Free The Serpent and the Moon: Two Rivals for the Love of a Renaissance King by HRH Princess Michael of Kent Page A
Authors: HRH Princess Michael of Kent
Pius XII in 1950.
6 . Jeanne de France solemnly swore that the marriage had indeed been consummated.
7 . The duke’s line belonged to the Valois family, senior to the Bourbon.
8 . Although François was the heir to the throne and would be popularly known as “
Monsieur le Dauphin
,” he was never entitled to be so called: only the eldest son or grandson of a king could be dauphin.
9 . Spain was not yet united. Technically, Charles was king of Castile, Aragon, Navarre, Leon, Galicia, Algeciras, Jaen, etc. The unification happened in three stages—in 1707, 1715, and 1716. For the sake of simplicity, these countries are referred to here as “Spain.”
10 . According to the doctors of the time, a girl could only be expected to produce strong, healthy children from the age of seventeen or eighteen. François I himself was almost six feet four inches tall.
11 . Traditionally, the upturned candle or torch symbolized the end of the pleasures of life. According to Dr. Allison Rawles, this old French saying is a take on the Petrarchan idea of the paradox that love brings both pleasure and pain. It was a commonly expressed Renaissance conceit.
12 . There were two Clouets, Jean and his son François, both painters to the king and the French court.
13 . Charles de Bourbon-Montpensier was half Italian, as his mother was Claire de Gonzaga.
14 . Pierre II de Bourbon suffered all his life from migraines—he was therefore known as
Malatesta
.
15 . Antonio de’ Beatis,
The Travel Journal
.
16 . Queens and royal princesses are traditionally addressed as “
Madame
” even though Louise de Savoie was not the queen mother because she was never crowned. After the coronation of her son, she was always referred to as “Madame Louise.”
17 . Scrofula was a tubercular infection of the skin of the neck manifested by ugly sores that ulcerated; it was repulsive but not life-threatening. The only other European monarch who traditionally had this alleged gift and “touched for the king’s evil” was the king of England.
18 . Forty days was the length of strict quarantine imposed on the widow of a king, to ensure she could not conceive a child she could claim was her late husband’s. With the exception of some states in Italy, the mourning dress code for Christian queens prescribed white, not black. After the Reformation, only Catholic queens wore white for mourning or during an audience with the pope, which is still the custom today.
19 . With Mary, he would produce a son and two daughters. After her death, he married again and had two more sons.
20 . The king’s representative, similar to governor—Louis was made Grand Sénéchal in 1490.
21 . A long nose like that of François I, inherited no doubt from his adulterous Valois mother, Charlotte.
22 .
Journal d’un bourgeois de Paris
. Edited by Ludovic Lalanne.
23 . Pronounced “Annette.”
CHAPTER THREE
The Renaissance King
A s Louis de Brézé’s wife, Diane enjoyed a senior place at court. She had been appointed a matron of honor to Queen Claude and ranked as the third highest placed lady in the land. The queen’s court reflected the religious principles, chastity, and austerity of her parents, Louis XII and Anne de Bretagne. But Louise de Savoie, having arranged her son’s marriage to the late king’s daughter for dynastic reasons, despised Claude for her staunch belief in all the honorable traditions, while she encouraged François in his excesses and his mistresses.
Although the king needed little encouraging in his affairs, he seems to have been genuinely fond of Claude. According to the contemporary Antonio de’ Beatis, the king “holds his wife the queen in such honor and respect that when in France and with her he has never failed to sleep with her each night.” The result was the birth of three sons and four daughters over a period of nine years. Constantly pregnant or recovering from a birth, Claude did not take part in much of the court ritual, but
6 . Jeanne de France solemnly swore that the marriage had indeed been consummated.
7 . The duke’s line belonged to the Valois family, senior to the Bourbon.
8 . Although François was the heir to the throne and would be popularly known as “
Monsieur le Dauphin
,” he was never entitled to be so called: only the eldest son or grandson of a king could be dauphin.
9 . Spain was not yet united. Technically, Charles was king of Castile, Aragon, Navarre, Leon, Galicia, Algeciras, Jaen, etc. The unification happened in three stages—in 1707, 1715, and 1716. For the sake of simplicity, these countries are referred to here as “Spain.”
10 . According to the doctors of the time, a girl could only be expected to produce strong, healthy children from the age of seventeen or eighteen. François I himself was almost six feet four inches tall.
11 . Traditionally, the upturned candle or torch symbolized the end of the pleasures of life. According to Dr. Allison Rawles, this old French saying is a take on the Petrarchan idea of the paradox that love brings both pleasure and pain. It was a commonly expressed Renaissance conceit.
12 . There were two Clouets, Jean and his son François, both painters to the king and the French court.
13 . Charles de Bourbon-Montpensier was half Italian, as his mother was Claire de Gonzaga.
14 . Pierre II de Bourbon suffered all his life from migraines—he was therefore known as
Malatesta
.
15 . Antonio de’ Beatis,
The Travel Journal
.
16 . Queens and royal princesses are traditionally addressed as “
Madame
” even though Louise de Savoie was not the queen mother because she was never crowned. After the coronation of her son, she was always referred to as “Madame Louise.”
17 . Scrofula was a tubercular infection of the skin of the neck manifested by ugly sores that ulcerated; it was repulsive but not life-threatening. The only other European monarch who traditionally had this alleged gift and “touched for the king’s evil” was the king of England.
18 . Forty days was the length of strict quarantine imposed on the widow of a king, to ensure she could not conceive a child she could claim was her late husband’s. With the exception of some states in Italy, the mourning dress code for Christian queens prescribed white, not black. After the Reformation, only Catholic queens wore white for mourning or during an audience with the pope, which is still the custom today.
19 . With Mary, he would produce a son and two daughters. After her death, he married again and had two more sons.
20 . The king’s representative, similar to governor—Louis was made Grand Sénéchal in 1490.
21 . A long nose like that of François I, inherited no doubt from his adulterous Valois mother, Charlotte.
22 .
Journal d’un bourgeois de Paris
. Edited by Ludovic Lalanne.
23 . Pronounced “Annette.”
CHAPTER THREE
The Renaissance King
A s Louis de Brézé’s wife, Diane enjoyed a senior place at court. She had been appointed a matron of honor to Queen Claude and ranked as the third highest placed lady in the land. The queen’s court reflected the religious principles, chastity, and austerity of her parents, Louis XII and Anne de Bretagne. But Louise de Savoie, having arranged her son’s marriage to the late king’s daughter for dynastic reasons, despised Claude for her staunch belief in all the honorable traditions, while she encouraged François in his excesses and his mistresses.
Although the king needed little encouraging in his affairs, he seems to have been genuinely fond of Claude. According to the contemporary Antonio de’ Beatis, the king “holds his wife the queen in such honor and respect that when in France and with her he has never failed to sleep with her each night.” The result was the birth of three sons and four daughters over a period of nine years. Constantly pregnant or recovering from a birth, Claude did not take part in much of the court ritual, but
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