisa had her son, her political ambition, and her grandchildren; the very children themselves had a new mother. So Margaret began to listen to the impatience of her husband; eager to be back among his own people, dumbly enraged with Francis who had taken his infant daughter from him. ”

“ As the little girl grew out of babyhood, people noticed that her mother's aquiline features were softened in her face by the look and smile of her gentle father, and that in her character his delicate and benevolent nature qualified the love of learning and capacity for devotion which her mother gave her. More intense than he, more refined and unworldly than Louisa, the little Margaret displayed a singular and beautiful personality. ”

“ That cruel blunder, that heartless revenge, lost the cause of the Reform. Many a stake should smoke, and many a rack should strain and creek, in expiation for that murdered stone.
This affair of the placards sent a horror pulsing throughout the length and breadth of France. It frightened from the Reform its gentler and more reverent adherents. Margaret herself, ever compassionate, felt it necessary to declare her Catholicism to the world. Francis henceforth became no less combative than the Sorbonne itself. He set out at once for Paris to sift the matter. ”

“ He loved his people like his own children." Margaret, listening to all his generous plans on behalf of his subjects, became warmly interested in their ardent and unfortunate young king. And he wished nothing more than to marry the only sister of the King of France.
But in this early spring of 1526 Margaret had much to do beside talking with Henry d'Albret. In February Anne de Montmorency returned to France, his ransom paid, with the news that Francis was concluding a treaty with Charles, to whose sister Leonor he had been formally betrothed on the 12th February. ”

“ And Margaret rebuilt the castles of Nérac and of Pau, and adorned them with the famous library that she bequeathed to Fontainebleau, founded hospitals, and orphanages throughout her kingdom. Margaret succoured the poor, herself visiting the sick and consoling them. Finally, she made of this nook of Southern France (always hostile to the power of Rome and even now counting its Protestants by thousands) a refuge for whosoever was persecuted, and whosoever was poor or oppressed. ”

“ The only way to get at a peace was through Leonor, who might bring Burgundy as a dower.
"I desire, for your good, things which the pains of death should not make me wish for my own repose." So Margaret had written to her brother on her journey to Madrid; and now she found herself obliged perforce to agree to cruel terms. "I assure you, my lord," she writes to Francis, "that the office of solicitor in so unreasonable a company is a far more difficult service than it was to be your physician when you were sick." ”

“ Her attendants reminded her of the glory of the saints in Paradise. The Queen was not consoled.
"All that is true," she said. "But we stay so long a time under the earth before our coming there." And then she began to weep and ask why must she die; she was not yet so old but that she might well live a few years more. They could not appease her horror of death, her curiosity concerning the fate of the soul. One of the dearest of her maids of honour falling ill and lying near to death, Margaret persisted in sitting by her bed. ”

“ And let us own that much such a Court as Thelema was held at the castles of Nérac and of Pau; a Court of scholars, of poets and thinkers, who fled thither from the stake or from the dreadful convent in pace; a court of charming women, at once good and gay; and of men as light-hearted as the King, and as courteous as the Queen.
Henry and Margaret, early estranged at heart, had one great interest in common: the desire to improve this desolate princedom of Béarn. ”

“ In Margaret's nature ambition was scarcely so eminent a factor that she should break her heart over what, after all, was a fair match for her daughter. The Estates of Béarn had long ago pleaded that their princess should marry no stranger, but rather some great French noble who would strengthen her hands at home. So that this marriage pleased the King of France, the bride herself, and the subjects of the bride. ”

“ England was on the point of actual revolt from the Roman sway, and France seemed like to do as much. The Emperor no less than the Sorbonne dreaded lest Francis should join the Protestant league. For the new ideas received every encouragement in Paris, and in September 1531 it seemed as if the last, check were removed with the death of Louisa of Savoy. While she had lived, the Catholic party had trusted to her influence on her son and daughter, who passionately loved her; but now the innovating Margaret, unrestrained by her mother, would sit, sole in influence, at the right hand of the King. ”

“ She immensely admires the piety that prompts him to say his prayers in church, on his return from an intrigue with the wife of his friend. She, the patroness of ideal goodness, cannot find any praise for an honest young girl who refuses the illegal love of the King. It is the impudence and not the virtue of such a refusal that amazes her. In her book, as in her life, Margaret's idolatry for her brother paralyses her judgment and her conscience. ”

“ With all her piety she is, however, above all things a woman of the great world, indulgent to the laxities of others, though more severe towards herself. It is true that Oisille is a widow, Margaret a wife and a mother. But, alone in her Castle of Alençon, with her young husband so long away in the South, with her only child so seldom seen, bred and reared so far from her care, Margaret may well have portrayed herself as one who has outlived the dearest interests of life. ”