Women in history: Marguerite de Valois. Queen Margarita of Navarre: life story and interesting facts Queen Margo historical figure

At noon on May 14, 1553, the queen gave birth to a girl.
“We will call her Marguerite,” said King Henry II of France.
Already at the age of eleven, Margarita had two lovers - Antrag and Sharen. Which of them became the first? Apparently, we will never know which of them had the honor of being a pioneer.
At fifteen, she became the mistress of her brothers Charles, Henry and Francis. And when Margarita turned eighteen, her beauty began to attract men so much that she had a great choice. A brunette with eyes the color of black amber, she was “capable of inflaming everything around with her one glance,” and her skin was of such milky whiteness that Margarita, out of a desire to show off, and for fun, took her lovers in a bed covered with black muslin ...
At this time, she fell in love with her cousin Duke Heinrich de Guise, a handsome twenty-year-old blond. Both temperamental and devoid of any shame, they gave themselves up to love games where they were overtaken by desire, whether in a room, in a garden or on a staircase. Once they were caught even in one of the Louvre corridors, where "they were engaged in universal sin ..."
At the mere thought that this veil, which gave so much splendor to the already powerful House of Lorraine, could seduce his sister, King Charles IX fell into real madness. Margot persuaded the duke to marry Catherine of Cleves, widow of Prince Porken...
After this incident, the queen mother decided to marry her daughter and thought about the son of Antoine de Bourbon, the young Henry of Navarre, who then did not yet have the reputation of a Don Juan. Henry's mother, Jeanne d'Albret, was proud to be able to marry her son to the sister of the King of France, and quickly agreed on everything with Catherine. Naturally, many Protestants gathered for the wedding, who, five days later, on Bartholomew's night, were killed by Catholics.
After St. Bartholomew's Night, Henry of Navarre, who renounced Protestantism in order to save his life, was under the vigilant supervision of Catherine de Medici.
While Margarita enjoyed the caresses of her lovers, Henry of Navarre conspired. He created a secret organization whose goal was to overthrow Charles IX from the throne, eliminate the Duke of Anjou, who became King of Poland in 1573, and put the Duke of Alencon, the youngest son of Catherine de Medici, on the throne of France.
Among the favorites of the Duke of Alençon was Señor Boniface de la Mole, a brilliant dancer and favorite of the ladies.

This God-fearing lecher was simply created for Margarita, who with extraordinary ease passed from the church to the alcove and went to bed with her lovers, while her hair was still fragrant with incense. When he saw her, dressed in a brocard dress with a large neckline, which allowed "to see this high and full chest, on which all the courtiers died," he immediately fell in love with her ...
Margarita immediately rushed to him, grabbed his hand and dragged him into her room, where they made love, so noisily that after two hours the whole court knew that the Queen of Navarre had another lover.
La Mole was a Provençal. In bed, he blabbed to Marguerite about the conspiracy that Henry of Navarre was plotting, and about the important role that he himself and one of his friends named Kokonas, the lover of the Duchess of Nevers, were to play in this conspiracy.
Margarita, after hearing the confession, was horrified. As the king's daughter, she knew that conspiracies were detrimental to the king, and therefore, despite her love for de la Mole, she told everything to Catherine de Medici.
On an April afternoon in 1574, de la Mole and Coconas were beheaded in the Place de Grève. Their bodies were quartered and hung on the city gates for the amusement of the mob. With the onset of night, the Duchess of Nevers and Margarita sent one of their friends, Jacques d'Oradour, to ransom the heads of the executed from the executioner.

A week later, Margarita began to feel some kind of unusual excitement, because of which she became taciturn and did not find a place for herself. She needed something to calm her. And she found such a remedy in the face of a young courtier named Saint-Luc, who was famous for his inexhaustible masculine strength. For several meetings, he completely saved Margo from torment. After that, the young woman again began to appear at court balls. One evening, she met a handsome man, whose name was Charles de Balzac d "Antragues, and became his mistress ...

Catherine de Medici abandoned the idea of ​​imprisoning both princes, rightly believing that this would cause violent unrest in the kingdom; however, she made Navarrese and the Duke of Alençon prisoners of the Louvre. They were forbidden to leave the palace unaccompanied, and many secret agents recorded literally every word they said.

The Duke of Anjou, after the death of his brother, Charles IX, returned in 1574 from Poland to take the throne. Under Henry III, the wars of religion resumed. In 1576, under the leadership of Henry of Giese, a holy league was formed from strict Catholics, which set as its goal the final extermination of Protestantism.

Henry of Navarre was known as a great cunning. On February 5, 1576, having lulled the vigilance of Catherine and Henry III, he obtained permission from them to go hunting in the forest surrounding the city of Senlis. The next time the Parisians were destined to see him only after twenty years.
Henry III, who from the day Navarrez had escaped, could not calm down, refused to let Margot go, arguing that she was the best decoration of his court and that he was unable to part with her.

In fact, he turned her into a prisoner. The unfortunate woman had no right to leave her room, at the door of which there were guards day and night, and all her letters were read.
Despite the vigilant surveillance that Marguerite was under, she managed to send a note to the Duke of Alencon and tell her in what terrible conditions she was being held in the Louvre. The duke was greatly disturbed by this news and sent a letter of protest to Catherine de Medici.

The Queen Mother had long wanted to eliminate Francis, so she could not help but take the opportunity. Now she thought that in exchange for the freedom of Margaret, her rebellious son would leave the Protestants and give up the confrontation with the crown. She invited Henry III to enter into negotiations with the duke through the mediation of Margarita and received consent.
The journey was painful for Margot, as their carriage was accompanied by handsome and therefore seductive officers, each of whom would gladly calm her nerves. The next day, in the evening, after the first negotiations, when everyone had gone to bed, she silently slipped out of her room and went to the Duke of Alençon, who, with a heat that was hardly appropriate in this case, showed her more than brotherly feelings.

After this night, which brought great relief to Margaret, negotiations resumed, and Francis, confident in his abilities, set his own conditions. And a few days later, Henry III, whose hypocrisy was no less than his vices, met his brother with honor and made peace with him in front of everyone. Marguerite returned to Paris with Francis.
In the spring of 1577, Monduse, the king's agent in Flanders, who had gone over to the service of the Duke of Anjou, reported that the Flemings were groaning under the yoke of the Spaniards and that Flanders could be easily conquered by sending an experienced person there.
The Duke of Anjou immediately thought of Marguerite.

The departure for Flanders took place on May 28, 1577. Marguerite, accompanied by a large retinue, left Paris through the gates of Saint-Denis, sitting in a stretcher, "above which a canopy rose on pylons, lined with purple Spanish velvet with gold and silk embroidery ..."

In Namur, Don Juan of Austria, the illegitimate brother of Philip II and governor of the Netherlands, received Margarita with special honor. Six months earlier, he had been incognito in Paris. Thanks to the help of the Spanish ambassador, he managed to get into the French court, where a ball was given that evening, and to see Margarita of Navarre, about whom all of Europe was talking. Needless to say, he fell in love with her, although the lightning flashes in her eyes scared him a little. After the ball, don Juan confessed to his friends: “She has more divine than human beauty, but at the same time she was created for the death of men, and not for their salvation ...”

Portrait of Henry of Navarre

Margarita hoped to use her charms to secure the non-interference of don Juan during the coup in the country, which the Duke of Anjou would try to make. “Raise a rebellion,” she said meanwhile to the local nobility, “and call on the help of the Duke of Anjou!”
As a result of her propaganda, strong unrest soon began in the country. In Liege, she was warmly received by the Flemish and German lords, who held grandiose festivities in her honor.

Everything went according to plan when, from a letter from her brother, she learned that the king was informed about her negotiations with the Flemings. Arriving in an indescribable rage, he warned the Spaniards of the impending coup, hoping that they would arrest Margarita. Two hours later, Margarita and her entire retinue rushed at full speed towards France.
Margarita returned to the court. Oddly enough, she was well received there ...
Soon she turned to Henry III with a request to allow her to go to her husband in Nerak. And on December 15, 1578, she entered her residence.

The old castle that belonged to the house of Albret, of course, could not be compared with the Louvre. It didn't have the usual fun. The Huguenot princes who surrounded Henry of Navarre were distinguished by a severe disposition, demonstrated super-virtue and contemptuous indifference to amusements.
Margot adored luxury, pleasures, balls. Under her “beneficial” influence, the castle in Neraka very soon turned into a real house of brothel, and fellow believers of Navarrez, getting rid of their complexes, entered the taste of a different life.
At this time, Margot was the mistress of the young and handsome Viscount de Turenne, Duke of Bouillon, the most devoted friend of Henry of Navarre.
Together with the ardent viscount, she arranged endless balls and masquerades. Of course, Margot had the tact not to demand money from her husband for entertainment, during which she cuckolded him. No, for money she turned to the good-natured Pibrak, who had long been in love with her and therefore was gradually ruined without the slightest hope of reciprocity.
But one fine morning, offended by the fact that Marguerite and Turenne constantly laughed at him, Pibrak returned to the Louvre and told Henry III what outrages were happening at the court of Henry of Navarre.

The king was furious, called his sister a slut and immediately sent a letter to Bearnz, in which he informed him of the debauchery of his wife Margarita.
Henry of Navarre, who had the right to atone for his own sins, pretended not to believe anything written, but did not deny himself the pleasure of showing the letter of the French king to Turenne and Margaret. Margo, outraged by her brother's next trick, decided to take revenge on him by convincing her husband to declare war on the king. And the reason for the war was quickly found: the cities of Azhan and Cahors, presented to her by her husband as a dowry, were illegally appropriated by Henry III. It was only necessary to provoke Navarretz a little ...

