Clemence Isaure, mythical lady

As she is the only mythical lady to be in the gardens, I can't give you her dates.  If she were real she would have been born somewhere between 1260-1300. 

Clemence Isaure is possibly the strangest choice to include in this series of sculptures.  According to legend she was the foundress and president of Academie des Jeux Floraux (the Academy of Floral Games), a poetry and literature society dating from 1322.  It is a perfectly real group and is the oldest recorded literary society in the world.

This period of time was the nadir of the troubadours, or traveling musicians and poets who roamed around southern France and northern Spain, and who were responsible for a flourishing of culture in that area.  The idea of having a literary society came out of their traditions, and this first one was founded in Toulouse, the center of the troubadour area. 

We know that seven troubadours/poets came together to found the society in 1322, and it was funded by the new bourgeoisie of Toulouse.  However, in legend this lady, Dame Clemence Isaure, was an heiress of a wealthy family, and she never married.  She left them all her wealth to start this literary society.  She is seen as the ultimate patroness of the arts, and her reputation was as a beautiful, virtuous, and chaste woman who dedicated her life to culture.

But the fact is, there is no evidence that she ever existed, and the actual documents we have regarding the founding of this society tell an entirely different story.  Her story is fascinating to a historian like me because it seems, as many others have suggested, she is some kind of transcription of the Virgin Mary into secular culture.  Everything from her name - "Lady Clemency" - to her description, and emphasis on the fact that she never married, points to her being modeled on ideas of Mary.  She was upheld as an inspiration to poets and writers, as the ideal lady that they should extol.

To this day many things in the city of Toulouse are named for her, and there is a statue of her in one of the main squares.  It's interesting that she should have been included in this series of powerful and influential French women.  If she were real she certainly would have had more financial and social power than the vast majority of women of her time, and her contribution to culture would have been huge.

Compare her to the next lady on my list, Laure de Noves, who is also a strange inclusion here but could be as close to a real-life Clemence Isaure as anyone is likely to get.