PREFACE.
The sixteenth century, that age of great women, shows few more truly eminent than the sister of Francis I. Margaret of Angoulême, of Valois, and of France, Queen of Navarre, Duchess of Alençon and Berry, was a person of importance in many different ways. In political influence she was, perhaps, excelled by Margaret of Austria, Catherine dei Medici, and Elizabeth of England; and Elizabeth, if not more devoted, was at least more successful as a reformer of Religion. But the Queen of Navarre possessed many qualities foreign to these famous names. Of all the women of her age, Vittoria Colonna alone was her rival in literary attainments; and in the rarer and more illustrious authority of personal grace and charm, she was unequalled save by Mary Queen of Scots, or the magical Diana of Poictiers.
