The Noblewoman Marooned on the Isle of Demons

While sailing from France to the New World, Marguerite de La Rocque and her lover were punished, marooned on an island where they would be tormented by natural forces and, according to some stories, demons.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm
and Mild from Aaron Manky listener Discretion advised. A speck
appeared on the horizon. It hovered there tantalizingly, tauntingly, as
a young, emaciated woman stumbled out onto the frigid shoreline,

(00:24):
staring at it. Was the speck a figment of her
desperate imagination, perhaps a trick of the pale light, or
just another cruel test from her harsh island purgatory. Since
being marooned on an expedition to the quote New World
in fifteen forty two, Marguerite de la Roque de Roberval

(00:48):
had lost.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
Count of all the dots and flecks and specks that
she had prayed would grow into the familiar shape of
ships on the horizon. And yet as she squinted intently,
this speck grew. Details emerged. It was a ship. It
had to be a ship. But this instantly brought up

(01:12):
more tricky questions. What were the vessel's origins? Had the
same vengeful captain who had condemned Marguerite to her tragic
fate finally decided to return to rescue her, or was
it merely an unknowing craft. Of the rare few sailboats

(01:34):
that had actually appeared in the distance, none had ventured
close enough to instill any true hope of rescue before
they had blended back into the dark sea and gray sky,
disappearing forever. And why would they come close. Marguerite's small
island had little to offer besides hardship and peril, and

(01:58):
yet this boat was as near as any she had
seen in the months since she'd been stranded. Marguerite was
now facing a very tough decision. Starting a huge fire
was surely the best way to signal to the far
off sailors, but that would mean Marguerite would use essentially

(02:21):
all of her painstakingly stored and gathered firewood. If her
signaling attempt failed, it would be nearly impossible for her
to make it through the next few chilly weeks, let
alone the upcoming winter. In addition to possibly wasting her
collected fuel, the effort of igniting a sizeable enough bonfire

(02:45):
on the windy Rocky Beach would be exhausting, With every
last calorie counting as a precious commodity, such exertion could
easily prove fatal if it were done in vain, and
yet what were Marguerite's alternatives? More grueling months spent gradually

(03:06):
wasting away, losing every shred of hope and sanity as
the beasts and the elements finally broke her. It was
morbidly absurd to consider how in her past life as
a French noblewoman she had so many servants and suitors
and royal acquaintances. But if she died here on this island,

(03:31):
no one would even know. Was the risk of fire
worth the reward to possibly see her homeland again, or
even to possibly just speak to another human. There was
only one way to find out. Like countless times before
Marguerite got to work, I'm Danish warts and this is

(03:54):
noble blood. King Francis the First of France was eager
to keep pace with his more nautically successful European rivals,
and so he authorized a transatlantic colonizing exploration to New
France in fifteen forty two. According to reports and legends

(04:18):
from European explorers, the regions he was eyeing now parts
of Canada were supposed to be wonderfully fertile lands. Rumor
had it there were even stashes of gold, silver, and
gems to be found. Francis the First chose Jean Francois
de la Roque de Roberval to lead an exploratory mission.

(04:42):
Many sources point out that Roberval severely lacked seafaring experience,
but the ambitious nobleman was a viceroy and a close
friend of the kings. It's possible that the expedition, or
at least its destination, was actual largely Roberval's idea, given

(05:03):
that he had purportedly mismanaged his assets and hoped that
the discovery of fresh resources would renew his fortunes. Finding
willing participants for the mission was a challenge, though the
hazards and high mortality rates of such colonizing ventures, even

(05:24):
the better organized ones, were no secrets among the French
working classes, and even if one didn't die at sea
or at a bare bones settlement, there was an extremely
high chance of suffering through diseases like scurvy. Nevertheless, through
some combination of persuasion and force, Roberval eventually gathered sailors, soldiers,

(05:49):
and artisans, the latter group being mostly former inmates and
set sail One other key passenger who joined the adventure
was Marguerite Delaroque. Depending on the account, Marguerite was either
Roberval's sister or niece. Regardless, the two were apparently close,

