A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Margaret of Valois
MARGARET OF VALOIS,
Queen of Navarre, and sister to Francis the First of France, was born at Angoulême, in 1492; being the daughter of Charles of Orleans, Duke of Angoulême, and Louisa of Savoy. In 1509, she married Charles, the last Duke of Alençon, who died at Lyons, after the battle of Pavia, in 1525. The widow went to Madrid, to attend her brother, who had been taken prisoner in that battle by the Spaniards, and was then ill. She was of the greatest service to her brother, obliging Charles and his ministers, by her firmness, to treat him as his rank required. His love equalled her merits, and he warmly promoted her marriage with Henry d'Albret, king of Navarre The offspring of this union was Joan d'Albret, mother of Henry the Fourth.
Margaret filled the part of a queen with exemplary goodness, encouraging arts, learning, and agriculture, and everything that could contribute to the prosperity of the kingdom. She died in 1549, of a cold, caught while making observations on a comet. During her life, she inclined to the Protestant faith, but the Roman Catholics say that she was reconverted before she died.
She wrote well in prose and verse, and was called the Tenth Muse; and the Margaret, or pearl, surpassing all the pearls of the East. Some of her works are, "Heptameron, or Novels of the Queen of Navarre;" "Les Marguerites de la Marguerite des Princesses," a collection of her productions, formed by John de la Haye, her valet-de-chambre. A long poem of hers was entitled, "The Triumph of the Lamb;" and another, "The Complaints of a Prisoner."