The Serpent and the Moon: Two Rivals for the Love of a Renaissance King (27 page)

Seated behind the king, the queen and her ladies, including Diane de Poitiers, the new dauphin and dauphine were much in evidence. During the fifteen-day festivities that followed, Henri once again dedicated his lance to Diane at the tourney ground, distinguishing himself by his courage and skill, and showing a dignity appropriate to his new status.

On January 1, 1537, the day of Madeleine’s wedding, the king canceled the treaties of Madrid and Cambrai, declaring that he had signed them both under duress. A few days later, Alessandro de’ Medici, who had been created Duke of Urbino by his father, Clement VII, and appointed ruler of Florence by his father-in-law, the Emperor Charles V, was murdered. As the only rightful heir to the duchy, Catherine de’ Medici placed her hopes in the forces of the Florentine exiles, led by her uncle, Filippo Strozzi. She, and all the Valois, hoped Strozzi would prevent the emperor from installing another puppet ruler in Florence. As
the French king’s forces were occupied elsewhere and unable to come to his aid, Strozzi’s army had no reserves to support him against the imperial forces. His defeat destroyed Henri and Catherine’s chances of regaining control of Florence.

Too delicate for the hard life of Scotland, Madeleine died just six months after her wedding, and François mourned another of his children. Following his sister Madeleine’s death, Henri rejoined Montmorency’s advance force in Piedmont. Although the new dauphin was named nominal commander of the army, the decisions were still Montmorency’s, by now a trusted and sincere friend to the eighteen-year-old prince. The French advance into Savoy and Piedmont was so successful that these conquered territories could make a fair exchange for the duchy of Milan. Henri might get his duchy after all.

While his companions amused themselves taking liberties with the town beauties, the dauphin accepted an invitation from a local squire, Gian Antonio Duci, to dine at his house. Duci introduced the dauphin to his sister Filippa, and a captivated Henri spent the night in her arms. Early the following morning, as so often happens in wartime, the young lover left with his troops.

A
S a result of the French victory in Savoy and Piedmont, a truce was signed between Charles V and François I. The king gave to his youngest son, Charles, duc d’Angoulême, Henri’s title of Orléans, and promised him the duchy of Milan. This was a harsh blow to Henri as Milan had always been promised to him. Once again, his father appeared to be favoring another of his brothers.

Charles was everything Henri was not: bright, amusing, charming, and flirtatious. He also took over the role of his late brother as the constant opponent of Henri and Diane, and joined Anne d’Etampes in her efforts to lessen Diane’s influence on the court.

While waiting for the pope’s signature to seal the treaty with the emperor, the king wished to make a memorable event of showing his gratitude to Montmorency, and to remunerate him for his military expenses. On February 10, 1538, François I summoned the entire court
to Moulins, former seat of the traitor Charles de Bourbon. François pronounced Anne de Montmorency Constable of France, and presented him with his sword of office. Further, the new Constable was appointed the king’s lieutenant within and without France. This simple man was henceforth head of the armed forces and minister for affairs of state. No man in the kingdom held more power or was more trusted by the king. Thereafter, in the order of court precedence, Montmorency would rank directly behind the Princes of the Blood. Henri, eighteen years old, rejoiced at his friend’s triumph as if it were his own. The two had become inseparable. The forty-five-year-old Anne de Montmorency had taken the place of a father in Henri’s life, and, together with Diane de Poitiers, Montmorency was seen as the dauphin’s closest friend.

After his night of passion with Filippa Duci, Henri took Montmorency into his confidence. Montmorency promptly sent the new marshal, his trusted friend René de Montjehan, back to Piedmont to discover what result, if any, there was of the tryst. The news flew around the court—Filippa Duci was expecting Henri’s child. The dauphin was so proud to know he was able to be a father that he constantly demanded news of the mother’s progress. With his military success and his paternal ability no longer in doubt, Henri was treated as a hero by the court ladies. Diane was chief among his admirers and arranged festivities, dances, and concerts for him. She teased out of him the tales of his military exploits and his conquests—even that of Filippa Duci. With Montmorency away from court at the peace negotiations with Charles V, Diane took complete charge of her young cavalier and involved him in her brilliant society.

While the court rejoiced, there were no glad tidings for Catherine de’ Medici since the news of her husband’s child put the onus of sterility squarely on her shoulders. Now that Henri was dauphin, it was his duty to give France an heir, and if Catherine could not provide one, another princess could be found to replace her. Brantôme writes that a number of forceful voices at court urged both the king and the dauphin to repudiate Catherine and send her home to Florence.

