The Serpent and the Moon: Two Rivals for the Love of a Renaissance King

W
hen I was twenty-one, I traveled from Vienna to London to study history, history of art, and interior design. I decorated my small apartment entirely in black and white, drove a black and white Mini, and acquired a black and white kitten. When my mother heard that I also wore only black and white, she thought it time for her to visit. I had no real reason for adopting my monochrome lifestyle except that I imagined it chic and different. Then my mother told me about Diane de Poitiers, our ancestor, who famously styled her whole life—and her country—in black and white.

Throughout my youth, my mother had always recounted to us children stories from history involving our ancestors—“the Saints and the Sinners,” as we called them—but never did she mention Diane de Poitiers. This grand, sixteenth-century French lady was a king’s mistress, and although we were descended from her younger daughter by her legitimate union, my religious mama considered Diane an unsuitable subject for chaste bedtime stories. Once she had been informed of
my lapse into a chiaroscuro world, it was time for bedtime stories of a grown-up nature.

Now I had a real reason for my black and white lifestyle. Learning about Diane and her use of black and white influenced me so strongly that I even planted a black and white garden in her honor. I searched for and found black flowers—irises, tulips, violas—to put into beds shaped in squares, triangles, or diamonds, all framed in box hedges. I read everything I could find about my heroine. Her character was like her palette—contrasting and uncompromising; there were no gray areas with Diane de Poitiers. I incorporated her story into my second book,
Cupid and the King
, among those of other royal paramours. I have given many lectures about her and the time in which she lived—the Reformation and the French Renaissance, a time of persecution and enlightenment, black and white.

In France, Diane de Poitiers is a household name, but to other readers she is less well known. I hope this book will put that right. Diane’s love story is the greatest in French royal history. She lived at a time of giants: François I, the Renaissance king of France; the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, who ruled more territory than anyone in the known world; Henry VIII, king of England, who would cause bloody schism in his country on account of his passion for Anne Boleyn; the two Medici popes, Leo X and Clement VII, whose machinations swung the delicate balance of power between France and the Holy Roman Empire; and the Infidel Sultan—Suleiman the Magnificent, ruler of the Ottoman Empire. Europe was just emerging from the darkness and superstition of the Middle Ages into the light of the Renaissance, and brave captains of discovery sailed treacherous, uncharted seas to bring home knowledge of the unknown and spoils from the New World. During this time of religious upheaval and brutality, enlightenment and progress, the court of France was the most civilized in the world, and all other rulers strived to imitate it.

Diane’s story spans the lives of two French monarchs, father and son. François I was the dashing, heroic “Chevalier King,” whose
son, the darkly handsome, silent Henri d’Orléans, was a child-prisoner and hostage, unloved by his father and unexpected heir to the throne. Eighteen years Diane’s junior, this emotionally deprived warrior-knight would love Diane de Poitiers from the age of six until his tragic death at forty-two, calling out her name. For reasons of state and finance, it was arranged by François and Pope Clement VII that Henri should marry the pope’s cousin, the heiress Catherine de’ Medici. On the wedding night, Henri did his duty but was not prepared to do more. He retreated to be with his “Lady,” Diane. Intelligent but unattractive, Catherine stood no chance of winning the love of a man totally in thrall to a beautiful older woman. It was her tragedy that she fell in love with Henri the moment they met. Catherine de’ Medici suffered the jealousy of thwarted passion throughout her married life. Despised and mocked by the French court for her bourgeois origins, she took for her motto the words “Hate and Wait”—and wait she did, like a still, dangerous serpent in the grass.

Diane de Poitiers is popularly known in France as the mistress of two kings, father and son. I hope I have successfully disproved that fantasy. Of course it makes a better story that Diane was the lover of two kings, and many authors have adopted it. Most of the fabrication stems from nineteenth-century histories, and I have tried to dispel these fables whenever I found them. There is a saying that history is “oft-repeated lies.” I may have inadvertently included some myself, and for this I apologize.

The nineteenth-century authors who embellished Diane’s life didn’t let the truth stand in the way of a good story. Much the same can be said of our press today. The sixteenth century, too, had its share of contemporary chroniclers or gossip columnists, who often wrote what their audience wanted to hear and thus are not always reliable. But they give the flavor and mood of the court, and for this reason I have included a number of such stories and annotated their sources. I have also used much of the correspondence from the time, although impersonal subject matter can disguise the writer’s true character. Diane de Poitiers instructed Henri to destroy her letters, in line with the chivalric
custom of the time. As a result, her own words do not usually show her to be a warm and passionate woman, except in the few poems which her lover did not burn. Her surviving correspondence is factual, to the point, and relates chiefly to her business interests. Her letters concerning the royal children are clearsighted and practical, whereas Catherine de’ Medici’s voluminous correspondence sheds greater light on her Machiavellian nature.

