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confinement. However, Claude was extremely cultivated, kind, and devout. Quite reasonably, Louise felt that since her son was married to the king’s daughter, and the queen was dead, his claim to the throne was guaranteed.
    Once again the redoubtable Louise de Savoie was to be thwarted.Less than a year after Anne de Bretagne’s death, despite his age (fifty-two) and the fact that he grieved for his wife (whom he had genuinely loved) Louis XII agreed to wed the young sister of Henry VIII of England, the enchanting, vivacious, eighteen-year-old Mary Tudor.
    Louis XII married Henry VIII’s young sister Mary Tudor in the hope of fathering an heir to the throne. He died shortly after the wedding, it was said, from “kissing her too much.”
    As yet, Henry VIII had no heirs, and he reasoned that France was a throne worth gambling his sister for. Since she was in love with Charles Brandon, the handsome Duke of Suffolk, Mary Tudor opposed the match. But Henry VIII could not resist the chance that his sister might produce an heir to France, especially as its king had one foot in the grave. The dashing young François d’Anglouême could not resist Mary either, until his mother pointed out that should Mary conceive his son, it would be
this
boy who would inherit the throne of France and not him. Thus chastened, François (assisted by Anne de Beaujeu,his mother, and his sister) kept Mary Tudor under close surveillance and well away from any potential indiscretions.
    The old king was delighted with Mary and claimed to have “performed miracles” on his wedding night. Mary for her part confided in her new friend Diane de Poitiers how repelled she was by the advances of her old husband. Being queen of France, however, was not so irksome, and after her magnificent coronation at Saint-Denis, Queen Mary Tudor made her state entrance into Paris to celebrate the alliance of France and England. Young, pretty, full of life, Mary flirted outrageously and led the king a merry dance, partying until dawn. Not surprisingly, on New Year’s Day 1515, just six weeks after his wedding, Louis XII died; it was said, from “kissing her too much.” Mary grieved little and had so enjoyed playing queen that according to the account by Pierre de Bourdeille, seigneur de Brantôme, she prolonged her departure for England by feigning an elaborate pretense of being pregnant—wrapping towels around her waist and fainting in public. Louise de Savoie was not fooled and demanded a physical examination, which exposed the ploy.

    D IANE de Poitiers was born on the last day of 1499 into a world of privilege, with an ancestry allied to the noblest in France. Her father Jehan de Poitiers’ family was one of the oldest in the area known as the Dauphiné in central-southern France, and through her mother, Jeanne de Batarnay, she was connected to the mighty Bourbons. The kings of France and dukes of Burgundy valued the Poitiers family and had made the head of the family comte de Valentinois in 1125. Their device was an upended flaming torch with the Latin motto “
Qui me alit me extinguit
”—“He who inflames me has the power to extinguish me.” 11
    In 1275, Diane’s grandfather, Aymar III de Poitiers, married Julie de Bourgogne, a direct descendant of King Robert the Pious, whosedowry included the town and château of Saint-Vallier in the Dauphiné. As members of the family had always held high office, permission was granted for Aymar to marry the illegitimate daughter of Louis XI. Even though Aymar’s bride died in childbirth and Diane’s grandmother was his second wife, the connections with the royal house had remained strong.
    Historians argue about the exact date of Diane’s birth, but the epitaph on her tomb at Anet reads: “Died 26 April 1566, aged 66 years, 3 months and 27 days.” As Diane had ordered her own tomb and her daughters carried out all her wishes, it is likely that this information is correct. Historians also debate the place of