Kings throughout medieval and early modern Europe had extraconjugal
sexual partners. Only in France, however, did the royal mistress become
a quasi-institutionalized political position. This study explores the
emergence and development of the position of French royal mistress
through detailed portraits of nine of its most significant incumbents:
Agnès Sorel, Anne de Pisseleu d'Heilly, Diane de Poitiers, Gabrielle
d'Estrées, Françoise Louise de La Baume Le Blanc, Françoise Athénaïs de
Rochechouart de Mortemart, Françoise d'Aubigné, Jeanne-Antoinette
Poisson, and Jeanne Bécu.
Beginning in the fifteenth century, key structures converged to create a
space at court for the royal mistress. The first was an idea of gender
already in place: that while women were legally inferior to men, they
were men's equals in competence. Because of their legal subordinacy,
queens were considered to be the safest regents for their husbands, and,
subsequently, the royal mistress was the surest counterpoint to the
royal favorite. Second, the Renaissance was a period during which people
began to experience space as theatrical. This shift to a theatrical
world opened up new ways of imagining political guile, which came to be
positively associated with the royal mistress. Still, the role had to be
activated by an intelligent, charismatic woman associated with a king
who sought women as advisors. The fascinating particulars of each case
are covered in the chapters of this book.
Thoroughly researched and compellingly narrated, this important study
explains why the tradition of a politically powerful royal mistress
materialized at the French court, but nowhere else in Europe. It will
appeal to anyone interested in the history of the French monarchy, women
and royalty, and gender studies.
