I would say that she was a woman who used her intelligence to provide herself and her daughters a life that most women of that time were not allowed. She found a way to hold onto her late husband's wealth, keeping herself and her daughters from poverty and/or servitude to a male kin. She gained wealth, thus ensuring good matches for her daughters as far as social status and good relationships. And despite having to return the chateau, she was able to live out the rest of her life with sustained quality that she was used to, while independent. She was able to leave her daughters an inheritance that stayed with her descendants. This was not common for women. She was an intelligent woman and a wonderful mother. Most women back then had no choices other than wives and mistresses. This woman used the system to empower herself and her daughters. Tres Bien!!!
I think that one reason Diane worked to improve Henri and Catherine's marriage so they had heirs was that, if he had divorced the latter, a new wife might have been more attractive to him and rivalled Diane.
Possibly, but Henri was a weak man. Like Prince Charles. He preferred his mistress to his wife. Not that I would EVER COMPARE our beautiful Diana with Catherine de Medici a poisoner and truly evil woman. Her first son the Dauphin married Mary Queen of Scots. He became plaid and died. Mary was sent back to Scotland where she was later beheaded by Elizabeth 1. Second son Charles she had Italian tutors who drove him mad. It was by consent of his so called mother that they had him engage in abnormal sexual behaviour, cruelty where he’d beat servants or his dogs to death while foaming at the mouth. Henri who was Catherine’s darling was king of Poland for a while then upon Charles death returned to France taking the polish Crown Jewels. Catherine learnt he was gay had his petit mignones with him. The one child she could not control. And the last male child (my mind can’t remember) The daughter Margot wanted to marry Henri of Guise instead she had to marry Henri of Navarrone. All her children sat on the throne but it was Henri of Navarrone that won.
she wasn't worried about that..she had his heart and mind,the body has to follow but Catherine was her cousin and she had the kings ear so Dianne had to make alliance so that both there futures was secure
I want to thank you for doing the bio documentary on Diane de Poitiers...I really enjoyed that you told us about her personal life...She was an older woman who had a relationship with a king, who was 20 years her junior...He loved her and she loved him....That was a rare thing to see during the 15th and 16th century...The younger man and the older woman relationship, but this had to be very difficult for Catherine to deal with as well...
Incredibly interesting. Thank you for such an intelligent and fascinating history lesson. The love of a King for a mistress very very rarely lasted so long in those days.
Wow, you're right. It's still pretty rare today to see such an age gap of two people in love, especially for that long!! Today it's usually just a novelty for a fling and ego boost at best.
The rivalry between the Duchess d'Etampes, Diane and Catherine reminds me a bit of Margaret of Anjou, Elizabeth Woodville and Margaret Beaufort in late 15th-century England...
And to think that when Catherine fell ill and all of her ladies in waiting deserted her for fear that she had the plague, Diane was the only one who stayed by her side and nursed her to health. But she still wouldn’t let henri see Diane in his death bed.
No Catherine was a cold but intelligent woman also she didn't want her husband to at the last minute make some ridiculous request that might make Diane have more power over her if he died. There was that possibly since he did love Diane more than he loved if he did at all his wife.
Although Catherine didn't allow Diane to go see Henry or invite her to his funeral, additionally made Diane give up Château de Chenonceau in exchange for the less attractive Château de Chaumont. BUT, Catherine still was more generous toward Diane at the end and behaved more tempered. Diane was already in her 60s at this time, so she just basically let Diane live the rest of her life in luxury, comfort, and just far away from court... a lot of historians think that Catherine actually didn't mistreat the royal mistress as harsh as other royal mistresses have been punished after the death of the royal. It's funny that people didn't notice that some people have started commenting that Diana was acting rather 'pedophilic' due to her sexual relation was probably started when the crown prince then was around 14 and she was 38 when he just returned from Spain. Diane was also allegedly the person to see him off to Spain, gave him a motherly kiss and the first person to receive him after Henry II returned from Spain...so it was not a great big surprise that he probably 'imprinted' on her -- this was discussed in another forum :)
She was fascinating. Beautiful and with brains. She really helped the king and couldn't have been better in his wise decisions during his reign. She even told him that he should see his wife more. Truly a beautiful and wise woman.
It was interesting walking through Chateau de Chenonceau learning about the rivalry between Catherine and Diana, their feud affected the architecture and designs that the monograms between Henry and Catherine had a subtle "D" instead of forming a clear defining "C."
