Crowning of Maria de' Medici (sketch)

Among the princesses following Marie de' Medici at her coronation in May 1610 walked a woman with a very particular reason to be there. Marguerite de Valois had been Henri IV's first wife, a daughter of King Henri II and the last of the old Valois royal house. Their marriage had been annulled in 1599, yet she kept the title of queen, returned to Paris in 1605, and at Saint-Denis she took her place in the train of her successor. The Munich museum reads her presence as the key to this scene. Henri wanted the coronation to make the young Bourbon dynasty secure, and with the Valois queen walking behind Marie, the old royal line is seen giving its blessing to the new one. Henri himself is there too, looking on as a spectator at his wife's great day.