Diane of Poitiers

Biography

Woman of Louis de Brézé

Diane was the oldest daughter of Jean of Poitiers († 1539), Viscount of Estoile, lord of Saint-Vallier, and Jeanne de Batarnay. Orphan from mother at six years, it spent its youths near Anne de Beaujeu, austere woman of head which had known to hold in respect the nobility during regency that it ensured for her brother Charles VIII.

It is on its mediation that the April 16th 1515, old of hardly fifteen years, it marries with Paris in the Hôtel of Bourbon Louis de Brézé, its elder of almost 40 years, grandson of Charles VII and Agnès Sorel, count de Maulevrier, Large-seneshal of Normandy and Large-huntsman of France; it will give him two girls:

Francoise de Brézé (January 1518 - 1574), buried in the abbey of Saint-Yved of Braine, countess of Maulévrier, baroness of Mauny and Sérignan; married on January 19th, 1538 in the vault from Louvre in Paris with Robert IV of Marck, said " The Lord of Florenges" , duke of Bubble, count de Braine and of Maulévrier, dead poisoned in 1558.
Louise de Brézé (1521 - January 1577) wife of the duke Claude II of Aumale, brother of Marie de Guise.

In 1524, his/her father is accused of complicity in the treason of the Connétable of Bourbon, son-in-law of Anne de Beaujeu. Become the principal scapegoat of the business, it on the scaffold that he learns his grace, is in extremis granted by the king in recognition of good and faithful services of Louis de Brézé who had alerted it besides on the plot. Jean of Poitiers will finish his days locked up (in a certain comfort) in the fortress of Loches.

It is salaried lady-in-waiting of Claude of France, then of Louise of Savoy and finally of Éléonore de Habsbourg. Nothing indicates that it was the mistress of François Ier, in spite of the rumors spread by its detractors sometimes included in certain biographies.

Favorite of Henri

Following the defeat of Pavia (1525), the François dolphin and his Henri junior, duke of Orleans and future Henri II, are given as an hostage to Charles Quint in exchange of their father. Because of the delay in the payment of the ransom, the two princes are soon subjected to a severe detention and spend almost four years (1526-1530) very isolated, in uncertainty as for their future. Henri plunges himself in the reading of Amadis de Gaulle, tale of chivalry. This experiment could contribute to show to him the " Ram " par excellence; in that which his/her father charges with doing his education of court when it returns to France. It has 11 years and it then 31. It is besides Diane who had given him her kiss of good-bye at the time of her departure for Spain, the Claude queen having died two years earlier. At the time of the tournament organized in 1531 for couronnment of Éléonore de Habsbourg, whereas the François dolphin greets his new mother-in-law as it should be, it is in front of Diane of Poitiers that Henri lowers his lance and his colors.

Louis de Brézé dies the July 23rd 1531 with Anet and Diane definitively adopts for her behavior the colors of a widow, which Henri II will take as a starting point later for his delivered ordinary (black and white striped of gold). Its acute sense of the financial interests appears as of this moment. She obtains to be made pour the pledges which her husband received under governor of Normandy and large-seneshal, taking itself the title of " sénéchale of Normandie". She obtains to manage the goods of her daughters and to perceive the incomes of them. " Set in procedure and surrounded men of loi" , it goes until the lawsuit to try to preserve the grounds which her husband held in Apanage. François Ier the assistance to tergiversate thanks to letters patent ruling that it can preserve the incomes and profits of these grounds until the property of is established. Diane will be able all her life to make thrive her fortune.

Henri II marries Catherine de Médicis in 1533. Louis de Brézé and Diane had supported the choice of the back grand-daughter of Laurent Splendid the, considered as a “girl of merchants” by the opponents with the union. The large maternal father of Catherine (girl of Madeleine of the Tower of Auvergne) is the brother of the paternal grandmother of Diane; they are thus relationships. It is besides as much in semi “mother-in-law” protective semi-abusive whom as a rival that Diane aggravates Catherine. It is indeed it which pushes Henri II to multiply the night visits with his wife when the rumors of repudiation rise in front of the prolonged sterility of the couple. It is made entrust the education of their children, whom it preserves until 1551. His/her Francoise daughter is with the orders of the house of Catherine de Médicis.

