Welcome to Royal Romance Week Day Three here at White Rose of Avalon my Darlings. Today’s blog post is going to be about Henri II and his famed mistress Diane de Poitiers! So we are once again looking at a Royal Romance at the French Court, but this time the love story is set in the sixteenth-century, instead of the late seventeenth and eighteenth-century setting of the previous two. Henri II was the son of Francois I of France, who was a contemporary of Henry VIII in England and joined him for the famed ‘Field of the Cloth of Gold’. Henri II came to the throne as a young and virile King who was married to Catherine de Medici in a shrewd political move that tied France more completely to Rome, given her relation to the Pope, even if she was not of Royal birth!
However, it is well known that Henri did not have much interest in his wife, having been besotted with his mistress Diane de Poitiers even before his marriage. What shocked and hurt Catherine more than anything was that Diane was older than the King by 19 years! He did not stray from their marriage with a younger beautiful woman, but with one nearly two decades his senior. It should be noted that although Diane was much older than Henri, she was known to be one of the most beautiful women at the French Court, often even being described as seeming to have an ageless beauty making her appear much younger than her years!
It is important to also state that Diane was the one to try and smooth the discomfort in the marriage, as she knew that although Henri did not love Catherine, and may never grow to, they still needed to provide heirs for the country! So, it was Diane who helped Henri and Catherine with their sex life for the good of France. This is something that would be totally foreign to many modern people with our perceptions of mistresses wanting to steal husbands and Royal mistresses wanting to steal the crown, but Diane did not desire to be a Queen. Diane de Poitiers only desired to be with the man she loved and help him have the best life possible as King, which included making sure that he had legitimate heirs! Interestingly, Diane was also in charge of the Royal Nursery when the subsequent children were born, and even in charge of their education, because of how much Henri trusted and loved her.
The affair between Henri II and Diane de Poitiers lasted until the King’s death during a jousting accident! So, this was no short-term love affair and did not reach an end when the King tired of her, like with the relationship I wrote about yesterday, instead, Diane de Poitiers has truly gone down in history as Henri II’s true love. Their romance lasted his entire marriage and is still remembered as one of the great Royal love affairs today. Henri II treated Diane like a Queen, even when she could never truly be his Queen officially, possibly leading to the idea that French Royal Mistresses would be given the respect entitled to a true Queen, like with the women I covered over the last two days! Henri II also spared no expense in making sure that Diane had the best of everything. He had her painted in the guise of the Goddess Diana, her namesake and had sculptures also commissioned in this form. Their initials intertwined were also said to have adorned rooms at some of the palaces, in every way except marriage, Henri II seemed to view Diane as his true wife, with Catherine being the political marriage he made for the good of the country!
I hope you have enjoyed learning a bit about the love story of Henri II and Diane de Poitiers. It is far from the scandalous vision portrayed in the television show Reign, but it is very romantic. What is the most fascinating part of the love of Henri and Diane in your opinion? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
Note on Image: The image at the top of the post is a painting of Diane. I found the image on https://www.claudinehemingway.com/paris-history-avec-a-hemingway-podcast-1/2021/1/11/episode-34-diane-de-poitiers.
Tarot Note: I have a page offering tarot and oracle readings for those interested in these services! I am very happy to be offering these readings to my treasured readers at White Rose of Avalon! Link to page: https://whiteroseofavalon.life/tarot-and-oracle-readings/
Further Reading
- The Serpent and the Moon by Her Royal Highness, Princess Michael of Kent (This is a dual biography of both Diane de Poitiers and Catherine de Medici, and is an interesting read!)