In early 1580, Navarrez was ripe for war. Warfare was launched immediately, and they fought furiously throughout Guyenne. And only in November, the Duke of Anjou made several attempts to negotiate a peace, as a result of which an agreement was signed in Flex.
The love war is over. She avenged the desecrated honor of the windy ladies of the Navarre Palace and claimed five thousand lives ...
Margarita was then thirty years old. Her already volcanic temperament seems to have been exacerbated by the overly spicy food that was the custom in the court at Neraka. The appearance of the young handsome Jacques Arles de Chanvallon, who accompanied the Duke of Anjou, brought her into such a state, as if everything inside were on fire, and from this she lost her peace.
For the first time in her life, Margot really fell in love. Transformed, radiating happiness, having forgotten everyone - her husband, lover, brother - she lived with only one feeling of adoration for the young, elegant seigneur, whom she called "her beautiful sun", "her incomparable angel", "her incomparable miracle of nature ..."

This passion blinded her to such an extent that she lost that last drop of caution that she still had, and Shanvallon had to satisfy her desires on the stairs, and in the closets, and in the gardens, and in the fields, and on the threshing floor ...
But Francois decided to leave Nérac and return to his place. A few days later he left and took the faithful Shanwallon with him. Margarita almost lost her mind. She locked herself in her room to shed tears and at the same time compose stanzas for the departure of her lover. All her letters to him ended the same way: “My whole life is in you, my beautiful everything, my only and perfect beauty. I kiss this beautiful hair a million times, my priceless and sweet wealth; I kiss those beautiful and adored lips a million times.”
The Queen of Navarre decided to return to Paris, where she hoped to see Chanvallon.
Margarita rented a house for meetings. Having the opportunity to do what she wanted, she surrounded the viscount with care, decorated his room with mirrors, learned new refined caresses from an Italian astrologer, and ordered spicy seasoned dishes from the cook for her lover.

The spicy dishes with which Queen Margarita regaled the unfortunate Chanwallon prompted him to such excesses that one fine day, exhausted, emaciated, irritated, he secretly left Paris and took refuge in the village, where he soon married a girl of a calm disposition.
Margarita was mad with grief. She wrote letters to him that betrayed her despair. And her prayers were answered.
On a beautiful June day in 1583, Chanvallon, expelled by the Duke of Anjou as punishment for his talkativeness, appeared with his head bowed to seek refuge with Marguerite. For several weeks, they, secluded on the Rue Couture-Saint-Catherine, spent time in such a dope that Marguerite forgot about the need to appear in the Louvre. Henry III, intrigued by the disappearance of his sister, asked the maid about her, and she informed him of Margarita's renewed connection with Shanwallon, and then gave the king the names of all her lovers.
On Sunday, August 7, a big ball was to be held at the court. Henry III invited his sister to him.
Suddenly, in the midst of the holiday, the king approached Margarita and in a loud voice reprimanded her in front of everyone, calling her a “vile slut” and accusing her of shamelessness. Retelling all the details of her intimate relationship, down to the most obscene, he ordered his sister to leave the capital immediately.
Throughout the night, Queen Margot was engaged in the destruction of incriminating letters that careless lovers wrote to her, and at dawn she hurriedly left Paris.
In Nerac for several months, Henry of Navarre and Margarita did not see each other often, each absorbed in their own affairs: while the wife received the officers of Nerac in her room, the husband generously endowed his mistresses with carnal joys.After the death of Duke Francis of Alencon in 1584, Henry of Navarre became the heir to Henry III. He ascended the throne after the king's death in 1589 and became Henry IV.

Soon, disagreements arose between the spouses, which grew into hostility. It was then that the favorite of the king, the Countess de Gramont, who dreamed of marrying Bearntz to herself, began to behave defiantly with Margot and even tried to poison her. The queen was warned in time, but it scared her. Margo left Nérak a few days later under the pretense of spending Easter in Ajan, the Catholic city of her inheritance. As soon as Margot settled down, an envoy from the Duke of Guise appeared to her, who asked to help the Holy League in Languedoc and start a war against Navarretz.
Terribly overjoyed at the opportunity to pay for all the insults inflicted on her in Nerac, Margot accepted the offer and instructed her new lover, Linerac, to recruit soldiers from the locals and fortify the city. Unfortunately, the campaign ended in disaster: the ill-prepared and disorganized people of Linerac were utterly defeated by the Navarrese army.
After this failure, Margot had to recruit soldiers again and acquire weapons. To raise money, she introduced new taxes. The inhabitants of Azhan rebelled, killed most of the League soldiers and surrendered the city to the royal troops.
Margot, sitting on a horse behind Linierac, traveled fifty leagues and, completely defeated, exhausted, arrived at the well-fortified castle of Charles, not far from Aurillac. Soon she chose her own ringmaster, the noble and charming Obiak, for her comforts. Not even a few days after her arrival, a detachment appeared at the secret entrance to the castle, commanded by the Marquis de Canillac, the governor of Usson.
Obiak was immediately handed over to the guards, who escorted him to Saint-Cirq.
Canillac led Margot into a guarded carriage and, under a reliable escort, ordered her to be delivered to Usson Castle, built on an impregnable peak of a rocky mountain.
Margo was placed in the most remote chambers. Canillac then ordered Obiac's execution. For some time, no one knew what was happening in the Usson fortress, and even a rumor spread that Henry IV ordered the murder of his wife.

One morning Margo asked me to tell Canillac that she would be happy to see him at her place. The marquis found his captive in bed with almost no clothes on. The gaze of his single eye "lost dignity, giving way to lust."
From that day on, the Queen of Navarre became the ruler of the fortified city and the mistress of the Marquis de Canillac.
At this time, Gabriel d'Estre, another favorite, insisted on the king's divorce from Margo, who was still living in exile. In the end, Henry IV sent an ambassador to Usson to meet with his wife. What did he offer Margarita in exchange for the crown? a verbal statement in the presence of a church judge that “her marriage was entered into without mandatory permission and without voluntary consent,” and therefore she asks him to be considered invalid.
The ambassador arrived in Usson after a week's journey. A strange picture opened up before his eyes. Margo, who always adored making love, had a habit of lying naked on the bed, while leaving the window open, "so that anyone who, passing by, looks into it, feels the desire to come in and have fun with her."
The thought of a divorce did not upset Margot at all, whose only desire was to escape from Usson. In addition, she was aware that Henry IV would never call her to him.

Surprisingly, Margo even felt affection for Gabrielle d'Estre. Upon learning that Henry IV had given the mistress the magnificent abbey that once belonged to her, she wrote to the king: “It gave me pleasure to know that the thing that once belonged to me could testify to this noble woman, how I always wanted to please her, as well as my determination to love and honor what you will love all my life.”

After the divorce, Margot communicated with the king only in friendly and almost love correspondence. He wrote to her: “I would like to take care of everything that has to do with you, more than ever, and also that you always feel that henceforth I want to be your brother, not only by name, but also by spiritual affection ... "
He ordered to pay her a good pension, paid her debts, insisted that she be treated with respect, while she wished him happiness with the new queen - Marie de Medici.
On the evening of July 18, 1605, Margot entered the Madrid castle in Boulogne.
On July 26, Henry IV visited her. Of course, he hardly recognized her - the once charming Margo, with a slender and flexible figure, has turned into a portly lady. The king kissed her hands, called her "his sister" and stayed with her for three hours.
The next day, Margarita went on a visit to Marie de Medici.
In the Louvre, the king met her with honors and expressed displeasure to Marie de Medici, who did not want to go further than the main staircase to meet her.

“My sister, my love has always been with you. Here you can feel like a sovereign mistress, as, indeed, everywhere where my power extends.
At the end of August, Margherita left the Madrid castle and settled in a mansion on Figue street.
In less than a few days, a rumor swept through Paris that a young man was living with Queen Margot. Indeed, after six weeks of forced chastity, in order not to frighten the court, she called a twenty-year-old lackey from Usson named Déat de Saint-Julien.
But, to his misfortune, another page, eighteen-year-old Vermont, began to look at the fifty-year-old queen. On one of the April days of 1606, jealousy pushed him to kill his favorite ...
Margot moved to the estate, which she had recently acquired on the left bank of the Seine, near the abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Pres.
Her lover was a young Gascon named Bajomont, who was sent to her by well-meaning friends from Agen. As a lover, he was distinguished by his strength and tirelessness, which forced Margarita to ask for mercy, but God offended him with his mind.
Is it any wonder that Margaret's confessor, the future Saint Vincent de Paul, feeling uncomfortable in this situation and unable to overcome disgust, left her house and went to live among convicts, preferring to save their souls ...
While Catherine de Medici devoted all her time and all her worries to Concino Concini, the little king lived alone in his apartments.
Only one person showed attention and tenderness to an abandoned child, and that person was the good Queen Margo. She came into his room, showered him with gifts, told him fairy tales and funny stories.
When she left, he immediately became sad and begged to come back as soon as possible. Margo at such moments it seemed that her heart was breaking, and, completely upset, she showered the little king with kisses.
True, the old mistress warmed not only Louis XIII with her unspent maternal feelings. Together with him, a young singer named Villard used the bounties of this loving heart. Of course, in relation to the latter, she showed her feelings a little differently, because he was her lover.
In the spring of 1615, Margot caught a cold in the ice hall of the Petit Bourbon Palace. On March 27, the confessor warned Margot that her case was bad. Then she called Villars, kissed his lips for a long time, as if she wanted to enjoy this last touch, and died a few hours later.
Little Louis XIII experienced great grief. He realized that the only creature in the world who truly loved him had passed away.

