nfidelities while he refused to tolerate her religion.
The unhappiness of this marriage was not due to Marguerite alone; the
first trouble arose when she discovered his love for his mistress,
Gabrielle d'Estrees, and, thinking herself equally privileged,
she began to indulge in the same excesses. The result of so many
annoyances and debaucheries, so much vexation, was an illness; as soon
as she became convalescent, she returned to her mother at court where
she speedily gained the ill will of the king by her profligate habits,
her quarrels with both Catholics and Protestants, her intimacy with
the Duke of Guise, her plottings with her younger brother, her cutting
satires on court favorites.

She was sent back to Henry, upon the way meeting with the mishap of
being insulted by archers and, with her maids, led away prisoner. Her
husband was with difficulty persuaded to receive her, and, finding him
all attentive to his mistress, Marguerite fled to Agen, where she
made war upon him as a heretic; unable to hold her position there on
account of her licentious manner of living and the exorbitant taxes
imposed upon the inhabitants, she fled again and continued moving
from one place to another, causing mischief everywhere, "consuming the
remainder of her youth in adventures more worthy of a woman who had
abandoned her husband than of a daughter of France." At last, she was
seized and imprisoned in the fortress of Usson; here she was supported
mainly by Elizabeth of Austria, widow of Charles IX.

When her husband became King of France, he refused to liberate her
until she should renounce her rank; to this condition she refused
to accede until after the death of her rival, the mistress of
Henry--Gabrielle d'Estrees, Duchess de Beaufort. After the annulment
of the marriage, Marguerite said: "If our household has been little
noble and less bourgeois, our divorce was royal." She was permitted
to retain the title of queen, her debts were paid and other great
concessions granted. Her subsequent relations with Henry IV. were very
cordial and fraternal; she even revealed political plots to him.

When, after nearly twenty years of captivity, Marguerite returned to
Paris (1605), she gained the favor of everybody--the king, dauphin,
and court ladies. She was present at the coronation of Marie de'
Medici, and, by being tactful enough to keep apart from all intrigues,
quarrels, and jealousies, she managed to win the good will of the
king's