king was not necessarily superior. Francois I{er} was
the first of French kings to make his court first of all courts, a place
of art, luxury, constant display. It became a magnet that drew the
nobility from their stupid keeps, detaining them, when young, with
adventure; when old, with office, providing, meanwhile, for the beauty of
women a proper frame. Already at a garden party held on a field of golden
cloth the first Francis of France had shown the eighth Henry of England
how a king could shine. He was dreaming then of empire. The illusion,
looted at Pavia, hovered over Fontainebleau and Chambord, royal residences
which, Italian artists aiding, he then constructed and where, though not
emperor, for a while he seemed to be.

Elsewhere, in Paris, in his maison des menus plaisirs--a house in the rue
de l'Hirondelle--the walls were decorated with salamanders--the fabulous
emblems of inextinguishable loves; or else with hearts, which, set between
alphas and omegas, indicated the beginning and the end of earthly aims.
The loves and hearts were very many, as multiple as those of Solomon.
Except by Brantome not one of them was compromised. Francois I{er} was the
loyal protector of what he called l'honneur des dames, an honor which
thereafter it was accounted an honor to abrogate for the king.[63]

"If," said Sauval, "the seraglio of Henri II was not as wide as that of
Francois I{er}, his court was not less elegant."

The court at that time had succumbed to the refinements of Italy. Women
who previously were not remarkable for fastidiousness, had, Brantome
noted, acquired so many elegancies, such fine garments and beautiful
graces that they were more delectable than those of any other land.
Brantome added that if Henri II loved them, at least he loved but one.

That one was Dianne de Poytiers. Brantome suspected her of being a
magician, of using potable gold. At the age of seventy she was, he said,
"aussy fraische et aussy aymable comme en l'aage de trente ans." Hence the
suspicion, otherwise justified. In France among queens--de la main
gauche--she had in charm but one predecessor, Agnes Sorel, and but one
superior, La Valliere. The legendary love which that charm inspired in
Henri II had in it a troubadourian parade and a chivalresque effacement.
In its fervor there was devotion, in its passion there was poetry, there
was humility in its strength. At the Louvre, at Fontainebleau, on the
walls without, in the halls withi