Deux epouses et reines e la fin du XVIe Siecle: Louise de Lorraine et Marguerite de France.

Jacqueline Boucher. Saint-Etienne: Publications de l'Universite de Saint-Etienne, 1995. 413 pp. FF 180. ISBN: n.a.

Jacqueline Boucher has written a double biography of Louise de Lorraine and Marguerite de France. This original project was suggested to her by the facts that the two women were born a month apart (April-May, 1553), and that they both played important roles, as wives and queens for Henri III and Henri IV, in the last years of the Valois dynasty, under the watchful eye of Catherine de Medicis. Neither bore her husband children, and each was left essentially alone from the mid to late 1580s: Louise through widowhood, and Marguerite through separation and eventually divorce. The differences between the two women far outweigh the similarities, however. The less famous Louise was pious, chaste, and followed the traditional role for a queen, administering her household and performing good works. Marguerite, however, carried on a succession of scandalous love affairs, and plotted against both her brother and her husband, weakening the regime of the former, and eventually taking up arms against the latter, in an unsuccessful escapade in 1585, from Agen. Boucher participates in the recent spate of efforts to reevaluate Marguerite's life (Sealy, Viennot, and 1991 conference proceedings from Agen), but her partiality toward Louise becomes evident as one moves through the volume, thus creating a tension in any efforts to rehabilitate Marguerite.

The book is packed with information on late Renaissance social and political life and "mentalites" at the highest levels of French society, as well as with insights into changes in the institutions of marriage and monarchy which Louise and Marguerite witnessed and, at times, helped to shape. Boucher occasionally suggests a pre-Revolutionary tinge to the challenges to monarchy during the Wars of Religion; although by the end of the book, she finds that the political and social edifice created by the Valois did survive these challenges.

Ten chapters treat the two women's respective weddings, resources and homes, dress and role in society, conjugal life, role in political life, spiritual and intellectual life, and final years. There is an unmatched chapter (eight) entitled "La decheance de Marguerite de France," which might be loosely translated "Where Marguerite went wrong." Boucher shows the error of Marguerite's desire for vengeance, and the way in which she allowed herself to be used as a pawn by both Henris, as well as by her younger brother, the Duc d'Alencon. Certain themes and events inevitably are treated more than once in different chapters, from different points of view (St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, the Memoires of Marguerite, dissolution of her marriage to Henri IV, etc.). At times this leads to unnecessary repetition; cutting some of these repetitions might have shortened the book and made it more concise.

The chapter that stands out for this reviewer is chapter seven, "La Vie Spirituelle des Deux Reines." Here, Boucher places the two women in the context of the intellectual, artistic, and religious life of their time, but also shows the influence that each exerted on that life. Marguerite was obviously the more erudite of the two, and is noted for her influence on the revival of Neoplatonism in the late sixteenth century. Louise, however, is noteworthy for participating in the Stoical revival of the late 1500s, especially after her ordeals with infertility and widowhood. Boucher shows Louise to be typical of Counter-Reformation spirituality, acting as a role model for other noblewomen, and even being venerated by St. Francois de Sales. Louise was torn between her family's attachment to the "Ligue," and her own need to support Henri III's more moderate Catholicism. Boucher treats this conflict with sensitivity.

Deux epouses et reines is rounded out by a useful chronology, and by an impressive Bibliography of primary and secondary sources. Although marred by some typos and a certain amount of repetition, the book is fascinating and readable overall. Without espousing any sort of feminist ideology, Boucher does quietly assert the numerous contributions of these two women to the social, political, and spiritual life of their time.

CATHLEEN M. BAUSCHATZ University of Maine