The Serpent and the Moon: Two Rivals for the Love of a Renaissance King by HRH Princess Michael of Kent Read Free Book Online Page B

Louise, and Marguerite, François’ beloved sister, from above on a stand in the church. It is recorded that both Louise and herdaughter shed tears of emotion. The choir sang a
Te Deum
, and wearing the heavy gold crown throughout the Pontifical Mass, François I received communion.
    The coronation sword (in its scabbard) of the kings of France belonged to Charlemagne. It was used in the coronation ceremonies of François I and Henri II. It is now in the Louvre.
    At the time of the coronation in the spring of 1515, Diane de Poitiers was just fifteen, the same age as the queen. The favor shown by Louis XII to Diane’s father continued under the new monarch, and the whole court noticed his beautiful daughter sitting during the ceremonies according to her rank with the queen’s ladies. Like Claude, Diane was modest, conscious of the great occasion and the honor of attending.
    Antonio de’ Beatis, the contemporary traveler and secretary to Cardinal Luigi of Aragon, described the king’s mother, Louise, as “an unusually tall woman, still finely complexioned, very rubicund and lively and seems to me to be about forty years old but more than good, one could say, for at least another ten.” 15 Madame Louise, 16 rather than the queen, accompanied her son everywhere, and she played an important part in his government.
    The king’s sister, Marguerite, was intelligent, animated, and attractive. The contemporary chronicler Brantôme wrote revealingly: “Marguerite’s masculine attire suits her well, and her Adonis face is so bewildering you cannot tell if she is male or female. She could as easily be a charming boy as the beautiful lady she is.” Other malicious gossips suggested that her close friendship with her brother was incestuous. Sadly, her marriage to the duc d’Alençon was childless and she sought comfort in religion. Marguerite studied religious texts and became afriend of many of the reformers of the Church. Later, after she was widowed and had married Henri d’Albret, king of Navarre, her court became a refuge for Protestants.
    The “hand of justice,” a scepter, was used in the coronation ceremonies of François I and Henri II. It is now in the Treasury of Saint-Denis.
    Part of the traditional coronation ritual was a pilgrimage by the new monarch to the shrine of Saint Marcoul, a Norman saint credited with the gift of healing. It was commonly believed in France that a monarch who ruled by “divine right” had access to miraculous powers assisted by the saint. François had been transformed by the coronation ceremony and he believed he could indeed cure the sick. A number of people suffering from scrofula were presented to him for ritual “laying on of hands” as he “touched for the king’s evil.” 17
    From the shrine, François I continued on to Compiègne, to attend a grand reception for all the ambassadors. Here the king granted the request for the hand of his sister-in-law Renée, from a young man of fifteen who would become his lifelong enemy, the future Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.

    W HEN once a posthumous dauphin succeeded to the throne, it became the custom in France that the royal widow must remain in quarantine for six weeks following the death of her husband the king. Mary Tudor dressed entirely in white and remained in the Hôtel de Cluny for forty days, her darkened room lit only by candles. As soon as her quarantine was over, François I called on the young queen dowager.It seems impossible to imagine, but a number of contemporary accounts allege that he proposed marriage to her. Had not his predecessor, Louis XII, put aside the hideous daughter of the previous king and married instead the attractive royal widow? The dashing young François I was clearly very taken with “
La Reine Blanche
,” as Mary was known, and although he would have lost Claude’s dowry of Brittany in a divorce, he pressed his suit. 18
    Marguerite de Navarre was the beloved sister of François I. She married