Abstract
Peebles analyzes sixteenth-century literary representations of Renée de France, daughter of King Louis XII and widow of Duke Hercule d’Este, in which she is promoted as a symbolic leader of the French reform movement. Examining three literary genres—court poetry by Clément Marot, a commemorative pamphlet by Antoine Couillard, and a dedicatory epistle by Theodore Beza—the chapter investigates how each author embellishes his work with her public persona, thereby creating an emblematic structure. This omnipresent literary form vivifies the lifeless rhetoric of the text by juxtaposing the author’s words with a visual or verbal image. Thus, Renée de France becomes a unifying figure, embodying specific political and spiritual qualities and becoming a unifying model for dynastic and religious loyalty.
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Notes
- 1.
Clément Marot, Recueil inédit offert au Connétable de Montmorency en mars 1538, ed. François Rigolot (Geneva: Droz, 2010), 204.
- 2.
All translations are my own unless otherwise indicated. I have not attempted to replicate the meter and rhyme of poetry, but only to give an approximation of the message. I thank Gabriella Scarlatta for her thoughtful feedback on this and other translations in this essay. Any translation errors are my own.
- 3.
For a general discussion of evangelical humanism, also known as Christian humanism, see Charles Nauert, “Marguerite, Lefèvre d’Étaples and the Growth of Christian Humanism in France,” in Approaches to Teaching Marguerite de Navarre’s Heptaméron, ed. Colette H. Winn (New York: Modern Languages Association, 2007), 38–43. Charmarie Jenkins Blaisdell notes that French noblewomen, who tended to be highly educated in the humanist tradition, were particularly drawn to this movement, for it granted them unmediated access to God and allowed them to discuss theology, sing hymns, and read Scripture. “Calvin’s Letters to Women: The Courting of Ladies in High Places,” Sixteenth-Century Journal 13.3 (1982), 68.
- 4.
On Marguerite’s role and the Navarrian network, see Jonathan Reid, King’s Sister—Queen of Dissent. Marguerite de Navarre (1492–1549) and Her Evangelical Network (Leiden: Brill, 2009), in particular Volume One. See also A Companion to Marguerite de Navarre, ed. Gary Ferguson and Mary McKinley (Leiden: Brill, 2013).
- 5.
On the political motivations of Renée’s marriage and the Italian Wars, see Gabriel Braun, “Le Mariage de Renée de France avec Hercule d’Este: une inutile mésalliance. 28 juin 1528,” Histoire, économie et société 7.2 (1988), 147–68.
- 6.
Blaisdell points out that Renée maintained a correspondence with Calvin until the latter’s death in 1564. In fact, he wrote more frequently and for a longer period of time to Renée than to any other noblewoman. She explains: “Calvin became Renée’s personal connection with the Reform, and she became a key individual in the objectives of his French policy.” Blaisdell, “Calvin’s Letters,” 68–70, 79.
- 7.
Daniel Russell, The Emblem and Device in France (Lexington, KY: French Forum Publishers, 1985), 7.
- 8.
Russel, The Emblem, 191.
- 9.
Marot, Recueil inédit, 216–17.
- 10.
Here, I borrow Laurent Hablot’s description of the two functions of an emblem: “les deux principales fonctions de ces nouveaux signes sont, d’une part, l’expression de soi, à travers le contenu symbolique de l’emblème, et d’autre part, la réunion de fidèles, rassemblés par le partage de cette figure.” “Les Princesses et la devise. L’Utilisation politique des devises et des ordres de chevalerie par les femmes de pouvoir à la fin du Moyen Age,” in Femmes de pouvoir et pouvoir des femmes dans l’Occident médiéval et moderne, ed. Armel Nayt-Dubois and Emmanuelle Santinelli-Foltz (Valenciennes: Presses Universitaires de Valenciennes, 2009), 2.
- 11.