One generally estimates according to their correspondence which it is in 1538 that Diane becomes the mistress of Henri, promoted dolphin two years before by the death of his/her brother. Intelligent, impassioned, of nobility, conscious of its prestige and its influence, it is twenty years older than her lover. Their love affair, sometimes evoked obligingly by writers like Pierre de Brantôme, will remain in fact of an extreme discretion. The influence that Diane exerts on Henri is complex: definitely older and more cultivated than him and having in addition partly educated it, it is as much its godmother, her lady object of platonic love and her adviser that her mistress. Henri II had few incartades notorious, very of enough short duration. The best known ones are Filippa Duci, Jane Stuart and Nicole de Savigny. First, met at the time of a campaign to the Piedmont, it will have a girl, future the Diane de France (born in 1538), which makes conceal the rumors concerning its possible sterility. Sent in France, it will be taken in hand by Diane of Poitiers and will be named after it. The connection with the second, controlling Marie Stuart, seems to be encouraged by Anne de Montmorency which sought to draw aside the sénéchale of Normandy too favorable to the Guise. Goes away temporarily from the court for health reason, it returned in catastrophe informed by the Own way and made, in agreement with Catherine de Médicis, to return Janet Stuart to Scotland after the birth of a son (Henri of Angouleme, 1551 - 1586). The son that Henri II had with Nicole de Savigny, Henri of Saint-Remi (before 1558-1621), was titrated but not recognized because the king preserved doubts about his paternity. Time of François Ier, the sénéchale of Normandy first of all shares the influence at the court with the duchess of Stamps, mistress royal: each one of them has its party, and their competition causes several scandalous scenes. With died of the king in 1547, tough in its hatreds, Diane makes exile the duchess and becomes all-powerful: Catherine of Médicis, whose position was consolidated since it put at the world a heir (1544), must however concede its ascending with favorite, who is made in 1548 duchess of Valentinois, title usually decreed with the princes of blood or foreigners, then duchess of Stamps in 1553. She surrounds herself by a brilliant court but nevertheless more austere than that of François Ist Henri makes him gift of jewels of the crown and the royal property of Chenonceau on which she charges Philibert Delorme, its architect, to build one of the most beautiful works of the time. At the time of the sacring of Catherine in 1549, it chairs the ceremony vêtue delivered princesses of blood. Many comments were made on the ambiguity of the Monogram of the king Henri II, a H capital letter surrounded by two half-circles which can as well be interpreted like two C or two D. One pointed out that on the monogram of the cabinet of Catherine de Médicis with Blois, C is marked without ambiguity. Until the death of the king, Diane exerts a great influence on him which it takes care to preserve. She supports in turn Anne de Montmorency and the party of the Own way. Convinced catholic, it pushes the king to repress the Protestant .

End of a career

When the king is mortally wounded in 1559, Catherine de Medicis prohibits any visit of Diane to her bedside. With its death, it is not allowed with the funeral and the regent obliges it to exchange the castle of Chenonceau against that of Chaumont. Diane also restores the jewels of the crown supplied with an inventory. She withdraws herself in Anet where she dies at the 67 years age. His/her daughter made set up a monument with her statue in the church, but in 1795 at the time of the Révolution, its tomb was profaned and its remainders moved in a tomb beside the church, except for its hair that the members of the revolutionary committee divided themselves in remembering. Its sarcophagus was converted into trough, and the lead base was used by the revolutionists to manufacture " patriotic balls ".

Diane and arts

Patron like all the large ones of his time, Diane of Poitiers inspired several painters and sculptors, like the Primatice or François Clouet. They sometimes represented it under the features of the goddess huntress as on table " Diane of Poitiers in Diane" (School of Fontainebleau - Museum of the Hunting of Senlis). Its contribution to architecture by the means in particular of Philibert of the Elm which it made name superintendent of the royal buildings is well-known. It protected also various men of letters in turn, like Ronsard.

Others

Its Lettres was published (1866) by Georges Guiffrey.

David Miller turned in 1956 Diane of Poitiers , a typically Hollywood film where it is incarnated by Lana Turner vis-a-vis Roger Moore in the role of Henri II.

Sources

See too

Charles VII of France
Henri II of France
Charlotte de Valois
Louis de Brézé
Jacques de Brézé
List of the mistresses of the kings de France

External bonds

Diane of Poitiers
Diane of Poitiers, rams Star
town hall of Etoile-sur-Rhône

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