The real story of Queen Margot, brilliant, depraved and ruinous for lovers
On August 18, 1572, Paris noisily celebrated a wedding, which a few days later was replaced by a bloody massacre. Married 19-year-old French Princess Marguerite of Valois and 18-year-old Henry King of Navarre.
We know the French Queen Margot from the novels of Alexandre Dumas and modern "historical" series. Many are not at all sure that such a person actually lived in the Renaissance. It's all the fault of a lot of conjectures of writers and directors, used by them for artistic purposes. But what was really the Queen of France, Marguerite de Valois, whose love affairs were legendary?
Marguerite de Valois was the daughter of King Henry II and Catherine de' Medici. Contemporaries described her as one of the most beautiful women of her time. Margot had regular facial features, big eyes, luxurious hair and a beautiful figure.
This is how Margarita was described even before taking the throne by one of her contemporaries, the Spanish commander Don Juan of Austria. It is not surprising at all that noble gentlemen flocked to the beauty of the queen, like butterflies to the fire. The fact that Queen Margot had many lovers is not fiction at all. It is also true that almost all of them ended badly — they were executed or died under tragic circumstances.
Catherine de' Medici, Margarita's mother, was completely uninterested in her daughter's feelings. For her, young Margot was just a chess piece on the board of European politics. In 1572, Catherine decided with the help of her daughter to end the long-standing enmity between Catholics and Huguenots. She decided to marry Margot to Henri de Bourbon, the main Protestant of France and the future king Henry IV.
But 19-year-old Margarita was horrified by such a prospect. She was in love with Duke Henri de Guise, who, on the contrary, was a passionate Catholic. The mother was adamant and on August 18, 1572, Margot went down the aisle, showing complete submission. Many historians were puzzled by such meekness.
Someone even believes that before the wedding, the bride was thoroughly beaten to knock her down. As confirmation of this, they cited the fact that Margarita went to the altar in a very closed dress, which was not at all in trend at that time. The girl could hide under her clothes beatings inflicted for educational purposes.
At the crucial moment of the ceremony, when the priest asked the bride if she would agree to become the wife of Henri de Bourbon, she remained silent. Her brother, Duke Henri of Anjou, had to push her from behind to at least nod her head. This was counted as a traditional "yes" and the priest married the couple.
But it was not enough for Catherine de' Medici that her daughter became the wife of a Protestant. At the invitation of the bride's mother, thousands of Huguenots arrived in Paris, believing that they were safe. This infuriated the zealous Catholics, who began to grumble. But this did not confuse Catherine, who knew a lot about intrigues. She immediately profited from this and set the Papists against the leader of the Huguenots, Gaspard de Coligny. This man was her old enemy and the schemer decided that it was time to get even.
The Medici organized an attempt on de Coligny, which failed. But on the other hand , the flywheel of religious intolerance has been successfully unwound in The massacre began in Paris. On the night of St. Bartholomew, from August 23 to 24, Catholics began to kill Protestants. More than 3,000 people were killed overnight in the capital alone. It didn't stop there, and Protestants began to be slaughtered all over France.
The number of victims was already in the tens of thousands. It got to the point that the Catholics, mad with blood, tried to kill Marguerite's young husband, Henri de Bourbon. A crowd of heavily armed killers broke into the palace in the middle of the night and came to the newlyweds' bedroom. Tui Marguerite de Valois, despite her dislike for her unloved husband, showed courage. She got in the way of the rioters and did not allow the massacre to take place.
This case had a positive impact on the relationship of the spouses. No, there was no flame of love between them. It's just that Henri began to respect his young wife and provided her with support both in politics and on the personal front. Margot returned the favor. Marriage has turned into a mutually beneficial coalition built on business relationships.
Then an even more amazing event happened. Catherine de' Medici, seeing that the idea of reconciliation between Catholics and Protestants failed, backed down. She told Margarita that she was wrong and offered to correct the mistake. Now , if she wanted , Margot could divorce and marry her lover , the Duke de Gizome. But the daughter refused and said that she would abide by her mother's original will and stay with Henri.
For almost a year, all decency in marriage was strictly observed. But then Margarita had her first lover. He was one of the most handsome men at court, Joseph Boniface de la Mole. Soon everyone was whispering about the affair, and Henri, in accordance with an unspoken agreement, turned a blind eye to his wife's infidelity. However, he himself was not sinless and immediately got several mistresses at once.
Margot and Joseph's romance, blessed by Henri, could happily last for years. But everything was ruined by the princess's lover himself. He confessed to her that her husband was preparing a Protestant conspiracy in which he, Joseph de la The moth plays an important role. Margarita was worried about this news, because the riots threatened the power of her brother, King Charles IX.
The very next morning, Margot reported the plot to her mother. Joseph was immediately raided with a search, which gave interesting results. In the house of Margarita's lover, a wax figure of the king was found, riddled with needles. Suspicions of witchcraft were added to the accusations of high treason. The handlers quickly extracted a confession under torture, and Joseph even turned in his accomplice, Annibal de Coconnas.