Whether Marot’s poetic illustration inspired Renée’s adoption of the motto or vice versa, it is difficult to determine, as we have few remaining artifacts from Renée’s life. As much of Renée’s library was burned during the inquisition, we now know of a single printed book bound in ivory-colored calfskin leather with her motto boldly emblazoned in black on its front and back covers. On this volume, see Tammaro di Marinis, “Legatura artistica fatta per Renata di Francia, duchessa di Ferrara,” Gutenberg Jahrbuch 39 (1964): 373–4. And on Renée’s library, see Rosanna Gorris-Camos, “La Bibliothèque de la duchesse: de la bibliothèque en feu de Renée de France à la bibliothèque éclatée de Marguerite de France, duchesse de Savoie,” in Poètes, princes & collectionneures. Mélanges offerts à Jean-Paul Barbier-Mueller, ed. Nicolas Ducimetière et al. (Geneva: Droz, 2011), 473–525.
- 12.
Russell, The Emblem, 7.
- 13.
Jules Bonnet dates her arrival as 7 November, citing the correspondence of Venetian ambassadors at the French court. “Retour de la Duchesse de Ferrare en France. Septembre–Octobre 1560,” Bulletin historique et littéraire de la société de l’histoire du Protestantisme français 27 (1878), 494. Brantôme’s original French reads: “J’ay ouy dire, et le tiens de bon lieu, que, lorsque le Prince de Condé fut mis en prison à Orléans, du temps du petit Roy François, elle arriva de Ferrare deux jours aprez, et la vis arriver. Le Roy et toute la Court estant allez au devant, et receue aveq’ ung très-grand honneur, comme il luy apartenoit. Elle fut fort triste de ceste prison, et dict et remonstra à feu Monsieur de Guyse, son gendre, que quiconques avoit conseillé au Roy ce coup avoit failly grandement, et que ce n’estoit peu de chose de traitter un Prince du sang de ceste façon.” Recueil des Dames, poésies et tombeaux, ed. Étienne Vaucheret (Paris: Gallimard, 1991), 176.
- 14.
Pierre Gringore, Les Entrées royales à Paris de Marie d’Angleterre (1514) et Claude de France (1517), ed. Cynthia J. Brown (Geneva: Droz, 2005), 171.
- 15.
For example, Antoine Fumée greets Henri III on his 1574 return from Poland after the death of his brother, Charles IX. Panégyrique pour la bien venue et retour du Tres-Chrestien Henry, Roy de France & de Pologne (Paris: Nicolas Chesneau, 1574), 14, available at http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k1320340.r (accessed 1 June 2016). Natalie Zemon Davis places the term within the broader context of gift-giving, noting that “there were words that identified things as gifts on special occasion. For example, legs was the legacy made in one’s will; […] sa bienvenue, a welcoming feast given by oneself to colleagues at the time of one’s arrival at or advancement in a new position or post.” The Gift in Sixteenth-Century France (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2000), 14.
- 16.
Cynthia J. Brown, “Introduction,” Les Entrées royales by Pierre Gringore,” 24–5, 48–9.
- 17.
Leah Chang, “Spectacle, Sublimation, and Civic Pride in Scève’s ‘L’Entrée de la Royne,’” Romance Quarterly 54.2 (2007), 124.
- 18.
Antoine Couillard was a minister of justice, perhaps a greffier (court clerk), as he published a manual of formulae and procedures for those holding this office, Les Quatres Livres du Seigneur du Pavillon les Lorriz, sur les procedures civiles & criminelles, selon le commun stil de France & Ordonnances royaux pour l’instruction des Greffiers (Paris: Jehan Longis, 1554). Couillard also was embroiled in a debate on judicial astrology, publishing a satirical refutation of Nostradamus, Les contredicts aux faulses et abbusifves propheties de Nostradamus et autres astrologues (Paris: Charles L’Angelier, 1560). The latter contains a series of poems ostensibly written by Couillard and Clément Marot’s son, Michel Marot, in which Renée is mentioned briefly. On Couillard and astrology, see Luc Racaut, “A Protestant or Catholic Superstition? Astrology and Eschatology During the French Wars of Religion,” in Religion and Superstition in Reformation Europe, ed. Helen Parish and William G. Naphy (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2002), 154–69.
