Marguerite (Valois) de France (1553 - 1615)

Born 14 May 1553 in Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Île-de-France, France

Ancestors

Wife of Henri (Bourbon) de Bourbon — married 18 Aug 1572 (to 1599) in Cathédrale Notre-Dame, Paris, Île-de-France, France

Died 27 Mar 1615 at age 61 in Hostel de la Reyne Margueritte, Paris, Île-de-France, France

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Biography

Margaret of Valois (French: Marguerite, 14 May 1553 – 27 March 1615), nicknamed "la Reine Margot" was Queen of Navarre 1572-99 and Queen of France 1589-1599. She is also known as "Margaret of France" because she was a princess of France by birth, who became Queen of France by marriage. She was the last surviving member of the House of Valois.

The third daughter of King Henry II of France and Catherine de' Medici, Margaret was the sister of Kings Francis II, Charles IX and Henry III of France, and of Elizabeth of Valois, the third wife of King Philip II of Spain. Her brother King Charles IX arranged for her to marry a distant cousin, King Henry of Navarre, and she thus became the Queen of Navarre in 1572. In 1589, after all her brothers had died without fathering sons, Margaret's husband, who was the senior-most agnatic heir to France (the "Prince du sang"), succeeded to the French throne and became King Henry IV, the first Bourbon King of France. Margaret thus became Queen of France as his wife. The marriage of the 19-year-old Margaret to Henry took place on 18 August 1572 at Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. In 1586, she was imprisoned first by her brother Henry III and then by her husband Henry IV in the castle of Usson, in Auvergne, where she spent eighteen years first as a state prisoner under her brother then a prisoner in exile under her husband who divorced her. Negotiations to annul the marriage were entered in 1592 and concluded in 1599 with an agreement that allowed Margaret to maintain the title of queen.

Margaret died in her Hostel de la Reyne Margueritte, on 27 March 1615, and was buried in the funerary chapel of the Valois in the Basilica of St. Denis.

Sources

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_of_Valois