Agrippa, her counsellor and historiographer, composed her funeral oration, and John le Maine wrote in honour of her, la Couronne Margaritique. Lyons, 1549.
MARGARET OF FRANCE, Duchess of Berri and Savoy, Daughter of Francis I.; horn 1523;
Learned Greek and Latin, professed herself a patroness of the sciences and learned men, and, after her father's death, gained a great name by her beauty, piety, learning, and amiable qualities. She married Emanuel Philibert, duke of Savoy, 1559, and died of a pleurisy 1574, aged 51, occasioned, as it was thought, by her anxiety to perform properly the offices of hospitality to Henry III. and his suite, on his return from Poland. The most illustrious of the literati contended who should praise her best, and her subjects called her the Mother of her People.
Her husband having been beheaded by the command of Pompey, we hear nothing of Alexandra till the time of Herod being betrothed to her daughter, when it appeared that he put much confidence in her wisdom, and in many instances was guided by her judgement and penetration. Herod had been made tetrarch by Mark Antony, and
