Navarre, Marguerite de

Margaret of Navarre (1492 - 1549, France), also known as the ‘Pearl of the Valois’, grew up in a humanist environment characterised by literature and piety. She received a comprehensive education from renowned teachers and was considered early on as a potential bride for political alliances. In 1509, she married Charles IV of Alençon, with whom she remained childless. After his death, she married Henry II of Albret in 1527 and became Queen of Navarre. Margaret promoted humanist ideas and religious reforms without openly opposing the dogmas of the Catholic Church. She wrote her main literary work, The Heptameron, from which the short stories in this anthology are taken, in the last years of her life, after she had retired to her estates in south-west France. She died of pneumonia in 1549 at the age of 57.