The book of the ladies: Illustrious Dames: The Reign and Amours of the Bourbon RégimeBrantôme, Pierre de Bourdeille
History
The book of the ladies: Illustrious Dames: The Reign and Amours of the Bourbon Régime
Brantôme, Pierre de Bourdeille
France -- Biography; France -- Court and courtiers; Queens; Women -- Biography
Enough has now been said, methinks, upon the beauty of her body, though
the subject is so ample that it deserves a decade. I hope to speak of it
again, but at present I must say something of her noble soul, which is
lodged so well in that noble body. If it was born thus noble within her
she has known how to keep it and maintain it so; for she loves letters
much and reading. While young, she was, for her age, quite perfect in
them; so that we could say of her: This princess is truly the most
eloquent and best-speaking lady in the world, with the finest style of
speech and the most agreeable to be found. When the Poles, as I have
said before, came to do her reverence they brought with them the Bishop
of Cracovie, the chief and head of the embassy, who made the harangue in
Latin, he being a learned and accomplished prelate. The queen replied so
pertinently and eloquently without the help of an interpreter, having
well understood and comprehended the harangue, that all were struck with
admiration, calling her with one voice a second Minerva, goddess of
eloquence.
When the queen her mother took her to the king her husband, as I have
said, she made her entry to Bordeaux, as was proper, being daughter and
sister of a king, and wife of the King of Navarre, first prince of the
blood, and governor of Guyenne. The queen her mother willed it so, for
she loved and esteemed her much. This entry was fine; not so much for
the sumptuous magnificence there made and displayed, as for the triumph
of this most beautiful and accomplished queen of the world, mounted on a
fine white horse superbly caparisoned; she herself dressed all in orange
and spangles, so sumptuously as never was; so that none could get their
surfeit of looking at her, admiring and lauding her to the skies.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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