The Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois, vol 1 | Page 5

of our language could be brought to approach the unpolished
strength and masculine vigour of the French of the age of Henri IV.
This translation is styled a new one, because, after the Translator had
made some progress in it, he found these Memoirs had already been
made English, and printed, in London, in the year 1656, thirty years

after the first edition of the French original. This translation has the
following title: "The grand Cabinet Counsels unlocked; or, the most
faithful Transaction of Court Affairs, and Growth and Continuance of
the Civil Wars in France, during the Reigns of Charles the last, Henry
III., and Henry IV., commonly called the Great. Most excellently
written, in the French Tongue, by Margaret de Valois, Sister to the two
first Kings, and Wife of the last. Faithfully translated by Robert
Codrington, Master of Arts;" and again as "Memorials of Court
Affairs," etc., London, 1658.
The Memoirs of Queen Marguerite contained the secret history of the
Court of France during the space of seventeen years, from 1565 to 1582,
and they end seven years before Henri III., her brother, fell by the
hands of Clement, the monk; consequently, they take in no part of the
reign of Henri IV. (as Mr. Codrington has asserted in his title-page),
though they relate many particulars of the early part of his life.
Marguerite's Memoirs include likewise the history nearly of the first
half of her own life, or until she had reached the twenty-ninth year of
her age; and as she died in 1616, at the age of sixty-three years, there
remain thirty-four years of her life, of which little is known. In 1598,
when she was forty-five years old, her marriage with Henri was
dissolved by mutual consent,--she declaring that she had no other wish
than to give him content, and preserve the peace of the kingdom;
making it her request, according to Brantome, that the King would
favour her with his protection, which, as her letter expresses, she hoped
to enjoy during the rest of her life. Sully says she stipulated only for an
establishment and the payment of her debts, which were granted. After
Henri, in 1610, had fallen a victim to the furious fanaticism of the
monk Ravaillac, she lived to see the kingdom brought into the greatest
confusion by the bad government of the Queen Regent, Marie de
Medici, who suffered herself to be directed by an Italian woman she
had brought over with her, named Leonora Galligai. This woman
marrying a Florentine, called Concini, afterwards made a marshal of
France, they jointly ruled the kingdom, and became so unpopular that
the marshal was assassinated, and the wife, who had been qualified
with the title of Marquise d'Ancre, burnt for a witch. This happened
about the time of Marguerite's decease.
It has just before been mentioned how little has been handed down to

these times respecting Queen Marguerite's history. The latter part of her
life, there is reason to believe, was wholly passed at a considerable
distance from Court, in her retirement (so it is called, though it appears
to have been rather her prison) at the castle of Usson. This castle,
rendered famous by her long residence in it, has been demolished since
the year 1634. It was built on a mountain, near a little town of the same
name, in that part of France called Auvergne, which now constitutes
part of the present Departments of the Upper Loire and Puy- de-Dome,
from a river and mountain so named. These Memoirs appear to have
been composed in this retreat. Marguerite amused herself likewise, in
this solitude, in composing verses, and there are specimens still
remaining of her poetry. These compositions she often set to music,
and sang them herself, accompanying her voice with the lute, on which
she played to perfection. Great part of her time was spent in the perusal
of the Bible and books of piety, together with the works of the best
authors she could procure. Brantome assures us that Marguerite spoke
the Latin tongue with purity and elegance; and it appears, from her
Memoirs, that she had read Plutarch with attention.
Marguerite has been said to have given in to the gallantries to which
the Court of France was, during her time, but too much addicted; but,
though the Translator is obliged to notice it, he is far from being
inclined to give any credit to a romance entitled, "Le Divorce Satyrique;
ou, les Amours de la Reyne Marguerite de Valois," which is written in
the person of her husband, and bears on the title-page these initials: D.
R. H. Q. M.; that is to say, "du Roi Henri Quatre, Mari." This work
professes to give a relation of Marguerite's conduct during her
residence at the castle of