AGNES SOREL 



Voltaire, generally more ready to scoff than 

 to approve, wrote thus of Agnes Sorel : 



Le bon roi Charles, au printemps de ses jours, 



Avait trouve, pour le bien de la France, 

 Une beaute, nominee Agnes Sorel. 



Was it for the good of France ? Let us disregard 

 prejudices, and examine facts. Even then, if all 

 that is known of her were written, it could only 

 bear to this rare personality the resemblance 

 which a faint reflection does to reality. 



Agnes Sorel was probably born about 1420 or 

 1422, in the Castle of Fromenteau in Touraine. 1 

 Her father, Jean Soreau, or Sorel, was Lord of 

 Coudon, and belonged to the lesser nobility. 

 It was in this beautiful country of forest and 

 meadow-land, of silvery rivers and meandering 

 streams, that Agnes spent her early years, her 

 education being principally religious, for religion 

 naturally held the first place in a society which 

 still retained faith in the supernatural. It was 

 customary at that time for girls of noble birth 

 to complete their education either at Court or 

 at the castle of some princely person, for such 

 places were considered excellent schools of 

 courtesy and other virtues for the daughters 

 as well as for the sons of the nobility. 



1 Both the date and the place of her birth seem uncertain. 

 Some writers suggest 1415, and some 1420 or 1422, as the date ; 

 whilst Froidmantel, in Picardy, is conjectured by some, and 

 Fromenteau, in Touraine, by others, as the place. (Du Fresne de 

 Beaucourt, Hist, de Charles PI I, t. iv. p. 171, note 4.) 



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