NOTORIOUS MARRIAGE BETWEEN
MARGARET AND KING HENRY III OF NAVARRE
HELD ON 18 AUGUST 1572
The young Margaret of Valois, by François Clouet, c. 1560 Margaret was born Marguerite de Valois on May 14, 1553, at the royal Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, the seventh child and third daughter of Henry II and Catherine de' Medici.[1]
Three of her brothers would become kings of France: Francis II,[1]
Charles IX[1] and
Henry III.
Her sister, Elisabeth of Valois, would become the third wife of King Philip II of Spain.
In 1565, her mother Catherine met with Philip II's chief minister Duke of Alba at Bayonne in hopes of arranging a marriage between Margaret and Philip's son Don Carlos.[2]
However, Alba refused any consideration of a dynastic marriage.[2]
Margaret was secretly involved with Henry of Guise, the son of the late Duke of Guise.[3]
When Catherine found this out, she had her daughter brought from her bed. Catherine and the king then beat her and sent Henry of Guise from court.[3]
Marriage[edit]
Henry of Navarre and Margaret of Valois
The marriage of the 19-year-old Margaret to Henry, who had become King of Navarre upon the death of his mother, took place on 18 August 1572 at Notre Dame cathedral in Paris.[4]
The groom, a Huguenot, had to remain outside the cathedral during the religious ceremony.[4] It was hoped this union would reunite family ties (the Bourbons were part of the French Royal family and the closest relatives to the reigning Valois branch) and create harmony between Catholics and the Protestant Huguenots.
Just six days after the wedding, on St Bartholomew's Day, Roman Catholic factions instigated a targeted group of assassinations, followed by a wave of mob violence, both directed against the Huguenots (French Calvinist Protestants).
Traditionally believed to have been instigated by Catherine de' Medici, the marriage was an occasion on which many of the most wealthy and prominent Huguenots had gathered in largely Catholic Paris.
This event took place during the period 1562 to 1598, known as the French Wars of Religion, which consisted of factional disputes between the aristocratic houses of France, such as the House of Bourbon and House of Guise (Lorraine).
After the St Bartholomew's Day massacre[edit]
Margaret has been credited with saving the lives of several prominent Protestants, including her husband, during the massacre, by keeping them in her rooms and refusing to admit the assassins. Henry of Navarre had to feign conversion to Catholicism.
After more than three years of confinement at court, Henry escaped Paris in 1576,[4] leaving his wife behind. Finally granted permission to return to her husband in Navarre, for the next three and a half years Margaret and her husband lived in Pau.
Both openly kept other lovers, and
they quarrelled frequently.
After an illness in 1582, Queen Margaret returned to the court of her brother, Henry III, in Paris. Her brother was soon scandalized by her reputation and behavior, and forced her to leave the court, even claiming that she had borne a bastard child by Jacques de Harlay.
After long negotiations, she was allowed to return to her husband's court in Navarre, but she received an icy reception. Determined to overcome her difficulties, Queen Margaret masterminded a coup d'état and seized power over Agen, one of her appanages.
She spent several months of fortifying the city, but the citizens of Agen revolted against her, and Queen Margaret fled to the castle of Carlat.
In 1586, she was imprisoned first by her brother Henry III and then by her husband Henry IV in the castle of Usson, in Auvergne, where she spent eighteen years first as a state prisoner under her brother then a prisoner in exile under her husband who divorced her.
During this time, Margaret wrote her memoirs consisting of a succession of stories relating to the affairs of her brothers Charles IX and Henry III with her former husband Henry IV. The memoirs were published posthumously in 1628 and scandalised the population.
In 1589, Henry, her husband, succeeded to the throne of France as Henry IV. He was, however, not accepted by most of the Catholic population until he converted four years later.
Henry continued to keep mistresses, most notably Gabrielle d'Estrées from 1591 to 1599, who bore him four children.
Negotiations to annul the marriage were entered in 1592 and concluded in 1599 with an agreement that allowed Margaret to maintain the title of queen.
Last years[edit]
L'Hostel de la Reine Marguerite built by Jean Bullant in 1609, and its gardens, as shown in Matthäus Merian 1615 plan of Paris.
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| Henry of Navarre and Margaret of Valois |
She settled her household on the Left Bank of the Seine, in the Hostel de la Reyne Margueritte that is illustrated in Merian's 1615 plan of Paris (illustration); the hostel was built for her to designs by Jean Bullant in 1609. It was eventually demolished and partially replaced in 1640 by the Hôtel de La Rochefoucauld.[5]
Reconciled to her former husband and his second wife, Marie de' Medici, Queen Margaret returned to Paris and established herself as a mentor of the arts and benefactress of the poor.
She often helped plan events at court and nurtured the children of Henry IV and Marie.
Margaret died in her Hostel de la Reyne Margueritte, on 27 March 1615, and was buried in the funerary chapel of the Valois in the Basilica of St. Denis.
and its gardens, as shown in Matthäus Merian 1615 plan of Paris
[6] Her casket has disappeared and it is not known whether it was removed and transferred when work was done at the chapel, or destroyed during the French Revolution.[7]
A Queen twice over, Margaret was subjected to many political manipulations, including being held prisoner (albeit at a comfortable castle) by her own brother, Henry III of France, for many years. However, her life was anything but passive. She was famous for her beauty and sense of style, notorious for a licentious lifestyle, and also proved a competent memoirist.
She was indeed one of the most fashionable women of her time, and influenced many of Europe's royal courts with her clothing. As a corollary to the obsession with beauty and style, Margaret took many lovers both during her marriage and after its annulment, of whom the best-known areJoseph Boniface de La Môle, Jacques de Harlay, Seigneur de Champvallon and Louis de Bussy d'Amboise.
When imprisoned by her brother Henry III for eighteen years, she took advantage of the time to write her memoirs, which included a succession of stories relating to the disputes of her brothers Charles IX and Henry III with her husband Henry IV. The memoirs were published posthumously in 1628.
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