Marguerite de Navarre (1492-1549)
Marguerite de Navarre also Margaret of Angoulême, Margaret of Valois or Margaret of France, was the elder sister of King Francis I and, as the wife of Henri d’Albret, Queen of Navarre. Daughter of the highly educated Charles de Valois, comte d’Angoulême and Louise of Savoy. She was a patron of poets, artists and Protestant scholars and was even a writer. Her best-known literary work is the Heptaméron.
Margaret, who could read seven languages, was active not only as a patron, but was also very interested in questions of faith and sympathized with Martin Luther. She promoted and patronized intellectuals who were also inclined to the Reformation. Her last stage of life she spent mostly in her little kingdom, far from the court in Paris. She had a daughter, Jeanne d’Albret, the future mother of Henry IV, the first protestant king of France.
Coat of arms and emblematic motto of Margaret of Navarre 1492-1549.
Miniature of the Instructive Initiation in the Christian Religion, ms, executed in the 16th century for Marguerite of Navarre and which can be attributed to Geoffroy Tory: No. 60 T. F. de la Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal.
Armes et devise emblématique de Marguerite de Navarre.
Miniature de l’Initiatoire instructive en la religion chrestienne, ms, exécuté au XVIe siècle pour Marguerite de Navarre, et pouvant ètre attribue à Geoffroy Tory: no 60 T. F. de la Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal.
Source:
- John James Hinchliff: The Heptameron of Margaret, Queen of Navarre.
- Sciences & lettres au moyen âge et à l’époque de la Renaissance ouvrage illustré de treize chromolithographies de Paul Lacroix (Bibliophile Jacob). Firmin-Didot 1877.
