Note 627 — THE PREFACE (continued 2)

In the Queen's retinue, among other persons of note, was Peter de Bourdeille, known by the name of the Sieur de Brantome, of which he was Abbot. He was attached to the Court as one of the gentlemen of the bed-chamber to Charles IX., and Henry III. of France. He owes his distinction to his posthumous Memoirs, which serve at least sufficiently to illustrate the licentious and corrupt state of manners of the time. In his Vies des Dames Illustres, there is a Discours on Mary Queen of Scots, who, he says, on the day of her nuptials with Francis, "paroistre cent fois plus belle qu'une Deesse du Ciel." He died in July 1614, at the age of 87.