Diane de Poitier

Diane de Poitiers was a French noble lady and art patron. Of noble origin, in 1514 she married Louis de Brézé, count de Maulévrier and high seneschal of Normandy, twenty years her senior. Widowed in 1531, in about 1537 she became mistress of the duke d'Orléans, the future Henry II, nineteen years younger than she and already married to Catherine de Medicis. Henry loved her passionately: when he was crowned, he bore the letters H and D on his robe. She exercised powerful influence at court, eclipsing the role of the queen. She was created duchess of Valentinois, became rich, and used her position to patronise culture but also to advance the interests of Catholicism and of the Guise family. After Henry's unexpected death in 1559 she retired to the beautiful chateau that he had built for her at Anet. Her Lettres were published in 1866.