The Tales of the Heptameron, Vol. I | Page 3

this date was twenty sols, so that the
amount would be equivalent to about L1400.
2 This was the prince described by Brantôme as a "great débaucher of
the ladies of the Court, and invariably of the greatest among
them."--Vies des Dames galantes (Disc. i.).
Louise, who, although barely nubile, impatiently longed to become a
mother, gave birth to her first child after four years of wedded life. "My
daughter Margaret," she writes in the journal recording the principal
events of her career, "was born in the year 1492, the eleventh day of
April, at two o'clock in the morning; that is to say, the tenth day,
fourteen hours and ten minutes, counting after the manner of the
astronomers." This auspicious event took place at the Château of
Angoulême, then a formidable and stately pile, of which nowadays
there only remains a couple of towers, built in the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries. Soon afterwards Cognac became the Count of
Angoulême's favourite place of residence, and it was there that Louise

gave birth, on September 12th, 1494, to her second child, a son, who
was christened Francis.
Louise's desires were now satisfied, but her happiness did not long
remain complete. On January 1st, 1496, when she was but eighteen
years old, she lost her amiable and accomplished husband, and
forthwith retiring to her Château of Romorantin, she resolved to devote
herself entirely to the education of her children. The Duke of Orleans,
who, on the death of Charles VIII. in 1498, succeeded to the throne as
Louis XII., was appointed their guardian, and in 1499 he invited them
and their mother to the royal Château of Amboise, where they remained
for several years.
The education of Francis, who had become heir-presumptive to the
throne, was conducted at Amboise by the Marshal de Gié, one of the
King's favourites, whilst Margaret was intrusted to the care of a
venerable lady, whom her panegyrist does not mention by name, but in
whom he states all virtues were assembled. (1) This lady took care to
regulate not only the acts but also the language of the young princess,
who was provided with a tutor in the person of Robert Hurault, Baron
of Auzay, great archdeacon and abbot of St. Martin of Autun. (2) This
divine instructed her in Latin and French literature, and also taught her
Spanish and Italian, in which languages Brantôme asserts that she
became proficient. "But albeit she knew how to speak good Spanish
and good Italian," he says, "she always made use of her mother tongue
for matters of moment; though when it was necessary to join in jesting
and gallant conversation she showed that she was acquainted with more
than her daily bread." (3)
1 Sainte-Marthe's Oraison funèbre de la Royne de Navarre, p. 22.
Margaret's modern biographers state that this lady was Madame de
Chastillon, but it is doubtful which Madame de Chastillon it was. The
Rev. James Anderson assumes it was Louise de Montmorency, the
mother of the Colignys, whilst Miss Freer asserts it was Anne de
Chabannes de Damniartin, wife of James de Chastillon, killed in Italy
in 1572. M. Franck has shown, in his edition of the Heptameron, that
Anne de Chabannes died about 1505, and that James de Chastillon then

married Blanche de Tournon. Possibly his first wife may have been
Margaret's governess, but what is quite certain is that the second wife
became her lady of honour, and that it is she who is alluded to in the
Heptameron.
2 Odolant Desnos's Mémoires historiques sur Alençon, vol. ii.
3 Brantôme's Rodomontades espagnoles, 18mo, 1740, vol. xii. p. 117.
Such was Margaret's craving for knowledge that she even wished to
obtain instruction in Hebrew, and Paul Paradis, surnamed Le Canosse,
a professor at the Royal College, gave her some lessons in it. Moreover,
a rather obscure passage in the funeral oration which Sainte-Marthe
devoted to her after her death, seemingly implies that she acquired from
some of the most eminent men then flourishing the precepts of the
philosophy of the ancients.
The journal kept by Louise of Savoy does not impart much information
as to the style of life which she and her children led in their new abode,
the palatial Château of Amboise, originally built by the Counts of
Anjou, and fortified by Charles VII. with the most formidable towers in
France. (1)
1 The Château of Amboise, now the private property of the Count de
Paris, is said to occupy the site of a Roman fortress destroyed by the
Normans and rebuilt by Foulques the Red of Anjou. When Francis I.
ascended the French throne he presented the barony of Amboise with
its hundred and forty-six fiefs to his mother, Louise of Savoy.
Numerous authorities state, however, that Margaret spent most of her
time