In the Footsteps of Diane de Poitiers and Catherine de Medici

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In the Footsteps of Diane de Poitiers and Catherine de Medici

Two of the most famous women of the French court, Diane de Poitiers and Catherine de’ Medici fought long and hard for the love of the French king. But who, ultimately, won?

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The story begins on a frigid morning in March 1526 at the border of France and Spain, where eight-year-old François, heir to the French throne, and his seven-year-old brother Henri, Duc d’Orléans, bade their noble entourage goodbye before surrendering to the royal Spanish guard in exchange for their father, King François I. The latter had been captured by Holy Roman Emperor King Charles V of Spain’s Imperial troops during a military campaign in Italy. Before they boarded their boat, a tall, graceful lady broke from the group and took the forlorn Henri in her arms, an act of kindness he would remember through four brutal years of captivity. After years of haggling, a ransom of gold and land was finally paid and the prisoners were released.

Putting the ordeal behind him, the dauphin François threw himself into the life of the French court. But 11-year-old Henri, deeply affected by his years in captivity, remained silent and taciturn, his only solace games and sport. Henri’s seriousness irritated his brilliant, libertine father, a king loved for his liveliness, elegance and charm. Hoping to civilise the youth, François I delivered Henri into the hands of 30-year-old Diane de Poitiers as his tutor, the very lady who had embraced the motherless prince as he left for Spain.

Diane de Poitiers’ symbol © Jennifer Ladonne

Tipping point

Henri proclaimed his admiration for Diane during his first jousting tournament. Following the courtly tradition of honouring a lady before the joust, Henri’s brother lowered his lance to his stepmother, Queen Eléanore. To the surprise of the court, Henri stopped not in front of the king’s mistress, the temperamental Anne de Pisseleu, but Diane de Poitiers, lovely in a dress of pale green that offset her red-gold hair. The court thought it a charming gesture from the 12-year-old prince and Diane accepted it as a mark of the boy’s remembrance of her long-ago embrace. No one, much less Diane, could have imagined this childhood crush would blossom into a lifelong love.

Diane De Poitiers by François Clouet

Marriage material

As second in line to the throne, Henri was a valuable pawn in the marriage game. Ever desirous of Italian plunder, François I saw 11-year-old orphan Catherine de’ Medici as a suitable bride: the child of a French princess and a scion of the powerful Florentine banking family – both dead within a week of her birth – she had claims to both territory and riches. Pope Clement VII, Catherine’s powerful uncle, welcomed the match, but despite her family’s vast wealth, power and influence, the French considered the marriage an appalling mésalliance because of her merchant origins.

Catherine’s brief life so far had been one of insecurity and loss. Raised mostly in a convent, she had learned the art of pleasing, and was aware of the shrewd, often murderous political manoeuvrings around her, all of which had prepared her for the treacheries of the French court. In 1533, as she made her way to Marseille, the 14-year-old royal bride-to-be was both elated by her luck and aware of the mighty task before her: to win the hearts of the haughty courtiers. She couldn’t know that her betrothed’s heart had already been won.

Henri barely acknowledged Catherine’s arrival. He dutifully consummated the marriage, but in the following months and years his indifference to her only grew. Though Catherine compensated for her lack of beauty with wit, intelligence, vivacity and the will to please, she did not please Henri. Her lack of both a dowry (Clément VII died within a year of the marriage, leaving it unpaid) and a royal lineage angered Henri.

In 1535, after his brother, François, dropped dead at 18, probably of tuberculosis, Henri and Catherine, both 17, became dauphin and dauphine of France. The inconsolable king, who’d ignored his second son, made Henri promise he’d strive to be more like his dead brother. In 1536, Henri went off to prove himself in military campaigns, and in 1537 he fathered a child in Italy, a girl whom he legitimised and named Diane de France, after his lover. This spelled disaster for Catherine: the blame for the couple’s lack of offspring became hers and hers alone.

Catherine de Medici’

It was at Henri’s return the next year that his courtly love for Diane blossomed into a genuine affair, a fact the court was quick to see. Despite all Catherine’s efforts, her favour with the king and her hard-won alliances with powerful nobles, Diane was ascendant. More humiliating still, in the ten years of their marriage she hadn’t born Henri a child. Diane, knowing that Henri could divorce Catherine in favour of a younger, more beautiful royal replacement – a shadow campaign urging just that was under way in court – was spurred to action. When Henri came to her chambers at night the skilled older woman would bring her lover to the heights of passion then send him packing to Catherine’s bed. When the deed was accomplished, he’d return to the arms of Diane. To the vast relief of everyone, Catherine finally conceived (she would bear ten children, nearly all of them sickly and short-lived). But now she had gratitude to add to her long list of humiliations at the hands of Diane.

As the favourite, courtiers and dignitaries showered Diane with honours and gifts, and in the bitterest degradation of all, at François I’s death, Diane became queen in all but title. No matter that Diane was nearly 50 and Henri 28 when he acceded the throne, he unabashedly proclaimed their love. Diane’s initial D, in the form of her symbol of a crescent moon, was entwined everywhere with Henri’s H. Henri consulted Diane on all matters of state and signed his decrees “HenriDiane”. He bestowed on her the crown jewels and the incomparable Château de Chenonceau, which Catherine had wanted for herself, among other properties and favours.

Château de Chenonceau © Jennifer Ladonne

The final revenge

But just as Diane and Henri’s alliance had officially begun at a jousting tournament, so too would it end. On June 30, 1559, a splinter from his opponent’s lance entered Henri’s right eye, exiting his temple. Through an agonising ten days, Catherine refused Diane entry to Henri’s chambers, ignoring his cries for his beloved. At the king’s death, Catherine banished Diane to the Château de Chaumont, once Catherine’s consolation prize in lieu of far more desirable properties. There Diane found the frightful evidence of the queen’s necromancy, practised with Cosimo Ruggeri, her Italian sorcerer, to divine and perhaps influence the fates of those she loved and hated.

In a gesture that belies Catherine’s reputation as a vengeful, poisonous queen, not only did she allow Diane to retreat to the Château d’Anet, Diane’s second estate where she’d spent so much time with Henri, but she permitted her to live out her life in relative peace, luxury and anonymity. Perhaps this was because Catherine’s best revenge was yet to come. As mother to the young kings François II, Charles IX and Henri III, she would skilfully play competing nobles against each other to smooth her way as de facto ruler and then regent of France from 1547 to 1559 “the age of Catherine de’ Medici” – and wield enormous influence until her death in 1589 at the age of 69.

From France Today Magazine

Henry II of France, by François Clouet

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American journalist Jennifer Ladonne, a Paris resident since 2004, writes regular features on French heritage, culture, travel, food & wine for France Today magazine, and is the restaurants and hotels reviewer for Fodor's Paris, France and Provence travel guides. Her articles have appeared in CNN Travel, AFAR, The Huffington Post, MSN and Business Insider.

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  •  Eleanor Darron
    2024-11-06 12:57:30
    Eleanor Darron
    I thoroughly enjoyed the history of Diane de Poitiers and Catherine. I have read two books about Diane and, in 2018, was fortunate to visit Château d'Anet.

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