Diana Poitiers went down in history not only as one of the most beautiful women of her era, but also as the uncrowned queen of France. A significant age difference did not prevent her from becoming the favorite of King Henry II and keeping him close to her for a long time. However, it is in vain to look for greed or a thirst for power in her actions: unlike the subsequent mistresses of the French (and not only) monarchs, Diana de Poitiers did not love the king, but the man, in Henry.
Origin and early life
According to experts in the field of genealogy, the genus Poitiers is much older than the royal dynasty of Valois, which is a side branch of the more ancient genus Capetings. In any case, relations between two noble dynasties occurred: Aimar de Poitiers was married to María Valois, who was the illegitimate daughter of King Louis XI (1461-1483). Their son, Jean, married Jeanne de Batarna, the representative of another noble French family. Their first child was Diana de Poitiers.
Unfortunately, the exact date of her birth is unknown. There are two options that have been equally successful among historians: either September 3, 1499, or January 9, 1500. Close ties with the ruling dynasty allowed the early deceased Jeanne de Batarna to entrust the care of Diana to another daughter of King Louis - Anna de God.
One of the main concerns of the girl’s teacher was finding a suitable husband for her. This was found quite quickly: at the age of thirteen, Diana got married to Louis de Breese. This marriage is supposed to be no different from other marriage unions of the Middle Ages: Diana’s feelings were not taken into account, it was only about making a good party. Louis de Breese at the time of marriage was 56 years old.
Happy marriage
Paradoxically, such an unequal marriage became happy for Diana Poitiers. According to contemporaries, the young wife was notoriously rare for that time. For a marriage that lasted nearly eighteen years, she cheated on her husband only once, but this episode happened against Diana’s desire.
In 1525, the connable (the highest state office in the then France) Carl de Bourbon joined the troops of the main enemy of France - the Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain Carl Habsburg. Not only the criminal, but also his closest friends were punished on charges of treason, and that was precisely the father of Diana de Poitiers. To save her father, she immediately went to Paris and got an audience with the king. The life of Jean de Poitiers was saved at the cost of betraying his daughter to her husband. A traitor's friend was pardoned. But after that, Jean de Poitiers, just in case, isolated his daughter in the remote castle of Saint-Valle: the risk that she would replenish the staff of the king’s numerous mistresses was too high.
Louis de Breuse forgave his wife. In the summer of 1531, he died at an advanced age. Two daughters remained from this marriage: Louise and Francoise.
Political battles and the first meeting
As already mentioned, in the first half of the 16th century, the political life of Europe passed under the sign of confrontation between France and the vast territories of the Holy Roman Empire and Spain united under one scepter. Charles V of Habsburg sought to surround France with his lands and thereby deprive her of independence.
In 1525, the Battle of Pavia, unsuccessful for France, took place. The army of King Francis I was utterly defeated, and he himself experienced an unprecedented humiliation, being captured. Among the conditions imposed by Karl was the payment of a huge indemnity and the marriage of Francis to his sister. Francis could not fulfill the requirements of the winner while in captivity, so he was released, but he had to send his children as hostages to pledge the execution of the contract.
The princes were escorted by a huge retinue, including Diana de Poitiers, among the Queen's maids of honor. All the attention of the courtiers was directed to Francis, the eldest son and heir to the throne: he was encouraged in every way, given advice on how to behave in captivity. Henry did not seem to exist. Only Diana kissed the eleven-year-old prince and uttered a few parting words.
Younger son
If the French nobility knew that Francis the Younger would not become king, but would die in 1536, after drinking a cup of cold water, then Henry would have received much more attention. But the little prince was not lucky: at first his mother died, then four years of Spanish captivity. And if everyone was worried about the health and fate of the dauphin, then Henry was remembered only for the sake of politeness.
Contemporaries note a dramatic change that happened to the prince over the years of captivity. As a child, he was a cheerful and sociable boy, and returned a gloomy and reserved young man who clearly harbored a grudge against his father. The king, worried about the condition of his son, asked Diane de Poitiers to take up his education. According to another version, Henry himself asked his father about this.
The fact that the young prince experiences certain feelings for a woman much older than himself, it became clear to the whole court during the knightly tournament in 1531. According to the terms of such fights, each knight had to choose a lady, for whose honor he promised to fight. Henry, without hesitation, chose Diana.
Catherine de Medici
The widowed Diana de Poitiers with two children in her arms could not become the wife of a blood prince, and everyone understood this. Henry might have dreamed of such an outcome, but the power of tradition was so great that no love could break it. After a careful study of foreign policy problems and family trees, King Francis appointed the youngest son, Italian Catherine of the noble Florentine clan Medici.
Sources unanimously claim that Catherine was extremely ugly. The surviving portraits seem to confirm these estimates, but at the same time, the prince's wife was smart, able to keep herself and was pleasant in communication. King Francis still preferred to see that the prince would spend his wedding night in bed with his wife.
The relationship between Catherine and Diana de Poitiers, of course, was not smooth. Particularly offensive to the wife of the prince was that Henry wore the colors of his mistress (Diana never parted with white and black clothes in mourning for her husband), decorated her clothes with the monogram DH (initials of the names Diana and Henri) and even at his coronation gave the favorite a more honorable place than his wife.
Favorite Fight
The French courtyard of the 16th century is a rather eclectic phenomenon: medieval simplicity was not yet in abundance, but luxury trends of the times of absolutism have already appeared. Even a century earlier, the frank appearance of royal mistresses in public would seem reprehensible. King Francis, a lover of sensual pleasures, did not particularly care about human rumor. His favorite Anna d'Etamp not only controlled the court life, but also actively intervened in politics. Either because she sympathized with the Protestants, or because of withered beauty, the king's mistress was nicknamed the Old Mushroom.
