Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/562

548

at the death of her husband, and no less at the captivity of a brother she tenderly loved, Margaret went to Madrid, on purpose to comfort the latter in his sickness, and found him in so pitiable a state, that if she had not gone, as he afterwards declared, he should have died; and by her firmness, she engaged Charles V. to abate the rigour of his confinement; but knowing his constitution, and the turn of his mind, better than all his physicians, she paid such unremitting attention to both, that he soon recovered. On his return to France, he gave her the most evident proofs of his gratitude and affection; and married her, in 1527, to Henry d'Albret, king of Navarre and prince of Beam, by whom she had the celebrated Jane d'Albret.

By her marriage articles she had more power and privileges than queens generally have; and in concert with her husband, devoted all her cares to the benefit of her subjects: and they had the pleasure of seeing their wisdom and patriotism rewarded, by the flourishing state of the kingdom. By the encouragement she lent to free religious discussion, and the favour she shewed the reformers, she laid the ground work of the protestant religion in that kingdom. It has been said by the catholics, that she died in their communion; and they affirmed that