| Summary: | Marguerite of Valois was a « natural » subject of History as it was usually conceived in the Western world. Yet, this was not enough for a woman who wanted to be an “object” of history after the fashion of the Princes portrayed in Plutarch’s Lives. She therefore asked Brantôme to write her Life but as his account did not meet her expectations, she took matters in her own hands and, in the process, became the first woman to write her Memoirs in France. This paper recapitulates the distinction Marguerite made between the two genres. It shows the importance her social rank played in the type of writing she chose and that led her inadvertently to initiate the great genre of aristocratic memoirs. It also sheds light on the persistency of the initial aim of the Queen in her self-narrative. Finally, it underlines the originality of her efforts, in this work as in two others, to demonstrate women’s political abilities at a time when they were bitterly questioned in France.
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