Marguerite de Navarre

Born 11 April 1492, Marguerite d'Angoulême grew up alongside her brother, who became Francis I of France. The two built the intellectual engine of the French Renaissance: the court and salons where humanists and reformers gathered under royal protection. She married twice — first becoming Duchess of Alençon and Berry, then Queen of Navarre through her second marriage to Henry II of Navarre. As a writer and patron, she carved out space for ideas that had no safe home elsewhere. Her daughter, Jeanne d'Albret, bore Henry of Navarre, who took the French throne as Henry IV — the first Bourbon king.…