ABSTRACT
This chapter examines one particular form of power relationship, that of clientage, and how Marguerite de Navarre was able to use this type of power relationship to exert a significant influence in early sixteenth-century France by establishing wide networks in both the political and religious arenas, despite the inherently patriarchal French power structure. It outlines the network of clients and patrons with whom Marguerite corresponded, and demonstrates her participation in the quasi-official world of noble clientage. There are two factors about sixteenth-century clientage that are particularly important for the study of women's participation in the clientage system. First, the emphasis on honor meant that the women of the high-ranking families could use their family honor to attract potential clients; and second, because the religious, familial, and social were intertwined with the political, women could serve as the links between the familial and the political or religious spheres.
