



Produced by Irma Spehar, Sam W. and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)








Transcriber's Note.

Bold text is indicated with =equals signs=. Italic text is indicated
with _underscores_.

Further transcriber's notes may be found at the end of the book.




         QUEENS OF THE
          RENAISSANCE

              BY
      M. BERESFORD RYLEY


WITH TWENTY-FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS


         METHUEN & CO.
     36 ESSEX STREET W.C.
            LONDON


   _First Published in 1907_




  [Illustration: BEATRICE AND LUDOVICO KNEELING
    ALTAR-PIECE BY ZENALE]




To B----




CONTENTS


                                    PAGE
  PREFACE                             ix

  CATHERINE OF SIENA                   1

  BEATRICE D'ESTE                     53

  ANNE OF BRITTANY                   104

  LUCREZIA BORGIA                    150

  MARGARET D'ANGOULÊME               202

  RENÉE, DUCHESS OF FERRARA          251




PREFACE


There are no two people who see with the same kind of vision. It is
for this reason that, though twenty lives of the six women chosen for
this book had been written previously, there would still, it seems to
me, be room for a twenty-first. For though the facts might remain
identical, there is no possible reiteration of another mind's exact
outlook. Hence I have not scrupled to add these six character studies
to