they (the ambassadors) always sought her after delivering the chief
business of their embassy, and often when there was important business
the King handed it over to her, relying upon her for its definite
resolution. She understood very well how to entertain and satisfy the
ambassadors with fine speeches, of which she was very lavish, and also
very clever at worming their secrets out of them, for which reason the
King often said that she helped him right well and relieved him of a
great deal." (1)

1 _OEuvres de Brantôme_, 8vo, vol. v. p. 222.

Margaret's own letters supply proof of this. She is constantly to be
found intervening in state affairs and exercising her influence. She
receives the deputies from Basle, Berne, and Strasburg who came to Paris
in 1537 to ask Francis I. for the release of the imprisoned Protestants.
She joins the King at Valence when he is making preparations for a
fresh war against Charles V.; then she visits Montmorency at the camp of
Avignon, which she praises to her brother; next, hastening to Picardy,
when the Flemish troops are invading it, she writes from Amiens and
speaks of Thérouenne and Boulogne, which she has found well fortified.

Francis, however, did not value her society and counsel solely
for political reasons; he was also fond of conversing with her on
literature, and at times they composed amatory verses together.
According to an oft-repeated tradition, one day at the Château of
Chambord, whilst Margaret was boasting to her brother of the superiority
of womankind in matters of love, the King took a diamond ring from his
finger and wrote on one of the window panes this couplet:--