Thank you for your informative video. Diane de Poitiers appears to be a fascinating combination of loyalty to her very old husband, love and loyalty for Henri, love, care and thoughtfulness for her daughters but also an ambitious and avaricious woman too. She was fortunate to have had such a beautiful chateau in which to live her latter years after exile from Versailles.
That is amazing one would think Catherine after her husband's death after ordering her rival out of Paris also seek out and take care there were no reminders of her anywhere.
What happened to her body after her death was a nasty act! She was a witty lady, showing great attention to financial matters. The palaces she commissioned are gorgeous. Being a businesswoman was a great achievement. She really isn't highlighted much. The presentation is splendid. Even the little details kept it lively. Besides that, I really like the topic. As much as I as not in favour of anyone keeping mistresses, the lives of the French royal mistresses really were interesting!
I'm so glad you liked the video. Yes, during the French Revolution years a group of revolutionaries behaved disrespectfully in relation to her name/ memory. Thank you for watching.
Princess Michael of Kent wrote a fascinating book about Diane de Poitiers, "The Serpent and the Moon". (She is also a descendant of Diane.) Your video is fascinating and well researched!
@@romeva8 I don't know about the book since you didn't give a date that it came out but to my knowledge there has been only one movie done about Diane and it came out many years ago. I saw it on Turner Classic which starred Lana Turner Roger Moore was the Prince. I can't recall who played Catherine. The movie was okay I liked the costuming and the facts,....well most of them were correct but it was Hollywood. They did get the ending right about the tournament, his death and Diane returning the jewels. The film is worth a look.
I have read she had a son with Henry. I admire her, she loved the king and his children. Adviced him to spend time with Catherine. She was truly intelligent, sporty, graceful and very pretty for her age. She donated half her wealth in charity, which shows her heart was in the right place. All life she honoured and respected her lost husband.
Diane de Poiters is a lady I've always wished to know more about. I'm usually drowining myself in Tudor England instead of France of this era, with a passing nod to Mary Queen of Scots and briefly of France, then skip right over to Catherine d'Medici as Queen Mother 3 times over. I tried to watch Reign but it just annoyed me. So thanks for telling us more about this lunar goddess, adored mistress of a king. Oh, one more factoid: these two lovers often signed official letters with their names joined together. Instead of Henri R, the king would sign "Henri" and his lady would take the pen and finish the signature with her name, the result being "HenriDiane."
I'm glad you decided to watch my video. Yes, Diane used to add her signature also at the end of their letters and she did that by writing her name in broad and tall letters to show probably who the master really was :)
Beautiful video on one of my favourite female figures in history. Diane de Poitiers was a fascinating, remarkable and influential figure ahead of her times who knew very well her place and carried herself with such great intelligence and grace throughout her life. When beauty is empowered by intelligence and graceful attitude. Your videos are truly captivating portraying historical figures in a more human way. Excellent work. Thank you 💐
Thank you for the interesting and well presented story of Diane de Poitier. She sounds fascinating and almost relatable in her fondness for exercise, health, and hygiene along with reading.
I found the part about her interest in hygiene fascinating. Most people don't know that people did bath throughout history but some did it more so than others. The added gold in the bath was especially something, makes you wonder how much it cost back then, if it was one reason she was careful about needing money. We know it's expensive today oh I don't what to think how much it should cost per bath time !
She definitely sounded like she was ahead of her time, not only in taking care of her health & beauty, but also as a type of career driven woman. In those days women were treated as chattel and used for political bargaining in the royal marriage arena. Diane must've had a certain quality of finesse to her intelligence as well.
