page_title: Margaret of Valois
section_title: Rebellion and exile
hierarchical_section_title: Margaret of Valois / Life / Rebellion and exile
context_page_description: Margaret of Valois was a French princess of the Valois dynasty who became queen consort of Navarre and later also of France. By her marriage to Henry III of Navarre, she was queen of Navarre and then France at her husband's 1589 accession to the latter throne.
  Margaret was the daughter of King Henry II of France and Catherine de' Medici and the sister of kings Francis II, Charles IX and Henry III. Her union with the king of Navarre, which had been intended to contribute to the reconciliation of Roman Catholics and Protestant Huguenots in France, was tarnished six days after the marriage ceremony by the St Bartholomew's Day massacre and the resumption of the French Wars of Religion. In the conflict between Henry III and the Malcontents, she took the side of Francis, Duke of Anjou, her younger brother, and this caused the king to have a deep aversion towards her.
  As Queen of Navarre, Margaret also played a pacifying role in the stormy relations between her husband and the French monarchy.
context_section_description: In 1585, in an unprecedented gesture for a Queen of the sixteenth century, Margaret abandoned her husband. She rallied the Catholic League, which united as well the intransigent Catholics with the people hostile to the policy of her family and her husband. Determined to overcome her difficulties, Margaret masterminded a coup d'état and seized power over Agen, one of her appanages. The Queen of Navarre spent several months fortifying the city. Recruiting troops, she sent them to the assault of the cities around Agen.
  But, tired of the Queen's demands, the Agenais revolted and agreed with the lieutenant of Henry III. With the arrival of royal troops, Margaret had to flee precipitously. Refusing her mother's pleas that she move to a royal manor, she retreated to her lofty and impregnable fortress of Carlat with Jean de Lard de Galard, seigneur d'Aubiac, her pretended lover, whom she appointed captain of her guards.
  After a year, probably due to the approach of royal troops, Margaret took refuge in the castle of Ibois, a little to the north of Auvergne, as proposed to her by her mother. But she found herself besieged by the royal troops who seized the fortress. She waited nearly a month for a decision on her fate.
  On 13 October 1586, Margaret was imprisoned by her brother Henry III in the castle of Usson, in Auvergne. D'Aubiac was executed, despite Catherine de' Medici's wish, in front of Margaret. Margaret assumed she was going to die and in a "farewell" letter to the Queen-Mother, she asked that after her execution a post-mortem be held to prove that she was not, despite gossip, pregnant with d'Aubiac's child.
  But suddenly, her gaoler, the Marquis de Canillac, switched from the royal side in the civil war to that of the Catholic League and released her in early 1587. Rumors at the court of France reported that she seduced him, but most probably he was bought by her. Her freedom suited the League perfectly: her continued existence guaranteed that Henry of Navarre would remain without an heir.
  Despite obtaining her freedom, Margaret decided to stay in the castle of Usson, where she spent eighteen years. Of her life in Usson, there is very little reliable information, so a lot of legends have gathered around it. Here, she learned of her mother's death and of her brother Henry III's assassination in 1589. Her husband, Henry of Navarre, became King of France under the name of Henri IV. He was, however, not accepted by most of the Catholic population until he converted four years later.
  During this time, Margaret was able to train, as she had done at Nérac, a new court of intellectuals, musicians and writers. She restored the castle and committed her time to reading many works, especially religious and esoteric ones. Even her financial condition improved when her sister-in-law, Elisabeth of Austria, with whom she had always had good relations, began sending her half of her income.
  In 1594, Margaret received a letter from her friend Pierre de Bourdeille, known as Brantôme, with whom she was in contact, a panegyric entitled Discours sur la Reine de France et de Navarre. In response to the poet's work, which contained several mistakes and false rumors about her, she wrote her Memoirs. She was the first woman to have done so.
  I have been induced to undertake writing my Memoirs the more from five or six observations which I have had occasion to make upon your work, as you appear to have been misinformed respecting certain particulars. For example, in that part where mention is made of Pau, and of my journey in France; likewise where you speak of the late Maréchal de Biron, of Agen, and of the sally of the Marquis de Canillac from that place.
  Her work was dedicated to Brantôme, and it consisting of an autobiography from her infancy to 1582. The Memoirs were published posthumously in 1628. Queen Margaret was also visited by writers, beginning with the faithful Brantôme, but also Honoré d'Urfé, who was no doubt inspired by Margaret to create the character of Galathee in L'Astrée, and Joseph Scaliger, who visited Usson in 1599.
caption: Portrait of Queen Margaret of Valois. 16th century.
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