Marguerite was one of the most gifted women of her time.However, together with her mother, she was always in an ecstasy of worship and devotion to her brother, Francois I, King of France.
Marguerite was a gay, slender girl with blue eyes and golden hair, distinguished even as a child. Francois I, though not nearly so intelligent as his sister, like her he received from their mother, who
claimed to love her books next to her children, a reverence for art and letters together with a lively intellectual curiosity.
In her book "Heptameron", Marguerite tells of her brother's first love-affaire. The fifteen-year-old Francois fell in love but the girl rejected him, even after continuing pressure. The girl then married
someone of Francois's household and he continued to give the couple presents for many years.

On 2 December 1509 she married Charles IV, Duke of Alencon. However, their marriage remained childless. In 1515 Francois became King of France and, despite fatherhood and a 'maitresse en titre', the
two chief influences in his life remained his mother and his sister. Marguerite, childless and unhappy in her marriage, continued to worship her brother. Now in her mid-twenties, she was growing plump
and her nose was too long. Yet she was still blue-eyed and fair-haired and kept her fascination.

She occupied herself in learning Greek, Hebrew, German, Spanish and Italian. A lover of Petrarch, she also admired Dante. Above all, Marguerite enjoyed Boccaccio and had the 'Decameron' translated by her
secretary. In 1525 her brother went to war with the Emperor and was captured. Her husband, on his return, found no welcome. Reviled by all, he died within two months, accusing himself of cowardice.
Arriving in Madrid, Francois was imprisoned in a tower of the Alcazar. After a while he fell ill and Marguerite went to him, wearing white mourning for her husband Alencon. Mass was said in Francois's
room and brother and sister took communion together. Miraculously, his fever broke and the Emperor, who had been told he had died, came hastily to Madrid; Francois would be of no use in the grave.
Francois again refused the terms for his release and sent Marguerite to Paris with a declaration that 'Our very dear and very beloved eldest son, Francois, Dauphin of Vienne' should be proclaimed king 'under the regency and authority of our very dear and most beloved mother the Duchess of Angouleme.' Francois retained the right to take back the crown should God grant him deliverance. However, the
French parliament refused to register the abdication, as he was unable to exercise his free will.

Finally, Francois I decided that, if abdication under duress was invalid, so was a treaty. In December 1525 he informed the Emperor that he would agree to all demands, the treaty of Madrid was signed in
January 1526. By it Francois promised to give up Burgundy, Flanders and Artois, to abandon his claims to Milan and Naples, to rehabilitate Bourbon, and to send his two elder sons as hostages. In return the
1526 Francois crossed the River Bidassoa, the frontier into France. The boat bearing his two sons into captivity passed him in mid-stream.

On 24 January 1527 Marguerite married Henri d'Albret, King of Navarre, and they became the parents of two children. However, this marriage, too, was loveless; Henri loved only his lost kingdom.
Marguerite turned more and more to her scholars. She could not spend as much time at her brother's court as before; this was because her husband, who possessed huge tracts of south-western France, kept his own court at Pau or at Nerac in Armagnac. Nevertheless, the bond between brother and sister remained as strong as ever.

In 1531 the Sorbonne made an embarrassing blunder. A book of devotional verse, the 'Mirror of the Sinful Soul', was placed on the list of of forbidden works. Unfortunately its author proved to be
Marguerite, who complained to her brother. Alarmed, the Sorbonne explained that the book had only been condemned because it had not received authorization from the Faculty of Theology. It withrew its
censure publicly, declaring that the book contained nothing but good. This incident lost the Sorbonne its privilege of authorizing works of theology.

She contined working on her poems, to be published as 'Les Marguerites de la Marguerite', and her book of stories which she began in 1542. As always, Marguerite was suspected of heresy. She was too
prone to ridicule priests and friars, to scoff at superstitious devotions, and too fond of mystical piety.

Her only surviving child, Jeanne d'Albret, was forced to marry the Duke of Cleves, despite piteous protests. The marriage took place on 13 July 1541 but, in 1546, was annulled. On 31 March 1547 Francois I, King of France, died and when the doctors opened his body they found an abscess in the stomach, his kidneys shrivelled, his entrails putrefied, his throat corroded, and one of his lungs in shreds. Marguerite had not seen her brother since February 1546. She had been staying in Navarre, tired and disillusioned, grieving for many friends. The news of Francois's illness filled her with dread. She dreamt that his ghost appeared to her. No one dared tell her that he had died. At last she met a mad nun who was in tears. 'Why do you weep?' asked Marguerite. 'Alas!' cried the nun, 'I weep for your
misfortune!' Then Marguerite knew that her brother was dead. 'You have tried to hide the death of the King from me,' she said reproachfully to her ladies, 'but God has told me through the mouth of this mad
woman.' Marguerite died, a good Catholic at the end, in December 1549.
                                                                     
 

Source: *Prince of The Renaissance*, The Life of Francois I, by Desmond Seward