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Margaret of Valois was born on May 14, 1553 at the royal Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, the seventh child and third daughter of King Henri II of France and Catherine de’ Medici.

Catherine de’ Medici was born in Florence to Lorenzo de’ Medici, Duke of Urbino, and Madeleine de La Tour d’Auvergne. In 1533, at the age of 14, Catherine married Prince Henri of Valois the second son of King François I and Queen Claude of France, who would become Dauphin of France upon the death of his elder brother Prince François in 1536.

Margaret of Valois had three of her brothers would become kings of France: François II, Charles IX and Henri III. Her sister, Elisabeth of Valois, would become the third wife of King Felipe II of Spain, and her brother King François II, was briefly married to Mary I, Queen of Scots.

Her other sister, Claude of Valois married Charles III, Duke of Lorraine, on January 19, 1559, at the age of 11. Charles III, Duke of Lorraine, was 16 at the time of his marriage and he was the eldest surviving son of Francis I, Duke of Lorraine, and Christina of Denmark, the younger surviving daughter of King Christian II of Denmark and Norway and Archduchess Isabella of Austria (brother of Emperor Charles V).

Margaret of Valois spent her childhood at the French royal nursery of the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye with her sisters Elisabeth and Claude, under the care of Charlotte de Vienne, baronne de Courton, “a wise and virtuous lady greatly attached to the Catholic religion”. After her sisters’ weddings, Margaret grew up in the Château d’Amboise with her brothers Henri and François. During her childhood, her brother King Charles IX gave her the nickname of “Margot”.

At the French court, she studied grammar, classics, history and Holy Scripture. Margaret learned to speak Italian, Spanish, Latin and Greek in addition to her native French. She was competent also in prose, poetry, horsemanship and dance. She traveled with her family and the court in the grand tour of France (1564–1566). During this period Margaret had direct experience of the dangerous and complex political situation in France, and learned from her mother the art of political mediation.

In 1565, Catherine met with Felipe II’s chief minister the Duke of Alba at Bayonne in hopes of arranging a marriage between Margaret and Infante Carlos, Prince of Asturias. However, Alba refused any consideration of a dynastic marriage. Other marriage negotiations with King Sebastian of Portugal and Archduke Rudolph of Austria also did not succeed.

During her teenage years, she and her brother Prince Henri were very close friends. In 1568, leaving court to command the royal armies, he entrusted his 15-year-old sister with the defense of his interests with their mother.

Delighted with this mission, she fulfilled it conscientiously, but Prince Henri showed no gratitude upon his return, according to her Memoirs. He had suspicions of a secret romance between Margot and Prince Henri of Guise and their presumptive plan of marriage. When the royal family found this out, Catherine and Charles beat her and sent Prince Henri of Guise away from court. This episode is perhaps at the root of a “lasting brotherly hatred” between Margaret and her brother Prince Henri, as well as the equally lasting cooling of relations with her mother.

Some historians have hinted that the duke was Margaret’s lover, but nothing confirms this. In the sixteenth century, a king’s daughter had to remain a virgin until her marriage for political reasons. Surely after their marriage she was not faithful to her husband, however, it is difficult to discern what is true or invented about her extramarital affairs. Many have no basis, others were simply platonic. Most of Margaret’s alleged adventures are the result of pamphlets that have had to politically discredit her and her family.

The most successful defamation was Le Divorce Satyrique (1607), which described Margaret as a nymphomaniac: nevertheless, these defamatory accusations do not stand up to a careful examination of the sources.

By 1570, Catherine de’ Medici was seeking a marriage between Margaret and Prince Henri de Bourbon of Navarre, the leading Huguenot (French Calvinist Protestant).

Prince Henri de Bourbon of Navarre (December 1553 – May 14, 1610) was King of Navarre (as Henri III) from 1572 and King of France from 1589 to 1610.

Prince Henri de Bourbon was born in Pau, the capital of the joint Kingdom of Navarre with the sovereign principality of Béarn. His parents were Queen Jeanne III of Navarre (Jeanne d’Albret) and her husband, Antoine de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme, King of Navarre.

Antoine de Bourbon, roi de Navarre (1518 – 1562) was the King of Navarre through his marriage (jure uxoris) to Queen Jeanne III, from 1555 until his death. Antoine was born at La Fère, Picardy, France, the second son of Charles de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme (1489–1537), and his wife, Françoise d’Alençon (died 1550). He was the older brother of Louis, Prince of Condé (1530–1569), who would lead the Huguenots during the French Wars of Religion.

Although baptised as a Catholic, Henri III of Navarre was raised as a Protestant by his mother, who had declared Calvinism the religion of Navarre. As a teenager, Henri joined the Huguenot forces in the French Wars of Religion.

On April 11, 1572, Margaret was betrothed to Henri of Navarre. The marriage was arranged by her uncle Pope Clement VII. It was hoped this union would strengthen family ties, as the Bourbons were part of the French royal family and the closest relatives to the reigning Valois branch, and end the French Wars of Religion between Catholics and Huguenots.

Henri was a few months younger than Margaret, and their initial impressions of each other were favorable. In one of her letters to Henri, his mother Jeanne d’Albret, Queen of Navarre, wrote about Margaret: “She has frankly owned to me the favourable impression which she has formed of you. With her beauty and wit, she exercises a great influence over the Queen-Mother and the King, and Messieurs her younger brothers.”

Two months after the engagement, on June 9, 1572, upon his mother’s death, the 19-year-old became King Henri III of Navarre. This meant that Margaret became Queen of Navarre upon the day of her wedding.

Margaret and King Henri III of Navarre, were married on August 18, 1572 at Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. The marriage between a Roman Catholic and a Protestant Huguenot was controversial.

Pope Gregory XIII refused to grant a dispensation for the wedding, and the different faiths of the bridal couple made for an unusual wedding service. The King of Navarre had to remain outside the cathedral during the mass, where his place was taken by Margaret’s brother, Prince François, the Duke of Anjou.