«The Satirical divorce» 1607: the Huguenot pamphlet? (on the 17th century manuscript in the National Library of Russia in St Petersburg)

Vladimir Vladimirovich Shishkin, PhD in history, associate professor, Institute of History, Saint-Petersburg State University (Mendeleevskaya linia, dom 5, Saint-Petersburg, Russia, 199034)

v.v.shishkin@spbu.ru

Shishkin V. V. ‘‘The Satirical divorce’’ 1607: the Huguenot  pamphlet? (on the 17th century manuscript in the National Library of Russia in St Petersburg), Religiya. Tserkov’. Obshchestvo. Issledovaniya i publikatsii po teologii i religii [Religion. Church. Society: Research and publications in the field of theology and religious studies], Saint-Petersburg, 2015, vol. 4, pp. 334–336.

doi: 10.24411/2308-0698-2015-00018

Language: Russian

The article is devoted to the content of one of the most famous French (Huguenot) pamphlets of the 16–17th centuries, anonymous “Satirical divorce”, written around 1607 and became the main source for the emergence of the “black legend” about Marguerite de Valois, Queen of Navarre and France, the first wife of Henry IV, also known as Queen Margot, because she was the main target of the “satirical” denunciations.
This essay is due to unresolved in the literature the question of the authorship of this pamphlet, often attributed to the Huguenot writer T.-A. d’Aubigné, likely customers, readers and distributors, as well as due to the presence in the collections of the National library of Russia the manuscript of the 17th century, which made, as it was succeeded to define, in the time of the Fronde about 1648. Dating of the manuscript has allowed to affirm, contrary in historiography’s view that the pamphlet was used and became widespread earlier than it was assumed before (1660-es).
The analysis of the content of this work led to the conclusion that there are serious doubts as to the authorship of d’Aubigné, since it is likely that the pamphlet was written by the Catholic monarchomachs, which is partly imitated the literary style of d’Aubigné, at the same time deliberately distorting biographical facts from the life of Marguerite de Valois the purpose of socio-political discredit of Henry IV and the Royal family.
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Key words: the 16th century, Marguerite de Valois, Henry IV, the French monarchy, T.-A. d’ Aubigné, Huguenots, Catholics, monarchomachs, religious and political pamphlets

URL: http://rcs-almanac.ru/shishkin-2015-en/

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