Royal Romances: Titillating Tales of Passion and Power in the Palaces of Europe by Leslie Carroll Read Free Book Online Page A

court noticed that the king was paying marked attention to Catherine and he had begun to rely on her political advice. By then she had given him six children. Diane was now fifty-one years old, perhaps no longer as interested in maintaining the sexual element of their romance. In an effort to demonstrate her attachment to both members of the royal couple, when Catherine came down with scarlet fever in 1552, Diane, behaving like a true cousin, nursed her kinswoman back to health.
    That year, when Henri was thirty-three, Lorenzo Contarini, now the Venetian ambassador, furnished posterity with a detailed description of the French sovereign and his daily habits, including Henri’s avid fitness regimen.
[He is] tall, well-built, with black hair and lively eyes, an attractive head, large nose, normal mouth, and a beard as long as thewidth of two fingers, and altogether he has one of the most gracious figures and a real air of majesty. He has a very robust complexion, which is helped a lot by his physical exercises, such that every day, from two hours after lunch until evening he spends his time playing tennis or ball or [in] archery…. He also enjoys hunting all animals…especially the deer, which he does two or three times a week…. He is extraordinarily good at swordsmanship and horsemanship…an excellent fighter…. His body is very healthy, it is only his teeth which sometimes cause him pain and he suffers from nothing except occasional migraines, for which he takes pills. He is very fit and muscular, but if he does not take care and watch his food, he could easily gain weight. His appearance is a little melancholic by nature but also shows great majesty and kindness…. He eats and drinks moderately. After his audience, he retires with a small group to Madame de Valentinois’ bedroom, where he stays for about an hour before leaving to play pall-mall, or tennis or other exercises. After dining in public, he visits the queen where he joins a large group of the court’s ladies and gentlemen and chats to them for about an hour.
…He is never angry when something goes wrong, except sometimes when hunting, and he never uses violent words…. [H]e is very chaste in matters of the flesh [meaning, one supposes, that he was devoted solely to one lover?], and he conducts his affairs in such a way that no one can discuss them very much, which was not the case with king François [Henri’s father].
    Contarini added:
But the person who without a doubt is the most loved by the king is Madame de Valentinois. She is a lady of fifty-two…[who] came into the hands of this king while he was still dauphin. He has loved her a great deal and loves her still. She is his mistress , old as she is. It is true to say that, although she has never worn face paints, and perhaps because of the minute care that she takes, she is far from looking her age. She is a lady of intelligence who has always been the king’s inspiration.
    Then Contarini summed up Catherine’s reaction to her husband’s grand passion:
Since the beginning of the new reign, the Queen could no longer bear to see such love and favor being bestowed by the king on the duchess, but upon the king’s urgent entreaties she resigned herself to endure the situation with patience. The Queen even frequents the duchess, who, for her part, serves the Queen well, and often it is she who exhorts him to sleep with his wife .
    In 1558, Henri signed a peace treaty with Spain ceding France’s Italian possessions to either the Duke of Mantua or the Duke of Florence. Catherine, a native of northern Italy, was understandably livid. According to the terms of this Treaty of Câteau-Cambrésis, their eldest daughter would be given to king Philip of Spain in marriage. Philip had been a widower since the November 17, 1558, death of his first wife, Mary, the elder daughter of Henry VIII. Mary was scarcely cold in the ground when Philip negotiated a new alliance, but despite the prestige brought by her