◆Apparently Queen Marguerite de Valois. Marguerite de Valois, sister of François I., was born at Angouleme in 1492. Married in 1509 to Charles 4th Duc d’Alençon, who died (1525) soon after the disastrous battle of Pavia, at which François I. was taken prisoner. In 1527 she married Henri d’Albret, king of Navarre. She was a Princess of many talents and accomplishments, and the delight of her brother François I., who called her his _Mignonne_, and his _Marguerite des Marguerites_; Du Bellay and Clément Marot were both members of her literary coterie. Authoress of the famous _Heptameron_, or _Nouvelles de la Reine de Navarre_, composed in imitation of Boccaccio’s _Decameron_. Died 1549. ◆This is also an allusion to Queen Marguerite. Martigues, one of her lovers, had received from her a scarf and a little dog which he wore at the tournaments. [61] P. 103: ◆Henri III., who had a short-lived affair with Catherine Charlotte de La Tremoille, the wife of Prince de Condé. But the victory was too easy; the princess was quite corrupt. Later on, the king prostituted her with one of his pages, with whom she conspired to poison her husband. The plot failed. When brought before the Court, she was pardoned; but a servant named Brilland was torn apart by four horses. It was also Henri III. who had debauched Marie de Clèves, the first wife of the same Prince de Condé. ◆May very well refer to Henri de Lorraine, Duc de Guise, assassinated at Blois. ◆Most probably refers to Marguerite de Valois, the king of Navarre, the Duc d’Anjou and the St. Bartholomew. [62] P. 105: ◆Louis de Béranger du Guasi, one of Henri III.’s favorites, assassinated in 1575 by M. de Viteaux. His epitaph is in the _Manuscrit français_ 22565, f^o 901^o (Bibliothèque Nationale). Brantôme, who boasts of being a swordsman, forgets that D’Aubigné was also one. ◆A small town of Brittany (Dep. Ille-et-Vilaine), 14 miles from St. Mâlo. Has a cathedral of 12th and 13th centuries; the bishopric was suppressed in 1790. [63] P. 107: ◆To take a journey to Saint-Mathurin was a proverbial expression which meant that a person was mad. Henri Estienne says that this is a purely imaginary saint; be that as it may, he was credited with curing madmen, and the satirical songs of the time are full of allusions to that healing power. (See _Journal de Henri III_, 1720 edition, t. II., pp. 307 and 308.) [64] P. 108: ◆Lalanne proves by a passage from Spartianus that this anecdote is apocryphal, or that at least Brantôme has embellished it for his own needs. (_Dames_, tom. IX., p. 116.) ◆Hadrian (P. Aelius Hadrianus), 14th in the series of Roman Emperors, A. D. 117–138, succeeded his guardian and kinsman Trajan. His wife, Sabina, here mentioned, was a grand-daughter of Trajan’s sister Marciana. [65] P. 109: