Spanish Princes & Princesses----

INFANTES & INFANTAS OF SPAIN.

Elvira de Borbon, Infanta of Spain.

Her lover was:

Filippo Folchi (1871-?)

Italian artist.

Lover in 1895

"In 1895 while visiting her uncle Robert I, Duke of Parma, who had a villa in Viareggio, Elvira met and fell in love with Filippo Folchi, an artist who was copying some tapestries for the duke. Folchi, ten years older than Elvira, was already a married man with children. When, the Duke of Parma learned about their affair, he fired Folchi. However, Folchi continued to court and correspond with Infanta Elvira. Eventually, Folchi's wife also learned of the affair, and they left for Florence.  In November 1896, while on a visit to her sister Beatriz, Princess Massimo in Rome, Elvira slipped away from her sister's care and eloped with Folchi taking her jewels with her. Shortly after, Elvira's father declared her death. Don Carlos issued a manifesto to his supporters: "You are my family, my beloved children. I therefore think it is my duty to inform you that one of my children, she who was Infanta Doña Elvira, is dead to us all. '" [Wikipedia]

Jaime, Duque de Segovia

Jaime de España, Duque de Segovia (1908-1975).

Son of: Alfonso XIII de España & Victoria Eugenia of Battenberg.

Husband of: Emanuela de Dampierre, Duquesa de Segovia 1933 (1913-2012), mar 1935, div 1947

Daughter of: Roger de Dampierre, 2nd Duque de San Lorenzo & Donna Vittoria Ruspoli.

His lover was:

1) Charlotte Tiedemann (1919-1979)

German opera singer.

Daughter of Otto Eugen Tiedemann & Luise Klein ,mar 1947

His wife Emanuela's lover was:

1) Antonio Sozzani.

Son of Cesare Sozzani & Cristina Alemani, mar 1949.

Habsburg Austrian Royals----

DUKES OF AUSTRIA.

Friedrich I von Osterreich (1289-1330)

Duke of Austria, Duke of Styria, German King 1314-1330

Son of: Husband of: Isabel de Aragon. (1305-1330)

His lovers were:

Unnamed mistress.

Natural offspring:

a. Friedrich, a priest at Gross Weikersdorf 1331

b. Friedrich, a priest at Modling 1334

c. Offmei, a priest at Tulin, fl 1319/27.

@Wikimedia

Otto IV von Osterreich. (1301-1339)

Duke of Austria & Styria 1330-1339; Duke of Carinthia, Carniola & South Tyrol 1335-1339.

Son of: Albrecht I of Germany & Elisabeth of Carinthia.

Husband of:

1. Elisabeth von Bayern (1306-1330) mar 1325, daughter of Stephan I von Bayern & Judith von Schweidnitz

2. Anna of Bohemia (1323-1338) mar 1335, daughter of John the Blind of Bohemia.

" . . . Rudolph had a son Albert who became Emperor, and had four sons. Of these four, Frederick the Handsome, attempted in vain to make himself Emperor, but I need not speak more of him for there was nothing original or marked about him, whereas his brother Herzog Otto der Frohliche, or Rosenbekranzte---Duke Otto the Gay, or Crowned with Roses---is obviously a true Viennese. The story about Duke Otto is this. His elder brother, Frederick , he who had attempted to make himself Emperor, had been defeated and put in prison. On his release (1325) he gave a grand banquet in the castle of Vienna, to thank all those who had stood by him in his trouble. In addressing his brother Otto, he called him the ornament of the German nobility for his spirit and boldness, and bade him ask for some gift as a reward. There chanced to be standing at the door, listening, a girl with a wreath of roses on her head. Otto beckoned to her, took the wreath from her, put it on his own head, and said: 'I want but little; for my reward I only will take this wreath as a symbolical token of my gay spirits (Frohsinn) which I would not exchange for land or titles. It shall be my ornament all my life, and when my heart stops beating, please lay it on my grave.' Frederick replied, 'You are indeed the gayest man in Austria, and from now on you shall be called der Rosenbekrantze, the Man of the Rose Garland.'"

His lover was:

Unnamed mistress.

Natural offspring: 

a. Otto (d.1330)

b. Leopold (d.1330)

c. Johann (d.1338)

d. Leopold (d.1338)

Rudolf I of Germany
@Wikipedia

Rudolf I of Germany

(1218-1291)

German King 1273-1291

Duke of Austria 1276-1282

Duke of Styria 1276-1282.

Husband of: 

1. Gertrud von Hohenberg (1225-1281) mar 1245

2. Isabelle de Bourgogne (1270-1323) mar 1282.

His lover was:

Unnamed mistress.

Natural offspring:

Albrecht von Schenkenberg, Count of Lowenstein (d.1304) mar Liutgard von Bolanden (d.1324/25), mar 1284.

Sigismund von Tyrol, c1470

Sigismund and his wives

Husband of:

1. Eleanor of Scotland mar 1449, daughter of James I of Scotland.

Katharina von Sachsen-Luneburg

2. Katharina von Sachsen-Luneburg mar 1484, daughter of Albrecht von Sachsen.

"After the death of his first wife the fifty-six-year-old widower Siegmund married Catherine of Saxony, who was just sixteen, in 1484. The marriage of these two mismatched individuals was joyless and remained without issue. A telling sign of this was the affair of her alleged scheme to poison her husband, although this was in fact a wicked rumour started by one of Siegmund's numerous mistresses. After Siegmund's death Catherine contracted another marriage, this time to the duke of Brunswick." (The World of the Habsburgs)

His lovers were:

Numerous mistresses.

"While Siegmund left no legitimate hers, popular legend credits him with having sired some fifty illegitimate offspring." (The World of the Habsburgs)

AUSTRIAN ARISTOCRATS.

Friedrich II von Celje (1379-1454)
Count of Celje; Ban of Croatia, Slavonia & Dalmatia

Son of: Hermann II von Celje & Anna von Schauberg.

Husband of:
1. Elizaveta Frankepan (d.1422) mar 1405, daughter of Stjepan I Frankopan & Caterina di Carrara

2. Veronica von Desnic, mar 1422.

His lovers were:
1) Veronica Desnic (d.1425)

" . . . Through the influence of Barbara, Frederick was allowed to leave court; he returned to Slavonia and married his beloved Veronica. The Frankapans were pressuring Sigismund to tale action, and Frederick's father, Herman II, was also furious at Frederick for marrying Veronica; so, when Sigismund finally responded to the complaints and sentenced Frederick to death in absentia, his father seized him, incidentally saving his life, and put him in a dungeon, where he remained until 1429. Herman's anger against Veronica simmered for a while until, unable to repress it, he brought her to trial as a witch; found guilty, she was drowned in a fishing pond under the castle of Celje. . . ." (Fine: 496)

" . . . Friedrich left Elisabeth in 1412 for his mistress Veronika Desinic, according to popular belief, reputed belle from Zagorje in northern part of Croatia. His father, together with the Frankopans tried for eight years to reconcile them, but without success. Elisabeth met at last in 1422 in a castle at Krapina, but on the first night Elisabeth died a violent death, probably slain by Friedrich by knife. . . ." (Ibler: 4)

" . . . Count Frederic bestowed his affections on a fascinating mistress, Veronica of Desnitz. The Countess separated from her husband; an arrangement which is said to have lasted eight years, when some officious friends thought it their duty to bring the couple together again. The wife yielded, exclaiming even when she consented to return, ;Good Lord and God! what means this friendship? I know that I shall be found dead to-morrow by the side of my lord!' The next morning the Countess did not appear; the Count sent her maids to learn the reason; they found her in bed and a corpse. . . ." (Higgins: 160)

" . . . Count Frederick presided there in our time. A man excessively prone to lust, he was once infatuated with a mistress called Veronica, and with his own hand murdered his lawful wife, a descendant of the counts of Croatia. However,his father, Herman---such is the justice of the powerful!---drowned his mistress in a stream. Frederick stole wives from their husbands at random, abducted bevies of girls to the palace, treated his subjects like slaves, robbed churches of their property, and procured forgers, poisoners, soothsayers, and necromancers from all parts. In the year of Jubilee (1450), when he was ninety, he went to Rome to obtain indulgences but showed no improvement upon his return. When he was asked what good Rome had done him, since he had relapsed into his old habits, he said, 'My shoemaker, too, after seeing Rome returned to sewing gaiters.'." (Europe c1400-1458: 124)

"Frederick's father was Herman II of Cilli (d.1435), the ban of Slovenia and father-in-law of Emperor Sigismund. The unfortunate Veronica survived her rival by seven years only to be accused of witchcraft by Herman and drowned in 1429. Herman's action against Veronica was intended to stave off a full scale feud between the Cilli and Frankopan families. . . ." (Europe c1400-1458: 124) 

2) Unknown mistress.

Marguerite of Valois, Queen of Navarre----

Margaret of Valois
Queen of Navarre
@Google

Marguerite de Valois

(1553-1615)
Queen of Navarre

Queen of France

Daughter of Henri II de France & Marie de' Medici.

Wife of Henri IV de France.

Henri & Marguerite's married life and relationship.
"His aim was to be king of France. At nineteen, his father having died, Henry became King of Navarre, but that was only a teasing taste of royalty. When he went to Paris to marry Marguerite of Valois, he was received as next only to the Duke of Anjou and the Duke of Alencon in line for the throne. When massacre followed on marriage, he kept and saved his head by timely apostasy. His bride, 'Margot,' was the most fascinating and accommodating woman in France. No one questioned her beauty; Ronsard sang it; Brantome intoned ecstasies about her fine cosmetic skin, her waving hair or varied wigs, her eyes darting humor, anger, or deviltry, her figure shapely as a courtesan's and stately as a queen's, her lively feet leading the dance of the court, her contagion of vivacity in an age of strife and gloom, all these magnets drew a dozen lovers to her lair, and gossip credited her with tactful, even incestuous, capitulations. Henry could hardly complain, having himself a roving eye; but when Margot, who had married him against her will, resumed her fluctuations after a brief obeisance to monogamy, he began to wonder who would be the father of his children. He took a mistress; he fell ill; Margot generously nursed him, though she ascribed his disorder to 'excesses with women.' But soon their mutual suspicion so estranged them that she wrote, 'Nous ne conuchions plus, ni ne parlions plus ensemble.' (We neither slept not spoke with each other any more)." (The Age of Reason Begins: 356)

Abandoned the king to take lovers -- 1585.
"La reine Margot had gained notoriety---for her sexual relationships, for her involvement in various conspiracies and plots, for her vivid Memoirs. As the king of Navarre's queen consort she was a 'failure'; she not only failed to produce the requisite heir for her husband, she abandoned him in 1585, took a lover, or series of lovers, and involved herself with the Guise party. . . ." (The Monstrous Regiment of Women: 215)

Confirmed vs. rumoured lovers.
"The Queen of France was full of passion. Her husband, who was focused more on literature, politics, and own frustrations wasn't very attractive for her. She was said to have had many romances and affairs, but some of these stories were only gossip. Her confirmed lovers were: Joseph Boniface de La Mole, a nobleman from Marseilles, Louis de Bussy d'Amboise, a nobleman of the court of Henry III, Jacques de Harlay, a nobleman and Grand Squire of Margaret’s youngest brother– Francis Duke of Anjou." (Ancient Origins)

La Reine Margot's Innumerable lovers.
"Margaret of Valois had innumerable lovers, especially her brothers, the King, Henry III, and the Duke of Alencon, a candidate for the hand of Elizabeth of England. Henry III, who survived her, was not less jealous of her; was more husband than her real husband, the spiritual and patient King of Navarre, afterwards Henry IV. Margaret's lover, for the time being, was the famous duellist, Bussy of Amboise, of whom the king's favorite du Guast was at once accuser, or informer and persecutor. . . ." (Bothwell::92)

Mistress to her three brothers.
" . . . At the age of 15, Margot became the mistress of her three brothers Charles [Charles IX], Henri [Henri III] and François-Hercule. ]Duc d'Alencon]. If some historians refuse to believe it, the author of the "Satirical Divorce" denounces it as well as Agrippa d'Aubigné in "The Tragiques".'. . . ." (l'Envers l'Histoire)

Indiscreet adulterer vs. secret sinner.
" . . . As another historian has remarked with some bemusement, Marguerite and Navarre [Henri IV] 'did not enjoy together what each found pleasurable and rewarding in different company.' Ultimately they both had reputations for the pursuit of sexual pleasure but not with each other. This reputation defamed Marguerite and proclaimed Navarre's virility. . . According to the standards of the day, Navarre, like other noblemen, was allowed, perhaps even encouraged, to vaunt his female conquests. Marguerite, on the other hand, could pursue such relationships only if she was completely discreet and no hint of scandal touched her It is telling that, according to her memoirs, her conduct was blameless; rather she suffered from her brother's repeated attempts to sully her reputation. The case of Marguerite suggests an evolving standard of sexual behavior toward greater tolerance of the discreet affairs of elite women. This sense is corroborated by memoirs, novels, and even confessors' manuals, which allowed married women 'secret sins' if their husbands' honor remained protected. But a queen's behavior had to be above suspicion to guarantee the legitimacy of her children, and Marguerite had not yet produced an heir." (Queens and Mistresses of Renaissance France: 288)

Sharing bed with young virile nobodies.
" . . . Where once only noble gentlemen shared her bed, now she had her way with a series of virile young nobodies, among them the son of a local copper-smith, a shepherd, a strolling musician, and a son of a carpenter. The ex-queen took good care of her men, giving them positions and titles, and even sometimes arranging advantageous marriages for them." (A Treasury of Royal Scandal: 12)

Friends sharing lovers.
"In 1574, as Charles IX lay on his deathbed, a plot by the Politiques was discovered. The royal conspirators escaped conviction, but La Mole and his friend Annibal de Coconnas were captured, tortured and finally decapitated. (Within historical records, these two men were rumoured to be lovers of Marguerite and her friend Henriette de Cleves, duchess de Nevers; the minor historical figures of La Mole, Coconnas and Henriette have been immortalized by Dumas' novel.). . . ." (La Reine Margot: 9)

A lascivious queen.
"Apropos of this, it was always said of her that she was 'lascivious'---Joseph Boniface de La Mole, Jacques de Harlay, Seigneur de Chanvallon, and Bussy d'Amboise are among those listed by historians among her lovers at this time. (The latter was also the boyfriend of her brother Henri.). . . ." (Into a Paris Quartier:  64)

She kept lovers in different towns.
"Marguerite played an active role in politics on at least one occasion, when she was sent to negotiate with the rebellious Netherlands, and was successful in persuading them to invite her youngest brother the Duc d'Alencon, a moderate Catholic, as governor, However, her live was rendered unproductive by the almost complete mutual indifference between herself and her husband, complicated by her staunch Catholicism and the Protestantism of her husband's kingdom of Navarre; he kept a series of mistresses, and she lived apart from him with a series of lovers, usually in different towns, so she was less part of the political and diplomatic life of Navarre than her abilities and education might have seemed to justify. Furthermore, the mutual dislike between herself and her other brother Henri III ensured that he did not make the kind of use of her that contemporary Hapsburgs were making of their female relatives. (Women Latin Poets: 184)

A career of prostitution.
"It would be difficult to review all the misdemeanors of Queen Marguerite, from the time of her precocious entrance upon a career of Prostitution at the age of eleven years, when 'd'Entragues and Charins (for each believed that he was the first to obtain that glory) had the first fruits of her warmth, as Henri IV himself says, in the 'Divorce Satyrique. We have already reported elsewhere, with none too great a confidence, the odious rumors which were current during the reign of Charles IX on the subject of the incestuous relations of Queen Margot with her three brothers; we shall not speak here of her first lovers, not of Colonel Martigues, who loved her so distractedly that he always carried with him, even into the most dangerous sieges and skirmishes, an embroidered scarf and a little dog which she had given him as souvenirs; nor of the Duke of Guise, who 'thought to come, through his immodest kisses, at something more;' nor of La Mole, who was decapitated in the Place de Greve, along with Coconnas, whose heart and certain relics still more strange were preserved in golden boxes; not of Saint-Luc, whose 'frequent and nocturnal consolations she received as she wept for her former lover;' nor of Bussy, who, however brave he may have been, had the reputation of being 'none too brave with the ladies, on account of a certain colic which ordinarily took him at midnight.' The Divorce Satyrique goes on to cite, among those who obtained the favors of the Princess, the Duke of Mayence, 'good companion, bit and fat, and as voluptuous as she'' the Viscount of Turenne, whom she soon gave his conge, 'finding his figure disproportionate in a certain place;' Lebole, who in an access of jealousy ate the feathers off his hat; Clermont d'Amboise, who caresses her 'only in her petticoat at the door of her bedroom,' while the King of Navarre, of an evening, was gaming or promenading with his officers in the great hall; the 'old ruffian' (vieux rufien) of a Pibrac 'who had been appointed love's chancellor;' and finally, the Seigneur Harlay de Champvalon, who had himself carried to the Louvre in a wooden box in order to be able to enter his mistress' closet at night."  (History of Prostitution Among all the Peoples of the World: 391)

La Reine Margot's affairs in the Chateau de Carlat.
" . . . The Queen of Navarre, if we are to believe the Divorce Satyrique, suffered greatly from want in the Chateau de Carlat, 'where she was for long, not only without dais or litter, but also without chemises for every day.' She consoled herself by yielding to every whim of temperament in this chateau, 'which was more like a den of thieves than the dwelling of a Princess, maid, wife, and sister of the King.' She could not renew as often as she like, the personnel of her gallantries, and she found herself circumscribed in her choice of lovers. In the absence of the Seigneur of Duras, 'whom she had sent to the King of Spain in quest of money,' she cast eyes successively on Choisnin, one of the musicians of her suite, then on her cook, then on Saint-Vincent, her maitre d'hotel, then on Aubiac, 'the best groomed of her domestics, whom she brought from the stables to the bedrooms.' This Aubiac had been greatly taken with her upon seeing her for the first time seven or eight years before. 'I would have slept with her then,' he exclaimed loudly, looking upon her eyes inflamed with love, 'even under pain of being hanged a short while afterwards!' In speaking thus, he was casting his own horoscope; for, after having been the favorite of this Princess (although he was but a 'churlish squire, red haired and more speckled than a trout, with a nose of scarlet tint, a most unpromising one for any mirror, but still was one day found in the bed with a daughter of France, as he was at Carlat by Madame de Marze, who, from rising too early, made this fine discovery)---after being the favorite of the Princess, he was made a prisoner in the Chateau of Ivry, where the latter had taken refuge upon her flight from Carlat. The King of France, irritated against his sister, had ordered the Marquis of Canillac to take charge of her, for Marguerite, a number of years since had embraced the League, in order to avenge herself at once on her brother and her husband. The Queen was then removed to the Chateau of Usson, in Auvergne, where the Marquis of Canillac was charged with keep her a prisoner, while her latest lover, the unfortunate Aubiac, was led away to Aiguesperse, there to be judged. He was condemned, as a Leaguer, to be handled, and he went to his fate kissing a 'sleeve of blue satin which was all that remained to him of the benefits of his lady.' But already Marguerite had given him a successor, for the Marquis of Canillac had permitted himself to be seduced by his prisoner. He became, however, unprepossessing he may have been, 'as well gotten up and pretty as a young village swain.' The Queen did not love him, but she pretended to love him, and he, jealous of all rivals whom he might suspect, neglected the service of the King for that of his enchantress. The latter managed so well her ruses and her artifices, that she soon conceived a pretext to disembarrass herself of her amorous jailor, seizing the chateau from his hands while he was absent. Upon his return, the Marquis of Canillac found the gates closed, and Marguerite informed him that she had no further need of a governor. He left Usson with a sigh and became a laughing stock at the court of Henri III, who, however, pardoned him for having so poorly fulfilled his mission, in view of the discomfiture which he had undergone. The only vengeance the King took was to remark to Canillac: 'Why did you not ask permission of Queen Margot to become her perfumer?'" (History of prostitution: 395)

Still more affairs of Marguerite's.
"She was still, at this period, under the spell of a new love, which she had formed following the absence of Pominy. It may be presumed that she herself had hastened the departure of this Pominy, for whom she no longer cared, but who came back later to claim his rights with so much brutality that she was obliged to chastise him, remarking that the wicked fellow was ruining all her servants. Pominy's first successor was a little 'valet of Provence,' named Julien Date, whom she had made a noble 'with six ells of cloth,' under the name of Saint-Julien. She had left him at Usson, when she decided to repair to court after twenty-four years of voluntary exile. It was in the month of August , 1605, that she suddenly arrived at Paris and took up her quarters at the Hotel de Sens, near the Arsenal. . .  'It was thus,' according to the Divorce Satyrique, that 'a fourrier, well instructed, marked her hostelry.' But she lodged there only a few days, when, to silence all the rumors which her sudden return had given rise to, by awakening, as Pierre de l'Estoile, says, the 'curious minds,' she went to pass six weeks at the Chateau de Madrid, in the Bois de Boulogne. . . ." (History of prostitution: 406)

" . . . Queen Marguerite, in taking up her residence at Paris, probably had conceived the plan of changing her life and renouncing gallantry; 'but,' says the impitiable author of Divorce Satyrique, 'not being able to do without a male any longer, lamenting the time lost and not desiring to remain idle,' she sent to Usson for this Date or Saint-Julien, 'so many times sought after during her periods of pleasure.' Saint-Julien at once set forth and came to resume the post of Mignon which he had formerly occupied at the Queen's side. The latter whose passion for this young man was carried to the point of madness,gave Pominy his conge and held at a distance all those of her officers with whom she had contracted more or less intimate relations. One of these named Vermond, aged eighteen years, conceived such a jealousy against the favorite that he slew him with a pistol bullet at the door of the Queen's carriage. The assassin was arrested; he was searched, and there were found, according to the Journal of De l'Estoile, 'three ciphers upon him: one for life, another for love and the other for silver. He was tried upon the spot, for the Queen had sworn 'not to ear or drink until justice had been done him.' When he was led to the bloody body of his victim, Marguerite, all in tears was present by her own desire. 'Ah! How happy I am that he is dead!' he cried, in looking at the corpse; 'if he were not, I would kill him now!'---Kill him! Kill him! the wicked fellow!' interrupted the desolated Queen. 'Hold him! hold him! here are my garters: strangle him!' The following day, Vermond, condemned to be beheaded in from of the Hotel de Sens, walked gaily to the scene of punishment, remarking that he did not mind dying, since his rival was dead." (History of prostitution: 406)

A great temple in memory of her lovers.
"Immediately after this execution, Queen Marguerite abandoned the Hotel de Sens, which reminded her too much of her lost mignon. She purchased in the Faubourg Saint-Germain, a great hotel, situated on the banks of the river, near the Tower of Nesle and at the entrance of the Pre-aux-Cleres. She rebuilt the place at great expense and had the apartments painted and decorated, the gardens designed and set out in such a manner as to create an Ile de Cythere, where Venus Uranios might establish her temple and her cult. There were to be seen here nothing but emblems and devices of love, ciphers, arms and portraits of her new and ancient lover; for, by singular faculty of her licentious imagination, she was enabled so well to mingle memory with material fact that she might incessantly call to the aid of her pleasures the emotions and joys of another day; as though all the gallants she had had in the course of her life were there and able to satisfy her, without being able to content her ever. Thus, Julien Date still preserved his rights and privileges even though he were dead, and even though Bajaumont had taken his active place. . . ." (History of Prostitution: 408)

" . . . Following is the manner in which the Divorce Satyrique depicts for us the successor of Date: 'This Baujemont (or rather, Bajaumont, of the house of Duras), having become the new idol in the temple of this defamed creature, the golden calf of her sacrifices and the most perfect dunce who ever came to her court, had been introduced by Madame d'Anglure, instructed by Madame Roland, civilized by Lemayne (or Le Moine), and thereafter cured of two buboes by Penna, the physician, and thereafter slapped by Delin (or de Loue), being now in possession of that pernicious fortune without which poverty would now be saffroning the rest of his body like his beard.' She loved Bajaumont, her bec jaune, as she had loved Date, Pominy, Aubiac and La Mole. But she was to lose also, and was soon consoled in the same fashion. The Sire de Loue took the sword against the favorite and endeavoured to slay him in church, but being prevented, was sent a prisoner t the For-l'Eveque and had to undergo a trial in which the Queen took the part of civil pleader. But Bajaumont was so frightened that he fell ill and contracted a jaundice from which he never completely recovered. Marguerite did not quit the bedside of her bec jaune; the King came there to interview her, and he found her in so sorry a plight, that, upon leaving the chamber, he remarked to the Queen's maids 'that they should all pray God for the convalescence of the said Bajaumont, for if he should happen to die, ventre-saint gris!' cried the King with gaiety, 'it would cost me plenty since I should have to buy a brand new house in place of this one, where she would not want to live any more.' . . . Bajaumont did not die, and Marguerite's tenderness for him only became the madder and the more eccentric; since she had had for long two 'loups' (malign ulcers) on her legs, she demanded that Bajaumont put two cauteries on his arms, in order that they might have nothing with which to reproach the other." (History of prostitution: 409)

Marguerite's physical appearance & personal qualities.
"Queen Marguerite herself is described by historians and novelists as a singularly attractive woman, both physically and mentally. Of a little above the average height, her figure was well-rounded and graceful, her carriage dignified and commanding. One writer thus describes her: 'Her eyes were full, black, and sparkling; she had bright, chestnut coloured hair, and complexion fresh and blooming. Her skin was delicately white, and her neck admirably well formed; and this so generally admired beauty, the fashion of dress, in her time, admitted of being fully displayed.' To her personal charms were added a ready wit and polished manners. Her thoughts, whether spoken or written, were always clearly and gracefully expressed. In her retirement, at the close of her life, she often amused herself by writing verses which she set to music and afterwards sang, accompanying herself upon the lute, which she performed upon skillfully" (Memoirs and Historical Chronicles of the Courts of Europe)

Henry I of Lorraine
3rd Duke of Guise

1. Henri I de Lorraine, 3rd Duc de Guise (1550-1588)

Lover in 1570.

French aristocrat

Duke of Guise 1563

Prince of Joinville

Count of Eu

Grand Master of France 1563

Lieutenant General of France.

Son of: Francoise de Lorraine, 2nd Duc de Guise & Anna d'Este.

Husband of: Katharina von Kleve.

Guise's physical appearance & personal qualities.

"The high catholic faction was headed by the famous duke Henri of Guise, the most popular man of the day, who was supported by the all-powerful Felipe of Spain. To this faction were attached all the ecclesiastics, most of the young nobility, and a large number of the titled dames. It would be impossible to conceive of a finer person for a popular leader than the young duke. He was 6 feet 3 inches high, and proportionally stout. His chest was broad and deep; his limbs muscular and long; his head small; his forehead broad and high; his eyes large and brilliant; his eyebrows well defined; and his nose of the Roman type. He wore his moustaches long, and his beard pointed like that of our own king Charles I. He dressed with great simplicity and in admirable taste. His manners were dignified; his liberality princely; his knowledge of character extraordinary; and, probably, there never existed a man, more graceful and noble in bearing, more courteous and aristocratic, more winning and commanding." (The Political, Social, and Literary History of France: 164)

The only man Marguerite truly loved.

"Of all the men she reputedly took as lovers, there was only one---also named Henri like her father and husband---whom she truly loved. Henri, son of the Duke of Guise, had feelings for Margot that were not so clear, however. He most certainly was attracted to her beauty and was initially drawn to the woman's energy as an independent free spirit who one day would be queen, but most likely he feared her as well. When Queen Catherine insisted that no one from the House of Guise would ever marry her daughter and control France, upon learning of Margot's tryst with Henri de Guise, she and her husband dragged Margot from her bed and beat her viciously more than once, ripping her night clothes and pulling out chunks of her hair. Margot took these beatings with clenched teeth and silence, while Henri quickly moved on to another woman. Queen Catherine had her own reputation, which instilled fear in her subjects, and he wouldn't defy her. She respected her husband the king, but she wielded the power. Margot's rage towards Henri following his rejection of her didn't spare her mother, either, and she was relentless in stalking and threatening Henri de Guise when she wasn't attempting to woo him back to her. Margot was cursed to love him obsessively, although Henri continued to reject her, as he had found another woman whom he knew was better suited to him." (The Truthseekers)

"During those times, Margaret was in what was probably her first romantic affair - with Henry of Guise, the son of the Duke of Guise. According to historical resources, Catherine discovered their relationship when she saw her daughter in bed with him. The lovers were punished by the queen and Henry was sent out of the court." (Ancient Origins)

" . . . When she was 18, Margot fell madly in love with her cousin Henri de Guise, 20 years old. Endowed with a fiery temperament, they did not conceal their love in the slightest, and they were easily caught in each other's arms in a garden, under a staircase, in the corridors of the Louvre. Their intimacy was so public that some thought they had married secretly. Besides, the princess only wanted to marry him but Catherine and Charles IX. IX. Did not leave him the choice and poor Marguerite had to marry Henry of Navarre. On the wedding day, when she answers "yes," Margot looks to the Duke of Guise and then to her brothers, desperate. Finally, Charles IX will have to force his sister to tilt his head with a sudden hand. This is not why the new queen of Navarre will become the wife of Henry during their first night! . . ." (Ancient Origins)

The young Duke of Guise offered himself as a lover.

"Margaret, while acting as agent for her brother, engaged in some negotiations on her own account; the young Duke of Guise offered himself as a lover, and was secretly accepted. He was not sufficiently cautious in concealing his success; intelligence of the intrigue reached her brother, Henry of Anjou, who according t the libels of the time, acted rather as 'an outraged lover than a deceived brother.'. . . . (Introduction, Margaret of Valois, Queen of Henry IV. . .:16)

A slander to Marguerite's reputation.

"The most iniquitous device consequently was reported to, to put an end to the liaison between Marguerite and the duc de Guise. The first murmurs of the abominable calumny invented to terrify the princess into submission, and from which the fame of Marguerite never recovered, were traced to du Guast, the favourite of the duc d'Anjou. It was whispered that the duc de Guise had long been the favored of the princess; and that all praise was due him for the honorable constancy of his attachment to the sister of his sovereign, when Marguerite had forgotten her royal rank to become his paramour---a calumny rendered only too plausible by the general levity of demeanour in which the princess indulged. Certain infamous allusions were, moreover, added respecting Marguerite's conduct when at Bayonne with two officers of the king's bodyguard, M.M. d'Antragues and de Charny. The extreme beauty of the princess, her levity of manner, and freedom of speech, combined to give an appearance of truth to these assertions; especially when the duc d'Anjou, with much seeming reluctance and shame, avowed his belief of the slander, and deplored the profligacy of his mother's court. In examining the conduct of Marguerite at this period, justice must be done to the memory even of her whom subsequent generations have unsparingly branded with the epithets of 'frail and impure.' The charges relative to Charny, d'Antragues, and the duc de Guise are to be found on record only in the scandalous libels of the day emanating from the hatred felt towards the race of Valois, and the bitterness engendered by religious controversy. Whatever might have been Marguerite's subsequent derelictions from virtue after her unhappy marriage, it is to be believed that the princess at the age of seventeen, when in the camp of St. Jean d'Angely, was not in reality depraved, as these publications affirmed. Not one contemporary author of repute substantiates the accusations on his own knowledge of events; but quotes from these libelous pamphlets, which were launched alone for party purposes; and in which not only is Marguerite's reputation sacrificed, but that also of many other personages of acknowledged virtue and worth." (Henry III, King of France and Poland: His Court and Times: 39)

Imprisoned for love.
"Unhappy in her marriage to the King of Navarre, Margaret continued her affair with Henri de Guise and many others. Embarrassed at her daughter’s behavior, Catherine, through her son, the King, ordered Margaret’s kidnapping and imprisonment in the south of France, where she remained for 17 years. With his mother’s whisper always in his ear, Henri withdrew Margaret’s inheritance and had Margaret’s lover, Henri de Guise, and his family murdered at the Chateau de Blois. . . ." (Karl Bovee's Empowered Women in History)

Charles de Balsac d'Entragues

2. Charles de Balsac d'Entragues (1547-1599)

Lover in 1570s.

Seigneur de Dunes
Comte de Graville.

Son of: Guillaume de Balsac, Seigneur d'Entragues & Louise de Crevant d'Humireres.

Charles de Balzac d'Entragues, known as 'le Bel Entragues,' was a lover of Margot in the mid 1570s. (lesderniersvalois.com).

Entraguet's physical appearance & personal qualities.
"Guise sensed Marguerite's uncertainty, tried to win her to his cause, tried to exploit her. But he did not deign to be his own agent, to become her lover at last. Ho loosed upon her instead one of his followers, an adventurer called Balzac d'Entragues, who came of a family of semi-ruffians---a bully and a rake, with a big nose, a crop of black hair, cold eyes, and an insolent beard. His elder brother had made himself wealthy by marrying Marie Touchet, Charles's old mistress, gobbling up both the bastard son and the family fortune. Twenty-five years later he was to sell his daughter to Navarre, then Henry IV of France. At this time it was the younger d'Entragues who appealed to the ladies of the Court. They called him le bel Entraguet, sought his favour, and filled his pockets with gold. His very coarseness pleased Marguerite. Perhaps she thought she could repay Guise for his insults by giving herself to his hireling." (Rival, 2004, pp. 77-78)

Intrigue by Marguerite's brother-king.
"Once Henry III became king, Marguerite suffered the consequence of her disloyalty. Marguerite, Navarre, and Francis were all confined to the Louvre. Henry was determined to punish Marguerite by allying Francis against him and chose to retaliate by at taking her reputation. He linked her with Charles de Balzac, baron d'Entragues, and reported this relationship to Catherine (another example of siblings telling tales to their mother), and tried to provoke her husband's jealousy. Marguerite insisted that her brother manufactured this relationship to discredit her. And both he and her mother eventually apologized to her for the calumny against her. Such episodes amply demonstrate the siblings' personal as well as political antagonism." (Queens and Mistresses of Renaissance France: 286)

Joseph de Boniface
Sieur de la Mole
@Wikimedia

3. Joseph de Boniface
Sieur de la Mole
(1526-1574)
Lover in 1574.

French aristocrat

Son of: Jacques Boniface, Seigneur de la Mole et de Colobrieres & Marguerite de Ponteves.

Joseph de Boniface, S. de La Mole, was the notorious lover of Marguerite de Valois, executed with the Savoyard comte de Coconas in 1574. He was a Catholic gentleman of Provence but client of the duc d'Alencon. . . ." (Description de Tous Les Provinces de France: 117)

"La Môle was the Provençal lover of Marguerite de Valois, among others, during the early part of her marriage to Henry of Navarre, the future king of France." (Wikipedia)

" . . . the conspiracy to prevent the return of the King of Poland, afterward Henri III, to France in the eventuality of the death of Charles, of which conspiracy the youngest royal brother, the Duc d'Alencon, was the head, there were two gentlemen, Joseph de Boniface, Sieur de la Mole, who was Queen Marguerite's lover, and the Comte de Coconas, an Italian, who was loved by the Duchesse de Nevers. The story of the trial and execution of these two, and even the ghastly incident of the preservation of the severed head of the lover, are also founded on facts." (Paris from the Earliest Period to the Present Day: 92)

" . . . Desperate for satisfaction, Queen Margot took on the first of her many doomed lovers not long after she was married. His name was Joseph de Boniface de la Molle and her family hated him. Accused of conspiracy against King Charles IX, La Molle was hideously tortured. . . ." (A Treasury of Royal Scandals: 12)

Francois d'Epinay
@Wikipedia

4. Francois d'Epinay, Seigneur de Saint-Luc (1554-1597)
Lover in 1574.

"Francois d'Epinay, Seigneur de Saint-Luc, who bears the name of one of the four authors of the Gospels, writes under the pseudonym of the Evangelist. He was one of Henry III's favorites, an intimate of Quelus, Saint-Megrin, and Saint-Sulpice, and one of the most infamous men of the age. He had succeeded La Mole in Marguerite de Valois's affections. La Mole had been executed in 1574 for conspiring against the King. Saint-Luc was only a passing fancy for Marguerite. She soon fell in love with Bussy d'Amboise. But Saint-Luc's love endured. He sometimes came from his government post at Brouage to visit Nerac 'disguised and incognito.' The two poems in which he complains that Madame is driving him to suicide, as well as a poem pasted in the album and signed with his surname, belong perhaps to that period." (Aspects of the Renaissance: 98)

Louis de Clermont
@Wikipedia

5. Louis de Clermont (1549-1579)
Lover in 1575.
Seigneur de Bussy d'Amboise.
French royal courtier & general

When affair started?.

"The year 1575 is a turning point in Bussy's life. He becomes the lover of Marguerite de Valois, wife of the future Henry IV and sister of King Henry III." (Thierry & Helene Bianco)

" . . . Marguerite likely began a sexual relationship with Bussy d'Amboise by the spring of 1575, when their relationship was widely rumored. (Both her most sympathetic and her most critical biographers agree.) The rumors were lent credence when Navarre's men united with the king's men to attack him. If Marguerite neither feared her husband nor was much concerned with honor, it may have been because she saw her status as higher than his; and Bussy d'Amboise had high enough status to be an acceptable lover of a royal princess. Navarre was likely more seriously aggrieved that Marguerite now served her brother Francis's interests rather than his. She had retaliated for Navarre's personal and political disloyalty. In this family sage, any personal relationship inevitably had political ramifications." (Queens and Mistresses of Renaissance France: 287)

" . . . The man, Bussy d'Amboise, later was rumored as Queen Margot's lover, and /or that of Madame de Sauve---and that of Margot's brother Henri, too. . . ." (Into a Paris Quartier: 167)

A very handsome man, and a perfect gentleman.
"Louis de Clermont, better known under the name of Bussy d'Amboise, and, according to his cousin Brantoine, ranking among the great generals of the 16th century, was a very handsome man, and a perfect gentleman. It was long since any man had made more glorious conquests. Kings and princes sought his friendship; queens and princesses lavished on him their sweetest smiles. Bussy had succeeded La Mote in the affections of Marguerite de Navarre. The good queen, whose tender heart needed consolation after the death of the favorite whose history we have written, had been guilty of so many follies for the brave and handsome Bussy d'Amboise, that even Henri, her husband, had been moved by them,---he, who was usually insensible to these sorts of things; and the Duc Francois would never have forgiven Bussy for obtaining his sister's love, if this love had not won over Bussy to his interests. Here again, the duke sacrificed his love to that hidden and irresolute ambition, which, during the whole course of his existence, was to bring him so many sorrows, and bear so little fruit.

"But Bussy, in the midst of all his successes of war, ambition, and gallantry, had maintained his soul inaccessible to every human weakness, and he who had never known fear, had never known love,---never, at least, until the period we have now reached. This heart of an emperor that beat his breast was virginal and pure as the diamond which the lapidary's hand has not et touched, and which is just leaving the mine where it has lain to be perfected by the rays of the sun. Thus, there was no room in that heart for the details of thought which would have made Bussy a real emperor. He thought himself worthy of a crown, and was better than the crown which served him as a comparison." (Romances, Vol 11: 53)

Brave as a lion.
  "Louis de Clermont, we may mention, was not only brave as a lion but most blood-thirsty by nature. He was celebrated as having been one of the foremost in slaughtering the Huguenots at the time of the Massacre of Saint-Bartholomew." (The Amours of Henri of Navarre and of Marguerite de Valois: 7)

"Henry's prime favourite, the Marquis du Guast, had incurred the bitter hatred of the Queen of Navarre, by spreading, during her stay in Poitou, the most defamatory reports relative to her intimacy with Bussy d'Amboise, a minion of her younger brother. . . He made a parade of his enmity for the Duke of Anjou and his favourite, Bussy d'Amboise; and had spoken so openly of the gallantries of Marguerite with the latter as to draw down upon that shameless woman the reprimands of her mother, brother, and husband. Bussy, however, pertinaciously continuing his attentions to the young queen, some cavaliers in the suite of Henry of Bearn plotted his assassination. . . ." (Royal Favourites, 1: 253)

"When Marguerite recruited Louis de Clermont, lord of Bussy d'Amboise, away from Henry's circle to Francis's cause, the king again condemned their relationship as inappropriate. Bussy d'Amboise was a brilliant, dangerous figure. With great military successes to his credit, he was much admired by his contemporaries. Brantome proclaimed him as the nonpareil of his century. That such an admired figure now numbered among Francis's gentlemen made him a threat to Henry, who was trying to drive his brother's supporters from court. Unlike some linked to Marguerite, this relationship seems credible. She expressed admiration for him: 'He was born to be the terror of his enemies, the glory of his masters, and the hope of his friends.' The king, with Guast's connivance, attempted to expose her relationship with Bussy d'Amboise with such glaring evidence that Navarre would be forced to repudiate her. But Navarre was either not perturbed or not persuaded of her infidelity. And Marguerite praised her husband's 'amiable disposition.' Catherine commented on the situation with unusual moderation: 'My daughter is unfortunately born in such a century. In my younger days, we were allowed to converse freely with everyone. . . . Bussy d'Amboise is a person of quality. What grounds are there for such calumny?'" (Queens and Mistresses of Renaissance France: 287)

Personal & family background.
" . . . The military governor of Sainte-Menehould was Jacques de Clermont d'Amboise, baron de Bussy and Saxe-Fontaine, and father of the famous duellist and lover Bussy d'Amboise. (He was also the governor of Chalons, Vitry-le-Francois and Epernay.) Originally from Anjou, the Clermonts were relatively new to Champagne, but quickly became one of the leading families of the noblesse seconde, joining the Anglures, Lenoncourts, Choiseuls and Dintevilles, these last being relative newcomers like themselves." (Local Politics in the French Wars of Religion: 85)

Louis de Clermont's other lovers.
1) Charlotte de Sauve.

2) Francois de France, Duc d'Anjou.
3) Francoise de Maridor, Dame de Montsoreau (lover in 1579)

6. Jacques de Harlay (1552-1630)

Lover in 1580-1583.

French nobleman.

Marquis de Breval (by marriage)

Seigneur de Champvallon

Son of Louis II de Harlay, Seigneur de Champvallon & Louise de Carre, Dame de Saint-Quentin.

Husband of Catherine de La Marck Arenberg, Dame de Breval (1548-1585), mar 1582

Marguerite's illegitimate child with Champvallon?.

"We have made haste to arrive at the scandal which accompanied the departure of the Queen of Navarre, when she quitted Paris and the court, at the order of the King her brother, to return to Gascony, to the side of her husband. Henri III was very irritated against her, for the liaison of the Princess with Champvallon had borne its fruits and a child who, it was said, had resulted from this liaison, had disappeared immediately after its birth. Champvalon was prudently retired to Germany, when the pregnancy of Marguerite began to be suspected. It was reported that the adulterous infant had been smothered, cut into bits and hurled into a privy; but it was learned later that he had been reared under the name of Louis de Vaux by the concierge of the Hotel de Navarre, and that he was looked upon as being the son of a court-perfumer. However this may be, Henri III, having commanded his sister to depart, the latter regretfully obeyed and entered upon the journey on Monday, the 23rd of August 1583, with certain persons of her household. She arrived by evening at Palaiseau, to sleep there; but the King had caused her to be followed by sixty archers of his guard, and there captured. The Sieur de l'Archant, executing secret orders, 'came to seek her even in her bed, says Pierre de l'Estoile, 'and to take prisoners the lady of Duras and the damoiselle of Bethune, who were accused of incontinence and abortions.' The Seigneur of Lodon, gentleman of the Queen of Navarre, was arrested as well as the squire, the secretary, the physician and other officers of this Princess; they were led to Montargis, where the King himself interrogated them 'on the deportment of the said Queen, his sister, also upon the child which it was rumored she had had since her coming to the court.' But this interrogation and the inquiry which was the result of it brought nothing to light, and all those who were arrested were given their liberty. Marguerite was then free to continue her journey to Nerac, where her husband was. There were not longer any relations between the Queen and her husband, who lived together under the same roof as though they were already separated by a divorce. . . ." (History of prostitution among all the peoples of the world: 394)

"The Queen had certainly need to placate her husband at this period, since she had fallen desperately in love with Monsieur's grand equerry, Jacques de Harlay, Seigneur de Chanvallon (sic), one of the handsomest men of his time, and had acted with such singular indiscretion that her Majesty and M. de Chanvallon had been detected in a most compromising situation. After her gallant returned to his master to Paris, we find the enamoured princess writing to him. . . . " (The Last Loves of Henri of Navarre: 8)

" . . . The life which the imprudent Marguerite was leading rendered a scrutiny into her conduct peculiarly undesirable. The marquis de Chanvallon, who had been dismissed from the household of the duc d'Anjou for his indiscreet revelation of some trivial secret concerning his royal master to his friends in Paris, had been taken by Marguerite into her service, and resided with the queen in her hotel de la Couture Ste. Catherine. The familiarity of their intercourse soon excited public scandal: reports the most blasting to the fame of the queen of Navarre became current; until at length it was affirmed that during the preceding months of June or July queen Marguerite had given birth to a male child, of which Chanvallon was the father. This accusation is too strongly confirmed by proofs to admit of a doubt as to its accuracy; yet so lost was Marguerite to a sense of her degradation and the foul stain that she had inflicted on her illustrious name, that the orgies of the hotel Ste. Catherine continued with unabated profligacy. The letters written at this period by Marguerite and her paramour Chanvallon were preserved by some officious hand, and now remain a memorial against her in the archives of the Bibliotheque Imperiale. . . ." (Henry III King of France and Poland: 336)

"After an illness in 1582, Queen Margaret returned to the court of her brother, Henry III, in Paris. Her brother was soon scandalized by her reputation and behavior, and forced her to leave the court, even claiming that she had borne a bastard child by Jacques de Harlay. After long negotiations, she was allowed to return to her husband's court in Navarre, but she received an icy reception." (IPFS)

The love story of Marguerite & Champvallon.

"The signing of Fleix's Peace is at the origin of a gallant adventure that was to overthrow the life of Margaret and divide, once again, the royal family.

Among the young lords who accompany the Duke of Anjou, is a very attractive boy named Jacques du Harlay, lord of Champvallon, friend of Alençon that the Queen of Navarre, always on the lookout, immediately notice for his eyes warm and promising.

She is then thirty years old. Its already volcanic temperament is reinforced by the highly spicy Nérac cuisine. The sight of this handsome young man immediately set fire to all the good places, and she was embarrassed. Of a great beauty, literate, he has everything to please, he speaks to him of love ... Seeing his trouble, Champvallon knows how to be a gallant gentleman, and takes it on the spot ...

The next day, still tottering, she wrote to her friend, the Duchess of Uzès, her impressions of the few moments spent with this new partner: " I had so much pleasure that it would be too long a thing to write to you. " So much pleasure that she is moved to the very depths of herself; so much fun that, for the first time in her life, she really falls in love ...

Transfigured, radiant, forgetting everything: Navarre, Turenne, etc. She lives in the adoration of this young elegant lord whom she calls, with some exaltation, "her beautiful sun", "her beautiful angel", "her beautiful miracle". This passion blinds her to the point where she loses the little reserve she has, and Champvallon must satisfy her on the stairs, the cupboards, the gardens, the fields, the barns ...

François, the duke of Anjou fell in love with '' la belle Fosseuse '', and Henri de Navarre fears that the girl, whose ambition he knows, can not be seduced by the heir apparent to the throne of France

And François - to forget Fosseuse - leaves Nérac, taking his faithful Champvallon ...!

Marguerite's passion for Chamvallon grows and all her letters end in the same way: " I live only in you, my beautiful everything, my only and perfect beauty. I kiss a million times this beautiful hair, my dear and sweet goods; I fuck a million times this beautiful and loving mouth. ' "

After the departure of the Duke of Anjou, Henry of Navarre saw a new honeymoon with the beautiful Fosseuse he almost lost. It is then that a very laudable idea germinates in the mind of this small ambitious: she thinks that if she has a son of Navarre, it will repudiate Marguerite, to marry her, she ... Evenings during she works conscientiously for this purpose and, one morning, can announce to the Béarnais that she is pregnant with her good care." (Il Etait Une Fois . . . Le Feminin)

" . . .  But her return to Paris did allow Marguerite to renew her relationship with Champvallon in December 1582. (Her fourteen letters to him date from their eighteen-month separation.) Marguerite was remarkably indiscreet about her sentiments for Champvallon, and she made it entirely too obvious that she considered him the love of her life. According to her lyrical letters, he embedded the Platonic ideas of goodness, truth, and beauty. She described her relationship with him as analogous to that of the Italian humanist Petrarch for the idealized Laura. . . ." (Queens and Mistresses of Renaissance France: 296)

7. Jean de Larte de Galart (1556-1586).

Lover in 1585.

Seigneur d'Aubiac

Son of: Antoine de Lard de Galard, seigneur d'Aubiac & Renee de Coustin de Bouzolles.

" . . . After Marguerite had been expelled from Agen by the inhabitants, Catherine offered her asylum at Ibois, but she preferred to go to Carlat, a fortress deemed impregnable, where she remained until 13 October 1586. By now everyone knew that she had taken a lover in the person of a petty nobleman, the seigneur d'Aubiac. It was even rumoured that she had borne him a child. . . ." (Catherine de' Medici: 254)

". . . Aubiac, a squire attached to Marguerite's household since 1584, is described as unattractive and undeserving of 'finding himself in the bed of a daughter of France.' . . According to the Tuscan ambassador, he was 'noble, young, handsome, but audacious and indiscreet' and Marguerite had borne a child by him. . . ." (Queens & Mistresses of Renaissance France: 410)

"Marguerite had, however, bestowed her friendship and confidence, if not her love, on a fourth person, a young man named d'Aubiac, who, as we have mentioned, had been given the command of one of the companies of men-at-arms which she had organised at Agen, and with whose assistance she had secured possession of the town. Who this person really was is a matter of dispute. According to one account, he was a certain Jean de Larte de Galart, second son of Antoine de Galart, Seigneur d'Aubiac; while M. de Saint-Poncy asserts that he was a son of Begot de Roquemaurel, Seigneur d'Aubiat, a member of one of the oldest and most illustrious families of Auvergne, and a relative of the Duc d'Albany, uncle of Catherine de' Medici. There is a similar difference of opinion as to his personal appearance; for, whereas the Divorce satyrique describes him as having 'red hair, freckled skin, and a rubicund nose,' the Tuscan Ambassador, Cavriana, speaks of him as 'young and handsome,' though audacious and indiscreet. Whatever his social position and appearance may have been, he seems to have fallen violently in love with the Queen of Navarre. . . ."(Queen Margot: Wife of Henry of Navarre: 327)

A dear price to pay for illicit love.

" . . . Margot moved to the French town of Agen. Seeing the glamorous queen for the first time, a young officer by the name of Aubiac was entranced. . . When the town of Agen was ransacked by the king's forces, Aubiac helped Margot escape. At some point they became lovers, for which he would pay dearly. After Aubiac was captured, Henri III announced that the Queen Mother had begged him to have Margot's lover 'hung in the presence of this miserable woman, in the courtyard of the Castle of Usson, so that plenty of people may see him'. The unfortunate lover was hung, upside down. Before he had even ceased breathing, Aubiac was cut down, tossed into a grave and buried alive." (A Treasury of Royal Scandals: 12)

8. Claude-Francois de Pominy (1570-1633)

Lover in 1595.

Seigneur de Greze

Seigneur de Bastide

Son of Antoine Francois, a boilermaker from the city of Puy & Antoinette Tricquade.

Husband of Michelette de Faugieres (1581-1602), mar 1601.

"Around Usson, however, the Protestants, Catholics, and Catholics were massacring each other with the best of heart. While in the distance flaming cities and villages, Queen Margot filled her apartments with tapestries and hangings, surrounded herself with singers, musicians, scholars, and scholars; Honoré d'Urfe, Brantome, Joseph Scaliger, Jean Beaudoin, Francois Maynard. She composed verses, she passed from one lover to another. She had for a long time favorite Claude François de Pominy, native of Le Puy, future lord of Grèzes and La Bastide. Jealous of him to the point of having built raised beds for his ladies and damsels, in order to be able to verify itself conveniently at any hour of the day and the night if it was not hidden under it. Is that' she had a heart full of passions and generosity that everyone enjoyed around her. During his walks, he often removed a child temporarily from his mother, took him to a castle, filled him with caresses and sweets, and released him." (Geneanet)

"Marguerite de Valois has him come to Usson to teach the children of his chapel the song. She falls in love with him, chooses him as secretary, and ennobles him. In addition to the place of Pomeny, he obtained from the queen the creation at the cathedral of Puy of a prebend that brought him four hundred crowns a year." (Geneanet)

9. Gabriel Dat Saint-Julien (1586-1606)

Lover in 1605-1606.

Seigneur de Saint-Julien.

Son of a carpenter from Arles.

Husband of Jeanne Robert de Lignerac (1570-1607), mar 1604.

"Among the members of Marguerite's suite was a youth of some twenty summers, the son of one Date, a carpenter of Aries, who, as we have mentioned else-where, had, since entering her Majesty's service, blossomed into a Sieur de Saint-Julien. This Saint-Julien, if we are to believe the chroniclers of the time, was passionately beloved by his royal mistress, though perhaps, as a charitable biographer suggests, her affection for him may have been 'merely platonic and maternal.' However that may be, he stood on the very pinnacle of favour, and was regarded with envy and hatred by his less fortunate colleagues. One of these rivals, Vermont by name, either because he was jealous of the privileges which Saint-Julien enjoyed or, more probably, because he believed that the favourite had used his influence with the Queen to procure the disgrace of certain members of his family, suspected of having aided the Comte d'Auvergne's intrigues, swore to be avenged. Nor was his vow an idle one, for, on the morning of April 5, 1606, at the very moment when Saint-Julien was assisting Marguerite to alight from her coach, on her return from 
hearing Mass at the Celestines, he stepped forward, and, 
levelling a pistol, shot him dead." (Queen Margot, Wife of Henry of Navarre: 371)

"Marguerite's life in Paris was occasionally tinged by scandal. Her name was linked to several lovers --- all appreciably younger than her. The first was rumored to be Gabriel Dat Saint-Julien, and scandal followed immediately. He was assassinated by Vermont, the son of one of Marguerite's ladies-in-waiting. Vermont felt that Saint-Julien had supplanted his mother's (the former Mademoiselle de Thorigny) influence with Marguerite. The death, rumored to be yet another case of one lover attacking another, provided her critics with food for doggerel, but once again the grievance was more likely political rather than romantic. . . ." (Queens & Mistresses of Renaissance France: 308)

"Well, now, Marguerite of Valois lived in this townhouse, exiled by her husband king Henri IV of France, since their divorce in 1599. The ex-queen Margot... She spent 20 years in Auvergne in exile and the king allowed her to come back in Paris and let her this city house. But on this April day, she came back from the Mass in the Célestins (a neighbouring convent located between the Bastille and Le Marais district). Her carriage stopped behind the house door, proudly leading by her young lover. A teen... he was 18, she just turned 52! His name was Gabriel Dat de Saint-Julien. But while she was getting down the car, a guy suddenly appeared: count de Vermont, 20 years old... Margot’s former lover. One more! In one second, he shot at Gabriel’s head." (Queen Margot, bald and obese, in Sens townhouse: whoosh, two lovers missing)

"Son of a carpenter from Arles. He becomes lord of Saint Julien in the Lauraguais. Became the lover of Queen Marguerite de Valois around 1604: she married him to the daughter of the former governor of Carlat. The agreement was passed on October 26, 1604 by notary Blaise Portal, royal notary at Usson. Marguerite de Valois gives to the bride the sum of 6000 livres tournois. Saint Julien will place his sister Antoinette as the queen's maid of honor. The latter married a citizen of Avignon, Michel Gorce and gave him 1100 ecus. Killed by a rival Olivier Diovajo Lord of Vermont." (Geneanet)

10. Hector-Renaud de Durfort (1675-1612).

Lover in 1606-1609.

Gentleman of the bedchamber to Queen Marguerite de Valois.
Seigneur de Beaumont

Comte de Launac

Baron de Bajamont.

Son of Amanieu de Durfort, Baron de Bajamont (d.1604) & Jeanne de La Dague.

Husband of Anne de Gontaut (d.1616), mar 1599

His other lover was Anne d'Auzilles.

"Even if this event likely had a political cause, Marguerite's life in Paris included other young male favorites. As she was no longer married, there was less cause for scandal and less political capital could be made by excoriating her. She was involved with the young handsome, young nobleman Hector Regnault du Durfort, lord and baron de Baujaumont. In 1609, when he was ill, Marguerite cared for him. Although she was lampooned for the young men she attracted, it was taken as a sign of her eccentricity. But Marguerite was admired for her great generosity and renowned for her intellectual interests. Her palace on the rue de Seine attracted prominent intellectuals who shared her interests. Not surprisingly, giver her previous history, Marguerite immersed herself in the cultural delights of Paris. Rather more surprisingly, she played a central role in the new royal family." (Queens and Mistresses of Renaissance France: 309)

11. Villars.
Lover in 1613?.
A musician.

"In these last years, the old Queen became exceedingly 

devout, and ended by hearing three Masses every day, one high and two low ones. Nevertheless, she continued her flirtations, and, in place of Bajaumont, who is believed to have died young, took into favour a young singer named Villars, who, Tallemant des Reaux tells us, was surnamed 'le Roi Margot'. She [Marguerite] brought Villars into the garden of the Tuileries, to allow the Queen to hear him sing," writes Malherbe to Pereisc, under date May 14, 1614." (Queen Margot: Wife of Henry of Navarre: 384)

" . . . Even into old age she kept a reputation for dissolute behaviour; when she was over 60 she loved a musician named Villars, who was known as 'le Roi Margot'. . . ." (La Reine Margot: 477)

" . . . The avowed object of these pious liberalities was to redeem all the sins which she might commit with her gallants and her mignons, notably with one of the latter, who was a musician named Villars, and who was called 'the king Margot.' . . . ." (History of prostitution: 410)

Francois de France
Duc d'Anjou

12. Francois de France, Duc d'Anjou (1555-1584)
Duc d'Alencon 1566
Duc d'Anjou 1576
Duc de Touraine 1576
Duc de Berry 1576.

Marguerite's other lovers:
1. Annibal de Coconnas (1530-1574)
Italian mercenary & royal favourite
Capt in the Captain of Guards to Duc d'Anjou

"Dumas's engaging hero asserts that he was born at Saint-Colomban, near Suza, then in Piedmont, in 1537 and lays claim to grandiose titles. (p. 421). The much less glamorous historical Annibal de Coconnas (or Coconat) (?-1574) also claimed to be descended from an illustrious Piedmontese family, though he was probably born in Italy. He began as a mercenary and came to France in 1569, where he served as Henry d'Anjou's Captain of Guards. He was the lover of the Marechale de Retz and Henriette de Cleves. For money, he spied both for Spain and Catherine de Medicis. He was prominent in the Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre, and boasted that he had bought thirty Huguenots, promised them their lives if they would convert, and then stabbed them to death, 'slowly and very cruelly'. In 1573 he accompanied Henry d'Anjou on his journey to Poland as far as the Rhine. In February 1574, he was introduced to d'Alencon by La Mole and helped plan the flight of Henry of Navarre and d'Alencon to sedan. On 10 April 1574 he was arrested in a cell of the Convent de Saint Augustin where he had taken refuge. He was sent to Vincennes on 12 April where, under torture, he revealed the plans to enable Francois d'Alencon to escape and laid the blame on La Mole and others. He was beheaded and quartered on 30 April 1574. Charles IX, sickened by his boastful account of his part in the Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre, said that he reckoned him 'a wicked man worthy of the end which he met' (Lestoile, Registre-journal, i. 157) (La Reine Margot: 471)

"Annibal, Comte de Coconas, a Piedmontese, was the lover of the Duchesse de Nevers, the intimate friend of the Duc d'Alencon, and with Comte de La Mole, one of the chiefs of the party of politicians or malcontents, who, it was said, had formed a scheme to carry off from court the King of Navarre, the Prince de Conde, and the Duc d'Alencon, of their own consent, and on the death of Charles IX proclaim the last king. Examined by the king in person at Vincennes, he was executed on April 30, 1574, after making a full confession. He was accused of committing atrocious acts of cruelty on Sat. Bartholomew's night. It is asserted that he boasted of having torn thirty Huguenots from the hands of the people, and, after inducing them to renounce their faith on the promise of their lives being spared, killing them all. In 1576 Henry III quashed the sentence passed upon him." (Remarkable Adventurers and Unrevealed Mysteries, Vol 2: 316)

2. Bajaumont.
" . . . The succession to the defunct Saint-Julien was for some little time in dispute, but, at length, victory remained with a youth named Bajaumont. . . ." (Queen Margot: Wife of Henry of Navarre: 377)

"Since St. Julien's death she had fallen back upon a Gascon youth, Bajaumont, handsome, as it was possible to imagine, who had been sent her from Agen. She showed him off, made her poets write of his beauty, set to work to refine him. Whole days she spent in teaching him to speak gracefully and in the language of Society, trying to breathe into him some of her own brilliance. But Bajaumont was even more stupid than he was handsome. Perhaps she loved him more because she could make fun of him. She...was suddenly seized with a curious taste for publicity. She wanted all the world to know how greatly she loved Bajaumont, and in what terms she spoke to him when she was in her bedroom. She prattled about it to her little Court, wrote of it, composed a dialogue called La Ruelle mal asorti so that all France, all Europe, and future generations might know what she was like in bed." (Rival: 260)

"The lately deceased Saint-Julien had been replaced in the amorous Queen's affections by a doughty squire or equerry named Bajaumont, on whose account she had many heart-burnings. Upon one occasion Bajaumot was unexpectedly attacked in a church, but made such good use of his sword as to escape uninjured. Then Marguerite lost no time in requesting Henri to throw the aggressor of her latest lover into the dungeons of For-l'Eveque, when the King was kind enough to gratify her. . . ." (The Amours of Henri de Navarre and Marguerite de Valois: 416)

3. Chanoine de Notre-Dame de Paris.

Charles IX de France

4. Charles IX de France.
Her brother.

5) Charry.
Commander of the King's bodyguard.

Clement Marot
@Wikipedia

6) Clement Marot (1496-1544)
French poet.

7) Comte de Vermond & Dal de Saint Julien. (both d. 1606).

"While work was in progress,she lodged in the handsome Hotel de Sens in the Marais, one of Paris's last medieval buildings that still survive today. There ensued a grim tragedy, suggesting that though in her fifties Margot was by no means sexually extinct. Among her pages she had two young lovers---the Comte de Vermond, aged eighteen, and Dal de Saint-Julien, aged twenty. In a fit of jealousy Vermond shot his rival. Saint-Julien was the current favourite, and the murder drove Margot insane with rage; she had Vermond executed as she watched from a window. Depleted, d'un seul coup, of two young lovers, Margot quit the Hotel de Sens forever for the Left Bank...." (Horne, 202, p. 85)

"Here in the Hotel de Sens there ensued a grim tragedy, suggesting that old Margot was by no means past it. She had two young lovers among her pages---Comte de Vermond, aged eighteen, and Dal de Saint-Julien, aged twenty. In a fit of jealousy, Vermond shot his rival just as he was handing Queen Margot down from her carriage in front of the present gateway. Saint-Julien was the current favourite, and the murder drove Margot insane with rage, vowing that she would neither eat nor drunk until the murdered was executed. Henri gave his assent, and two days later she watched from a window in the Hotel as Vermond mounted the scaffold, unrepentant. Margot is said to have 'roared like a lioness'. 'Kill him, kill him! If you have no arms, take my garter and strangle him with it.' Depleted, d'un send coup, of two young lovers, Margot left the Hotel the Sens for ever that same night of 1606." (La Belle France: n.p.)

"Among the members of Queen Marguerite’s suite, was a youth of some twenty summers, the son of one Date, a carpenter of Arles, whom her Majesty ennobled, 'avec six aunes d’étoffe,' and who forthwith blossomed into a Sieur de Saint-Julien. This Saint-Julien, if we are to believe the chroniclers of the time, was passionately beloved by his regal mistress, though perhaps, as a charitable biographer of Marguerite suggests, her affection for him may have been “merely platonic and maternal.” However that may be, he stood on the very pinnacle of favour, and was regarded with envy and hatred by his less fortunate rivals. One of these rivals, Vermont by name—not Charmont, as Bassompierre calls him—either because he was jealous of the privileges which Saint-Julien enjoyed, or, more probably, because he believed that the favourite had used his influence with the Queen to procure the disgrace of certain members of his family, suspected of having aided the intrigues of the Comte d’Auvergne, swore to be avenged. Nor was his vow an idle one, for one fine morning in April, 1606, at the very moment when Saint-Julien was assisting Marguerite to alight from her coach, on her return from hearing Mass at the Célestines, he stepped forward, and, levelling a pistol, shot him dead. The assassin endeavoured to escape, but was pursued and captured; and the bereaved princess, beside herself with rage and grief, vowed that she would neither eat nor drink until justice had been done, and wrote to the King 'begging his Majesty very humbly to be pleased that the assassin should be punished.' The King sent orders for Vermont to be brought to trial without an hour’s delay; and he was condemned to death and executed the following morning in front of Marguerite’s hôtel, 'declaring aloud,' writes L’Estoile, 'that he cared not about dying, since he had accomplished his purpose.'" (A Gallant of Lorraine)

8) Jean de Choisinin.
"She now renewed her intrigues with the Duc de Guise, by whom the King of Spain was speedily solicited for help in money for the Lady of Carlat, in order to enable her to reconquer Agen. Philip II promised assistance freely, but gave none, and in the meantime Marguerite was reduced to considerable straits. She was all the more embarrassed owing to the fact of her being compelled, in the absence of her Treasurer-General, left behind at Agen, to employ a secretary named Choisinin. This scamp, who was a clever rascal, pilfered everything that he laid his hands on, and, in addition, insolently demanded six thousand crowns for his services, when was relieved of them. Not receiving this sum at once, he had the insolence to assault one of the Queen's valets, for which offence he was banished for a week. During this week Choisinin composed a pasquinade, which was described as 'the dirtiest and most insulting thing ever seen,' and he sent it to Marguerite upon the ironical pretence that she was 'fond of learned and erudite works." (The Amours of Henri de Navarre and Marguerite de Valois:285)

9) des Portes.

10) d'Urfe.

11) Henri III de France.
Her brother.

12) Jean de Beaufort, Marquis de Canillac (1538-1589)

Conseiller du roi, Lieutenant général d'Auvergne, Ambassadeur extraordinaire à Constantinople

Jean de Montboissier-Beaufort-Canillac Pont-du-Château

Son of Marc de Montboissier-Beaufort-Canillac & Catherine de La Queuille, Dame de Châteauneuf-du-Drac

Husband of Gilberte de Chabannes. " . . . [S]he was overtaken and captured by the Marquis de Canillac (Governor of Auvergne), who conveyed her to the fortress of Usson. . . [S]he accordingly lost no time in exerting all her blandishments to captivate his reason. Although she had now attained her thirty-fifth year, neither time, anxiety, hardship, not even the baneful indulgence of her misguided passions, had yet robbed her of her extraordinary beauty; and it is consequently scarcely surprising that ere long the gallant solider to whose custody she was confided, surrendered at discretion, and laid at her feet, not only his heart, but also the keys to her prison-house." (The Life of Marie de Medicis: Queen of France: 35)

"As the Wars of Religion devolved into the conflict between Henry III, Guise, and Navarre, Marguerite remained a prisoner at Usson, under the orders of her brother, with Canillac as her jailer. Any thought that Marguerite would be consigned to oblivion failed to recognize her remarkable powers of reinvention. Her jailer defected from the king to the League and became her protector. Contemporaries credited her charms. Brantome, for example, claimed that Canillac was so besotted by Marguerite that he 'became her prisoner in a short time even though he was brave and valiant. Poor man! What could he do?' Any man who allied with Marguerite has been cast as a lover---including Aubiac and Canillac. Such claims were characteristic of contemporary polemics. In Marguerite's case, her behavior was unorthodox enough to provide such charges, but their vehemence likely masks hostility to her violation of conventional, female political roles as much as sexual mores." (Queens & Mistresses of Renaissance France: 304)

13) Jean de Souvray.

14) Mayne.

Charles de Lorraine
Duc de Mayenne
@Wikipedia

15) Charles de Lorraine, Duc de Mayenne (1554-1611)
"With M. de Mayenne Marguerite had already had the commencement of a love-affair several years previously. But, according to du Vair, the modesty of the brother of Henri de Guise was then far greater that her own, with the result that the Princess was so much offended that she published this modern Joseph everywhere as a fool."

16) Philippe de Levis, Vicomte de Lerac.
"Lerac, a Protestant gentleman from Gascony, Philippe de Levis, Vicomte de Lerac (or Leran or Leyran), stumbled bleeding into Marguerite's apartment on Saint Bartholomew's Night. She saved him from his pursuers, persuaded the King to spare his life, and tended to his wounds. For Lerac, Dumas substitutes La More, and uses the event as the start of his romantive affair with the Queen of Navarre." (La Reine Margot: 477)

17) Gui de Faur, Seigneur de Pibrac.

18) Jacques de Levis (1554-1578)

Comte de Quelus.

19) Pominy.

20) Resigade.

22) Saint-Mesgrin.

23) Saint-Vincent.

24) Francois Robert de Lignerac, Seigneur de Pleaux
Seigneur de Lignerac.
Bailli of the Mountains of Auvergne.

"Marguerite received considerable assistance in her various manoeuvres from the Seigneur de Lignerac, who was the Bailli of the Mountains of Auvergne. Of this noble, who brought to her aid a fine body of cavalry, she soon made a conquest, and, with the encouragement of this enterprising lover, she went yet further. The Queen of Navarre now asserted her independence of her husband; she no longer called him King of Navarre, but only the Prince of Bearn, while all her own acts, deeds, appointments, and proclamations she signed, in right Royal style, as 'Marguerite de France.'" (The Amours of Henri de Navarre and of Marguerite de Valois: 273)

 Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne
Duke of Bouillon
@Wikipedia

25) Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne (1555-1623)
Vicomte de Turenne
Duc de Bouillon.

Son of François de La Tour d'Auvergne & Eléonore de Montmorency.

Husband of:
1. Charlotte de La Marck

2. Elisabeth of Orange-Nassau

"While La Noue was organising the Protestant forces, the Politiques soon had another recruit, in the shape of the young and handsome Vicomte de Turenne, afterwards to become one of the lovers of the Queen of Navarre. He was a great-nephew of the Constable Anne de Montmorency, and connected by ties of blood with the Bourbon race to which Marguerite's husband belonged. . . ." (The amours of Henri de Navarre and of Marguerite de Valois)

"The Vicomte de Turenne may also be reckoned under the second head, as he was a very distinguished officer in the field, which the King of Navarre, who valued his services highly, well knew. That he was by no means anxious to lose those services when Marguerite had become tired of the Vicomte is made evident by the manner in which he says that he persuaded Marguerite to restore her lover to her good graces when she had sent him from her side. 'The Huguenots would have had cause to complain if she had found none among them worthy of occupying her for a few days. The Vicomte de Turenne was the first to put himself on the list. He was of good height, a handsome fellow, and at first his appearance charmed her; but he did not come up to her expectations, so she gave him his conge. This despairing lover wished to go off to hang himself, and I cannot tell what might have happened if, in the interests of our party, I had not persuaded her to recall him. She had considerable trouble in making up her mind to do so, as her vanity was at stake, and it distressed her to lose the glory of a man of such merit having, like the lover of Anaxarette, hanged himself for her sake.'" (The amours of Henri de Navarre and of Marguerite de Valois)

26) Unnamed cook.

27) Un de Ses Domestiques.

Sebastien de Luxembourg
@geneanet

28) Sebastien de Luxembourg, Prince-Vicomte de Martigues. (1530-1569)

" . . . The Divorce Satyrique credits the precocious Princess with two lovers, named respectively Charrins and d'Entragues, before she had completed her twelfth year. The latter of these taking a wife, and Charrins having been given his congi they were succeeded in the young lady's graces by the Prince de Martigues, whose intrigue with the juvenile Princess was not only an open secret at the Court but the jest of the army, in which the Prince held the rank of Colonel, owing to the fact of his openly wearing an embroidered scarf which Marguerite had given to him." (The Amours of Henri de Navarre and of Marguerite de Valois: 51)

29) Guillaume du Prat, Baron de Viteaux.
"The mignon had many enemies, but the most implacable 
of all was a certain Guillaume du Prat, Baron de Viteaux, 
younger brother of Nantouillet, Provost of Paris, who had 
declined the hand of Mile, de Chateauneuf, Henri III.'s 
discarded mistress. This Viteaux, who was a notorious 
brawler, had killed, in a duel, a gentleman named Allegre, 
one of the King's favourites. The King would probably 
have overlooked the offence ; but Du Guast, an intimate 
friend of the ill-fated Allegre, gave him no peace until he had disgraced and exiled Viteaux, who left Paris vowing vengeance against the author of his punishment. Nor were his threats idle ones. Towards the end of October 1575, he returned secretly to Paris, accompanied by some trusty retainers, concealed himself in the Couvent des Augustins, and sent his servants to gather information concerning the movements of his enemy."  (Queen Margot: Wife of Henry of Navarre: 177)

Marguerite de Valois Gallery.

Marguerite de Valois

c1560

Marguerite de France

Reine de Navarre

mid-16th c

Marguerite de Valois

c1571

Marguerite de Valois

Reine de Navarre

c1572

Marguerite de Valois & 

Hercule Francois

Marguerite de Valois

c1572

Marguerite de Valois

Reine de France

c1572

Marguerite de Valois

Reine de France

Marguerite de Valois

Reine de Navarre

1577

Marguerite de Valois

16th c

Marguerite de Valois

b/w 1590/1605

Marie de' Medici

1622-1625

L'Hostel de la Reine Marguerite
@Wikipedia

Usson Castle
@Pinterest