Some months later, it became known that Diane de Poitiers had in her care at Anet a baby girl, who was to be called Diane de France.
Filippa Duci had given birth to Henri’s daughter in a convent, and she would remain there for the rest of her life.
³

Henri brought his daughter home to France, giving her the name of his beloved friend and trusting that she would be brought up by his “Lady” with the same care as she devoted to her own daughters. Diane de France grew up to be attractive and intelligent, rivaling her foster mother in her skill with horses. Henri so wanted the world to think she was the child of Diane de Poitiers that when he became king, he decreed Diane de France legitimate. Thereafter she signed herself “
Diane Legitimée de France
.” At fourteen she married Orazio (Horace) Farnese, Duke of Castro, but he died young in battle. She returned home and remained under Diane de Poitiers’ protection until she married François de Montmorency, son of the Constable.
⁴

The dauphin promised to care for the child who would have the rank of a princess, and gave the mother a generous dowry. Henri decided that Diane was to be the baby’s godmother and bring up the little girl as her own. Thus, a scandal was avoided. By accepting the baby, Diane de Poitiers demonstrated her sense of responsibility for anything to do with Henri. It was a sign of how things would be in the future with all his children. Later writers who claimed Filippa Duci was just the baby’s wet nurse, and Diane the real mother, have not taken her character into consideration, nor have they studied the accounts of Montmorency’s surveillance of the mother’s progress in Piedmont. That inveterate gossip and court chronicler, Brantôme, believed the child was Diane and Henri’s, but it is not so.

H
ENRI was now eighteen; Diane de Poitiers, thirty-seven. The shy young man with the dark, hooded eyes, and the splendid athlete’s body under the careless clothes, developed a new confidence and a bearing appropriate to his status. His appearance improved
along with his manners, and he freely expounded his views on world affairs. He began to exhibit his slow, careful decision-making process and the same loyal obstinacy with which he would stand by his friends, and Diane, all his life.

Had Henri been born heir to the throne, he would have been a more natural leader from the beginning. However, he had grown up knowing that his elder brother, more talented and charming, was also the more loved by his one parent. Henri had learned many lessons during his childhood imprisonment, not least among them to stifle his emotions. Now he was learning that his thoughts and feelings were very important. There was no doubt who was responsible for the dramatic change in the new dauphin of France.

Diane was ideally suited for her future role by Henri’s side. Her consciousness of her distinguished ancestry, and her sound education in the house of a king’s daughter and former regent, formed the bedrock of her self-image. Marriage to the wise Louis de Brézé, Grand Sénéchal of Normandy, had taught her much and had made her a woman and a mother. The most recent years as a widow at court had polished and perfected this ideal of a French Renaissance woman. Well-bred, cultured, educated, and dazzlingly beautiful, she understood the world of men: politics, power, and money. Diane had been taught by her father from her earliest years to consolidate the holdings of her house and position and, if possible, to improve on them. She knew how to use her intelligence and charm to please those she loved, and she knew how to achieve her ambitions. This was neither more nor less than what was expected of a lady in the sixteenth century with her breeding and background.

Henri was still a quiet romantic, living in a lost world of gallantry. The chivalric concept of “
amour de loin
”—“love from afar,” was one he understood and revered, and Diane would have shared his respect for that tradition.

Henri’s adoration of Diane de Poitiers had always been plain for all to see, and at first she had responded by gently mothering him and giving him the attention and affection he craved. She encouraged his self-confidence and guided his interrupted education. Henri was a quiet intellectual, and their love grew out of a meeting of minds.

It is not certain when the relationship between the gauche, highly sensitive, lonely youth and the beautiful widow developed into physical love. Diane and Henri went to great lengths all their lives to observe decorum in public and to keep their
affaire
away from prying eyes. Most historians who have written about the couple are men, who cannot believe that a woman such as Diane might have genuinely fallen in love with her young
chevalier
. Yet what could be more attractive to a beautiful lady of her age than the constant homage of a handsome, virile young prince? Most historians estimate that they became lovers during the last months of 1536 or early 1537, when Henri was seventeen or eighteen.

Diane de Poitiers’ capitulation to Henri probably took place at the Constable Anne de Montmorency’s favorite seat, the château Ecouen.
⁵
This marvel of the Renaissance, built for Anne, is located about twenty kilometers north of Paris. A treasure trove of exquisite furniture and
objects d’art
, it was famous even in those days for its collection of erotic artifacts, said to have made even Rabelais blush. Members of the court often stayed there as guests, and Montmorency—one of Diane’s oldest friends through her late husband—had included his young friend, Prince Henri, in their circle. There is a charming little poem Diane wrote and sent to Henri following their first morning of love
⁶
in a room where the light flooded in through windows painted with scenes from Eros and Psyche.