General Notes

Margaret of Valois, b. May 14, 1553, d. Mar. 27, 1615, was the youngest
daughter of Henry II of France and Catherine de Medicis. On Aug. 18, 1572, six
days before the Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre, she was forced to marry the
Protestant Henry of Navarre (later Henry IV) to seal a Catholic-Protestant
reconciliation. Margaret was involved in a number of extramarital love affairs
at the courts of both her brother Henry III at Paris and her husband at Nerac.
Expelled from the royal court for her political intrigues, she returned to the
unwilling Navarre in 1584. After taking up arms against her husband Margaret
was banished (1586) to the castle of Usson in Auvergne, where she soon took
control. In 1599, ten years after Henry of Navarre's accession to the throne,
she consented to the annulment of her marriage. In 1605, Henry IV allowed her
to return to Paris. Margaret's charm and literary talent were admired by the
leading writers of the age. Her memoirs were translated in 1892.