MEMOIRS OF MARGUERITE DE VALOIS
MEMOIRS OF MARGUERITE DE VALOIS QUEEN OF NAVARRE
Written by Herself
Being Historic Memoirs of the Courts of France and Navarre
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Marguerite de Valois—Etching by Mercier
Bussi d’ Amboise—Painting in the Versailles Gallery
Duc de Guise—Painting in the Versailles Gallery
Catherine de’ Medici—Original Etching by Mercier
Henri VI. and La Fosseuse—Painting by A. P. E. Morton
A Scene at Henri’s Court—Original Photogravure
PUBLISHER’S NOTE.
The first volume of the Court Memoir Series will, it is confidently anticipated, prove to be of great interest. These Letters first appeared in French, in 1628, just thirteen years after the death of their witty and beautiful authoress, who, whether as the wife for many years of the great Henri of France, or on account of her own charms and accomplishments, has always been the subject of romantic interest.
The letters contain many particulars of her life, together with many anecdotes hitherto unknown or forgotten, told with a saucy vivacity which is charming, and an air vividly recalling the sprightly, arch demeanour, and black, sparkling eyes of the fair Queen of Navarre. She died in 1615, aged sixty-three.
These letters contain the secret history of the Court of France during the seventeen eventful years 1565-82.
The events of the seventeen years referred to are of surpassing interest, including, as they do, the Massacre of St. Bartholomew, the formation of the League, the Peace of Sens, and an account of the religious struggles which agitated that period. They, besides, afford an instructive insight into royal life at the close of the sixteenth century, the modes of travelling then in vogue, the manners and customs of the time, and a picturesque account of the city of Liege and its sovereign bishop.
As has been already stated, these Memoirs first appeared in French in 1628. They were, thirty years later, printed in London in English, and were again there translated and published in 1813.
TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE.
The Memoirs, of which a new translation is now presented to the public, are the undoubted composition of the celebrated princess whose name they bear, the contemporary of our Queen Elizabeth; of equal abilities with her, but of far unequal fortunes. Both Elizabeth and Marguerite had been bred in the school of adversity; both