The mid-1500s in France was a great time to own a rope making business. Rope was used for a wide variety of tasks in everyday life, in agriculture and in the steadily expanding market for rope in the maritime world. In Lyons at this time there was a ropemaker named Pierre Charly who had built up a large and successful rope making operation. Charly he had a daughter named Louise who was such a gifted poet that she was able to overcome patriarchal restrictions against women and be acknowledged as a first-rate literary talent. She was dubbed “La Belle Cordière” or “The Fair Ropemaker” (this nick name was based on her father’s occupation — she seems to have had not a bit of interest in rope making herself!).
In 1534 Monsieur Charly had achieved enough success with his rope making that he was asked to appear before the city council of Lyons to assist in setting up a relief agency for the poor. Because Charly’s business was doing so well, Louise, one of his daughters, seems to have had the chance to go to a convent school. Louise was evidently a superb student because she went on to write poetry and was acclaimed as one of the most talented poets in Lyons.
And Louise was no garret-ensconced shrinking literary type. In addition to her literary skills she was an excellent rider and archer. And she evidently wasn’t afraid to test her skills in combat! Wearing armor and fighting on horseback she battled for the French crown prince Henry (later Henry II) at the siege of Perpignan in 1542. This warrior spirit earned her another nickname, “La Belle Amazone.”
Around 1550 Louise married Ennemond Perrin, whose profession was, you guessed it, ropemaker. Even though Louise’s life was a bit wrapped up in rope, she apparently had no interest in the twisted strands and concentrated on poetry. She formed a literary salon, which included fellow woman poets in Lyons. Louise’s work Sonnets was widely popular when it was published in 1555.
She fell in love with the poet Olivier de Magny when he arrived in Lyons and the two were said to be lovers. De Magny departed for Rome and when he didn’t return, Louise took another lover named Claude Rubys. Some time later, however, De Olivier did unexpectedly return to Lyons. This prompted Louise to immediately gave Rubys his walking papers so she could take up again with de Magny. But De Magny was terribly jealous of Louise’s affair with Rubys and wrote a nasty poem directed at Louise’s husband (who apparently was second fiddle to both de Magny and Rubys in Louise’s affections and maybe wondered why he was being attacked). Meanwhile, the spurned lover Rubys also defamed Louise in print, further ruining her reputation among the proper folk of Lyons.
When her husband died, she retired to their country home at Parcieu, where she remained until her death in 1566. She left the majority of her fortune — some of which was likely the result of her father’s and husband’s rope making businesses — to the poor.