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presented by Anne-Marie COCULA-VAILLÈRES, historian, university professor
Through a series of failures, Pierre de Bourdeille, the youngest son of a noble family and nonetheless commendatory abbot of the venerable Brantôme abbey, was only a knight without glory, plunged into the bloody period of the Wars of Religion in the second half of the 16th century. However, he had the good fortune to live at the court of the last Valois kings, where he rubbed shoulders with some of history?s greatest figures, and was particularly close to queens Marie Stuart, Catherine de Médicis and Marguerite de Valois. A fall from his horse forced him to retire. From then on, armed with all these secrets, both state and private, Brantôme devoted 30 years to a monumental and original work of memorialism, in which he accorded ladies an eminent place equal to that of men.
