This article appeared
in Volume 21: No. 3 of the Orient
Express magazine.
Saints or sinners?
HRH Princess Michael of Kent reveals what inspired her to write
her latest book, The Serpent and the Moon, about the love of King
Henri II of France for her ancestor Diane de Poitiers.
When I was 21, I travelled from Vienna to London to study history
of art. As an aspiring interior designer, 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
these colours, she thought it was time for a visit. I had no real
reason for my monochrome lifestyle except that I thought 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 recounted 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, 16th-century French lady was a king’s mistress,
and although we descend from her younger daughter by her legitimate
union, my religious mama considered Diane an unsuitable subject for
chaste bedtime stories. However, once she learned of my lapse into
a chiaroscuro world, she felt it was time for more grown-up tales.
There were no grey areas with Diane de Poitiers—her palette
was like her character: contrasting and uncompromising, much like
the era in which she lived—the 16th century’s Reformation
and French Renaissance, a time of persecution and enlightenment.
My fascination with her led me to write a book, The Serpent and the
Moon, which tells one of the greatest love stories in French royal
history. It not only concerns Diane, the moon, but another of my
ancestors, Catherine de’ Medici, the serpent, and King Henri
II, whom they both loved. The Serpent, a Renaissance symbol of wisdom,
was one of Catherine de’ Medici’s devices. The Moon was
adopted by Diane de Poitiers in honour of her alter ego, Diana goddess
of the moon and the chase.
Diane’s story spans the lives of two French monarchs, father
and son. François I was the dashing, heroic Chevalier King,
and his son, the darkly handsome, silent Henri II, a child prisoner
and hostage in Spain, unloved by his father, who became the unexpected
heir to the throne. Eighteen years Diane’s junior, this emotionally
deprived warrior knight would love her from the age of six until
his tragic death in a tournament at the age of 42.
However, for reasons of state and finance, it was arranged by François
and Pope Clement VII that Henri, at the tender age of 14, should
marry the pope’s cousin, the heiress Catherine de’ Medici.
On his wedding night, Henri did his duty by his bride but was not
prepared to do more and retreated to be with his “lady”.
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 was to suffer the jealousy of a thwarted passion throughout
her married life. Despised and mocked by the French court for her
bourgeois origins, she took for her motto “Hate and Wait”:
a still, dangerous serpent in the grass.
Diane de Poitiers had been born into the old nobility of France
and with it, a life of privilege. Educated in the house of a great
lady, at the age of 15, a marriage was arranged for her. Her bridegroom
was powerful and rich, and his rank would place her among the highest
in the land. He was also a widower, a hunchback and, at 56, older
than her father. Nevertheless, the match was considered a splendid
one by all parties.
How easy was it for Diane, at just 15, to marry a much older man
who was famously ugly? No matter, it was the custom. How easy was
it for the 14-year-old bride and groom, Catherine de’ Medici
and Henri d’Orlèans, to meet on their wedding day and
proceed to consummate their marriage in the presence of some 20 courtiers,
including Henri’s father and Diane de Poitiers, the woman he
worshipped? Again, it was the custom.
Diane became the lady-in-waiting to the young Queen Claude, wife
of François I, probably the most dashing king ever to sit
on the throne of France. He ruled at the time when Europe was emerging
from the darkness and superstition of the Middle Ages into the light
of the Renaissance, and the brave ships of discovery sailed treacherous,
uncharted seas to bring home stories of the unknown and the spoils
of the New World. During this time of religious upheaval and brutality,
enlightenment and progress, the court of France was the most civilised
in the world and all other rulers strove to imitate it.
Within this kaleidoscope of prancing horses, feather-decked helmets
and gallantry, and despite his marriage to Catherine, the young prince
Henri silently worshipped Diane. Four years later, he was heir to
the throne and Diane was a widow. Henri was tall, handsome, athletic
and in love. Diane had only known one man and he had been 40 years
her senior. Not surprisingly, she succumbed to the dashing 18-year-old
and was his mistress until his violent death 24 years later.
Henri gave Diane the crown jewels, the château of Chenonceau—possibly
the most beautiful of his father’s Renaissance castles in the
Loire—and made her a duchess. It was said that only the wealth
of Queen Elizabeth I of England could rival that of the Duchesse
de Valentinois. And Catherine? Patiently and silently she waited
for Diane to grow old and disappear from her world—but she
would not. Beauty seemed to rest with Diane forever as Henri continued
to adore her. Nor did anything change when, after 10 barren years,
Catherine’s children were born. Diane simply took them over
gently and quietly as she had done everything else.
Diane’s character had as many phases as the moon, whereas
Catherine’s was famously duplicitous. In the book I have striven
to examine both women in detail so that the reader can know them
within the colourful fabric of their time. I do not seek to exonerate
Diane as a partner to the king’s adultery, nor defend her against
her greed or her support of the king’s religious persecutions.
She was a product of her time. I simply want to tell the story of
a beautiful, cultured and truly fascinating woman.
The love triangle of Diane de Poitiers, Henri II of Orlèans
and Catherine de’ Medici is the subject of HRH Princess Michael
of Kent’s latest book. The device, centre left, represents
the royal ménage à trois: Diane’s crescent moon
entwined for all three, King Henri II’s crown and the serpent
for Catherine. Another of the French king’s devices was, centre
right, this joint monogram of the D of Diane combined with the H
of Henri.
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The Serpent and the Moon is published by Simon & Schuster
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