- 19.
Henri II died in Paris in July 1559, after a jousting accident. François II died in Orléans in December 1560, likely due to an ear infection.
- 20.
Antoine Couillard, La Bienvenue de treshaulte, tresillustre, & tresexcellente Princesse, ma Dame Renée de France, Duchesse de Ferrare & de Chartres, Contesse de Gisors, & Dame de Montargis. Par le Seigneur du Pavillon pres Lorriz (Paris: Annet Briere, 1561), A3v, available at http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k8571651?rk=21459;2, accessed 1 June 2016.
- 21.
Couillard, La Bienvenue, A6.
- 22.
Couillard, La Bienvenue, A5v.
- 23.
Couillard, La Bienvenue, A5v.
- 24.
Correspondance de Théodore de Bèze. Tome VII (1566), ed. Hippolyte Aubert et al. (Geneva: Droz, 1973), 294.
- 25.
Correspondance de Théodore de Bèze, 294.
- 26.
Renée’s eldest daughter, Anne d’Este, was the widow of the Catholic stalwart François de Guise and an important figure at the French court. In the letter, Beza speaks of an incident involving Anne, who was by then remarried to Jacques de Savoie, Duc de Nemours et du Genevois. Beza alleges that Anne had mistakenly reported to her mother that pastors in Geneva had been turning people away from their sermons. He urges Renée not to believe this report. See Bèze, Correspondance, 295. Although Anne’s late husband was a prominent figure of the Catholic faction during the Wars of Religion, contemporaries at the French court noted her sympathy for the Huguenots, for she was raised and educated among Calvinist courtiers and scholars at her mother’s court in Ferrara. Following the death of François de Guise, their eldest son, Henri, also rose to prominence in the Catholic League. He and his brother, Louis, Cardinal de Guise, were assassinated by Henri III in 1588. Huguette Leloup-Audibert, Les dernières Dames de Montargis au temps des guerres de religion. Renée de France (1510–1575) Anne d’Este (1531–1607) (Châtillon-Coligny: Éditions de l’Écluse, 2010), 70–3, 112–27.
- 27.
Théodore de Bèze, Recueil des opuscules. C’est à dire. Petits Traictez de M. Jean Calvin. Les uns reveus et corrigez sur le Latin, les autres translatez nouvellement de Latin en François (Geneva: Baptiste Pinereul, 1566), *2r.
- 28.
Thomas A. Lambert and Isabella M. Watt, introduction to Les Registres du consistoire de Genève. Tome I (Geneva: Droz, 1996), xiii.
- 29.
Lambert and Watt, Les Registres, xv–xvii.
- 30.
Raymond Mentzer, “Order in the Church,” Christian History 71 (2011), 17.
- 31.
Lambert and Watt, Les Registres, 17.
- 32.
Bèze, Recueil, *4v.
- 33.
Bèze, Recueil, *5r.
- 34.
The original French reads as follows: “Au reste aïant eu cet honneur d’appartenir de si près à la couronne de France, je proteste devant Dieu que mon plus grand ennui et regret en ce monde, a esté de la voir troublée de confusions si horribles […] la plus avantageuse succession que je leur puis laisser c’est la grâce de ce bon Dieu […] qu’en parfait aimitié et exemple de toute vertu, ils fassent en leur maison perpétuer la mémoire d’une générosité illustre et toujours recommendable.” Emmanuel Rodocanachi, Une Protectrice de la réforme en Italie et en France. Renée de France Duchesse de Ferrare (Paris: Ollendorff, 1896), 553–4.
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Peebles, K.D. (2018). Embodied Devotion: The Dynastic and Religious Loyalty of Renée de France (1510–1575). In: Dunn, C., Carney, E. (eds) Royal Women and Dynastic Loyalty. Queenship and Power. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75877-0_9
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