Meanwhile, the position of Diana de Poitiers at court became so strong that Anna was seriously afraid for her title as the first beauty of France. She did her best to denigrate her rival, not disdaining a custom pamphlet, which ridiculed Diana’s far-fetched attempts to hide her age with various cosmetics. Apparently, the speculations of Anna d'Etampé were so conflicted with reality that the pamphlet had no success.
The dispute between the two favorites was decided by time: in 1547, King Francis died. He was the only one who connected Anna with the court world, and her position immediately shook. It soon became clear that shortly before the death of her lover, Anna made contact with his worst enemy, Charles V, hoping to secure a comfortable old age. Heinrich immediately sent his father's favorite from Paris and selected the diamonds that Diana Poitiers presented. She, contrary to public expectations, did not take revenge on her rival.
Diana de Poitiers: the secret of beauty
Anne d'Etamps paflet is interesting in that the accusation of witchcraft slipped through it. For the medieval world, this is a very serious accusation, for which they could easily be sent to the scaffold. The beauty of forty-year-old Diana really caused a lot of questions and a desire to imitate her. However, Diana Poitiers did not possess any magic secret of her youth. Her secret was only in careful self-care and exercise. For example, Diana’s morning began with a bath of ice water, after which she went on horseback riding in any weather, which lasted at least three hours.
Subsequently, the beauty of Diana became canonical. All noble ladies have long tried to comply with the following rules:
- skin, teeth, hands should be white;
- eyes, eyebrows, eyelashes - black;
- lips, cheeks, nails - pink;
- body, hair, fingers - long;
- teeth, ears, feet - short;
- lips, waist, feet - thin;
- hands, hips, calves - full;
- nipples, nose, head - small.
Queen without a crown
When King Francis died and Henry inherited the throne, Diana de Poitiers was at the top of power. During her husband’s life, she showed that, in addition to beauty, she has a remarkable mind, giving him valuable advice on managing estates. Now Diana turned out to be an important political player.
Never before has a favorite reached such heights. Even the participation of Anna d'Etamp was limited to her concern for the Protestants and recommendations that Francis listened carefully to, but did not always follow. Many foreign monarchs, knowing about the influence of Diana on French politics, entered into correspondence with the favorite. Even the pope did not stand aside.
Through the hands of Diana Poitiers passed many appointments. She personally determined to whom to give this or that post. The real queen all along remained aloof. But Diana was not at all indifferent to her fate. On the contrary, knowing that Catherine for some reason could not give France an heir, the omnipotent favorite took up the matter personally. She gave the unlucky rival various advice, did not allow Henry to come to her, urging him to fulfill his conjugal duty. As a result, Diana managed to find a doctor who managed to help. Catherine de Medici gave birth to ten children. Diana de Poitiers was entrusted with the task of raising them.
Unexpected ending
Deprived of access to politics, Catherine gathered around herself a society of various fortunetellers and foretellers. Among them was the famous Nostradamus, who made several vague prophecies. Among them was a prediction of the death of Henry at the age of forty.
Raised in chivalric novels, Henry loved to organize tournaments in compliance with all medieval rules. The year 1559 was not an exception when he turned forty. Catherine begged her husband to refuse participation this time. Even Diana seemed to believe the predictions, but Henry was adamant.
Belief in prediction in those days was very strong. Gabriel Montgomery, the knight Henry was supposed to fight, refused to enter the battlefield, fearing that it was he who was destined to kill the king. The angry king ordered the knight to immediately enter the battlefield.
At tournaments, they fought with wooden weapons, and the participants were protected by real armor. But the count unsuccessfully threw a spear: it broke, and one of the slivers stuck directly into the king's eye. He only managed to say that Montgomery was innocent, and lost consciousness. The agony lasted ten days, and on July 10, 1559, the king died in inhuman torment.
Last years
Catherine de Medici finally had the opportunity to get even with her favorite. First of all, she forbade Diana to be allowed into the room where the dying king was. Some time later, according to the tradition adopted in France, she demanded that Diana return all the jewelry and real estate donated to her. The strangeness was that Catherine even requested back what he gave to Diana Poitiers from personal funds. Favorite meekly returned all the items on the list. The vengeful queen even took Shansono - the favorite castle of Diana de Poitiers.
The story of Diana and Henry for many centuries attracted the attention of novelists. Since Platonic love was not honored in those years, many of them claimed that Henry was the father of the son of Diana de Poitiers. However, this is not true. Whether the love between them was platonic or carnal is still a matter of debate. But it is difficult to believe that from all the records that curious contemporaries left for any reason, the mention of such a high-profile event as the birth of a royal bastard disappeared. As already mentioned, Diana Poitiers had two children, and they were born in a legal marriage with Louis de Breese.
The last six years of her life, the uncrowned queen spent in the castle of Ane. She devoted them to the opening of various shelters, from which she required only one thing: to pray for the soul of Henry. Eyewitnesses reported that until her death, Diana retained her beauty. At the age of sixty-six, she did not change her habit and went on horseback riding. The horse Diana rode stumbled, and the former favorite, falling from her, broke her hip. Recovery was very difficult. Anticipating the imminent death, Diana ordered the sculptor a tombstone. April 26, 1566 she died.
Time turned to Diana even more merciless Catherine de Medici. For more than two hundred years, her embalmed remains were in the cathedral of Ane. But during the French Revolution, when the rebels wanted to destroy not only the monarchy, but everything connected with it, the temple was ruined, and the remains of Diana de Poitiers buried in a common grave. They were found only in 2008.