Navarre | Marguerite Duras | Tudela, Navarre | Kingdom of Navarre | Marguerite Zorach | Theobald I of Navarre | Joan of Navarre, Queen of England | Marguerite Yourcenar | Lower Navarre | Navarre, Florida | Marguerite Long | Marguerite Bourgeoys | John Navarre | Sancho III of Navarre | Marguerite Wildenhain | Marguerite Viby | Marguerite Durand | Marguerite Clark | Joan I of Navarre | Sancho IV of Navarre | Philip III of Navarre | Marguerite Young | Marguerite Van Cook | Marguerite Steinheil | Marguerite Porter | Marguerite Monnot | Marguerite McBey | Marguerite Higgins | Marguerite Henry | Marguerite de Angeli |
Shirley based his plot on material from two sources: novel 36 of the Heptameron of Marguerite of Navarre, and novel 6, decade 3, of the Hecatomithi of Cinthio.
Principally, by Giovanni Boccaccio (1313–1375), author of The Decameron (1353)—one hundred novelle told by ten people, seven women and three men, fleeing the Black Death by escaping from Florence to the Fiesole hills, in 1348; and by the French Queen, Marguerite de Navarre (1492–1549), aka Marguerite de Valois, et. alii., author of Heptaméron (1559)—seventy-two original French tales (modeled after the structure of The Decameron).
His mother and maternal grandmother were both attached to the court of Marguerite of Navarre, on whose death in 1549 he went to Paris, and later (1555) to Poitiers, to finish his education.
He had letters of recommendation from James V to Eleanor of France, the Queen of Navarre, Madame Aubigny and Robert Stuart, sieur d'Aubigny, the Chancellor Antoine Duprat Cardinal of Sens, the Admiral Philippe de Chabot, the Grand Master Anne de Montmorency, and the French Secretary Jean le Breton, sieur de Villandry.