Margaret of Valois

Margot, Queen of France and Navarre

Born Marguerite Valois in Saint-Germain-en-Laye in 1553, she was nicknamed 'Margot' by her brothers. She was the daughter of Henri II and Catherine de Medici. Three of her brothers would become king of France: François II , Charles IX and Henri III.

Her ambitious mother had married one daughter to Carlos, son of King Philippe II of Spain, then another with king Sebastien of Portugal. Although she had a Huguenot lover, Margot was finally forced to be married on August 18, 1572 to her cousin, Henri of Navarre, a Protestant, and the future King Henri IV of France. Just six days after the wedding the scheming Catherine de Medici orchestrated the slaughter by French Catholics of 30,000 Huguenots on St. Bartholomew's Day. Both pawn and participant in this epic struggle, Margot was torn between family honor, her lover, and a weak, immoral, husband she could no longer respect.

As a result, the beautiful and strong-minded Margot had many lovers. In 1586, Henri de Navarre has her confined to the castle of Usson, in Auvergne, where she spent eighteen years in near total captivity. Started in 1592, negotiations began to dissolve her marriage to Henri. It would take seven years, but they were concluded in 1599 with an agreement that allowed her to maintain the title of queen.

During this time Queen Margot wrote her memoirs, which were published in 1658, years after her death. These writings consisted of a succession of stories relating to the reigns of brothers Charles IX, Henry III and her former husband, Henri IV that scandalized the population.

Queen Margot died in Paris on May 27, 1615.

She was the subject of a novel, Queen Margot or La Reine Margot, written by Alexandre Dumas in 1845 and a film of the same name based on the novel in 1994 starring Isabelle Adjani and Daniel Auteuil.