King's Sister – Queen of Dissent: Marguerite of Navarre (1492-1549) and her Evangelical Network (set 2 volumes)

This study reconstructs for the first time Marguerite of Navarre’s leadership of a broad circle of nobles, prelates, humanist authors, and commoners, who sought to advance the reform of the French church along evangelical (Protestant) lines. Hitherto misunderstood in scholarship, they are revealed to have pursued, despite persecution, a consistent reform program from the Meaux experiment to the end of Francis I’s reign through a variety of means: fostering local church reform, publishing a large corpus of religious literature, high-profile public preaching, and attempting to shape the direction of royal policy. Their distinctive doctrines, relations with major reformers – including their erstwhile colleague Calvin – involvement in major Reformation events, and the impact of their unsuccessful attempt are all explored.

Jonathan A. Reid, Ph.D. (2001), in History, University of Arizona, is Associate Professor of History at East Carolina University. He is a former Research Fellow on the Sixteenth Century French Vernacular Book Project, University of St. Andrews.

This work is necessary reading for any scholar of sixteenth-century France, whether interested in Marguerite, in the early Reformation in France, or in the political and religious tides that affected the king’s reactions to religious reform.
Barbara Stephenson (Idaho State University), Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 65, No. 4 (Winter 2012), pp. 1260-1261, DOI: 10.1086/669406

“In this richly illustrated, well-written history, Jonathan Reid casts a bright light on the early decades of religious dissent in France. He offers a new appreciation of the role played by Marguerite de Navarre and a cast of players he calls “the Navarrian network” in efforts to establish religious reform in France and beyond. […] King’s Sister shows that the dissimulation Calvin viewed as hypocrisy was, all along, a strategy of the Navarrian network, one that allowed them to survive and work clandestinely for reform. If they failed, it was not for lack of trying. […] This summary cannot do justice to the wealth of sources and the insightful use of them that Reid brings to this argument. His book is a major contribution.”
Mary B. McKinley, University of Virginia. In: Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 42, No. 2 (2011), pp. 498-500.

"This is an important book for French Reformation history, fleshing out a domain of evangelical activities which has until now remained poorly articulated. Reid's two-volume monograph brings together a wealth of sources and scholarship in a new and persuasive analysis of early reform activities and writing under Marguerite de Navarre's patronage and leadership. Reid interrogates each issue he covers in great depth, footnotes indicating the full extent of his impressive research, but his arguments are presented in a highly engaging manner, making this a text potentially suitable for classroom use and scholars alike."
Susan Broomhall, The University of Western Australia. In: H-France Review, Vol. 10 (July 2010), pp. 404-407.

“This is a scholarly work, fluently written and clearly organised, with extensive footnotes. In addition, the reader is immediately struck by its handsome presentation […], which does credit to the press as well as to the author.”
Penny Roberts, University of Warwick. In: The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, Vol. 63, No. 2 (April 2012), pp. 404-405.

"une contribution d’érudition digne du protagoniste qui en forme le principal sujet, une œuvre magistrale que tout spécialiste de Marguerite de Navarre ou du fait religieux du XVIe siècle se devra de lire."
Gary Ferguson, University of Delaware. In: Cahiers de recherches médiévales et humanistes, Vol. 18 (2009).