This is very interesting, I really appreciate the insight into her life! It's kind of amazing that, even though Catherine de Medici is nowadays the one known as the intelligent, powerful and influential queen, it seems like at least while Henry II was still alive Diana was the "real" queen. Again, at least today Catherine seems much more famous, and I think you rarely hear anything about Diane. So, again, thanks a lot for telling her story! Also, it all most have been sort of... "complicated" between the three of them, for the lack of a better word. On one hand, Catherine and Diane were obviously rivals of sorts, there must have been some animosity between them as evidenced for example by the treatment Diane received from Catherine after Henry's death. But then again, you mentioned in the video that Diane also actually encouraged Henry to spend more time with Catherine and to stop ignoring her. Did she feel empathy for Catherine's situation (I imagine that it must have been pretty painful for Catherine at times. No matter if she actually had romantic feelings toward the king or not, getting ignored by your spouse and having to watch them literally riding off into the sunset with another is never easy.)? It's a small detail, but I'd like to mention that I enjoy the fact that we today still have knowledge about certain things like the colors of the dresses that she had worn at particular occasions, even beyond what is depicted on paintings of her and so on. These little but for me very important things really (in this case very literally) bring color to the lifes of the people of our past. I think what kind of clothing a person likes to wear if given the choice and especially what colors they prefer can, at least in some cases, tell a lot about the personality, the thoughts and emotions of that person, especially since clothing in the past was a much bigger "investment" than it is today (What I mean by that is that most people didn't have an actual choice about what to wear, since clothes, especially colorful ones, were really expensive back in the days compared to what they cost at least in many of the "western" countries of today. So, even as a wealthy and powerful lady who has the means to actually have that kind of choice, you did not just get any dress you liked, you really thought about what to wear. And since every dress was handmade and tailor-fit directly for you, which took quite some time, you had many opportunities and even more reasons to think about it. Long story short, buying a dress cost TONS of time and money compared to today, so you didn't take it all too lightly in most cases.). And knowing about their colors, their clothing and so on makes them feel more alive, closer to us now. Their lifes weren't just black and white, their environment wasn't just made of words and ink and dry paint. They had favorite colors, favorite clothes and so on, just like we do today. It is, in my opinion, important not to forget that they were not just "important figures in history" but also human beings. One last thing: I really like that you include the sources for all info and for all materials used in every video in the description, thank you a lot for that! It is much appreciated that you do this extra work in addition to all the love and time and passion you already pour into these awesome videos! Inluding references to all the sources is, in my opinion, not only good practice so that people know where the info comes from and so that proper credit is given to those who deserve it, but it is also great for guiding us viewers in the right directions to where we can find more info and more opportunities to learn! So, again, THANK YOU so so much! I love all your videos and I love this one! I really enjoy listening to you breathing life into all these different people and topics of history. All the best!
If she really wanted harmony between Catherine and Henry she should have removed herself from their marriage. I’m not sure if she really felt bad for her, I think she told Henry to spend more time with Catherine to try to suppress her own guilt of being one of the main reasons for her unhappiness. Like knowing that Henry and Catherine were actually getting along would make her feel better about herself and what she was doing. What I don’t understand is why she even wanted to be Henry’s mistress in the first place. She was born wealthy, became even more so when she was married, and acquired even more money after the death of her husband. Plus It’s pretty hard for me to believe that a famous, 38 year old, society beauty genuinely fell in love with an awkward, introverted, 17 year old boy.
@@destinyclark4133 Thank you for your comment :) I always enjoy hearing what others think about these topics! I think there might be several reason why she wanted to be his mistress in the first place. One of them is power. As the video shows, being the mistress of the dauphine and later king of France gave her a lot of influence over him and thus a lot of power. This way she gained not only more wealth, but also privileges that she might not have gotten otherwise, like the duchy of Valentinois. Also Henry officially made her his adviser, which in itself is a position of great authority at a royal court, in addition of the king actually listening to her and her advice more often than not. Another reason might just be attraction or actual love. Not everything people do is ultimately motivated by concers of power, intrigue or wealth, maybe she actually just had feelings for him and wanted to be with him. Or maybe she felt a sense of thrill and satisfaction by using her beauty and charm to sort of "control" the (arguably) most powerful man in the country. I think you make a good point about her feeling guilty as the reason to why she advocates for Catherine. Even though I personally must say that I don't think it makes the situation any better or more comfortable for any one of them. I mean, from Diane's perspective, Catherine and Henry getting along better means that Catherine might develop stronger feelings for him (and vice versa for that matter), which would probably make it more painful for both of them anyways. Our emotions sometimes make us walk on strange unpredictable wonderful paths.
She was a woman of her era! She did what she had to in order to survive and give her children and herself a good life. Diane is one of the reasons I am really hoping a time machine is invented!!!! I just want to look back and see what she looked like throughout her life!!! I'd love to see what King Henry saw! Just to have a small window into her life!! 🤞🤞
She wears the same dress in the portraits! So interesting to see how different artists paint it. I wonder if the dress changed over time or if the difference is purely artist's style
Things were different back in the day. When a king took an official mistress, there was nothing that the wife could do. But yet in the end Diane lost everything. You get what you put into.