On May 14, 1553, an important state event took place in the Saint-Germain Palace - Catherine de Medici, the wife of King Henry II, was safely resolved with her tenth child. It turned out to be their 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.

The young heiress of the Valois family

It is known that from an early age she was distinguished by rare beauty, a sharp mind and an independent disposition. Having been born in the heyday 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 very well, and also tried to write herself.

Sensuality woke up early in her, 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 to a Spanish heir, then to a Portuguese one, but in the end, the leader of the French Huguenots (Protestants) and the King of Navarre, Henry de Bourbon, became the princess' fiancé. 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, its culmination was the terrible and bloody St. Bartholomew's Night, on which the Catholics destroyed more than 30 thousand Huguenots - coreligionists and political allies of the young spouse. As a result, to save his life, he had to flee straight from the marriage bed, leaving Paris, to the ancestral Navarre castle.

Margarita of Navarre, who in every possible way assisted her husband in organizing the escape, refused, nevertheless, to follow his example and even, putting herself in danger, saved several Protestant nobles from death. She showed firmness of spirit and opposed the demands of numerous relatives who insisted on the dissolution of the marriage.

Spouses and political partners

Separated from Henry literally on the day of her wedding, but legally granted the rights and title of Queen of Navarre, Margarita, after staying in Paris for almost a year and waiting for the passions to subside, 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 acted as a political mediator between her brother, who by that time had occupied 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 between the spouses was, but it was here that the queen's excessive sensuality spoiled the matter, pushing her into the arms of one or the other lover. The husband, who also did not have a puritanical disposition, turned a blind eye to his wife's adventures, but this could not 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 not fulfilling the political tasks assigned to her. He said that she preferred love affairs to all this, compromising the Valois family in the eyes of all Europe.

After listening to her brother's moralizing and bowing, Margarita of Navarre silently withdrew. She herself was a queen and did not need anyone's instructions, even sounded from the height of 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 found with displeasure 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 only a moment's fun, now another favorite - the Countess de Guiche - has succeeded so much that she has taken her place not only in the marital bed, but, most annoyingly, in the eyes of the courtiers. Proud by nature, Marguerite of Navarre (Margot, as Alexandre Dumas dubbed her) could not put up with such humiliation.

The situation was aggravated by the sudden death of another contender for the French throne, Francois of Alencon, as a result of which her husband became the legitimate heir. Given the childlessness of Henry III, who was then ruling, he had every reason to receive the crown in the future. Thus, the role of Margarita as an intermediary between the two courts was losing relevance, and as a woman she had long ceased to interest him.

Duke of Guise and Marguerite of Navarre

The portrait of the queen, painted during her lifetime (he 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 not losing her royal dignity, Margarita retired to Angen, her own county, located in the south of France.

There, giving vent to the resentment that had accumulated in her, she announced her 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 her brother, Henry III.

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

Upon learning of his sister's entry into the Catholic League, the French king was furious and ordered to take her into custody, placing her in Usson Castle, located in Auvergne. However, she had to stay in the role of a prisoner for a very short time - the gallant de Guise returned her freedom. But for this, he did not storm the walls of the castle, but simply took and bought it, while making his lady of the heart the mistress of her former prison. He forced the guards to swear allegiance to her.

Years spent in Usson

Very soon, de Guise was killed in a fight with the 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 Clement, did not survive much. His death created confusion 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 forces loyal to him, tried to resist this intervention.

In this extremely aggravated 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 Usson, the owner of which she became under such unusual circumstances. In 1589, her husband succeeded, 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 Margaret next to him. A year later, citing the childlessness of his wife, the newly-made monarch got Pope Clement VIII to dissolve the marriage.

Back in Paris

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

For greater convenience, and also 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 works created in those years by Margarita of Navarre 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. A special piquancy is given to it by the documentary nature of the narrative, which is present in the writer's story about the love adventures she actually experienced. Her memoirs, which were repeatedly published and translated into different languages, have always enjoyed great success with readers.

last years of life

From the memoirs of contemporaries it is known that Margarita of Navarre remained true to herself until the end of her days in the main hobby of her life. Even in her 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 mild cold, which then gave rise to a complication that resulted in pneumonia. This illness became the cause of death, which cut short the bright and eventful life that Margaret of Navarre lived. The biography of this woman subsequently formed the basis of the famous novel by Alexandre Dumas, with the light hand of which she went down in history under the name of Queen Margot.

MEMOIRS OF MARGUERITE DE VALOIS

MEMOIRES DE MARGUERITE DE VALOIS

A WORD ABOUT QUEEN MARGO

The name of Marguerite of Valois, Queen of France and Navarre, went down in history along with the image of a beautiful Renaissance lady, sung by Ronsard and glorified by the brush of Clouet. Contemporaries called her Minerva, the patroness of sciences and arts. Descendants will call her one of the first feminists. Competing with men in the sciences and arts, she also defended the right of women to freedom of choice in love.

The private life of Marguerite Valois has always aroused great interest, as evidenced by the memoirs, diary entries and correspondence of contemporaries, as well as the abundance of her historical portraits created at different times. One of the most famous belongs to the pen of A. Dumas, who painted the image of an ardent mistress and courageous defender of the Huguenots.

Unfortunately, only memoirs and partly correspondence have survived from the creative heritage of the last Valois. Marguerite turned to writing memoirs in 1599-1600, in the happiest, according to her, period of her life in the Auvergne castle of Usson, far from Paris. At that time, she received a long-awaited divorce from Henry IV, who not only did not deprive her of the title of Queen of France and Navarre, but also retained other privileges for her. The French king was generous. In addition, the worries and expectations of permission to divorce brought the former spouses together. And Margarita Valois was seized by the desire to tell about the first years of her life together with Henry of Navarre, when the serious trials that their relationship was subjected to strengthened good friendly feelings between them, now valued by her above just marital ones.

The reason for writing memoirs was the work of Pierre Brantome dedicated to Marguerite - "Marguerite is the Queen of France and Navarre, the only heir to a noble French house at present." The representative of an ancient family, the rector of the abbey de Brant, Pierre de Bourdey was a fairly well-known figure. He served at the court of Charles IX, Henry III and the Duke of Alençon (the younger Valois). His high position made him a witness to court life. As his contemporaries spoke of him, he was a benevolent spectator and a third-rate person everywhere, allowing himself only sometimes dangerous discontent to anyone. The favorite of kings and princes found satisfaction in reflection and description of everything he saw. The fruit of his work were portraits of French queens and princesses, including Margaret of Navarre, Catherine de Medici, Anne of Brittany, Elizabeth and Claude of Valois. Breaking with tradition and dooming himself to sarcasm, Branthom dared to dedicate his work to women. At the same time, he showed great respect for the subject of his research, admiring his contemporaries and portraying all his heroines as extremely virtuous.

The portrait of Marguerite of Valois was, by its nature, a skillfully written panegyric. Brantom skillfully beat the most topical for the end of the 16th century. (after the assassination of Henry III) the problem of succession to the French throne, raising, along with the question of the right of Margaret of Valois, the heiress of the reigning dynasty to the crown, in general, the problem of succession to the throne. Unkind pagan law ( According to ancient law, the royal throne was inherited only through the male line.), according to Brantome, about the right to inherit the crown by the princes of the ruling dynasties, which deprived the princesses of this right, was a byword in French society, especially since neighboring states, including Spain and England, did not know such a custom.

The famous courtier created an attractive image of Margarita, generously gifted by nature with beauty and kindness, an extraordinary mind, talents for eloquence and versification, and undeservedly enduring the blows of fate, to which he attributed court intrigues along with the ancient law of succession to the throne. Unlike the Roman emperors, who sought to amuse their people with games and other spectacles, he wrote, the French kings, for the pleasure of the people and winning their favor, could only show the divine face of Queen Margaret more often.

The panegyric was presented to Margarita in the 90s of the 16th century. in the castle of Usson, where the ubiquitous Brant reached. The queen could not help but be touched by the assurances of the courtier that she was worthy not only of a small inch of land in Auvergne, where her castle was located, but also of the throne of all France. Brantome's heartfelt words about her virtues, as well as about family discord with Henry of Navarre, which he considered typical for most noble couples, and the mention of the queen's selflessness, who saved her husband on St. Bartholomew's night, were the limit of praise, pushing Margarita to answer.

The Queen begins her story with an appeal to Branthom, mentally entering into a dialogue with the court flatterer. It introduces the reader into the world of low passions, intrigues and deceit that prevailed at the French court in the year of the reign of Charles IX and Henry III, presenting the life of the arbiters with the fate of their subjects in the most tragic period in the history of France. Not sparing with paints, Margarita draws portraits of her loved ones: the imperious and cruel Queen Mother Catherine de Medici, the weak-willed and kind Charles IX and the cynical Henry III, who used the services of wicked advisers. Of the last of the Valois, only the Duke of Alençon, Francis, is praised. She considered her younger brother, as well as herself, among the victims of court intrigues.

