Marguerite de Navarre

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Marguerite de Navarre , a French Renaissance writer of the sixteenth century, is best known for her cycle of tales, L'heptameron. She also wrote important devotional work, poetry and plays based on the bible.
  • BirthName: Marguerite d'Angoulême
  • Married: duchessed'Alençon; de Navarre
  • Titled: duchessed'Alençon; Queen
  • Indexed: Margaret [D'Angoulême], Queen Consort of Henry II., King of Navarre
    The Square brackets here are part of the listing. Marguerite de Navarre is sometimes confused with her grand-daughter-in-law Marguerite de Valois (1553-1615), who was also a writer of poems, letters, and memoirs.
    Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford, 1990.
Painting of Marguerite de Navarre by Jean Clouet, probably done for her marriage in 1527. She sits at a green-covered table with a green parrot on her hand and flame-coloured hangings behind. She has a patterned head-dress (perhaps evoking the daisies signified by her name) and a slanted flat hat with Cupid brooch. Her shoulders are bare, her bodice dark, and her huge dark sleeves have slashes showing white below. She is wearing a jewelled pendant, and displays a ring on each little finger.

Milestones

11 April 1492

Marguerite d'Angoulême (later Marguerite de Navarre ) was born in the castle of Angoulême in France, of which province her father was ruler.
Freer, Martha. The Life of Marguerite d’Angoulême, Queen of Navarre. Burrows Brothers, 1895, 2 vols.
1:1
Putnam, Samuel. Marguerite of Navarre. Coward-McCann, 1935.
9
Fawcett, Millicent Garrett. Five Famous French Women. Cassell, 1905.
167

21 December 1549

Marguerite de Navarre died at the castle of Odos in Bigorre, France, apparently following a stroke.
Biographer Samuel Putnam puts the date as 1 December. Biographer Martha Freer in her more detailed study says that Marguerite de Navarre had an attack and became very ill on that date, but did not die until later.
Freer, Martha. The Life of Marguerite d’Angoulême, Queen of Navarre. Burrows Brothers, 1895, 2 vols.
2: 343, 350

1559

Marguerite de Navarre 's L'heptameron was published, posthumously and anonymously, at Paris.
Clive, Harry Peter. Marguerite de Navarre: An Annotated Bibliography. Grant and Cutler, 1983.
27

Biography

Birth and Family

11 April 1492

Marguerite d'Angoulême (later Marguerite de Navarre ) was born in the castle of Angoulême in France, of which province her father was ruler.
Freer, Martha. The Life of Marguerite d’Angoulême, Queen of Navarre. Burrows Brothers, 1895, 2 vols.
1:1
Putnam, Samuel. Marguerite of Navarre. Coward-McCann, 1935.
9
Fawcett, Millicent Garrett. Five Famous French Women. Cassell, 1905.
167

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