Read Online The Serpent and the Moon: Two Rivals for the Love of a Renaissance King by HRH Princess Michael of Kent - Free Book Online
Authors: HRH Princess Michael of Kent
Ads: Link
just behind the Princes of the Blood, and surrounded by the most seniorcourtiers. They in turn were followed by their company of one hundred gentlemen, elegantly attired in outfits of brocaded satin and velvet in various colors. On the tips of their lances and around their thighs they sported narrow taffeta ribbon streamers of white, yellow, and red. They were mounted on splendid chargers, richly caparisoned, some in cloth of gold and others in cloth of silver. Diane could be justifiably proud of the man chosen to become her husband.
Louis de Brézé was most distinguished-looking, with fine features and perceptive eyes. He had the Valois 21 family’s large nose, a large mouth, and an air of severity and disdain that inspired fear in some and respect in others. He was stooped—some say humped—and his face bore a strong masculine pride. Contemporary sources agreed that he looked remarkable and alert. Most important, as the bridegroom of a young girl, he seemed to be a man who was interested in pleasing women. In short, he carried his fifties well.
The negative descriptions of Louis de Brézé all come from writers who have trouble understanding the impression such a man would make on a woman. It is even possible that Diane found Brézé attractive and was flattered that such an important, mature man as the Grand Sénéchal of Normandy should take an interest in a fifteen-year-old girl. Did her heart beat faster as she sat with the young queen and watched her future pass in front of her, imagining herself in the front ranks of the kingdom? Brézé’s inscrutable nature and ambiguous glances may even have challenged her. There is no doubt Louis de Brézé had charm and the qualities needed to win Diane’s affection and respect, if not her love. Whatever impression Mary Tudor’s confidences of marriage to an old man may have made on her, or whatever pleasure she had felt at the appreciative glances from the young gentlemen at court, Diane did not hesitate, and agreed to the union.
At the time she left home to marry, Diane de Poitiers’ famous beauty was well recorded. Her pale white skin was described as “luminous” and her hair more golden-red than blond. Her forehead was high, and her eyes an indefinite color between green and blue. Hernose was straight; her mouth full and small. Contemporary reports all agreed she had a most aristocratic look and bearing, and carried herself with pride in her tall, slender body.
Anne de Beaujeu and her son-in-law the Constable had made all the arrangements for the wedding. On Easter Monday, March 29, 1515, in the presence of King François, Queen Claude, and the court, the wedding was celebrated at the Hôtel de Bourbon in Paris. The young bride was already considered beautiful, mature for her age, with a face as “solemn as Artemis.” 22 Diane’s elderly bridegroom was fit and strong; he would remain by her side for the next seventeen years.
Louis de Brézé possessed a number of châteaux, including Bréval, Montchauvet, Rouen, Mauny, and Anet. 23 It was this last, Anet in Normandy, that would become home to the newly married comtesse de Brézé. Anet was a forbidding medieval fortress with four towers, full of old attendants and dark mysteries, that had been left to Brézé by his first wife. The high-vaulted room Diane was to share with her husband contained the wooden four-poster bed in which Charlotte, Brézé’s royal and adulterous mother, had been slain by his father. After the fun and laughter of life among Diane’s young friends at Moulins, it must have been a shock to come to this house of gloom and decrepitude. Everything around her was old—even the servants. But Diane threw herself into her new life, filling the castle with spring flowers, engaging young women from the village, and soon the chill corridors began to ring with laughter. Fires were lit in every room; silver was brought out from the vaults and cleaned, and candelabra spread light on the highly
Louis de Brézé was most distinguished-looking, with fine features and perceptive eyes. He had the Valois 21 family’s large nose, a large mouth, and an air of severity and disdain that inspired fear in some and respect in others. He was stooped—some say humped—and his face bore a strong masculine pride. Contemporary sources agreed that he looked remarkable and alert. Most important, as the bridegroom of a young girl, he seemed to be a man who was interested in pleasing women. In short, he carried his fifties well.
The negative descriptions of Louis de Brézé all come from writers who have trouble understanding the impression such a man would make on a woman. It is even possible that Diane found Brézé attractive and was flattered that such an important, mature man as the Grand Sénéchal of Normandy should take an interest in a fifteen-year-old girl. Did her heart beat faster as she sat with the young queen and watched her future pass in front of her, imagining herself in the front ranks of the kingdom? Brézé’s inscrutable nature and ambiguous glances may even have challenged her. There is no doubt Louis de Brézé had charm and the qualities needed to win Diane’s affection and respect, if not her love. Whatever impression Mary Tudor’s confidences of marriage to an old man may have made on her, or whatever pleasure she had felt at the appreciative glances from the young gentlemen at court, Diane did not hesitate, and agreed to the union.
At the time she left home to marry, Diane de Poitiers’ famous beauty was well recorded. Her pale white skin was described as “luminous” and her hair more golden-red than blond. Her forehead was high, and her eyes an indefinite color between green and blue. Hernose was straight; her mouth full and small. Contemporary reports all agreed she had a most aristocratic look and bearing, and carried herself with pride in her tall, slender body.
Anne de Beaujeu and her son-in-law the Constable had made all the arrangements for the wedding. On Easter Monday, March 29, 1515, in the presence of King François, Queen Claude, and the court, the wedding was celebrated at the Hôtel de Bourbon in Paris. The young bride was already considered beautiful, mature for her age, with a face as “solemn as Artemis.” 22 Diane’s elderly bridegroom was fit and strong; he would remain by her side for the next seventeen years.
Louis de Brézé possessed a number of châteaux, including Bréval, Montchauvet, Rouen, Mauny, and Anet. 23 It was this last, Anet in Normandy, that would become home to the newly married comtesse de Brézé. Anet was a forbidding medieval fortress with four towers, full of old attendants and dark mysteries, that had been left to Brézé by his first wife. The high-vaulted room Diane was to share with her husband contained the wooden four-poster bed in which Charlotte, Brézé’s royal and adulterous mother, had been slain by his father. After the fun and laughter of life among Diane’s young friends at Moulins, it must have been a shock to come to this house of gloom and decrepitude. Everything around her was old—even the servants. But Diane threw herself into her new life, filling the castle with spring flowers, engaging young women from the village, and soon the chill corridors began to ring with laughter. Fires were lit in every room; silver was brought out from the vaults and cleaned, and candelabra spread light on the highly
Similar Books
