encouraged that desire for a new phase of existence,
which arose through contact with Italian culture. The men of
learning--poets, artists, scholars--who soon gathered about the French
court received immediate recognition from the king's sister, who had
studied all languages, was gay, brilliant, and aesthetic. While her
mother and brother were in harmony with the age, no better, no worse
than their environment, Marguerite aspired to the most elevated morals
and ideals; thus, she is a type of all that is refined, sensitive,
loving, noble, and generous in humanity, a woman vastly superior to
her time; in fact, the modern woman, with her highest attributes.

In Marguerite d'Angouleme contemporaries admired prudence, chastity,
moderation, piety, an invincible strength of soul, and her habit of
"hiding her knowledge instead of displaying it." "In an age wholly
depraved, she approached the ideal woman of modern times; in spite
of her virtue, she was brilliant and honored, the centre of a coterie
that delighted in music, verse, ingenious dialogues and gossip, story
telling, singing, rhyming. Deeply afflicted by the sad and odious
spectacle of the vices, abuses, and crimes which unroll before her,
she suffers through her imagination, mind and heart." Serious and
sympathetic, she was interested in every movement, feeling with those
who were persecuted on account of their religious opinions.

Various are the names by which she is known: daughter of Charles of
Orleans, Count of Angouleme, Duchesse d'Alencon through her first
marriage, and Queen of Navarre through her second, she was called
Marguerite d'Angouleme, Marguerite of Navarre, of Valois, Marguerite
de France, Marguerite des Princesses, the Fourth Grace, and the Tenth
Muse. A most appreciative and just account of her life is given by
M. Saint-Amand, which will be followed in the main outline of this
sketch.

She was born in 1492, and, as already stated, received a thorough
education under the direction of her mother, Louise of Savoy. At
seventeen she was married to Charles III., Duke of Alencon; as he
did not prove to be her ideal, she sought consolation in love for her
brother, sharing the almost universal admiration for the young king,
whose tendency to favor everything new and progressive was stimulated
by her. She became his constant and best adviser in general affairs
as well as in those of state. The foreign ambassadors sought her after
having accomplished their