NOTORIOUS MARRIAGE BETWEEN
MARGARET AND KING HENRY III OF
NAVARRE HELD ON 18 AUGUST 1572
Margaret of Valois (French: Marguerite, 14 May 1553 – 27 March 1615) was a French princess of the Valois dynasty who became queen consort of Navarre and later also of France.
A daughter of King Henry II of France and Catherine de' Medici, Margaret was the sister of kings Francis II, Charles IX and Henry III, and of Elisabeth of Valois Queen of Spain, as well as Claude of Valois. Charles IX arranged for her to marry a distant cousin, King Henry III of Navarre, and she thus became Queen of Navarre in 1572. In 1589, after all her brothers had died leaving no sons, Margaret's husband, the senior-most agnatic heir to France (the "Prince du sang"), succeeded to the French throne as Henry IV, the first Bourbon King of France.
A queen of two kingdoms, Margaret was subjected to many political manipulations, including being held prisoner (albeit at a comfortable castle) by her own brother, Henry III of France, for many years. However, her life was anything but passive. She was famous for her beauty and sense of style, notorious for a licentious lifestyle, and also proved a competent memoirist. She was indeed one of the most fashionable women of her time, and influenced many of Europe's royal courts with her clothing. Margaret took many lovers both during her marriage and after its annulment, of whom the best-known are Joseph Boniface de La Môle, Jacques de Harlay, Seigneur de Champvallon and Louis de Bussy d'Amboise. While imprisoned, she took advantage of the time to write her memoirs, which included a succession of stories relating to the disputes of her brothers Charles IX and Henry III with her husband. The memoirs were published posthumously in 1628.
Her life has inspired a variety of stories over the centuries, beginning with William Shakespeare's early comedy Love's Labour's Lost, which was in fact written within her lifetime, to Alexandre Dumas, père's 1845 novel La Reine Margot; to a 1994 movie La Reine Margot.
