For the nobility — the class to which Marguerite belonged by birth and property — the social world was structured around the court and the great noble households, around the church and its ceremonies, around the responsibilities and pleasures of landed property.

A noblewoman of Marguerite’s standing would have been educated in the religious and literary culture of her time.

She would have read — the Bible most centrally, but also other texts.

She would have managed a household, participated in religious community, engaged in the social rituals of her class.

This world had specific expectations of women that were, even by the standards of its own time, constraining.

A noblewoman’s primary social function was understood as the management of her household and the maintenance of her family’s honor — a concept that was deeply tied to female sexual behavior in ways that placed enormous weight on female chastity and proper conduct.