Margaret of Navarre: The Queen Who Tamed Her Foes

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Margaret of Navarre: The Queen Who Tamed Her Foes

Margaret of Navarre was the first member of the French Royal Family to embrace the Reformation. She was born on the 2nd of April 1492 at the family estate in Angouleme and was thereafter often referred to as Margaret of Angouleme. Her father was a poor cousin to the King of France and a Prince of the Blood which meant that he was directly in line to the French throne.

When Margaret was born her mother was bitterly disappointed. She had hoped for a son who could inherit the French throne, especially since the reigning king Louis XII had only daughters and no hope of producing a son. Her fervent prayers were answered two years after Margaret was born when she gave birth to her son François, who would go on to become François I, one of France’s most illustrious kings.

Margaret instantly fell in love with her baby brother and for the rest of their lives they shared a deep bond. She was educated alongside her him which was unusual for women of that period, for though she would have received a thorough education as a nobly born young woman, it was rare for noble or royal girls to be educated on the same level as their male counterparts.

Margaret was fluent in French, Spanish English, Hebrew, and had a basic understanding of Latin and German. She was well versed in philosophy, history, literature and theology. When Margaret was seventeen, she married the Duke of Alençon who was not much older than her. The marriage was politically expedient, but Margaret and her new husband were not a good match, especially intellectually. The union produced no children, and she was widowed after sixteen years of marriage. During her first marriage Margaret exchanged correspondence with William Briçonnet, the Bishop of Meaux. Meaux had embraced the reformation through Jacques Le Fèvre and through his influence Margaret too embraced many of the principles of salvation by faith.

Margaret had an unusually strong bond with her brother François and contemporaries often referred to Margaret, her brother and mother as a trinity, highlighting the influence the two women had over François reign and the French court. François wife Claude, the daughter of the previous king Louis XII, was plagued with poor health and Margeret often stepped into the role of queen beside her brother, hosting functions, guiding the women at court and assimilating the other duties belonging to the Queen of France.

When Claude died Margaret took over the care of François two daughters, raising them as her own. When one of François courtiers complained to him that his sister was leaning toward the new reformist views floating about Christendom, François is reported to have said “if what you say is true, I love her too well to allow her to be troubled on that account.” And he often told her enemies “My sister Margaret is the only woman I ever knew who had every virtue and every grace without the admixture of vice.”

Margaret’s unique position at court gave her the ability to shelter persecuted reformers and allowed the fledgling movement to grow. She protected the Circle of Meaux, which comprised of her spiritual mentor William Briçonnet and other protestant reformers like Jacques LeFèvre, William Farel, Michel d’Andrade, Pierre Caroli,, and others. Her devotion to the reformers and their message of salvation by faith garnered her a measure of persecution as well. Most notably from members of the Faculty of Theology at the University of Paris, who, on more than one occasion wanted to see her prosecuted for her radical ideas.

Her newfound faith also drew the ire of her second husband, the King of Navarre. Margaret’s second husband Henry of Navarre was a strong Catholic and opposed to the new reformist movement. Once, when he discovered that she had smuggled her reformist chaplain Gerard Roussel into the Royal Chateau in Navarre, Henry struck her, demanding that she give up her reformist views. But Margaret was not one to be cowed by a show of aggression. She immediately wrote to her brother about Henry’s behaviour and with his support managed to retain freedom to worship according to her own conscience.

The Arc du Triomphe, Paris, France

In 1534, with François’ permission, Margaret invited Gerard Roussel to preach the message of salvation by faith at the Palace of the Louvre and opened the meetings to the citizenry of Paris. It was the first reformist evangelistic crusade preached in Paris and was an unmitigated success. About 5,000 Parisians flocked to the Louvre to hear the gospel preached. However Margaret’s bold move attracted the attention of the Faculty of Theology at the University of Paris, prompting the chair of the faculty to call for her arrest.

Riots broke out in the city, with Catholic protesters demanding a halt to Roussel’s preaching. Just when it seemed that Margaret would be arrested, François returned to the Paris, put an end to the rioting and protected his sister.

A few years later the affair of the placards changed everything. The episode cantered around large placards denouncing the mass produced by over-eager Protestants who wanted to galvanise the stagnant reformist movement in Paris. The plan, which was to raise awareness of the abuses of the church and the unbiblical nature of the mass, backfired spectacularly. All of France rose up in arms against the reformation and François, incensed and affronted by the bold, public move decided to purge France of the reformation and commit the Kingdom to Catholicism once and for all.

He rounded up Protestants, burned them on street corners in Paris and led a procession of penitence to the altar at Notre Dame Cathedral. In all this he demanded Margaret’s presence at the procession as both a mark of loyalty to him and the Roman church. Margaret refused to accompany her brother or to be party to the persecution. This produced a massive rift between the siblings that caused Margaret a great deal of pain. Though the siblings were later reconciled, correspondence between them reveals that the break between them was never fully healed.

Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris, France

Margaret continued to protect reformers as best she could despite her brother’s growing animosity toward the reformation. One, lesser-known reformer, Louis Berquin, a Protestant lawyer, escaped death three times because of her intercession until finally her brother refused to be moved by her appeals and consented to his martyrdom.

In 1533 Margaret became the first Protestant woman to publish poetry, releasing a volume of religious poems titled The Mirror of the Sinful Soul, which was an exploration of justification by faith in the life of the believers. The young Princess Elizabeth of England translated these poems from French into English and presented them as a Christmas gift to her stepmother Queen Katherine Parr in 1544.

Margaret had two children – an infant son who died shortly after his birth, and a daughter Jeanne, who later became Queen of Navarre in her father’s stead, ruling as one of the few Queens Regnant during the early modern period. Jeanne became a strong champion of Protestantism and a key Huguenot figure during the early days of the French Wars of Religion.

To her dying day Margaret remained devoted to the two great loves of her life – the gospel and her brother, though her earlier actions proved that she prioritised the gospel over even her brother’s affections. She died on the 21st of December 1549.

Margaret was a poet, author, philosopher and socialite. She was multi-talented, extremely intelligent and consistently chose to place the needs of her family, especially her brother, before her own. Yet when she was introduced to the truth of salvation by faith it shifted her loyalties. Though there is no evidence that Margaret ever formally denounced the Catholic church and publicly embraced Protestantism, she did fully accept the truth of justification by faith, and she spent her lifetime championing and protecting those who preached this truth.

Margaret of Navarre: The Queen Who Tamed Her Foes

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