A romantic relationship between an unmarried noblewoman and a man aboard a colonial expedition might seem, to modern eyes, like a personal matter of no great consequence.

In 1542, in the world that Marguerite de la Rocque inhabited, it was a great deal more charged than that.

The social and moral framework of sixteenth-century French Catholic society placed enormous weight on female chastity and on the proper management of women’s sexual behavior.

For a woman of Marguerite’s social standing — unmarried, of good family, traveling under the protection and authority of a male relative — an affair with a man not approved by her guardian was not simply a private transgression.

It was a breach of the social order that reflected on her family, on her guardian’s authority, and on the honor of everyone connected to her.