Margarita ranks Henry IV among the positive heroes of her memoirs. Driven by the desire to tell not only about the prescription, but also about the strength of the friendly ties that bind her to her ex-husband, Margarita seeks to emphasize her role in his happy fate: whether it was patronage of the captive of the Louvre on the St. Bartholomew night of the massacre of the Huguenots or help at the moment of aggravation of relations between the King of Navarre and the French monarch. She did not want to remember the insults inflicted on her by Henry of Navarre, blaming the French court for everything. Margarita refused to describe all the vicissitudes of her life. The memory probably retained everything, but the mind took away what was permitted. The memoirs abruptly end in 1582, leaving the reader with a desire to learn about the fate of the heroine. More than 30 years of life were not included in the memoirs, and probably not by chance. 1582 was followed by difficult years of struggle and wanderings of the queen without a king and a kingdom. The fate of the seductive Margarita of Valois, bathed in the rays of universal delight and love, was truly dramatic, as evidenced by the facts from her biography, both those that were included in her memoirs and others that she kept silent about.

Marguerite Valois was born on May 14, 1553 in one of the royal residences of Saint-Germain-en-Laye. She was the seventh child of the then reigning Henry II and Catherine de Medici. She was six years old when her father's life was accidentally cut short during a jousting tournament. The orphaned house, in which four young sons and a daughter remained at the time of the death of Henry II, had to shoulder the brunt of state affairs and resist the forces that claimed political influence at court. According to ancient law, the elder brother of Margaret, fifteen-year-old Francis II, became the heir to the throne. But the main concern for the family and the preservation of the crown for her sons was taken over by the queen mother Catherine de Medici.

The serene world of a six-year-old girl was destroyed. Before her eyes, the most terrible spectacle that France had ever known was played out, attracting more and more new heroes to its stage, a civil fratricidal war that had not stopped for almost half a century. Margarita witnessed changes in the character and behavior of her loved ones. Mother, usually restrained and silent, has become a staunch defender of the interests of the ruling dynasty, using all means to achieve her goal. Her formidable appearance and demanding tone instilled fear in Margarita. The elder brother Francis, having ascended the throne, became proud, exposing the most disgusting qualities of his painful nature. But his triumph did not last long. Before he had reigned even a year, he died, plunging the royal court into new mourning.

The three remaining brothers - Karl-Maximilian, Edward-Alexander (when Henry was confirmed) and Hercule (when Francis was confirmed) - were almost the same age as Margarita. But the throne went to the eldest of them, 11-year-old Charles Maximilian, Charles IX. The young king was completely under the influence of his mother. The princes of the blood, the same age as Charles IX, had to look for fortune outside the French house. Envy, hostility and distrust crept into the relationship between the closest people. To this was added the enmity of the first blood princes of the Bourbons competing for political influence under the sovereign and the Lorraine noblemen of the Dukes of Guise, once favored by Francis I, Margaret's grandfather.

The conscious life of Margarita Valois began quite early. Family hardships hastened her growing up. Naturally capable, possessing a lively mind and curiosity, the girl joined reading from an early age. Catherine de Medici encouraged her daughter's addiction. Young Margarita was fluent in Italian and Spanish and could easily read Latin. Latin, mathematics and physics were studied with her by the professor of the College of Sens, Monsieur Mignon. The girl began to write early, her idol was the court poet Pierre Ronsard. She tried to imitate him in her first poetic experiments. The Queen Mother instilled in her a taste for good music. Etienne de Roy, a well-known musician at that time, taught her singing, and the court jester Paul de Rede taught her dancing.

Marguerite Valois became an enviable bride: her beauty and learning earned her fame not only in France, but also abroad. Wishing her daughter the crown, Catherine de Medici was nevertheless picky about the contenders for her hand. She made plans and sought to subordinate the resolution of the matrimonial issue to political interests.

Therefore, one marriage option (with Don Carlos, the eldest son of the Spanish king Philip II) replaced another (with Philip II himself), until the third one appeared (with Prince Sebastian, the son of the Portuguese queen), etc. One of the first contenders for the hand of Margarita was Duke Henry of Guise. However, the brave handsome man, who was successful in society and won the favor of Margarita, could not count on consent. The queen mother saw in this party the ambitions of the Guises and, contrary to the wishes of her daughter, rejected the proposal of the duke.

This was Margarita's first tragedy: her feelings were not taken into account. Among other projects, the option of marriage with Henry of Bourbon was discussed. As the court struggle intensified, Catherine de Medici was more and more inclined towards this option. The son of the first blood prince Antoine of Bourbon and Queen of Navarre Jeanne d "Albret was Margaret's cousin. Marriage with the Navarrese promised a softening of the court struggle and, in addition, the crown to the heiress of the French house. But the difference in religion of the spouses served as an obstacle to concluding this marriage. Henry of Navarre professed Protestantism. The Catholic Church did not sanction this union, despite the assurances of Catherine de Medici that the beauty of her daughter will return the Navarrese to the bosom of Catholicism.

As for Margarita of Valois, not having any feelings for Henry of Navarre, she still did not oppose marriage: she was seduced by the position of the wife of the first prince of the blood and the prospect of becoming the queen of Navarre. It is possible that her decision was dictated by a sense of duty to the royal house at the time of the impending threat, and there was even some confidence in heroic self-sacrifice. Margarita was always ready to sacrifice herself, but at the same time she never compromised either her dignity or her convictions. “I agree and will obey my husband and his mother in reasonable things, but I will not change the faith in which I was brought up, even if my husband becomes the monarch of the whole world,” she objected to her future mother-in-law, who wanted to convince her to accept the faith of Henry of Navarre. In family life, she will force her husband to respect one more of her rights - to feelings and desires, refusing to obey the will of her husband.

In April 1572, a marriage contract was signed between Margaret of Valois and Henry of Navarre. According to the contract, Charles IX, who was then ruling, gave 300,000 gold crowns as a dowry to her sister, depriving her of all inheritance rights to her father and mother. Catherine de Medici added 200 thousand livres to this, the younger brothers 25 thousand livres each. In addition, the contract provided for the right of the spouses to use part of the tax revenues to the royal treasury. Thus, one of the important family problems was solved: Margarita was excommunicated ( However, the question of the division of the inheritance was not forgotten in the Valois family. They returned to him throughout Margarita's court life. In family quarrels, wanting to attract her sister to their side, they will not only promise her, but also allocate land in South-Western France).

By the time of the wedding, scheduled for August 18, 1572, Henry of Navarre had already inherited the crown of Navarre: the sudden death of Jeanne d'Albret made him king, and Margaret was expected to be queen.

The marriage ceremony of a Catholic woman with a Protestant bore the features of a compromise. Henry of Navarre was supposed to accompany the bride to the church, but not to attend Mass, waiting for Margaret until the end of the service near the temple. On the day of the wedding, the Cardinal of Lorraine betrothed the couple in the Louvre, and the next day solemnly combined them at the entrance to Notre Dame. “Our wedding,” Margarita writes in her memoirs, “was performed with such triumph and splendor like no other, the king of Navarre and his retinue were in rich and beautiful robes, and I was royally in a diamond crown and ermine cape, three princesses carried the train of my blue dress. The wedding was performed according to the custom provided for the daughters of France. At this time, F. Clouet made a famous portrait of Marguerite.

The court feast on the occasion of the wedding was a success. “But fate never allows people to fully experience happiness; she wanted to spoil my wedding, ”Margarita notes bitterly, recalling the assassination attempt on the head of the Huguenot party, Admiral Caligny, and the subsequent events in the August days of 1572. Bartholomew. The holiday, which gathered in Paris the provincial nobility, the Huguenots - like-minded and fellow believers of Henry of Navarre, turned into a massacre against the arrivals.

Moved by compassion for the unfortunate who were trapped, Margarita hid the wounded in her chambers and asked for mercy, worrying for the life of Henry of Navarre and his entourage. In her memoirs, she will present herself as the protector of her husband, who managed to save his life. Years later, alone with pen and paper, she wants to tell only about her feat, keeping silent about the behavior of Henry of Navarre, that he paid for his salvation by renouncing his faith.

The married life of Margarita, from the first days overshadowed by the events of St. Bartholomew's Night, presented the newlywed with other unpleasant surprises. The coveted title of queen turned out to be purely nominal. In connection with the August events, the Huguenot Henry of Navarre became a prisoner of Charles IX and Catherine de Medici. In addition, Margarita's physical dislike for her husband made marital duties impossible for her. Divorce as the only way out for the situation at that time did not suit either side. Forced captivity fettered the independence of Henry of Navarre. Margarita, not confessing to anyone what had happened, tried to play the role of a wife. A marriage entered into without love immediately revealed its purely business essence. Without dramatizing the situation, the couple did not embarrass each other. Margarita gained the desired freedom of choice in her love affections. She shone in the court. Masters of brush and words represented her charming image. Ronsard compared her to the beautiful Pasithea, admiring her beautiful face, illuminated by the sparkle of large brown eyes, a smile of full lips and dark curly hair.

The first hardships of life could not pacify the ardor of young Margarita. Neglecting intimacy with her husband, she remained open to love, able to trust her feelings. So the first lover entered the life of Margarita. He was Joseph Boniface, Seigneur de La Mole, a handsome and stately Provençal, the best dancer at court and a ladies' man. The first free choice of a lover characterized Margarita's penchant for handsome men. Throughout her life she remained true to her ideal.

Biographers, following contemporaries, considered Margarita Valois the slave of their passion. All her life she did not deny herself sensual pleasures. Lovers succeeded one another, leaving a short memory of themselves. Margarita enjoyed freedom, not realizing her main purpose, which is difficult to combine with free love - to be the mother of the king's heir. She understood the tragedy of her failure as a mother only when her husband, who had been rejected by her, declared his desire to have an heir and insisted on a divorce. Unable to bear children, Margarita for the first time in her life realized her defeat, having experienced a feeling of jealousy for her husband and hatred for his mistresses, who were ready to make him happy with heirs. A barren fig tree, she knew that she had lost more than she had gained: the position of the queen was at stake.