To be completely honest I think she was both very loving and caring and supportive she knew when she was not wanted but she knew when she needed to be there or other she was in love with him or not I know she genuinely seemed to care about him whether she knew she had run her luck with the queen or not within or without about no doubt he did with what she thought was right and walked about sharing her heart sharing her wealth sharing her knowledge was sharing her love that is the love that she has shared with him without a doubt how she walked about whether he doubt about it or not she truly did care the king of France
I would say that Diane was very clever and intelligent and saw a way forward for herself in a time when women did not stand a very good chance without a husband. She obviously cared for Henry too. so fair play to Diane, brava.
i am a woman of such intensity and intellect. i am unapologetically one of those women. i am one of those women. i am a woman of such intensity and intellect.
Her routine reminds me of Sisi. Sadly, Sisi became obsessed with fitness and was essentially anorexic. Both were preoccupied by their appearance, though. It seems part of why Catherine didn't conceive was Henri had a penile deformity.
I find it difficult to negatively judge a woman like this who did what she needed to survive in those times. As much as being a mistress really bothers me about her, I can appreciate and respect the time period she lived in and what people had to do to survive.
THANK YOU 🎁💝BEAUTIFUL STORY 🌹IM GLAD SHE BEFRIENDED ENRI 😇💝 AS FOR CATHERINE : SHE WAS UNGRATEFUL AND JEALOUS ! DIANE COULD OF HAD ENRI KILL OR DIVORCE HER ? INSTEAD SHE ENCOURAGED HIM TO BE A HUSBAND 🙏💝😇 A VERY WISE LADY IN MY BOOK 🌹💐🎁I WOULD OF LOVED BWING HER FRIEND 🌹🎁💝😇💐🌸BLESSINGS🌸
Sounds like she knew how to spend money. She might not have been Queen, but some say she should have been. She sounds like a strong woman. He should not have joisted. He was younger and would not listen.
Mark 8:34 “Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? 37 Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?”
Diane was very fastidious & intelligent. No wonder King Henri II was so smitten with her. Cleanliness is next to Godliness... And intelligent people are very attractive in my opinion...
Oh no! A king influenceed by a woman( thats not a crazy religious fanatic) with MORALS and a good head on her shoulders! Wow he turned out ok too. Who woulda thunk it?🤔🤣
C’est vraiment dommage que vos émissions ne soient pas publiées , ou sous titrées , en Français . Nous n’avons pas l’équivalent chez nous, et c’est vraiment dommage pour les passionnés d’histoire. 😊
L’histoire, Entre L’Angleterre et la France,aux destins parallèles , (et rivaux,) ce n’est finalement qu’une ‘’ histoire de famille ‘’ . Et nous sommes souvent, les passionnes d’histoire, aussi intéressés par votre passé que par le notre. Car tres imbriqués, surtout avant- le 17 ieme siecle. Mais helas , nombreux sont en France ceux qui ne parlent pas, ou parlent très mal , votre langue. Dommage, en l’occurrence. Cordialement.
Its importaint to note that the nobility and royals always married to preserve their status, rank, wealth and to forge powerfull alliances. For the kings to gain political power so they made alliances to forreign countries. Love never had anything to do with it. Love where considered bourgeois (common) The french king where expected to have mistresses, because it displayed their wealth and virility. The reason mistresses often had great power, where because there where no real distinction between informal and formal politic power. Acces to the king where vital for gaining influence and power and many noble families saw it as advantageous to have a daughter to be the kings mistress. It was accepted in the upper classes of french society. A future queen from a forreign nation knew that her role and duty to the alliance between the two countries where first to produce an heir, to maintain the alliance and to be her countrys representative and push forward her own countrys agenda. The queen and king often lived very separate lives, with their respective courts and courtiers. They came together to produce an heir, for officiel events and on few occations. Madame Pompadour( Louis xv) midt 18. century became the first one to hold the official title of royal mistress: maitresse en titre.
@@livesandhistories and yes Diane was incredible but she was not my favorite royal mistress my personal favorites are Lucrezia Landrianni lover of Galeazzo Maria Sforza second Duke of Milano and mother of Catherina Sforza and Ottaviano Sforza Bishop of Lodi and Lucrezia Crivelli lover of Ludovico Maria Sforza Il Moro and mother of Giovanni Paolo Sforza and last but not least Louise de Kerouaile Douchess of Portsmouth lover of Charles II Stewart
@@livesandhistories Louis de Breze was a maternal grandson of Agnes Sorell the first ever official mistress plus Anne and Mary Boleyn spend some of their youth at Louise of Savoy's court
