A fascinating and compassionate portrait of an ultimately tragic and magnificent queen. "By the age of nineteen, Marguerite de Valois, daughter of Henri II of France and wife of Henri of Navarre, was probably the most beautiful woman in France--indeed, in all of Europe. So great was her attraction that a prince once interrupted a clandestine and dangerous journey through France to attend a court ball at which he might catch a glimpse of her, and even in her mid-fifties she could excite one young admirer to slay another out of jealousy for her favors. Her amorous adventures provided gossip for the courts of Europe and ammunition for her enemies, and she is said to have influenced politics according to whose bed she graced. But to her great beauty, grace and charm was added a restless and profound intelligence. She could dazzle her dinner guests with her biting wit, and she would act as arbiter while her banqueters debated some philosophical problem she had propounded for discussion. A linguist of a high order, Marguerite once astonished the court by spontaneously replying to an ambassador's Latin oration in the same language. In her later years she assembled about her a prominent literary circle, and her memoirs, letters, and other writings show considerable talent. She was caught up in the Huguenot Wars which culminated in the St. Bartholomew Massacre, and in the struggles for power among her brothers. She was one of the most romantic creations of history, a force for good in a time of unadulterated evil, badly used and soon accustomed to using--a pawn and a Queen. In this well-researched and carefully documented biography, E.R. Chamberlin has gone beyond her roles of scarlet woman and political intriguer to draw a fascinating and compassionate portrait of an ultimately tragic and magnificent queen. 'She was the greatest princess of her time, ' wrote Cardinal Richelieu of Marguerite of Navarre, 'daughter, sister, and wife of great kings, and yet, despite this advantage, she was the toy of fortune, condemned by those who should have been her subjects.'"--Jacket.