Marguerite's personal drama played out against the backdrop of complications in relations in the Valois family and the civil war in France. As a member of the royal family and as the wife of a Huguenot, she was drawn into the struggle, taking an active position in it.

Envy and exorbitant ambitions turned her brothers - the Duke of Anjou and the Duke of Alençon - into implacable enemies. To the Duke of Anjou, Henry, who began with a military career, fate was favorable, endowing him first with the Polish crown, and after the untimely death of Charles IX with the French throne. Duke Francis of Alençon, using the authority of the prince, dreamed of establishing his political influence in the Dutch provinces. His intervention in the Spanish-Dutch war and the support of the Dutch princes was extremely dangerous, threatening France with being drawn into a military conflict with Spain. But the younger Valois considered only his own interests.

Margarita despised her older brother for his willfulness, intolerance for the weaknesses of others, and caustic smiles, for which he was especially generous. She treated the younger one with great warmth; she was impressed by his courage, bordering on impudence, and she even helped in the implementation of his Flemish plans.

Participation in court battles instilled confidence in Margarita. But her political authority, in which she managed to believe, turned out to be an illusion. She was pointed to a very minor place in the royal family. After the flight of Henry of Navarre from the Louvre in Paris, Marguerite was held as a hostage, trying to get rid of her on favorable terms. In Nérac, at the court of the spouse, they did not wait for the arrival of the queen, negotiating compensation from Paris for her reception. Margaret of Valois was doomed to wander.

After a two-year separation from her husband, hoping for his gratitude, Margarita decides to go to him in Nerak. It seemed that the longed-for dream of finding his own yard was becoming a reality. In Neraka, she manages to glorify the royal court of Henry of Navarre. It attracts the entire color of the Protestant intelligentsia there. The poet Guillaume de Salusius and the diplomats Duplessis - Morne and Pibrac, the poet and philosopher Agrippa d "Aubigne and others gather in her salon. Pibrac even hatches the idea of ​​opening an Academy similar to the one in Paris by the forces of the non-racian society. The non-racian salon of Marguerite Valois revives the traditions of the time of Margarita of Navarre. Far from Paris, despite the war, the light of poetic and musical evenings does not go out and the spirit of love reigns , as the minister of Henry IV, Senor Sully, writes about it.

But it is in Neraka that Margarita receives a blow of such force that turns her whole future life upside down. The friendly relations of the spouses that have developed in Paris do not stand the test of power. Henry of Navarre, as king, allows himself to offer Margarita care for his favorite, who was expecting a child from him. This fact becomes known in Paris, and the royal court intervenes in the relationship between the spouses, prompting Marguerite to return to the Louvre.

It should be noted that the queen, wise by life experience, whose position at the time of writing her memoirs was entirely dependent on the favor of Henry IV, outlined these events of the distant past, clearly setting out to rehabilitate her husband and blame the French court for all her misfortunes. And she manages to do this, because she refuses to further present her memoirs. Proud Margarita hid that her departure from Nerak was the prelude to all her subsequent wanderings. She kept silent about the years of humiliation, bitter thoughts and resistance, she did not tell anyone about her happy days, devoted to the joy of communicating with like-minded people and creativity.

Leaving Nérac, she returned to Paris, but despite the invitation of the king and the queen mother, she was expected to be coldly received. Henry III, having achieved the departure of his sister and a break with her husband, soon decided to return her to the Navarrese. Dependence on the will of her brother forced Margarita to obey, but the return to Nerak became a torture for the queen. Henry of Navarre stopped his wife on the way and forced her to wait for the results of negotiations with Henry III. He demanded compensation for the reception of Margarita, bargaining for rights for his like-minded people. Negotiations and humiliating waiting lasted seven months, until the king of Navarre deigned to allow them to continue on their way. Nerac did not wait for his queen. In one of her letters, she spoke about this time: “My life is comparable to a slave position, I obey the strength and power of the one whom I cannot resist.”

Nevertheless, Margarita found the strength not to succumb to despondency. She challenged both sides - the king-brother and the king-husband, leaving Nerac and rushing to the city of Azhan, in the camp of opponents of the king and Henry of Navarre. Humiliated dignity made her hate and take revenge. With the help of her new allies, representatives of the Catholic League, she takes part in the strengthening of Azhan, showing remarkable abilities as a military leader. When Henry III forces the townspeople to surrender, Margaret hides in a Jacobin monastery in order to continue her journey and find refuge in the Auvergne fortress of Charles, granted to her by Henry III. The old dilapidated castle of the recalcitrant Armagnacs, who once fought with Louis XI, becomes the abode of a new rebel.

For a while, the Louvre loses sight of Marguerite. Rumors even spread about her death. The reason for this was the long illness of the Queen. But Margarita does not give up, she becomes the defender of the interests of the Catholic opposition in Southern France. Together with the Catholic League, she is waging a desperate struggle against the defenders of the French throne, led by Henry III. The defeat of the opposition by the royal troops ends in captivity for Margarita. Accompanied by an escort, she is taken as a criminal to the Auvergne castle of Usson. Located in a remote area, high in the mountains, Usson once hid the most dangerous criminals.

The captivity allowed Margarita's relatives to hasten to dispose of her fate. Henry of Navarre wanted to file a divorce. Anticipating this decision of her son-in-law, the Queen Mother offered to place her daughter in a monastery, and Henry of Navarre to marry Margaret's niece Christina of Lorraine. Henry III sees the best way out for his sister in death.

However, the seclusion in Usson ended for Margarita with liberation. The letters helped their accomplice, freeing her from imprisonment and securing for her the right to own the castle. The impregnable Usson became for Margarita not only a safe haven. Here in the distant Auvergne she felt happy. After many years of turbulent social life and the humiliation of a rejected sister and wife, she finally knew happiness, realizing it in liberation from the conventions of high society and in harmony with nature. Later, in a letter to Henry IV, she would call Usson her cover, although the conditions of the old building and the scarcity of material resources deprived her of her usual comfort. In Usson, Margarita, with all the passion of her soul, indulges in reading and creativity. Her interests are diverse: history and literature, theology, philosophy and natural science. The castle library is replenished with books of ancient authors - Plato, Herodotus, Plutarch, the works of Italian humanists - Dante, Boccaccio, Petrarch, Pico del Mirandola and Marsilio Ficino, French literature - from F. de Commin to Dubelle and Ronsard. Having experience in patronage and organizing a court salon in Neraka, Margarita turns Usson into a new Parnassus. She invites poets, philosophers and theologians to her salon, regardless of their religious beliefs. In the salon, they listened to the poems of Antoine Le Puyad, Pierre Broche, the sermons of the Jesuit father Gumblo and reflections on the immortality of the soul of the philosophers J. de Champagnac and Duplex. A favorite topic of conversation was the nature of love, which occupied Margarita all her life. Taking an active part in these conversations, the Usson recluse defended the unity of Cupid and Psyche. She did not accept innocent love, the passion of the soul as an ideal form, as opposed to bodily pleasure. Protecting the unity of soul and body and thus rehabilitating the carnal side of love, Margarita defended the right of a woman to freedom of choice in love relationships, rejecting any coercion. Reasoning on this topic will be reflected in the letters, where she substantiates this right of a woman. “The Lord in his creation,” the queen will write, “began with the smaller and imperfect, and ended with the great and perfect. He created a man after other creatures, but he created a woman after a man, therefore she is more perfect and she has the right to freedom of choice in love relationships.

In Usson, she learns of the death of the Queen Mother and the murder of Henry III's brother. The only heiress of the great house of Valois could not claim the crown. Henry of Navarre, the first prince of the blood of the extinct Valois dynasty, confidently walked to the French throne, crowding his opponents. Having overcome the opposition in most of France, he approached Paris. To take the last center of resistance, the cunning Huguenot prepared his most important trump card - apostasy. He helped him on St. Bartholomew's Night in 1572, saving his life, he brought him the crown in 1594. Paris cost a mass, and the Parisians accepted the first blood prince of the Bourbon dynasty, obeying him as their sovereign.

With the accession to the throne of Henry IV, Margarita realized the futility of resistance and admitted defeat, declaring herself from that time on a supporter of the new king. The relationship between the spouses entered a new phase. The king wanted to get a divorce and formalize his relationship with another favorite: the position obliged him to take care of the heir. Margaret didn't mind. However, fate was pleased to once again test the patience of the spouses, while facilitating the renewal of their friendly affection. The case of the divorce of the French king acquired a confessional and political character: the permission of the Pope was required. The Holy See, trying to use this case to strengthen its influence in the French Church, was in no hurry to satisfy the mutual desire of the spouses. During the proceedings, the legality of marriage between a Catholic and a Protestant was questioned, as well as the motives for dissolution of the union. Consent to divorce was received only at the end of 1599, six years after the official announcement of Henry IX. But the king could not use the right to conclude a new marriage: the favorite of Henry IV, Gabrielle d "Este, who gave him sons, died suddenly.

Meanwhile, the fate of Margarita Valois was decided benevolently. Henry IV expressed a desire to remain for her not only a cousin, but to become her real patron. In 1599, a special royal charter left the title of Queen of Navarre for Margarita and added a new title - Queen of France. In addition, she received the right to use the lands in South-Western France, which were donated to her by her brothers, and she was granted a pension. Thus, in exchange for the illusory hopes for the position of queen under a living king, Margaret received the material support and dignity of the queen dowager. At the same time, she was awarded the right to return to Paris, acquire land and houses, and also build her residence opposite the Louvre, in which she was destined to spend the last seven years of her life, making her new palace no less famous than the salon in Usson. The court of Marguerite began to attract poets and musicians, philosophers and statesmen, among whom were the famous Francois Malherbe, Vital d "Odigier and Theophile de Vio. Poets wrote odes in her honor, philosophers dedicated their works to her. Margarita's Paris salon revived the old tradition of court holidays that arose under Francis I.

