Accordingly
when Jane was but two years old she was sent by the King to the Chateau
of Plessis-les-Tours, where she was carefully brought up in strict
seclusion.
To the fact that Margaret was never really happy with either of her
husbands, and that she was precluded from discharging a mother's duties,
one may ascribe, in part, her fondness for gathering round her a Court
in which divines, scholars, and wits prominently figured. The great
interest which she took in religious matters, as is shown by so many of
her letters, (1) led her to shelter many of the persecuted Reformers in
Beam; others she saved from the stake, and frequently in writing to
the King and Marshal de Montmorency she begs for the release of some
imprisoned heretic.
1 One of these letters, written by her either to Philiberta
of Savoy, Duchess of Nemours, or to Charlotte d'Orleans,
Duchess of Nemours, both of whom were her aunts, may be thus
rendered in English: "My aunt, on leaving Paris to escort
the King, Monsieur de Meaux (Bishop Briconnet), sent me the
Gospels in French, translated by Fabry, word for word, which
he says we should read with as much reverence and as much
preparation to receive the Spirit of God, such as He has
left it us in His Holy Scriptures, as when we go to receive
it in the form of Sacrament.
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