she was brought up in the Netherlands by her great-aunt
MARGARET OF AUSTRIAand aunt MARY OF HUNGARY, who
were successively regents there. She was first married
(1533) to Duke Alessandro de’ Medici of Florence, who
was assassinated in 1537, and she later (1542) married Ot-
tavio Farnese of Parma, by whom she became the mother
of the general Alessandro FARNESE. Appointed regent of
the Netherlands (1559) by her half-brother Philip II, she
was confronted by a gathering storm of opposition to
Spanish tyranny and religious persecution, made worse by
Philip’s inflexible stance. After the rejection of the Com-
promise of Breda (1566) the revolt of the NETHERLANDS
began in earnest. Resigning her post to the duke of ALBA,
Margaret retired (1567) to Italy, where she lived the rest of
her life.
Marguerite de Navarre (Marguerite d’Angoulême,
Margaret of Navarre) (1492–1549) French patron and
writer
Sister of Francis I of France and widow of Charles, Duke
of Alençon, Marguerite married Henry d’Albret, King of
Navarre, in 1527: their daughter JEANNE D’ALBRETwas the
mother of the future King Henry IV of France. Marguerite
was respected as a patron of literature and philosophy; her
court became a place of refuge for persecuted writers and
supporters of religious reform, such as LEFÈVRE D’ÉTAPLES,
Bonaventure DES PÉRIERS, and Clément MAROT. Her back-
ing, both explicit and implicit, for the right of women to
read the Bible and exercise their talents in scholarship if
they so wished and the fact that she herself published
writings (instead of keeping them modestly in manuscript
for the edification of ladies of her circle) attracted hostile
comment from religious conservatives. The best known of
Marguerite’s own works is the Heptaméron (1558–59), a
collection of 72 tales of love and passion influenced in
form by Boccaccio’s DECAMERON; she also wrote poetry,
notably Le Miroir de l’âme pécheresse (1531; translated by
the future Queen Elizabeth of England in 1544 as “The
Glasse of the Synnefull Soule”) and Les Marguerites de la
Marguerite des princesses (1547), and a number of plays.
Mariana, Juan de (c. 1535–1624) Spanish historian
The illegitimate son of the dean of the collegiate church of
Talavera de la Reina, Mariana entered the Jesuit novitiate
(1554), studied at Alcalá, and was ordained in 1561. He
became a professor of theology at Rome and also lectured
in Sicily, Paris, and Flanders before returning to Spain. He
lived in Toledo from 1574 until his death.
Historiae de rebus Hispaniae libri XX (1592) was en-
larged to 30 books (1605), and a two-volume Spanish ver-
sion by Mariana was published in the meantime (1601).
An uncritical work that drew on every source available
and included a wealth of legendary and anecdotal ma-
terial, Mariana’s history of Spain covered events from the
earliest times to the death of Ferdinand II and V (1516)
and was written in an impeccable style modeled on LIVY.
He also wrote a number of essays on political theory and
other subjects, several of them controversial; De rege et
regis institutione (1599), on kingship, for instance, con-
tained arguments in favor of tyrannicide. His works reflect
an enlightened and liberal point of view and indepen-
dence of judgment.Marie de’ Medici (Marie de Médicis) (1573–1642)
Queen consort of France
The daughter of Grand Duke Francesco I of Florence, she
became the second wife of HENRY IVof France in 1600 and,
after Henry’s assassination, regent (1610–14) on behalf of
her young son, Louis XIII. She arranged for Louis to marry
the Infanta Anna and for her daughter Elizabeth to marry
the future Philip IV of Spain, thus ensuring a Franco-
Spanish alliance. After Louis came of age she suffered a pe-
riod of banishment (1617–22), and Cardinal Richelieu, at
first her protégé and adviser, increasingly took the side of
the young king against her and her pro-Hapsburg policy
during the later 1620s. Marie was responsible for building
the Palais du Luxembourg in Paris, and in 1622 commis-
sioned RUBENSto produce for it a major series of pictures
on her life. In 1631 she fled to Flanders, to the protection
of the Archduchess ISABELLA, and never went back to
France.Marlowe, Christopher (1564–1593) English dramatist
Born and sent to school in Canterbury, Marlowe took his
BA at Cambridge in 1584. Thereafter he lived, like other
UNIVERSITY WITS, in London, or traveled abroad on secret
government service. RALEIGH, NASHE, and other prominent
writers were among his friends or admirers. He had a rep-
utation for atheism, and at the time of his death at the
hands of Ingram Frisar in a tavern stabbing at Deptford, a
warrant was out for his arrest.
The two parts of Tamburlaine, Marlowe’s earliest play,
published in 1590, were probably written in 1587 and
1588; like his other tragedies, they were immediately suc-
cessful and often revived. His mastery of blank verse
(which Ben Jonson called Marlowe’s “mighty line”) and
ability to create a powerful central character were already
apparent. Dr Faustus (1604) and The Jew of Malta (1633)
were probably written in, respectively, 1588/89 and
1589/90, with Edward II (1594), his best play in terms of
construction, following in about 1593. The Tragedy of
Dido, Queen of Carthage (1594) was completed by Thomas
Nashe. All Marlowe’s poems were published posthu-
mously: his translations of Ovid’s Amores (c. 1597) and
the first book of Lucan’s Pharsalia (1600), the erotic frag-
ment Hero and Leander (1598) in heroic couplets (com-
pleted by CHAPMAN), and his famous song “Come live
with me, and be my love” (in The Passionate Pilgrim,
1599).33002 2 MMaarrgguueerriittee ddee NNaavvaarrrree