Henry IV, for the sake of political interests, married Maria Medici, the niece of the Grand Duke of Tuscany Ferdinand and cousin of Margaret. But the life of the king, who finally found a family and heirs, filled with plans for state reforms, was short-lived. In 1610 he was stabbed to death by the fanatic Ravaillac.

The death of the king forced Marguerite to fight for the preservation of peace in France - a guarantee of her newfound prosperity. To this end, she participated in the last assembly of the Estates General in 1614, trying to bring the irreconcilable deputies of the estates to an agreement by reminding of the military threat to France. Confident in her ability to achieve what she wanted, Margaret did her best to strengthen the new dynasty on the throne in the person of the young Louis XIII.

The years have changed the appearance of the beautiful Margarita, turning her into a heavyset old woman. Only the sly look of brown eyes and the habit of luxurious clothes in the old fashion, causing smiles from the courtiers, betrayed her former beauty.

In recent years, Margarita fell into hypochondria, went to Mass every day and took communion. The inhabitants of prisons and hospitals became the subject of her special concern. She showed great generosity to all those in need of help. At the end of 1613, having returned from a short trip to her beloved Usson, Margarita fell ill with pneumonia and could not recover. A year and a half later - on May 27, 1615 - she was gone. She was dying in consciousness, having managed to accept unction from her confessor and thank the priest.

The coffin with the body of the deceased, installed in the monastery chapel, was waiting for burial for a whole year. The funeral was to take place in May 1616. But there was no money in the treasury for solemn honors, and the deceased was secretly transported at night, accompanied by two shooters from the royal guard, to the family tomb of Saint-Denis.

In her will, drawn up two days before her death, Marguerite disposed of all her property in favor of Louis XIII and the Queen Mother Marie de Medici, stipulating the payment of remuneration to court servants and a penalty under the contract for the construction of the Augustinian monastery, which she began in Bourges.

The last of the Valois dynasty passed away, wishing to remain in the memory of her descendants as she presented herself in her memoirs - a victim of time, the daughter of a terrible era - the lead age, in the words of Montaigne. The goddess of happiness Fortuna, whom the ancient Greeks portrayed with a bandage over her eyes, barely touched her with her kind hand. Evil fate, by which Margarita meant court intrigues, turned her life into an eternal search for evidence of her righteousness. Meanwhile, she deserved a better share.

For more than one century, the self-assessment given by the author of the narrative, and the analysis of the events she made, aroused great interest, which prepared the memoirs for a long life. Published for the first time in the 17th century, they were repeatedly reprinted, finally becoming available to the general reader in the first Russian translation.

The translation of the memoirs of Marguerite Valois was made according to one of the first editions of the 17th century. This text, along with funny stories from the history of France in the 16th-17th centuries. entered the publication carried out by Ludovic Lalant in Paris in 1858.

Text reproduced from: Memoirs of Queen Margot. M. MGU. 1996

Last Valois

On May 14, 1553, a daughter was born to King Henry II of France and the famous Queen Catherine de Medici, who was destined to become the last representative of the Valois family.

She was named after her great-aunt, Margarita of Navarre, who became famous, among other things, for her literary talents. The creator of the famous "Heptameron" was called the Margarita of all Margaritas, which can be translated as "the pearl of all pearls." It was assumed that the young princess of Valois would inherit all the qualities of her famous namesake.

Young Margarita really turned out to be a very capable girl - by the age of 16 she was fluent in several languages, including ancient Greek and Latin, which allowed her to read Homer and Plato in the original, studied philosophy and literature, played musical instruments, sang beautifully.

However, in history she was destined to become famous not as an enlightened lady ... Margarita had a unique beauty that caused sincere admiration of the courtiers, who had seen many beautiful women in their lifetime. Young Margot eclipsed all the beauties that her mother, Catherine de Medici, loved to surround herself with. Wasp waist, huge eyes, luxurious hair - fans of the princess just went crazy. But the beauty and royal blood, which her peers so envied, did not bring happiness to Margaret at all ...

First love

When Margo was only 6 years old, her father, Henry II, died in a tournament. The throne was inherited by the princess's brother Francis II, a weak and weak-willed young man who died a year later. Another brother, Charles IX, at that time still a minor, became king. For a long time, the queen mother Catherine de Medici, whose power was simply grandiose, really controlled France. And in her own and political interests, she completely did not take into account the will and desires of her daughter ...

The young princess, spoiled by universal worship and admiration, once fell cruelly in love. Her chosen one was the young Duke Henry of Giese - a desperate brave man and a written handsome man. He answered Margo with complete reciprocity, and the couple were going to get married - the origin of Guise made it possible to intermarry with the royal court.

The novel was kept secret for the time being - Margarita suspected that her mother would not be delighted that the impudent Guise would become her son-in-law and be able to claim the throne.

But soon Catherine de Medici intercepted her daughter's love letter. The scandal that followed was just terrible. Mother and brothers literally beat Margot, locked her in the palace, and the duke, on pain of death, was ordered to leave Paris forever.

The unfortunate Margarita sobbed for several days, and had just begun to recover, when a new blow followed - her mother announced that she was marrying her ...

bloody wedding

Catherine de Medici chose for a long time which of her daughter's numerous suitors to give preference to ... But then she made a Machiavellian decision. As a Catholic, she vehemently hated the Huguenots. And at the same time, she decided to marry Margarita to Henry of Navarre, the son of the recently deceased leader of the Huguenots. The official reason for this marriage was the desire of the queen to unite a country torn apart by religious contradictions.

Margarita, in tears, begged her mother to save her from this hated marriage - not only did she not love Henry, she also hated the Huguenots just like her mother. But Catherine de Medici was inexorable - either to the altar or to the monastery!

On August 18, 1572, the wedding of Margaret of Valois and Henry of Navarre took place ... And then the real reason for this marriage was revealed ... A lot of Huguenots came to Paris to marry their leader. And the Catholics, incited by Catherine and Charles IX, staged a massacre of Protestants, which went down in history under the name "Bartholomew's Night" ...

According to various estimates, from 3,000 to 10,000 Huguenots died in those bloody days, many Protestants then hastily left France, and for many years the country was shaken by religious wars. Henry of Navarre himself escaped that terrible night only thanks to ... the protection of his young wife. Margarita, who was so opposed to her marriage, suddenly changed her mind about her husband after the wedding and helped him survive this bloody night.

conspiracy

No, Margarita did not inflame romantic feelings for her husband, rather, it was friendship and alliance - and more than once Margot helped her husband. After Bartholomew's night, he became practically a hostage of the French king. Heinrich was about to arrange an escape, and Margo offered him her help. True, her lover Count La Mole mainly helped - the queen found in him for herself the second Duke of Guise - a fearless knight. And this fearless knight cruelly paid for his love.

The conspiracy was revealed, La Mole was publicly executed, and Margarita had to go through another tragedy ... She bought his head and buried it in the monastery, pouring tears ...

Soon, Henry nevertheless fled to Navarre - again with the help of his wife. After some time, Margarita followed him. But the husband was not at all eager to see his wife, who saved his life - he was having fun with his favorites all this time quite well. Margarita found herself in a difficult situation - her husband did not particularly expect her, and her relatives did not at all seek to accept her into the bosom of the family.

Margarita sought solace in numerous love stories - according to contemporaries, from year to year she became more beautiful and freer in her manners. The most noisy affair happened with Louis de Clermont Bussy de Amboise, a fearless merry fellow and a handsome man, a favorite of Paris.

Bussy, in love, wrote poems dedicated to Marguerite: “My life is like a dark night if there is no light of your love in it.” This passion was so strong that it crossed all the limits of decency - even Henry, who looked through his fingers at his wife's hobbies, was furious. Soon Bussy died, and the circumstances of his death are still shrouded in mystery ...

Later, Margarita wrote in her memoirs: “In this century, in the entire male tribe, there was no one who could compare with him in strength of mind, virtues, nobility and intelligence.”

Queen in exile

Meanwhile, after the death of Margaret's brothers, the throne went to her husband. Henry became the king of France, and his wife was “thanked” with a divorce. However, the church recognized his arguments for the dissolution of the marriage as quite reasonable - Margo turned out to be childless and could not give the king an heir.

But after the divorce, Margarita retained her title and privileges - and her life became much better than with her mother and brothers.

She lived in her own residence opposite the Louvre, where she continued to indulge in love stories - despite her already advanced age by the standards of that time. At the same time, she managed to write memoirs, in which, however, she tried to embellish and whitewash herself and denigrate her enemies, she wrote multi-page letters, each of which now costs a fortune ...

She died in May 1615, having lived only 62 years. But Margarita Valois survived all the participants in the drama of her life - they died much earlier, and only a few died by their own death ...

The turbulent life story of Margaret of France still inspires writers, directors, filmmakers, and each of them is trying to create their own Queen Margot, sometimes very far from the real one ...

