57.5 - Marguerite de Valois (Queen Margot), Part 1

Battle Royale: French Monarchs

The last surviving of the Valois, this beautiful and intelligent princess is often seen as either a victim or a villain, but the memoirs she left behind and the reevaluation of modern historians show a different side to her story. She was a woman who struggled to find agency and self-determination in a world where the cards were stacked against her from the start.
Can Margot break free of her abusive, conniving family and help bring an end to the senseless violence that engulfs her country?
Stay tuned for Part 2, where we learn Margot's ultimate fate and her legacy.
⚜️
Special thanks to Ben's colleague Sarah, an Edinburgh tour guide originally from Bordeaux, for giving a voice to Margot.
⚜️
Music used in this episode:
"SCP-x6x (Hopes)" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
"Interloper" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
⚜️
Visit our Wordpress for episode images, score summaries, contact details and more!
Make sure you leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.

You can also support the show on Patreon! Join the official Angry Mob and get access to our bonus content: movie reviews, deep dives, bonus biographies and our exclusive spinoff series rating the Royal Mistresses!

Message us your thoughts!

Support the show

⚜️
Battle Royale's intro/outro music is "Dansez" by Fasion. Thank you to them for making this track free to use and listen! Go check out more of their stuff here.
⚜️
CATEGORIES
Ben and Eliza each give a score out of 10 for the first 4 categories. The 5th is determined by maths! The result is a total score out of 100.

1. Enchanté: The shallow, first-impressions round: How fabulous and iconic an image have they passed down to us?
2. En Garde: (A.K.A. “Selfish Wins”) How well did they gain and increase their personal power, either through scheming, statesmanship or good old fashion battles?
3. Voulez-Vous: (A.K.A. “Selfless Wins”) How much would we want to live under their regime? How well did they better the world around them through law reforms and cultural projects?
4. Ouh-Là-Là: How pearl-clutchingly scandalous were the events of their life, both in their time and down through the ages? How mad, bad and dangerous were they to know?
5. La Vie en Throne: How many years did they reign, and how many of their children survived them?

For more details on the scores, how they are calculated and how our kings are ranking, visit our website.