(06:13):
but even a tight familial bond and a general thirst
for adventure failed to entirely and convincingly explain the young
noblewoman's decision to want to join such a fraud endeavor.
Marguerite's motivation makes much more sense when considering another crucial factor,

(06:35):
her romantic prospects. Practically all versions of the story agree
that Marguerite was pursuing a passionate relationship with a man
during the voyage. The identity of Marguerite's male lover remains
a mystery, but all signs point to him being a
sailor or skilled laborer. The timeline of the romance also

(07:00):
appears hazy. It's possible that Marguerite was initially trying to
escape an arranged marriage at court and then fell in
love while at sea. Some scholars have suggested that Marguerite's
mysterious lover was a distant admirer, and he volunteered for
the expedition in order to woo her. Another highly plausible

(07:23):
explanation is that the lovebirds already had some existing relationship
before deciding to embark on the expedition, an expedition that
they saw as an opportunity to enjoy greater romantic freedom,
regardless of their class differences. Whatever the case, Marguerite and

(07:45):
her man supposedly had quite the secret intimate romance, which
is truly impressive considering the cramped confines of a sixteenth
century ship. Fortunately for Marguerite, she supposed had an older
loyal maid named Damienne with her. Sources vary when it

(08:06):
comes to Demienne's involvement and feelings on the ethics of
the romance, but several sources assert that she helped the
infatuated couple sneak around, and there was certainly plenty of
time for plotting trysts, since the trip was long and
the ship stopped for a while when first reaching Newfoundland. However,

(08:29):
secrecy could only last so long. Word reached Captain Roberval,
and he reportedly grew furious. He became dead set on
punishing Marguerite, and like so many legendary pirates and infamous captains,
he chose to maroon his detainee on a desolate island.

(08:54):
A natural question is why Roberval would dole out such
harsh punishment to a noble family member. Historians offer several reasons.
One is that he worried that Marguerite's indiscretions with a
commoner could damage their family's reputation. A second explanation is

(09:15):
that Roberval was an exceedingly pious man. He may have
feared that Marguerite's unmarried affair was an affront to God,
and that failing to penalize her would invite vengeful consequences
on the entire mission and crew, many of whom were
already highly superstitious about their ocean bound fates. Several modern

(09:37):
historians claim a third and more sinister reason, greed. Roberval
supposedly had dire money problems when leaving France, but he
shared certain lavish properties and other valuable assets with Marguerite.
He stood to be the one to solely inherit those properties.

(10:00):
She was removed from the equation, But as the logic goes,
he didn't want to jeopardize his claims by directly killing
her and inviting accusations of financially motivated foul play, so
he may have played up his righteous need to punish
Marguerite in order to obscure his more cynical, premeditated schemes.

(10:26):
We may never know the extent of Roberval's rationale, but
his final decision was clear. He selected an island on
which to deposit Marguerite, as well as the woman he
saw as complicit in Marguerite's indiscretions, Damienne. However, Roberval apparently
underestimated the power of love, because, in some dramatic tellings,

(10:51):
Marguerite's partner was to be marooned on another island, but
he jumped overboard and swam to be with Marguerite as
she was being abandoned first. In other versions of the story,
Marguerite realized what her fate would be and negotiated with
Roberval to at least leave her and her partner together.

(11:14):
A particularly stirring recap of the events even claim that
Marguerite threatened Roberval at gunpoint, demanding that if she were
to serve such a severe sentence, that she should be
able to serve it with her beloved co conspirator. Details
on which virtually all reports seem to agree are that

(11:36):
the stranded trio were left with four long guns, some ammunition,
and a few other meager tools and supplies, but survival
was still clearly a long shot. The conditions were harsh,
and the island was allegedly so infested with evil spirits

(11:57):
that it was named the Isle of Demas. Descriptions and
sketches from explorers of that era depict the Isle of
Demons as a beautiful but wild place. It had striking
coastlines and alluring vistas, but was essentially uninhabited due to

