(1515–1520.)
THE YOUNG KING AND HIS RIVALS.
While the young Queen sat in her chamber, reading her missal, submitting to her mother-in-law, and embroidering red silken counterpanes, the Duchess of Alençon queened it over the court of France, the brilliant Egeria of half-a-dozen poets. For Claude, although the wife and daughter of a king, was none the less a quiet, narrow-chested girl, fifteen years old, gentle, pious, and awkward, with neat, pure features and smooth-braided hair that had no special charm or grace. Francis, with his ideas of splendour and chivalry, desired a different queen for his sumptuous court. And her he found in Margaret, a woman then of three-and-twenty, both learned and witty, and with a charm more attractive than beauty in her slender carriage and tender smile—Margaret, young, de moult joyeuse vie, et la meilleure compagnie possible. Margaret was virtually the Queen of France.
Hers was a dangerous although an honourable position. She was young, and, under the spell of that sweet pale face, that abundant soft blonde hair, her brother's courtiers called her the most beautiful of
