Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Marguerite, Queen of Navarre (1492 – 1549), author of the Heptaméron, a major literary landmark in the French Renaissance. Published after her death, The Heptaméron features 72 short stories, many of which explore relations between the sexes. However, Marguerite’s life was more eventful than that of many writers. Born into the French nobility, she found herself the sister of the French king when her brother Francis I came to the throne in 1515. At a time of growing religious change, Marguerite was a leading exponent of reform in the Catholic Church and translated an early work of Martin Luther into French. As the Reformation progressed, she was not afraid to take risks to protect other reformers. With Sara Barker Associate Professor of Early Modern History and Director of the Centre for the Comparative History of Print at the University of Leeds Emily Butterworth Professor of Early Modern French at King’s College London And Emma Herdman Lecturer in French at the University of St Andrews Producer: Simon Tillotson Reading list: Giovanni Boccaccio (trans. Wayne A. Rebhorn), The Decameron (Norton, 2013) Emily Butterworth, Marguerite de Navarre: A Critical Companion (Boydell &Brewer, 2022) Patricia Cholakian and Rouben Cholakian, Marguerite de Navarre: Mother of the Renaissance (Columbia University Press, 2006) Gary Ferguson, Mirroring Belief: Marguerite de Navarre’s Devotional Poetry (Edinburgh University Press, 1992) Gary Ferguson and Mary B. McKinley (eds.), A Companion to Marguerite de Navarre (Brill, 2013) Mark Greengrass, The French Reformation (John Wiley & Sons, 1987) R.J. Knecht, The Rise and Fall of Renaissance France (Fontana Press, 2008) R.J. Knecht, Renaissance Warrior and Patron: The Reign of Francis I (Cambridge University Press, 2008) John D. Lyons and Mary B. McKinley (eds.), Critical Tales: New Studies of the ‘Heptaméron’ and Early Modern Culture (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993) Marguerite de Navarre (trans. Paul Chilton), The Heptameron (Penguin, 2004) Marguerite de Navarre (trans. Rouben Cholakian and Mary Skemp), Selected Writings: A Bilingual Edition (University of Chicago Press, 2008) Marguerite de Navarre (trans. Hilda Dale), The Coach and The Triumph of the Lamb (Elm Press, 1999) Marguerite de Navarre (trans. Hilda Dale), The Prisons (Whiteknights, 1989) Marguerite de Navarre (ed. Gisèle Mathieu-Castellani), L’Heptaméron (Libraririe générale française, 1999) Jonathan A. Reid, King’s Sister – Queen of Dissent: Marguerite of Navarre (1492-1549) and her Evangelical Network (Brill, 2009) Paula Sommers, ‘The Mirror and its Reflections: Marguerite de Navarre’s Biblical Feminism’ (Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature, 5, 1986) Kathleen Wellman, Queens and Mistresses of Renaissance France (Yale University Press, 2013)
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In the early 16th century, Marguerite, queen of Navarre, 1492 to 1549, was the author of the Heptameron, one of the literary jewels of the French Renaissance.
A prolific writer, she also dared to criticize the Catholic Church, despite the fact she was the sister of Francis I, the catholic king of France.
As the reformation gathered pace, Marguerite used her status to help those who, like her, wanted reform.
With me to discuss Marguerite de Navarre are Emma Herdman, lecturer in French at the University of St.
Andrews.
Sarah Barker, associate professor of early modern history and director of the center for the Comparative History of print at the University of Leeds.
And Emily Butterworth, professor of early modern French at King's College London.
Emily Butter, she was born in 1492.
Can you tell us something about her childhood?
She was born to the count of Angouleme and Louise of Savoy, as you say, in 1492, the year that Columbus landed in the Caribbean.
Two years after her birth, her brother was born Francis, and her mother, Louise, was convinced from the moment of his birth that he was destined to be king.
So a lot of her childhood revolved around the great of her brother and his destiny to become king.
Louise, it's probably fair to say, wasn't as excited at the birth of her daughter, but nevertheless, Louise did support both of her children.
She oversaw their upbringing and their education, and Marguerite shared her brother's education, which was quite an extraordinary circumstance for a woman at the time.
So Marguerite was educated as a renaissance princess in the new learning that was coming out of Italy.