Some accounts suggest that Roberval had squandered family wealth to a degree that left him financially pressed, and that the colonial expedition represented a path to the recovery of his fortunes.

The details of his finances are not clearly documented, but the general picture of a nobleman whose circumstances made a successful colonial venture essential is consistent across multiple sources.

What is interesting — and what has attracted speculation from historians ever since — is that Roberval apparently compelled Marguerite to accompany him on the voyage.

The exact nature of this compulsion is not documented with precision: whether she went under direct family pressure, under legal obligation as his ward, or for reasons of her own that had more to do with adventure or obligation than with force is not clear from the surviving record.

Some sources emphasize that she had little choice; others allow that she may have had reasons of her own for wanting to go.