Clement Marot, a French poet, born in Ca-hors in 1495, died in Turin in September, 1544. He succeeded his father Jean Marot, who was also a poet, as valet-de-chambre to Francis I., whom he accompanied to Italy, and was wounded and made prisoner at the battle of Pavia in 1525. On recovering his liberty and returning to Paris, he was imprisoned for a time on the charge of heresy, at the instigation, as has been stated, of Diana of Poitiers. In 1535, the charge being revived, he retired to the court of Margaret, titular queen of Navarre, and went thence to Ferrara and Venice. In 1536 he returned to Paris, having abjured the heretical doctrines at Lyons. His metrical translations of the Psalms, which were very popular, and were sung by the king and the whole court, being condemned as heretical by the Sorbonne, he again fled in 1543 to Geneva, where he added 20 psalms to the 30 previously published. He then went to Turin, where he died in great poverty. His poems consist of epistles, rondeaux, ballads, epigrams, etc. His most important longer productions, besides the translations of the Psalms, were L'Enfer, a satire upon the lawyers, and a new- version of the Roman de la rose.

His son Michel was also a poet, though much inferior to him; and a complete edition of the works of the three Marots was published at the Hague in 1731, in 4 vols. 4to. The works of Clement Marot have been frequently reprinted.