FOIX (MARGARET DE), Duchess d'Epernon.
In 1588, the chiefs of the League determining to ruin the duke d'Epernon, rendered him suspected at court, and obtained an order to take him from the castle of Angoulême, of which he was governor. The magistrate charged with the execution of this act, to obtain his purpose in forcing the duke to surrender, seized the duchess, and conducted her to the principal gate of the citadel, in order that she might entreat him to acquiesce, or that her danger might lead him to submit.
Careless of their threats, she exhorted her husband to persevere in defending himself; declaring, that if he yielded on her account, it would occasion his death, and she was determined not to survive him whom she loved more than life itself. The magistrate, astonished at her courage, deliberated what to do, when she was rescued from them, and re-entered the castle in triumph to her husband, who received her with transports of joy.
Her colouring was so soft and sweet, that she was much sought after to draw portraits of ladies. After having worked in public and private, she went to Rome, where she served Gregory XIII. and the noble family of Boncompagni, who all protected and encouraged her. Amongst other paintings, she made one of the Stoning of St. Stephen, with figures larger than life, which was placed in the church of St. Paul, in the environs of Rome, where she died at the age of fifty, celebrated by orators and poets. She is said, in statuary, to have surpassed even the famous Propertia de Rossi.
