It has been contended that she really meditated a change
of faith, and even attempted to convert her mother and brother; and this
view is borne out by some passages in the letters which she wrote to
Bishop Briconnet after spending the winter of 1521 at Meaux.
Whilst she was sojourning there, her husband, having contributed to the
relief of Mezieres, joined the King, who was then encamped at Fervacques
on the Somme, and preparing to invade Hainault. It was at this juncture
that Clement Marot, the poet, who, after being attached to the person
of Anne of Brittany, had become a hanger-on at the Court of Francis I.,
applied to Margaret to take him into her service. (1)
1 Epistle ii.: _Le Despourveu a Madame la Duchesse
d'Alencon_, in the _OEuvres de Clement Marot_, 1700, vol. i.
p. 99.
Shortly afterwards we find him furnishing her with information
respecting the royal army, which had entered Hainault and was fighting
there. (1)
1 Epistle iii.: _Du Camp d' Attigny a ma dite Dame d'
Alencon, ibid.
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