Queens and Mistresses of Renaissance France by Kathleen Wellman

Author:Kathleen Wellman
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3, pdf
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2013-03-17T04:00:00+00:00

Fig. 5.1. This portrait of the young Catherine de Medici is a facsimile of a sixteenth-century drawing that appears in Portraits of the Most Famous French Personalities of the 16th Century by P. G. Niel. Paris. French school, nineteenth century. Bibliothèque des Arts Décoratifs, Paris/The Bridgeman Art Library.

THE STERILE WOMB

Despite the initial “jousting,” the marriage was not a great success. Although Catherine could not provoke her fourteen-year-old bridegroom’s interest, she made every attempt to adapt to her new life. She ingratiated herself with Francis I, recognizing upon whose goodwill her future depended. She joined the band of women who hunted with him, and he enjoyed her conversation. Francis turned her education over to his sister Marguerite, under whose guidance Catherine studied mathematics and poetry, improved her Latin, and began to study Greek. Catherine even emulated Marguerite’s literary work. She tried to conform to Renaissance standards of the ideal court woman, but despite her efforts, her position became ever more tenuous.

Two years after the wedding, the Venetian ambassador Marino Giustiniano remarked that the marriage had taken place “to the dissatisfaction of the entire nation.”10 The death of Clement VII in 1534 negated Catherine’s diplomatic value to France. Francis stated the reality of her situation: “I have a girl completely nude.”11 Catherine was always in danger of being ignominiously set aside. When rumors of an annulment grew louder, she begged Francis to be allowed to remain at court in some capacity even if she were no longer his daughter-in-law. He was moved enough to promise not to send her away.12 Catherine needed powerful supporters, especially when talk of repudiating her increased with every year of childlessness. Her role in her husband’s life was further marginalized when Diane de Poitiers became Henry’s mistress.

In royal households formed by a triangle of king, queen, and mistress, no better example exists of its fraught nature and the convoluted family dynamics it produced than the triangle of Henry, Catherine, and Diane. Catherine was obviously devoted to Henry. While most queens took their husbands’ relationships with their mistresses amiss, neither their attachment to the king was as obvious nor their grievance as palpable as Catherine’s. She could not counter Diane’s influence or compete with her in looks or charm and certainly not in her ability to provoke Henry’s interest. So Catherine tolerated Diane, if only because objections to his mistress would further alienate her husband. In exchange for Diane’s support of her marriage, Catherine was forced to act in Diane’s interest at court. Their relationship gave the outward appearance of cordiality; Diane was discreet and Catherine masked her feelings. Diane’s continued support was a crucial reason that Catherine was not sent back to Italy, especially as the years went by and she failed to fulfill her most essential role of bearing heirs.

Some four years into the marriage, Henry’s fertility was demonstrated when he fathered a daughter by Filippa Duci, an Italian woman he encountered on campaign. Royal physicians had previously diagnosed hypospadias, a malformation of the seminal opening of the penis, as the cause of the couple’s failure to conceive.

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