An Inglorious Voyage of Discovery

In the middle ages, as today, pseudo-historians often wrote about past events to praise, or flatter, a king and his acolytes. It was very true that Histories were then written by the mighty and powerful, or by the victors; dead men tell no tales. And Roberval, an adventurer, corsair, and sycophant, knew this better than most. To further his own interests, to keep in good graces with the reigning power, he befriended not only the king of France, François Ier, but also his sister; Marguerite de Navarre would write in her Heptaméron the story of Sieur de Roberval and his niece, Marguerite de La Rocque, whose story she falsely recorded to hide her friend's shortcomings —or possibly because the true story was too horrific to be contemplated by such a pure soul. For either reason, instead of writing the factual story of lust, religious intolerance, deceit and cruel punishment, she romanticized about a woman who refused to betray her lover! So, instead of recounting an event that might otherwise have shed a dark light on the man's character, the king's sister entered in the history books a bogus tale, about mutiny aboard one of his majesty's vessel en route to New France, a make-believe, skewed in favor of the said Sieur de Roberval —giving him credit for other people's accomplishments! For centuries, her depiction of this naval incident was believed to be true; but now as some, but very few, historians have endeavored to show, it was all a lie, written to protect the honor of a personal friend to the king of France.