(12:18):
its fairly remote location and dangerous animal predators. One sailor,
who claimed to have spotted the relatively small island from afar,
put it simply quote, wild beasts come to the shore
unafraid of the sight of men. Tribes native to the

(12:39):
mainland of what is now Canada and other surrounding islands
supposedly sent occasional hunting parties to the Isle of Demons
and had vast knowledge of its ecosystem, but European settlers
generally feared them. The entities that European travelers feared most, however,

(12:59):
were these which inspired the island's sinister name, that is,
the alleged Demons. European colonists and cartographers of the time
certainly had a habit of picking dramatic or unpleasant sounding
names for islands in that region. Two neighboring islands were

(13:21):
the Isle of Fire and the Isle of Rats. Terrible
as both of those sound, Unfortunately for Marguerite, she was
stranded on the scariest island of them all. According to
one account, the demons on her island quote visibly show
themselves and make attempts to lead men astray, and principally

(13:44):
appear as remembered figures which have been drowned in some
violent adventure. Despite being trapped in a honeymoon of nightmares, Marguerite's,
her romantic partner, and her maid did their best to
make do. They built a simple cabin shelter and gathered
fruits and edible vegetation. They attempted to hunt wild game

(14:09):
with their guns. Some historians claim Marguerite's partner taught her
to shoot, while others suggest that she was probably already
a proficient shooter, having trained with Roberval during royal hunting
expeditions in the forests of France. In case you haven't noticed,
details about what exactly occurred in this story are difficult

(14:32):
to establish definitively. The two main sources we have from
the sixteenth century that tell Marguerite's story are both embellished
for the sake of dramatization, and sometimes they're slightly contradictory.
But in almost every version of the story, the castaways
were supposedly tormented by the island's evil spirits. In the

(14:56):
words of one sixteenth century writer, the spirits cry were
so loud at night that quote it seemed that there
were more than one hundred thousand men together end quote.
And to make it all exponentially more difficult, Marguerite was pregnant.

(15:16):
Simply staying warm and finding enough food required tremendous effort.
Marguerite's devoted partner seemingly did his best to provide for
his beleaguered group, but apparently, after roughly eight months on
the island, he died. The exact cause remains unknown, but
several modern historians suggest it was a combination of fatigue,

(15:41):
poor nutrition, and water contamination. Marguerite had to bury her
beloved while in the late stages of pregnancy. With Damien's help.
She reportedly tried to dig a deep enough grave, but
the cold, hard ground made this a grueling task, As
if the strenuous labor and emotional toll wasn't enough. Marguerite

(16:06):
allegedly still had to guard her partner's graveside to keep
animals from unearthing and devouring his body. Supposedly, her faith
in God fortified her. But all of this was a
truly devastating blow, and yet Marguerite could not simply give
herself over to mourning. She soon gave birth to a son,

(16:29):
possibly the first baby to have ever been born on
the Isle of Demons. Rather than entering a world of
luxury and being celebrated as a new noble heir, the
baby was thrust into immediate and constant danger. Likewise, Marguerite
must have had little time to celebrate or to recover

(16:51):
from the baby's arrival. She had to simultaneously nourish her
baby and protect him from wolves, wolverines, and bears. An
early embellished account of Marguerite's marooning specified that she had
such amazing aim that she shot three bears in a

(17:11):
single day. One of them was supposedly quote white as
an egg, a claim that has prompted several scholars to
analyze whether it's possible that she could have legitimately killed
a polar bear again by then she ostensibly had ample
shooting skill, and evidently polar bears did sometimes float south

(17:35):
to the Gulf of Saint Lawrence on Arctic ice floes, So,
while perhaps improbable, that daring feat is actually within the
realm of possibility. While not attempting to slay apex predators,
Marguerite and Damien watched for passing ships. They hardly saw any, However,

(17:56):
as the weeks continued to pass. Similarly, no mention of
any encounters with tribes native to the area pop up
in any of the most studied sources. Then, not long
after Marguerite gave birth, Damienne died. Several writers have estimated
that she was already well past sixty, so her death

