women. Both children studied well, as their mother took their education very seriously. In keeping withher motto “
Libris et liberis
”—“Through books and children,” Louise de Savoie commissioned books especially for her children, and taught them Italian. They also learned Spanish and had access to the famous library of their grandfather, Jean d’Angoulême. The New World was opening up through exploration, and François was fascinated by the discoveries being reported from the new continents. With the advent of Humanism, the children learned about the heroes of antiquity and made them their own. They were both intelligent and full of
joie de vivre
. François was plainly adored by his mother and sister—a devotion that would last all his life.
While François d’Angoulême was learning to ride fearlessly and hunt with his young companions, the queen, Anne de Bretagne, was praying for an heir. With each of Anne’s pregnancies, Louise de Savoie dreaded the loss of her “Caesar’s” inheritance. But Louise seems to have cast her ambitious spell over this royal union as well: although they had daughters, the sons of Louis XII and Anne de Bretagne were all stillborn. The queen was so desperate that she wanted to exile the gloating Louise back to Savoy.
In 1509 Louise’s daughter Marguerite married the First Prince of the Blood, the duc d’Alençon. 7 Louis XII felt the time had come for François d’Angoulême to be installed with his mother in the château of Amboise, traditional seat of French dauphins, to await their destiny. 8 The king also persuaded Louise to replace her chamberlain with a more suitable mentor and a tutor of his choosing for his heir, and forbade her, for the time being, to remarry. He also decided that his daughter, Claude, would be François’ wife.
In 1504, while Louis XII was seriously ill, his queen, Anne de Bretagne—desperate to thwart Louise de Savoie in some way—had tried to take her daughter Claude to Nantes to implement the Treaty of Blois and marry her to Charles of Habsburg, heir to Austria, the Netherlands, and Spain, 9 instead of François d’Angoulême. Herdowry would have been Brittany. But Marshal Gié, Louis’ custodian of his heir, put an end to this plan, which would have jeopardized the unity of France. The Estates-General joined the protest, imploring the king to wed his daughter to a true Frenchman: François, duc d’Angoulême.
Exhausted from bearing and losing so many children, Anne de Bretagne’s health began to fail. She loathed Louise and felt sure it was her evil eye that had caused her sons to die. Anne de Bretagne went to her grave on January 9, 1514 in the knowledge that the son of her enemy, Louise de Savoie, would inherit not only France but also her beloved Brittany. Just four months after her death, the gentle, frail, fourteen-year-old Claude de France, daughter of Louis XII and Anne de Bretagne, married François, the eighteen-year-old giant who would surely now become king of France. 10 Louis XII chose to ignore the clause in his own marriage contract, which clearly stated that Anne de Bretagne’s
second
child, a daughter called Renée, would inherit Brittany. Instead, the elder child, Claude, was installed as duchesse de Bretagne et de Berry.
Diane de Poitiers accompanied her father to Saint-Germain-en-Laye outside Paris to assist at the royal wedding in her capacity as Claude’s
demoiselle d’honneur
. Both girls were almost fifteen. It was a most sinister occasion as all the guests, including the bride and groom, wore black out of respect for the late queen, and no wedding celebration was held.
Other than being the daughter of a king and possessing the sweetest character, Claude was not blessed with many advantages. Her face was considered quite pleasant despite a severe squint. She was very short and had a bad limp. With repeated childbirth she grew “strangely corpulent” and this obesity put her life in danger with each