DIANE DE POITIERS duchess of Valen tinois, mistress of Henry II. of France, was the daughter of Jean de Poitiers, seigneur de St. Vallier, who came of an old family of Dauphine. In 1515 she married Louis de Breze, grand seneschal of Normandy, by whom she had two daughters. After her hus band's death in 1533, she became the mistress of Prince Henry, who became dauphin in 1536. She inspired in the young prince, who was ten years her junior, a passion which lasted until his death. The accession of Henry II. in 1547 was also the accession of Diane : she was virtual queen, while Henry's lawful wife, Cath erine de'Medici, lived in comparative obscurity. Diane de voted her energies chiefly to augmenting her income, and provid ing for her family and friends. Henry gave her the duchy of Valentinois. Catherine drove her from the court after Henry's death, and forced her to restore the crown jewels and to accept Chaumont in exchange for Chenonceaux. Diane retired to her château at Anet, where she died in 1566.
The story that she had been the mistress of Francis I., in order to obtain the pardon of ner father, who had been condemned to death as an accomplice of the constable de Bourbon, has no seri ous foundation. Diane was a patroness of the arts. She entrusted to Philibert de 1'Orme the building of her château at Anet, and it was for her that Jean Goujon executed his masterpiece, the statue of Diana, now in the Louvre.
See G. Guiffrey, Lettres inedites de Diane de Poytiers (1866) and Proces criminel de Jehan de Poytiers (1867) ; Capefigue, Diane de Poitiers (186o) ; Hay, Madame Dianne de Poytiers (1900) .