"The Serpent and the Moon" by HRH Princess Michael of Kent

THE SERPENT AND THE MOON from Her Royal Highness Princess Michael of Kent was not my first introduction to 16^th century France and its historical characters Henri II, Catherine de Medici, and Diane de Poiters.  I knew of this love triangle first through the historical fiction work of another author.  There they served as supporting players in a separate character’s story.  In THE SERPENT AND THE MOON (the serpent standing as Catherine’s symbol; the moon being that for Diane de Poiters) Princess Michael gives them their own stage for their remarkable tale to unfold.

All begins, appropriately enough, with the marriage between the two fourteen-year-olds, Catherine and Henri.  Such was not a marriage of romantic love, of course, as most marriages of that era were not.  This was a marriage for political purpose.  Catherine, being a cousin to the current pope, Clement VII, and part of the affluent Medici family, gave Henri’s father and king of France, Francois I, access into the Italian states he sought to add to France’s realm. It is a riveting example of politics at its apex. 

Unfortunately, stuck in the middle of all this political wrangling is the second son of the French king and a rather plain, unappealing daughter of the Medici - children being used for the power-hungry wrangling of the warring adults.

Where Diane de Poiters enters this tale is years earlier as a child herself being off to the much-older Louis de Breze (forty years her senior).  It was an arranged marriage by Anne de Beaujea (a woman with a story all her own, touched on just enough here to show how Diane, a student, could capture Henri’s heart as a child and retain it as he grew into manhood, while being twenty years his senior) and moved Diane into the French court: first as a matron of honor to Queen Claude (herself a teenage bride, like Diane), wife to Francois I and mother to Henri; always as caretaker of the royal children, instructing them with much of the same care as Anne de Beaujeau

Possibly, the watershed moment for she and Henri came when he and his brother Charles were sent to Madrid in exchange for their father Francoise.  Both boys were mere boys, used – again - to ensure Francois compliance in a peace treaty once he returned from captivity into France.  Diane, at their departure, seeing the six-year-old Henri in tears, ran through the crowd to embrace him, and comfort him, and kiss him – a true kindness Henri apparently never forgot.

Diane’s old husband, Louis de Breze, eventually died (a man she loved for the common interest they shared and who gave her two children); Henri eventually became France’s king; and Catherine became France’s queen.  Though she grew to love Henri, his heart belonged forever to Diane, who retained her beauty like a goddess of perpetual youth.

The beauty secrets Princess Michael details of Diane de Poiters are simply astounding.  Some, mere fanciful stories told during those days, some, factual accounts of what practices the woman engaged in to retain her perpetual feminine appeal.  Whether fact or fiction, it is clear she was a woman who embodied the essence of what it meant to be female – remarked as a beauty even in her sixties.

Contrast this with the plain features of Catherine.

While Henri spent the night in Diane’s bed, he did his royal duty by Catherine to produce an heir.  It was a concern, for a time, in the beginning of Henri’s reign, when Catherine was not producing any children.  Oddly enough, it was Diane who aided Catherine in this endeavor, ensuring Henri would spend time with the queen, while also continuing to spend his nights with her.  She was likewise concerned she may lose her place in the court if Catherine was removed for not giving Henri children.  It was a win-win situation for both women – though Catherine, naturally, felt the shame and disgrace – and jealousy – of a woman who could not allure the interests of her husband.

The results of Diane’s aid helped Catherine produce nine children for Henri.

Again THE SERPENT AND THE MOON is a remarkable story, and it is told thoroughly well.  Every character, involved either in a small way or great, is breathed life into and given cause and effect of their involvement in Henri, Catherine’s or Diane’s life.

           

For some, this vastness might lose them, wondering what became of Henri, Catherine and Diane when the pages are talking about the wars Francois I executed to expand French sovereignty against the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.  For myself, I simply relished the stories told.  This is the history that unfolded: the love, the drama, the political intrigue.  It is the stuff that happens even today in our own government of which we never hear.  How amazing is it for a young king to fall in love with an older woman, while being married to a girl he met only for the political benefit of his father?

The only qualm I might have is the transition made from heir to king.  Moving Diane into the position of Henri’s mistress just seems to happen.  It reads almost like the two were always lovers.  But common sense tells there has to be appoint where that transition occurred.

Perhaps such is the unknown.  Perhaps it is that which can never be researched as the rest of the book is.  One day they are not lovers – physically; the next day, Henri becomes king and they are.  I don’t know.  All I can say is THE SERPENT AND THE MOON is a fabulous retelling of that period of European history.  Though not written in a fictionalized novel form, the story is told with the scope and grandeur of a classic.