Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
The sister of King Francis I, Marguerite of Navarre (b. 1492) was pious, intellectually gifted, and deeply devoted to her brother. She and their mother, Louise of Savoy, formed with Francis a group so closely united that they humorously (or maybe not-so-humorously) referred to themselves as the "Trinity."
At the time of Francis's birth in 1494, no one would have assumed that he would become ruler of France. Then-ruler Charles VIII (who as you remember invaded Italy) was succeeded by Louis XII, who continued the course of his predecessor in pursuing the Italian Wars. He was married three times, but did not produce a male heir. On the death of Louis's second wife, Francis married their daughter, and when Louis' brief, last marriage proved unfruitful, ascended to the throne at the beginning of 1515.
We have already seen some of the abuses to which the church at that time was subject, in both our Erasmus reading and our selection describing the court of Alexander VI. Many people were of a reforming cast, including Marguerite. France was home to an evangelical reform movement that did not break away from Rome, but was hostile to the scholastic theologians of Paris. The focus was on scripture, personal meditation and prayer, and sermons, as opposed to rote ceremonies and obedience to what many saw as a corrupt clergy. When Luther launched his own critique of the church, many of Marguerite's enemies in Paris accused her of being a Lutheran. She sympathized with members of the reform party, but like Erasmus remained firmly in the Catholic fold.
The tales of the Heptameron, a story cycle often compared to Boccaccio's Decameron, were compiled late in her life. As a young woman she had been the ornament of Francis's court. Together with their mother Louise, who shared Marguerite's sensibilities, she was able to gain influence over her brother's religious policies and prevent the hard-liners in the Sorbonne from persecuting reformers. Francis himself was not particularly concerned about religion--his interests ran to protecting his power and indluging his appetites, which were substantial. As a Renaissance monarch, he worked to centralize power in the hands of the monarchy, at the expense of the feudal nobility and the universal church. Francis did not want to see interference in his policies by an emboldened theological faculty, and thus for a time his own agenda coincided with that of his mother and sister.
In 1534 that changed, however, when zealous reformers set up posters denouncing the Catholic mass as an abomination. This action caused Francis to launch a campaign against them to punish them for having threatened his power. Marguerite, much grieved by this turn of events as well as unhappy in her second marriage to King Henry of Navarre, retreated to that kingdom on the border between France and Spain. It is in this setting that she wrote the Heptameron.
The characters of the storytellers are all taken from life. Oisille, for example, is Louise, and Parlemente is Marguerite herself, while Hircan represents her husband. The stories themselves are about real people: in story 10, for example, the character of Florida is believed to have been drawn on Marguerite's experiences as a girl. She also is most likely the princess who fiercely resists rape in story 4.
Presenter and Homework Questions:
Laurel Carrington carringt@stolaf.edu
Most recent update: January 25, 2008