Henry VIII, the Reign - Mark Holinshed's Articles
By Mark Holinshed
Marguerite of Angoulême is Fab 4…
One of the most influential people in post-medieval English history was Marguerite of Angoulême - or as she was also known, Marguerite de Navarre.
Yes, she was French. Her brother was Francis I, King of France but she and a group of reformers known as the Circle of Meaux began to reform the Catholic Church in France from within. That is to say, she was not part of the more radical Lutheran movement.
Marguerite was also the wholly French Anne Boleyn’s mentor and Anne brought with her from France a religious philosophy, a middle way, a via media in religion which, as it evolved, her daughter Elizabeth implemented during her reign and became known as Anglicanism.
Shakespeare has it, and I agree with whoever it was that wrote the Shakespeare plays, that it was Marguerite and not Anne that Cardinal Wolsey planned to have Henry VIII marry in Catherine of Aragon’s stead.
Her brother Francis was captured during the Battle of Pavia in 1525. He became the prisoner of his arch-rival, Charles V King of Spain, Holy Roman Emperor and Catherine of Aragon’s nephew. Francis was taken to Spain. When he became ill there, in a remarkable act of loyalty, Marguerite made the dangerous journey, into enemy territory, to the Royal Alcázar of Madrid, to be by his bedside. Francis was later ransomed and returned to France.
‘In Marguerite, the Renaissance and the Reformation were for a moment one,’ claimed historian Will Durant. Marguerite was also a writer, known principally for her collection of short stories, the Heptameron and the religious poem Miroir de l'âme pécheresse (Mirror of the Sinful Soul). Anne Boleyn’s daughter, the future Elizabeth I, as an eleven-year-old, translated the latter into English. It may well be that Marguerite gave the original manuscript to her pupil, Anne.
‘Her influence radiated throughout France. Every free spirit looked upon her as protectoress and ideal... Marguerite was the embodiment of charity.’
Fine words indeed, but it will take more than these few paragraphs to even attempt to portray the life of such a prodigious woman – in English history, an often-overlooked woman – probably because of the obsession with the man that was Henry VIII.
Potted biography aside, the theme of this post is actually a painting of Marguerite.
One William Roscoe (8 March 1753 – 30 June 1831) was a historian, slave abolitionist, M.P., lawyer, banker, botanist, writer, all round good egg and thankfully for this post, an art collector.
He acquired a painting which he thought was a portrait of a Florentine lady, and taken in by the smile, similar to that of the subject of the Mona Lisa portrait, believed it was by Leonardo da Vinci – who, ironically, was resident at Marguerite and her brothers' French Court when he painted his most famous portrait. Indeed, King Francis acquired it.
However, just a few days before Roscoe died, a German art historian Johann David Passavant turned up to view his collection and identified the subject as Marguerite of Angoulême, and the painter was later proved to be the court artist Jean Clouet.
The Mona Lisa is in the Louvre Museum, but where is Marguerite’s portrait now?
The memory of Marguerite perhaps conjures images of places like let’s say, Paris – although not the Louvre – Amboise maybe , the commune of Angoulême its self, or any number of royal palaces, such as the Palace of Versailles or the Palace of Fontainebleau or perhaps a as trophy somewhere in ‘enemy’ territory Madrid, or Charles V Palace - Alhambra of Granada or in Barcelona – maybe.
No.
None of the aforementioned, but ‘she’ however is in one of England’s most historic, influential and creative cities. William Roscoe was a Liverpudlian, and that’s where the portrait is – in the Walker Gallery, in Liverpool – isn’t that just Fab 4 post-medieval English history?!
Yes, she was French. Her brother was Francis I, King of France but she and a group of reformers known as the Circle of Meaux began to reform the Catholic Church in France from within. That is to say, she was not part of the more radical Lutheran movement.
Marguerite was also the wholly French Anne Boleyn’s mentor and Anne brought with her from France a religious philosophy, a middle way, a via media in religion which, as it evolved, her daughter Elizabeth implemented during her reign and became known as Anglicanism.
Shakespeare has it, and I agree with whoever it was that wrote the Shakespeare plays, that it was Marguerite and not Anne that Cardinal Wolsey planned to have Henry VIII marry in Catherine of Aragon’s stead.
Her brother Francis was captured during the Battle of Pavia in 1525. He became the prisoner of his arch-rival, Charles V King of Spain, Holy Roman Emperor and Catherine of Aragon’s nephew. Francis was taken to Spain. When he became ill there, in a remarkable act of loyalty, Marguerite made the dangerous journey, into enemy territory, to the Royal Alcázar of Madrid, to be by his bedside. Francis was later ransomed and returned to France.
‘In Marguerite, the Renaissance and the Reformation were for a moment one,’ claimed historian Will Durant. Marguerite was also a writer, known principally for her collection of short stories, the Heptameron and the religious poem Miroir de l'âme pécheresse (Mirror of the Sinful Soul). Anne Boleyn’s daughter, the future Elizabeth I, as an eleven-year-old, translated the latter into English. It may well be that Marguerite gave the original manuscript to her pupil, Anne.
‘Her influence radiated throughout France. Every free spirit looked upon her as protectoress and ideal... Marguerite was the embodiment of charity.’
Fine words indeed, but it will take more than these few paragraphs to even attempt to portray the life of such a prodigious woman – in English history, an often-overlooked woman – probably because of the obsession with the man that was Henry VIII.
Potted biography aside, the theme of this post is actually a painting of Marguerite.
One William Roscoe (8 March 1753 – 30 June 1831) was a historian, slave abolitionist, M.P., lawyer, banker, botanist, writer, all round good egg and thankfully for this post, an art collector.
He acquired a painting which he thought was a portrait of a Florentine lady, and taken in by the smile, similar to that of the subject of the Mona Lisa portrait, believed it was by Leonardo da Vinci – who, ironically, was resident at Marguerite and her brothers' French Court when he painted his most famous portrait. Indeed, King Francis acquired it.
However, just a few days before Roscoe died, a German art historian Johann David Passavant turned up to view his collection and identified the subject as Marguerite of Angoulême, and the painter was later proved to be the court artist Jean Clouet.
The Mona Lisa is in the Louvre Museum, but where is Marguerite’s portrait now?
The memory of Marguerite perhaps conjures images of places like let’s say, Paris – although not the Louvre – Amboise maybe , the commune of Angoulême its self, or any number of royal palaces, such as the Palace of Versailles or the Palace of Fontainebleau or perhaps a as trophy somewhere in ‘enemy’ territory Madrid, or Charles V Palace - Alhambra of Granada or in Barcelona – maybe.
No.
None of the aforementioned, but ‘she’ however is in one of England’s most historic, influential and creative cities. William Roscoe was a Liverpudlian, and that’s where the portrait is – in the Walker Gallery, in Liverpool – isn’t that just Fab 4 post-medieval English history?!