Diane’s character had as many phases as the moon—her alter ego—whereas her rival Catherine de’ Medici was famously duplicitous. I have tried to examine both women in detail so that the reader can know them within the kaleidoscopic fabric of their time. I do not seek to exonerate Diane as a partner to the king’s adultery, nor from her greed or her support of the king’s religious persecutions. She was a woman of her time. But since I descend just as directly from Catherine de’ Medici as I do from Diane de Poitiers, I have no personal interest in damning the one while glorifying the other.
¹I simply want to tell the story of a beautiful, cultured, and fascinating woman. Diane de Poitiers lived in a
ménage à trois
, for even at the most intimate moments, there were always three in that royal marriage—the king, his wife, and his mistress.

I am not a qualified historian, but rather a teller of stories from history. My initial inspiration was my late mother who read History, one of the few women admitted to the University of Vienna at that time. We children needed no television; our mother would enthrall us with her tales of the past. She has always been my muse. Later, I had the privilege to be encouraged and advised by Elizabeth (Lady) Longford, to whom I shall always be grateful. There are a number of others I wish to thank: my agents Sam Haskell and Suzanne Gluck for press-ganging me into writing another book when I was content creating and presenting lectures. I am grateful to my editor, Trish Todd, who had faith, gave never-ending constructive criticism, and waited patiently for me to finish. I would also like to thank the rest of the team at Touchstone who have worked so hard to bring this
book to fruition: my copy chief Martha Schwartz; Joy O’Meara, the designer; Cherlynne Li who designed the cover; and Brett Valley, invaluable assistant to Trish Todd. On the publishing side, I am grateful to Mark Gompertz, my publisher; Chris Lloreda, deputy publisher; and the indefatigable Marcia Burch, publicity director. Thank you all.

In writing this book I have relied on a number of people to help me locate Renaissance texts. I have also had assistance with translations from Old French, especially when the original document is written in script. Much gratitude is due to the conscientious Kate Maxwell for diligently researching many obscure references for me, especially in Old French, and deciphering them. My thanks go to Dr. Alison Adams, Reader in French at the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, University of Glasgow, for recommending Kate, and for her help with the translations of poetry and mottos from Old French, and especially with unraveling Renaissance devices. I am grateful to Jonathan Spangler, who gave me forty excellent hours of his time for research. Gratitude goes also to Dr. Alexander S. Wilkinson of the
St. Andrews Sixteenth Century French Vernacular Book
. Otherwise, the research and translation work was my own, and I accept full responsibility.

I am greatly indebted to Robert J. Knecht, Emeritus Professor of French History at the University of Birmingham. As one of the acknowledged authorities and authors on Renaissance France, Professor Knecht took time to correspond with me and never failed to reply to my many foolish queries, as well as sending me helpful papers. He also was kind enough to read the manuscript and remove the worst of my mistakes—any that remain are my own.

Many libraries have helped me, especially the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, the musée de Chantilly, the château de Versailles, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the London Library, the British Library, and a number of foreign archives, notably the Niccolini in Florence. I am grateful to Diane de Poitiers’ French biographer, the renowned historian Ivan Cloulas, for his generous advice and help. Maximo Gainza-Bemberg deserves my thanks for allowing me access
to his deep knowledge of the Age of Chivalry, for helping me to understand many obscure customs and practices of the time, and for his poetic rendering of medieval poetry.

At Anet, Diane de Poitiers’ favorite residence, I am once again indebted to the Yturbe family for allowing me into their home to seek and absorb the spirit of Diane and photograph her possessions. The same gratitude goes to the Menier family, who own Diane’s other great house, Chenonceau, and who gave me access to their library. I am indebted to Professor Philip Bobbitt for his insights into the wars of the first half of the sixteenth century and for his patient explanations. For Latin translations of mottos and for encouragement, I am most grateful to Claudia Jenkins and to my son, Freddie Windsor. For taking the time to draw all the graphics of the many symbols and devices throughout I would like to thank my cousin Prince Johannes von Auersperg. Another member of my family, my brother Freddy von Reibnitz, was, as always, my first reader. For the maps, accuracy of dates, and all genealogy and tables, I am once again completely in the debt of Leo van der Pas, who tracked down even the most doubtful references I gave him, and read through the text. For illustrations in private collections, I am grateful to Her Majesty The Queen, the Earl of Derby, Baron Guy de Rothschild, the Earl of Spencer, Prince William Lobkowicz, and the Earl of Harewood. Jo Walton and Julia Harris-Voss have been an invaluable help in tracking down the illustrations.

For allowing me to stay for months so that I could write my first draft in her guesthouse, undisturbed, I am indebted to my dear friend Sibilla Clark. Others must be mentioned for their help, advice, and encouragement: Katie Garrod; Emma Kitchener-Fellowes; Julian Fellowes; Leoni Frieda; Nicholas Chance; Prince Michel de Grèce; Princess Mimi Romanoff for advice and anecdotes; and the kind team at SONY in the United States who solved my worst computer crash. I apologize to anyone I have failed to mention.

The person who deserves the most gratitude is my dear husband, who has tolerated my silences, my absences, and all my frustrations. With heroic forbearance he did not complain when I had no time for
him, and he never failed to listen and encourage me. Furthermore, he is a stickler for grammar and corrected mine.

To him I dedicate this book.

HRH P
RINCESS
M
ICHAEL OF
K
ENT
September 25, 2003

_____________________

1
. See the family tree on page xviii.

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