Life story
Marguerite of Valois is the daughter of Henry II and Catherine de Medici. In 1572, she married the King of Navarre, who later, under the name Henry IV, took the French throne. When Henry fled from Paris, she remained at court for a long time. At the initiative of the king, their marriage was annulled. Margarita spent the last years of her life in Paris, surrounding herself with scientists and writers. She wrote memoirs about her life.
At noon on May 24, 1553, the Queen gave birth to a girl. “We will call her Marguerite,” said King Henry II of France.
Already at the age of eleven, Margarita had two lovers - Antrag and Sharen. Which of them became the first? Apparently, we will never know which of them had the honor of being a pioneer. At fifteen, she became the mistress of her brothers Charles, Henry and Francis. And when Margarita turned eighteen, her beauty began to attract men so much that she had a great choice. A brunette with eyes the color of black amber, she was able to ignite everything around with her glance, and her skin was such a milky whiteness that Margarita, out of a desire to show off, and for the sake of fun, received her lovers in a bed covered with black muslin ...
At this time, she fell in love with her cousin Duke Heinrich de Guise, a handsome twenty-year-old blond. Both temperamental and devoid of any kind of shame, they gave themselves up to love games where they were overtaken by desire, whether in a room, in a garden or on a staircase. Once they were caught even in one of the Louvre corridors. At the mere thought that this fat from the House of Lorraine could seduce his sister, King Charles IX fell into real madness. And Margo persuaded the duke to marry Catherine of Cleves, widow of Prince Porken...
After this incident, the queen mother decided to marry her daughter to the son of Antoine de Bourbon, the young Henry of Navarre, who then did not yet have the reputation of a Don Juan. Henry's mother, Jeanne d'Albret, was proud to be able to marry her son to the sister of the King of France, and quickly agreed on everything with Catherine. The wedding, of course, was attended by many Protestants, who, five days later, on St. Bartholomew's night, were killed to one and all by the Catholics. After the St. Bartholomew night, Henry of Navarre, who renounced Protestantism in order to save his life, was under the vigilant supervision of Catherine de Medici.
While Margarita enjoyed the caresses of her lovers, Henry of Navarre conspired. He created a secret organization whose goal was to overthrow Charles IX from the throne, eliminate the Duke of Anjou, who became King of Poland in 1573, and put the Duke of Alençon, the youngest son of Catherine de Medici, on the throne of France.
Among the favorites of the Duke of Alençon was Señor Boniface de la Mole, a brilliant dancer and favorite of the ladies. This God-fearing lecher was simply made for Margarita, who with extraordinary ease passed from the church to the alcove and went to bed with her lovers, while her hair was still fragrant with incense. When he saw her, dressed in a brocard dress with a deep neckline, which allowed her to see her high and full breasts, he immediately fell in love with her ... Margarita immediately rushed to him, grabbed his hand and dragged him into her room, where they made love, so noisily that after two hours the whole court already knew that the Queen of Navarre had another lover.
La Mole was a Provençal. In bed, he blabbed to Marguerite about the conspiracy that Henry of Navarre was plotting, and about the important role that he himself and one of his friends named Kokonas, the lover of the Duchess of Nevers, were to play in this conspiracy. Margarita, after hearing the confession, was horrified. As the king's daughter, she knew that conspiracies were detrimental to the king, and therefore, despite her love for de la Mole, she told everything to Catherine de Medici.
On a May day in 1574, de la Mole and Coconas were beheaded in the Place de Greve. Their bodies were quartered and hung on the city gates for the amusement of the mob. At nightfall, the Duchess of Nevers and Marguerite sent one of their friends, Jacques d'Oradour, to ransom the heads of the executed from the executioner. Kissing them on their cold lips, they carefully placed their heads in boxes, and the next day they ordered them to be embalmed.
A week later, Margarita began to feel some kind of unusual excitement, because of which she became taciturn and did not find a place for herself. She needed something to calm her. And she found such a remedy in the face of a young courtier named Saint-Luc, who was famous for his inexhaustible masculine strength. For several meetings, he completely saved Margo from torment. After that, the young woman again began to appear at court balls. One evening she met a handsome man, whose name was Charles de Balzac d'Antragues, and became his mistress...
Catherine de Medici abandoned the idea of ​​imprisoning both princes, rightly believing that this would cause violent unrest in the kingdom; however, she made the dukes of Navarre and Alençon prisoners of the Louvre. They were forbidden to leave the palace unaccompanied, and many secret agents recorded literally every word they said.
The Duke of Anjou, after the death of his brother, Charles IX, returned in 1574 from Poland to take the throne. Under Henry III, the wars of religion resumed. In 1576, under the leadership of Henry of Giese, a holy league was formed from strict Catholics, which set as its goal the final extermination of Protestantism.
Henry of Navarre was known as a great cunning. On February 3, 1576, having lulled the vigilance of Catherine and Henry III, he obtained permission from them to go hunting in the forest surrounding the city of Senlis. The next time the Parisians were destined to see him only after twenty years. Henry III, who from the day of the escape of Navarre could not calm down, refused to let Margo go, arguing that she was the best decoration of his court and that he was unable to part with her. In fact, he turned her into a prisoner. The unfortunate woman had no right to leave her room, at the door of which there were guards day and night, and all her letters were read.
Despite the vigilant surveillance under which Marguerite was, she managed to send a note to the Duke of Alençon and tell him in what terrible conditions she was being held in the Louvre. The duke was greatly disturbed by this news and sent a letter of protest to Catherine de Medici. The Queen Mother had long wanted to eliminate Francis, so she could not help but take the opportunity. Now she thought that in exchange for the freedom of Margarita, her rebellious son would leave the Protestants and refuse to confront the crown. She invited Henry III to enter into negotiations with the duke through the mediation of Margarita and received consent.
The journey was painful for Margot, as their carriage was accompanied by handsome and therefore seductive officers, each of whom would gladly calm her nerves. The next day, in the evening, after the first negotiations, when everyone had gone to bed, she silently slipped out of her room and went to the Duke of Alençon, who, with a heat that was hardly appropriate in this case, showed her more than brotherly feelings. After this night, which brought great relief to Margaret, negotiations resumed, and Francis, confident in his abilities, put forward his own conditions. A few days later, Henry III, whose hypocrisy was no less than his vices, met his brother with honor and made peace with him in front of everyone. Marguerite returned to Paris with Francis.
In the spring of 1577, Monduse, the king's agent in Flanders, who had gone over to the service of the Duke of Anjou, reported that the Flemings were groaning under the yoke of the Spaniards and that Flanders could be easily conquered by sending an experienced person there. The Duke of Anjou immediately thought of Marguerite.
The departure for Flanders took place on May 28, 1577. Marguerite, accompanied by a large retinue, left Paris through the gates of Saint-Denis, seated in a stretcher, "above which a canopy rose on pylons, lined with purple Spanish velvet with gold and silk embroidery."
In Namur, Don Juan of Austria, the illegitimate brother of Philip II and governor of the Netherlands, received Margarita with special honor. Six months earlier, he had been incognito in Paris. Thanks to the help of the Spanish ambassador, he managed to get into the French court, where a ball was given that evening, and to see Margarita of Navarre, about whom all of Europe was talking. Needless to say, he fell in love with her, although the lightning that flashed in her eyes frightened him a little. After the ball, don Juan confessed to his friends: "She has more divine than human beauty, but at the same time she was created for the death of men, and not for their salvation."
Margarita hoped to use her charms to secure the non-intervention of don Juan during the coup in the country, which the Duke of Anjou tried to make. “Raise a rebellion,” she said meanwhile to the local nobility, “and call on the help of the Duke of Anjou!” As a result of her propaganda, strong unrest soon began in the country. In Liege, she was warmly received by the Flemish and German lords, who held grandiose festivities in her honor.
Everything went according to plan, when she learned from her brother's letter that the king had been informed of her negotiations with the Flemings. Arriving in an indescribable rage, he warned the Spaniards of the impending coup, hoping that they would arrest Margarita. Two hours later, Margarita and her entire retinue rushed at full speed towards France. Margarita returned to the court. Oddly enough, she was well received there ... Soon she turned to Henry III with a request to allow her to go to her husband in Nerak. And on December 15, 1578, she entered her residence.
The old castle that belonged to the house of Albret, of course, could not be compared with the Louvre. It didn't have the usual fun. The Huguenot princes who surrounded Henry of Navarre were distinguished by a severe disposition, demonstrated super-virtue and contemptuous indifference to amusements. Margot adored luxury, pleasures, balls. Under her "beneficial" influence, the castle in Neraka very soon turned into a real house of tolerance, and fellow believers of the Duke of Navarre, having got rid of their complexes, entered into a taste of a different life.
At this time, Margot was the mistress of the young and handsome Viscount de Turenne, Duke of Bouillon, a devoted friend of Henry of Navarre. Together with the ardent viscount, she arranged endless balls and masquerades. Of course, Margot had the tact not to demand money from her husband for entertainment, during which she cuckolded him. No, for money she turned to the good-natured Pibrak, who had long been in love with her and therefore was gradually ruined without the slightest hope of reciprocity.
But one fine morning, offended by the fact that Marguerite and Turenne constantly laughed at him, Pibrak returned to the Louvre and told Henry III what outrages were happening at the court of Henry of Navarre. The king was furious, called his sister a slut and immediately sent a letter to Bearnz informing him of the debauchery of his wife Marguerite.
Henry of Navarre, who had the right to atone for his own sins, pretended not to believe anything written, but did not deny himself the pleasure of showing the letter of the French king to Turenne and Margaret. Margot, outraged by another trick of her brother, decided to take revenge on him by convincing her husband to declare war on the king. And the reason for the war was quickly found: the cities of Azhan and Cahors, presented to her by her husband as a dowry, were illegally appropriated by Henry III. It was only necessary to provoke the Duke of Navarre a little ...