(18:18):
was not necessarily surprising. If anything, it was amazing that
she had made it so long, apparently assisting Marguerite as
best she could. Once again, Marguerite had to dig a
grave and fashion a makeshift cross. But once again Marguerite
had no time to idly mourn. With no one left

(18:41):
to share the workload nor help protect her infant son,
every daily chore and survival decision fell to Marguerite. Soon
the burden became too great, and once again Marguerite suffered
a devastating loss. Tragically, her baby passed as well. Somewhere

(19:02):
on the Isle of Demons, three makeshift crosses marked three
graves of three different sizes. Even centuries later, Marguerite's grief
over bearing her loved ones comes across as nearly unfathomable,
especially as she was then truly alone. Would the noble

(19:25):
woman turned survivalist be too heartbroken to continue? Was she
destined to suffer the same dire fate with no one
to bury her. Would she become a scant meal for
the stalking carnivores. No, Marguerite kept fighting. Per some sources,

(19:45):
it was late autumn and winter was coming. She overcame sickness, cold,
and the loss of her guns as protection once her
gunpowder ran out. Possibly even worse than all of the
physical threats was the mental torment. Marguerite was coping with
terrible loneliness, with no one to talk to nor to

(20:07):
find comfort from. She was reportedly besieged by anxiety, depression,
and paranoia. She believed animals were demons in disguise and
envisioned evil phantoms relentlessly trying to cast spells upon her.
Although to be clear the inner workings of Marguerite ted

(20:27):
can't be known for sure. This information comes from a
sixteenth century historian named Andrea Thavett, who claimed to have
interviewed Marguerite, but we don't know for sure whether he
actually did. Through some combination of resourcefulness, faith, and stubborn
survival instinct, Marguerite kept working. She set traps, stored food

(20:51):
for winter, and made clothing out of hides. It's tough
to ascertain whether she held out any legitimate hope of
a rescue. Contemporary sixteenth century writers seem pretty certain that
she had given up on the idea of Roberval returning.
Clearly he thought he had resigned her to her fate,

(21:12):
and unbeknownst to Marguerite, he had actually headed back to
France after a disastrous colonization attempt, but would any ship
at all sail by and rescue her. Finally, after Marguerite
had been living on the island for a little over
a year, according to a particularly thorough study, a tantalizing

(21:35):
speck appeared on the horizon. Marguerite decided to use all
of her firewood to build a huge fire. She ignited
the blaze, she ran along the shore desperately shouting and flailing.
As it turned out, the ship was a fishing vessel,
and she certainly caught the fishermen's attention, But whether they

(21:58):
would come to her rescue a different matter, because by
then Marguerite herself came across like a demon. Emaciated, filthy,
and covered in hides. She apparently made the cod fishermen
extremely wary of going ashore and encountering her. They thought

(22:18):
she could very well be an evil spirit intent on
tricking them, especially since they were from Brittany and she
was yelling in their native French. Again, Marguerite's life now
hung in the balance. Would the former noblewoman be able
to lure the fishermen to her aid, or had she

(22:38):
become too feral and unrecognizable, a deranged representation of her
demonic island. Ultimately, the fisherman's curiosity won out. The fishingboat
captain ordered a scouting party to shore, and Marguerite led
the stunned fishermen back to her shelter to show them

(23:00):
how she had survived. They were reportedly gobsmacked at her
bravery and determination upon learning of her noble heritage. It's
also fairly probable that they envisioned a reward if they
rescued her and reunited her back with her wealthy family
in France. But was that what Marguerite wanted after all?