The two conspirators were quickly convicted and sent to the block. Princess Margot grieved greatly for her lover and even wore mourning for a while. She bought Joseph's head from the executioner and ordered it to be embalmed. After that, part of the body was buried.
But very soon the place of Joseph de la The prayer in Margot's heart was taken by another cavalier. It was a brilliant handsome nobleman, Jacques de Arles. Around the same time, there were rumors that the princess was also sleeping with her younger brother, Duke Francois Alencon. Another brother of Margaret, who became King Henry III in 1574, considered her sister's behavior unacceptable. He decided to teach her a lesson and disgrace her in front of the whole court.
Marguerite was invited to a ball at the Louvre, during which the king made a diatribe. Henry III told the audience the details of his sister's personal life, not shy about the most intimate details. At the end of his speech, he announced that Marguerite was expecting a child from Jacques de Arles. However, this was not true, because the princess never had children. Perhaps she was infertile.
Summing up the speech, the monarch asked his sister to rid the court of her presence. Jacques de Arles reacted quickly to the danger and immediately broke off all relations with Marguerite. Perhaps that's why he became one of the few of her lovers who lived to old age.
After the disgrace in the Louvre, Marguerite could not stay in Paris. She settled in the town of Agen, in the south of France. This place was her wedding dowry, and here she felt safe. But the shocks undermined the health of the young woman and she fell ill. There were no doctors in Agen and the son of a local pharmacist took care of the princess. Soon Margarita went on the mend and did not come up with anything better than to make the young man her lover.
This novel was short-lived and ended, as it should, tragically. One of Margarita's guards, passionately in love with her, in the heat of jealousy broke into the lovers' chambers during their intimacy and stabbed the apothecary's son. It was terrible, but Margot quickly coped with the loss. The jealous man was given to the executioner, and a new cavalier appeared in the princess's bed.
The woman showed favor to the stately captain of the French army. It is unknown how long their romantic story lasted. Henry III found out about the novel, who was enraged by the next adventures of his sister. He sent assassins to Agen, who executed the poor guy in the presence of Margot. It is known that the captain was suspended by his legs and held in this position for a long time. When he lost consciousness, he was simply buried alive in a grave.
Until 1589, King Henry III was the real evil genius of Margarita, scaring away lovers from her. But the king was killed by the religious fanatic Jacques Clement, stabbing him at a reception with a poisoned stiletto. Henri de Bourbon became the king, and Marguerite, respectively, became the queen.
After becoming Henry IV, Henri began to think about heirs. And since Margarita never gave him a child, he offered to part with her peacefully. The woman agreed, but on the condition that she would be paid a good compensation and... retain the title of queen. Margot and the newly minted king struck hands and the divorce took place. Soon Henry IV married Maria de' Medici. So two God-given queens appeared simultaneously in France.
Margarita, left alone, devoted her life to her favorite business. No one knows how many lovers she had after the divorce. They say the queen went wild and slept with a shepherd, a minstrel, a carpenter's apprentice and even her own servant. All this time, the dissolute Margot was kept in the provinces, away from the court. But over time, the queen managed to convince her ex-husband to allow her to return to Paris.
A 50-year-old plumping woman arrived in the capital, who also began to go bald. Perhaps the hair loss was associated with an overseas disease that was in full swing in Europe. But the hair on the head was replaced by wigs, and the elegant figure was replaced by money and connections. Margot, as before, had no difficulty finding lovers. Margot began to build a palace in Paris, and she settled in the Hôtel de Sens mansion, separated from the Louvre by the River Seine. The boredom of 52-year-old Margot was dispelled by a 20-year-old lover, the Comte de Vermont, then the equally young Gabriel Dat de Saint-Julien.
It all ended with the traditional murder. Jealous de Vermont ambushed Margot with a new favorite and shot him with a pistol when leaving the carriage. Margarita was furious, she wanted her former lover to be executed at the scene of the murder. A couple of days later, the hot cavalier was deprived of his life right at the porch of the mansion. The Queen herself coolly watched the massacre from the balcony.
When the construction of the palace was completed, Margarita turned it into a real abode of debauchery. Lovers appeared and disappeared in her life like colored glasses in a kaleidoscope. The Parisians gave the nickname "Queen of Venus" to an aging woman, whose beauty has not left a trace. Parties with orgies took place every week and the ex-husband, Henry IV, more than once tearfully asked not to disgrace his gray hair.
But the queen did not even care about the condemnation of the Archbishop of Paris, who accused her of molesting young people. Margarita continued to live in her own pleasure and outlived all those who condemned her. In 1610, Henry IV was killed by a Catholic fanatic, and all members of the queen's family for one reason or another also gradually passed away.
Marguerite, who was hated for her lifestyle, died peacefully in her bed at the age of 62 in the Saint-Germain Castle. Her deathbed was crowded with young lovers, who sincerely mourned the queen's departure and the end of their carefree life.