Elisabeth of valois

Born on May 14, , at St. Educated at French royal court; at age 19, became queen of Navarre ; marriage sparked St. Henry of Navarre was dressed in pale yellow satin embroidered with pearls and precious stones while his year-old bride stood next to him dressed in a purple velvet gown embroidered with fleurs-de-lys and a cape of spotted ermine. Her head was covered by a wide, blue, jewel-encrusted mantle with four yards of train.

The marriage was not a love match but rather an affair of state with the hoped-for intention of ending more than ten years of religious civil wars in France. Margaret was a reluctant bride and, according to legend, when she did not respond to the marriage question, her brother King Charles IX pushed her crown so that her head nodded "yes.

Marguerite de valois cause of death

Thus began the ill-fated career of Margaret of Valois, also known as Queen Margot. Margaret of Valois was born on May 14, , at the Palace of St. Margaret grew up in a large family with eight siblings. After the death of her father in July , three of her brothers successively held the French throne. Margaret spent most of her early childhood away from court and grew up in the royal palaces of St.

Germain and Amboise. Throughout her childhood and for most of her adult life, France was plagued by religious and political strife.

Marguerite de valois husband

Dynastic politics ensured that the Valois kings of France, by pushing territorial claims in Italy, remained in conflict with the Spanish Habsburgs throughout most of the 16th century. More significantly, after the death of Henry II the succession of boy kings led to a resurgence of Protestantism in France and eight civil wars. More than half of the French nobility supported Protestantism and both sides were under the leadership of powerful noble houses.