In early 1580, Navarre was ripe for war. Warfare was launched immediately, and they fought furiously throughout Guyenne. It was not until November that the Duke of Anjou made several attempts to negotiate a peace, resulting in a treaty being signed at Flex. The love war is over. She avenged the desecrated honor of the windy ladies of the Navarre Palace and claimed five thousand lives...
Margarita was then thirty years old. Her already volcanic temperament seems to have only been exacerbated by the overly spicy food that was the custom in the court at Nérak. The appearance of the young handsome Jacques Arles de Chanvallon, who accompanied the Duke of Anjou, brought her into such a state that she lost her peace. For the first time in her life, Margot really fell in love. Transformed, radiating happiness, forgetting everyone - her husband, lover, brother - she lived with only one feeling of adoration for the young, elegant seigneur, whom she called "her beautiful sun", "her incomparable angel", "her incomparable miracle of nature."
This passion blinded her to such an extent that she lost the last drop of caution that she still had, and Shanwallon had to satisfy her desires on the stairs, and in the closets, and in the gardens, and in the fields, and on the threshing floor ...
But Francois decided to leave Nérac and return to his place. A few days later he left and took the faithful Shanwallon with him. Margarita almost lost her mind. She locked herself in her room to shed tears and at the same time compose stanzas for the departure of her lover. All her letters to him ended the same way: “My whole life is in you, my beautiful everything, my only and perfect beauty. I kiss this beautiful hair a million times, my priceless and sweet wealth; I kiss those beautiful and adored lips a million times.”
The Queen of Navarre decided to return to Paris, where she hoped to see Chanvallon. Margarita rented a house for meetings. Now free to do what she liked, she took care of the viscount, decorated his room with mirrors, learned new subtle caresses from an Italian astrologer, and ordered spicy dishes from the cook for her lover.
The spicy dishes with which Queen Margaret regaled the unfortunate Chanvallon prompted him to such excesses that one fine day, exhausted, emaciated and irritated, he secretly left Paris and took refuge in the countryside, where he soon married a girl of a calm disposition.
Margarita was mad with grief. She wrote letters to him that betrayed her despair. And her prayers were heard. On a beautiful June day in 1583, Chanvallon, expelled by the Duke of Anjou as punishment for his talkativeness, appeared with his head bowed to seek refuge with Marguerite. For several weeks, they, secluded on the Rue Couture-Saint-Catherine, spent time in such a dope that Marguerite forgot about the need to appear in the Louvre.
Henry III, intrigued by the disappearance of his sister, asked the maid about her, and she informed him of Margaret's renewed connection with Shanwallon, and then gave the king the names of all her lovers. On Sunday, August 7, a big ball was to be held at the court. Henry III invited his sister to him. Suddenly, in the midst of the holiday, the king approached Margarita and in a loud voice reprimanded her in front of everyone, calling her a “vile slut” and accusing her of shamelessness. Having recounted all the details of her intimate relationships, down to the most obscene, he ordered his sister to immediately leave the capital.
Throughout the night, Queen Margot was engaged in the destruction of incriminating letters that careless lovers wrote to her, and left Paris at dawn. In Neraka, for several months, Henry of Navarre and Margarita saw each other infrequently, each absorbed in their own affairs: while the wife received Neraka officers in her room, the husband generously endowed his mistresses with carnal joys.
After the death of Francis of Alençon in 1584, Henry of Navarre became the heir to Henry III. He ascended the throne after the king's death in 1589 and became Henry IV. Soon, disagreements arose between the spouses, which grew into hostility. It was then that the king's favorite, the Countess de Gramont, who dreamed of marrying Bearnz to herself, began to behave defiantly with Margot and even tried to poison her. The queen was warned in time, but this frightened her. Margo left Nérak a few days later under the pretense of spending Easter in Ajan, the main Catholic city of her inheritance.
As soon as Margot settled down, an envoy from the Duke of Guise appeared to her, who asked to help the Holy League in Languedoc and start a war against the Duke of Navarre. Terribly overjoyed at the opportunity to pay for all the insults inflicted on her in Nerac, Margot accepted the offer and instructed her new lover, Linerac, to recruit soldiers from the locals and fortify the city. Unfortunately, the campaign ended in disaster: the poorly trained and disorganized people of Linerac were utterly defeated by the army of Navarre. Margot had to recruit soldiers again and acquire weapons. To raise money, she introduced new taxes. The inhabitants of Azhan rebelled, killed most of the League soldiers and surrendered the city to the royal troops.
Margot, sitting on a horse behind Linerac, traveled fifty leagues and, completely defeated, exhausted, arrived at the well-fortified castle of Charles, not far from Aurillac. Soon she chose her own ringmaster, the noble and charming Obiak, for her comforts.
Not even a few days after her arrival, a detachment appeared at the secret entrance to the castle, commanded by the Marquis de Canillac, governor of Usson. Obiak was immediately handed over to the guards, who escorted him to Saint-Cirq. Canillac led Margot into a guarded carriage and, under a reliable escort, ordered her to be taken to Usson Castle, built on an impregnable peak of a rocky mountain. Margot was placed in the most remote chambers. Canillac then ordered Obiac's execution.
For some time, no one knew what was happening in the Usson fortress, and even a rumor spread that Henry IV ordered the murder of his wife. One morning Margo asked me to tell Canillac that she would be happy to see him at her place. The marquis found his captive in bed with almost no clothes on. His gaze "lost dignity, giving way to lust." From that day on, the Queen of Navarre became the mistress of the fortified city and the mistress of the Marquis de Canillac.
At this time, Gabrielle d'Estre, another favorite, insisted on the king's divorce from Margot, who still lived in exile. Eventually Henry IV sent an ambassador to Usson to meet his wife. What did he offer Margarita in exchange for the crown? Two hundred and fifty thousand crowns to pay the debts that the poor thing has accumulated over ten years, a life annuity and a secure existence. In return, he demanded a power of attorney from the queen and an oral statement in the presence of a church judge that “her marriage was concluded without mandatory permission and without voluntary consent,” and therefore she asks him to be considered invalid.
The ambassador arrived in Usson after a week's journey. A strange picture opened up before his eyes. Margot, who always adored making love, had a habit of lying naked on the bed, leaving the window open, "so that anyone who, passing by, looks into it, feels the desire to come in and have fun with her." The thought of a divorce did not upset her at all, whose only desire was to escape from Usson. In addition, she was aware that Henry IV would never call her to him.
Surprisingly, Margo even felt affection for Gabrielle d'Estre. Upon learning that Henry IV had given the favorite the magnificent abbey that once belonged to her, she wrote to the king: “It gave me pleasure to know that the thing that once belonged to me could testify to this noble woman how I always wanted to please her, as well as my determination to love and honor all my life what you will love.”
After the divorce, Margot communicated with the king only in friendly and almost love correspondence. He wrote to her: “I would like to take care of everything that has to do with you, more than ever, and also so that you always feel that henceforth I want to be your brother, not only in name, but also in spiritual affection.” He ordered to pay her a good pension, paid her debts, insisted that she be treated with respect, while she wished him happiness with the new queen - Marie de Medici.
On the evening of July 18, 1605, Margot entered the Madrid castle in Boulogne. On July 26, Henry IV visited her. Of course, he hardly recognized her - the once charming Margot, who had a slender and flexible figure, turned into a portly lady. The king kissed her hands, called her "his sister" and stayed with her for three hours.
The next day, Margarita went on a visit to Marie de Medici. At the Louvre, the king met her with honors and expressed his displeasure to Marie de Medici, who did not want to go further than the main staircase to meet her. “My sister, my love has always been with you. Here you can feel like a sovereign mistress, as, indeed, everywhere where my power extends.
At the end of August, Margherita left the Madrid castle and settled in a mansion on Figue street. In less than a few days, a rumor swept through Paris that a young man was living with Queen Margot. Indeed, after six weeks of forced chastity, in order not to frighten the court, she called a twenty-year-old lackey from Usson named Déat de Saint-Julien. But, to his misfortune, another page, eighteen-year-old Vermont, began to look at the fifty-year-old queen. On one of the April days of 1606, jealousy pushed him to kill his favorite...
Margot moved to the estate, which she had recently acquired on the left bank of the Seine, near the abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Pres. Her lover was a young Gascon named Bajomont, who was sent to her by well-meaning friends from Agen. As a lover, he was distinguished by his strength and tirelessness, which forced Margarita to ask for mercy, but God offended him with his mind. Is it any wonder that Margaret's confessor, the future Saint Vincent de Paul, feeling uncomfortable in this situation and, unable to overcome disgust, left her house and went to live among convicts, preferring to save their souls? ..
While Catherine de Medici devoted all her time and all her worries to Concino Concini, the little king lived alone in his apartments. Only one person showed attention and tenderness to an abandoned child, and that person was Queen Margot. She came into his room, showered him with gifts, told him fairy tales and funny stories. When she left, he immediately became sad and begged to come back as soon as possible. Margo at such moments seemed to break her heart, and, completely upset, she showered the little king with kisses.
True, the old mistress warmed not only Louis XIII with her unspent maternal feelings. Together with him, a young singer named Villard used the bounties of this loving heart. Of course, in relation to the latter, she showed her feelings in a slightly different way, because he was her lover.
In the spring of 1615, Margot caught a cold in the ice hall of the Petit Bourbon Palace. On March 27, the confessor warned Margot that her case was bad. Then she called Villars, kissed his lips for a long time, as if she wanted to enjoy this last touch, and died a few hours later.
Little Louis XIII experienced great grief. He realized that the only creature in the world who truly loved him had passed away.