Some would say he reigned in the shadow ofHenry II, armed with her beauty and intelligence. In any case, it is under this prism that Diane de Poitiers, lover and favorite of the King of France, is portrayed in the miniseries Diane de Poitiers, the almost queen. Through two episodes 105 minutes long, available on the Salto platform and the first of which aired on France 2 on Monday November 7, 2022, Isabelle Adjani embodies this woman of character, historically described as hungry for power and honors. However, today there is no evidence of this greed. On the occasion of this TV story, a look back on this mysterious and fascinating character of the Renaissance.
Go to court
Daughter of Jeanne de Batarnay and Jean de Poitiers – which refers to the locality of Peytieula, and not to the city of Poitiers — Diane de Poitiers was born in 1499. At the age of 15 she married Louis de Brézé, grand seneschal of Normandy, thirty-six years her senior. She was then made lady-in-waiting to Queen Claude of France, the king’s wife. Francis I, of the latter’s mother Louise of Savoy and finally of his second wife Éléonore de Habsbourg. Rumors of her then make her the mistress of this famous “King-Knight”, known for her many adventures. But today there is no evidence to confirm that she ever gave in to her advances.
⋙ The Chambord estate, mirror of the power of Francis I
He is the son of Francis I, Henry II, who will become her lover. In 1951 her husband died, with whom she had two daughters. Concerned for her financial interests and those of her children, Diane obtains her deceased husband’s temporary title, “sénéchale de Normandie”. She was therefore placed in the entourage of Prince Henri d’Orléans, future King of France, this time twenty years her junior – she was married in 1533 to Catherine de Medici. From the status of tutor, she would become her friend, confidant, then her lover and adviser from 1537 to 1538. This would make Diane de Poitiers the only favorite in French history to have been older than her royal lover her.
“More Than Queen”, King Henry II’s favourite
Because since his coronation in 1547, Henry II offered Diane de Poitiers all his favours: crown jewels, titles (duchess of Valentinois then of Étampes), property of the Château de Chenonceau, ambiguous monogram (the two semicircles surrounding the capital H can be interpreted as C or D)… His power at court, already consolidated at the time of Francis I – had had rivalries with his favorite Anne de Pisseleu , exiled on the death of the king – is growing. Henry II sees her as “the Lady par excellence” of chivalric romance Amadis of Gaulwhich he read during his imprisonment in Spain (1526-1530).
While the extent of his influence over the king is difficult to estimate, he shared his hostility towards him. Protestantism, heavily repressed during his reign. The official wife Caterina de Medici, also a relative of hers (Caterina’s maternal grandfather is the brother of Diana’s paternal grandmother) can only give way to her competitor. Especially since she is omnipresent: her daughter Françoise is in charge of the queen’s household. Faced with the rumors about the infertility of the royal couple, it is also Diane who would have pushed her lover to multiply the visits to her wife – she will finally give him ten children in twenty-five years of marriage.
⋙ The wars of religion, bloody conflict between Catholics and Protestants
When Henry II was wounded by a splinter in the eye during a tournament in 1559, Catherine de Medici forbade any visits by Diane de Poitiers to her bedside. And when the king died a few days later, he was unable to attend her funeral. The dowager queen demands her rival return the flamboyant Château de Chenonceau and a vast inventory, including the crown jewels. The fallen lover gets the castle of Chaumont-sur-Loire in exchange. But she was the Château d’Anet, her husband’s inheritance and then a gift from Henry II of her which she undertook to rebuild around 1540, which she died in 1566 at the age of 66.
A castle life
Ambois, Blois, Chambord, Villers-CotteretsSaint-Germain-en-Laye or even Fontainebleau… At the time of Francis I, the court was still itinerant and moved from castle to castle. The two dearest to Diane de Poitiers’ heart, however, will be that of Anet where she died, as well as that of Chenonceau, present by her royal lover today nicknamed the “château des Dames”. Of the former only the left wing remains, the rest having been destroyed during the Revolution. In the second he created great works, in particular the gardens that bear his name and the famous bridge that still today crosses the Cher.
⋙ Catherine de’ Medici, Diane de Poitiers… At Chenonceau, the great rivalry of the ladies of the heart
Diana of Poitiers, poisoned to preserve her beauty?
When Diane de Poitiers died in 1566, her second daughter Louise de Brézé had a monument erected in her likeness, which was moved to the sepulchral chapel of the Château de Anet ten years later. A tomb desecrated during the Revolution, whose remains were only put back in 2010, after years in the municipal cemetery. Only fragments of her hair had been kept by members of the revolutionary committee and were more recently analyzed by a team from the forensic medicine department of the Raymond-Poincaré hospital (Garches), led by Dr. Philippe Charlier. A study with instructive results, published in British Medical Journal in 2009.
In this lock of the king’s favorite (and also in its remains), the researchers found very high concentrations of gold, 500 times the average reference value for hair. It is therefore probable that in an attempt to preserve her beauty and her youth, for which Diane de Poitiers was particularly famous, the lady consumed solutions of potable gold, a sort of elixir of youth … which would have led her to poison her! A plausible scenario, as despite her intense swimming, hunting and horseback riding, she was known for her extremely pale complexion, symptomatic of chronic gold poisoning.
⋙ A small lock of Napoleon I’s hair was auctioned in April in Cherbourg
Greedy character in The Princess of Cleves
In 1678, a century after the eventful life of Diane de Poitier, the historical novel The Princess of Cleves, written by Madame de Lafayette. Readers follow the adventures of Mademoiselle de Chartres and her introduction to the court of Henry II. But above all the devouring love passion of the protagonist for the Duke of Nemours, shortly after her marriage to the Prince of Cleves. To alert her daughter to the consequences of such courtly liaisons, she tells her the story of Diane de Poitiers, presented as “absolute mistress of all things” by virtue of her power over the king’s mind.
An image, according to Madame de Chartres, of how interests can hide behind the elegance and magnificence of the court. In the first part of her work, Madame de Lafayette writes: “Ambition and gallantry were the soul of this court, and equally occupied men and women. There were so many interests and so many different cabals, and women played so great a part in them, that love was always involved in business, and business in love. No one was calm or indifferent: we thought of elevating ourselves, pleasing, serving or harming; we knew neither boredom nor idleness. , and we were always occupied with pleasures or intrigues … “.
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