Lumière des martyrs: Essai sur le martyre au siècle des Réformes (review)
(“L’impossible régence”). These foreign queen mother-regents are seen operating in the land of Salic law, holding the hence tenuous reins of power in their hence potentially very evil hands. This series is interpreted as a sign that during and after the Wars of Religion, the former ideal princess of majesty and humility was detached from her subjects, hoisted out of reach into the clouds. Though somewhat true, a broader array of representations of female regents might have shown that what mattered most was whether the power of the princess stemmed openly from her “illegitimate” role of substitute prince, or whether it grew out of the safer “subordinate” space tradition prescribed. Martin-Ulrich demonstrates that here, seemingly on the margins, the princess’s role as mediator ensured her position as an active political and artistic agent. Begging further reflection, too, is the status of the men behind the portraits — men of letters vs. men of law. Remarkable self-portraits constitute the third category at play, portraits extracted from texts produced by two of the princesses themselves: the Enseignements of Anne of France (whose educational advice book is arguably more modern in content than the author contends), and Marguerite of Navarre’s Heptameron. An initial (rather lengthy) methodological section prepares the ground for the subsequent selection of Renaissance texts, laying bare their roots in ancient rhetoric (Aristotle and Quintilian), topped off with an Augustinian moral stance. MartinUlrich finally draws the pieces together to show how the mastery of the art of rhetoric by these flesh-and-blood princesses dovetailed with that of the writers protected by women at court, instituting a two-way exchange. The next-to-last chapter (“Marguerite dans l’Heptaméron”) defines the contours of an evangelical princess wielding the culture of her caste to project, like Anne of France before her, an image of her (new) exemplary moral self. A fine analysis of tales 1, 4, 22, 61, and 72 demonstrates how Marguerite stages herself lending an ear to capture the (most often female) voices of the abused. The perfect princess has evolved into a role model for the perfect prince (Charles de Sainte-Marthe), illustrating how to make one’s inordinate power potable to the humble, how the effective communication of information up and down the social ladder can help implement a new, more secularized, more credible and just state. KATHLEEN WILSON-CHEVALIER The American University of Paris