King of Navarre consort of Henry II Queen Marguerite

Born in 1492, Marguerite de Navarre was the sister of Francis I of France and later became queen consort of Navarre through her marriage to Henry II of Navarre. She grew up in a highly educated courtly world and became one of the most remarkable royal women of the French Renaissance.

She was admired not only for her political influence and diplomacy, but also for her writing. Her best-known work, The Heptameron, is a lively and important collection of tales, and her poems and religious writings show a serious, thoughtful mind.

Marguerite also became known as a generous patron of scholars, writers, and reform-minded thinkers. Her life joined literature, faith, and royal politics in a way that still makes her stand out centuries later.