(23:22):
Even after hoping to be saved for so long, when
the time came, she allegedly had second thoughts. She became
reluctant to return to her extravagant lifestyle and noble obligations.
In several tellings of the tale, while the fishermen rode
Marguerite back to their ship, she expressed a sudden desire

(23:43):
to stay on the island so she could live out
her solitary life until she died in the same place
as her loved ones. Nevertheless, eventually Marguerite did decide to
return to France with the fishermen. Records are a bit hazy.
After that, she seemingly opted for a quiet life, and

(24:04):
it's unclear whether she ever saw Roberval again or sought
any justice for the fact that he had stranded her.
Roberval seemingly suffered plenty of self inflicted punishment. However, he
led another failed, miserable attempt to colonize and loot quote
New France. Then he ultimately died in a riot between

(24:26):
Protestants and Catholics. A friend of his, who became one
of the chief chroniclers of the whole story, at one
point tried to rename the Isle of Demons for his friend, Roberval,
but fittingly, this idea didn't gain traction, and the group
of islands that supposedly included Marguerite became known for a

(24:47):
while as the Il de la Demoiselle or Isles of
the Young Lady. Among modern scholars, Marguerite's story has sparked
plenty of debates. Some have questioned whether the entire tale
might have been a fabrication, especially considering how many of
its heightened tragic elements fit neatly with French tastes in

(25:11):
literature at that time. However, while various versions probably almost
certainly contain exaggerations, analysis of reports made by several observers,
including the pilot of Roberval's ship, do appear to corroborate
the fundamental narrative of Marguerite being marooned, surviving her harsh isolation,

(25:35):
and eventually returning to her homeland. In addition, there has
been a fair amount of debate over which island the
Isle of Demons actually was. Most historians agree that the
island is one of the many in the Gulf of
Saint Lawrence, either close to the coast of Canada's Quebec Province,

(25:57):
off the northeast edge of Labrador, or near the northern
tip of Newfoundland. Two such sparsely populated islands, Harrington Harbor
Island and Quirpon Island, have even leaned into the story
as a tourist attraction, offering accommodations and tours of locations

(26:19):
where Marguerite purportedly stayed. Over the years, Marguerite's dramatic ordeal
has captivated many artists and writers. The first published account
was actually by another Marguerite, Queen Marguerite de Navarre, in
her fifteen fifty eight short story collection Heptameron. Since then,

(26:41):
Marguerite's exploits have been adapted into many other forms, novels
like the twenty twenty five novel Isola, poems, plays, songs,
and a recent feature film called A Survivor's Tale. Two
fans of the reality television competition series Alone, Marguerite's unforgiving

(27:03):
environment might also sound familiar the show, which documents the
struggles of solo survival experts attempting to make it as
long as they can in the wilderness, has used several
locations in Canada, including a northern area of Labrador. For
comparison's sake, the record for the longest stay on the

(27:25):
series stands at one hundred days, a feat that came
with a one million dollar prize. Even by modest estimations,
that stay was still less than a third of Marguerite's stretch.
As for Marguerite herself, while many chronicles were hazy about
the later portions of her life, a few were more specific.

(27:48):
Several detailed explorations of Marguerite's journey conclude somewhat cathartically, with
her settling into the town of Nontran, France, and living
for many years while while working as a school teacher.
Noble ladies in the area were reportedly more than happy
to send their daughters to learn from such an intrepid

(28:11):
and worldly woman. That's the indomitable story of Marguerite de Laroque.
But don't fly off after a brief sponsor break. There's
one more, very intriguing detail to share about the cacophonous
demons populating the Isle of Demons. Many versions of Marguerite's

(28:40):
story heavily lean into religious imagery and themes, particularly when
it comes to descriptions of the islands, demons and their habits. However,
modern historians and biologists have suggested that Marguerite's recounting of
the evil spirits nightly Shrieks could have a more earthly

(29:02):
explanation massive flocks of migrating birds, specifically species that would
have been vastly unfamiliar to European visitors. While perhaps not
inherently as diabolical as the torment of demons, as the
film The Birds spotlights, such avian interactions can apparently still

(29:25):
be the stuff of nightmares. Noble Blood is a production
of iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Mankey. Noble
Blood is hosted by me Dana Schwartz, with additional writing

(29:46):
and research by Hannah Johnston, Hannaswick, Courtney Sender, Amy Hit
and Julia Melaney. The show is edited and produced by
Jesse Funk, with supervising producer rima il KLi and executive
producers Aaron Manke, Trevor Young, and Matt Frederick. For more
podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app Apple podcasts, or

(30:10):
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.