ABSTRACT
Catherine de Medici and Diane were always associated on public occasions such as the entry into Lyons in June 1549; at Rouen in 1550; the celebrations in connection with the bishopric of Paris on June 19, 1549. At these Madame de Valentinois appeared behind the Queen, with the Princesses of the Blood Royal. Catherine and the Constable manoeuvred secretly against the royal mistress. The bond between the Queen and her confidant was a political one. This was Catherine’s first appearance on the political scene, which she was immediately to leave, only to reappear on the death of Henri II and to remain for thirty years in the forefront of it. Into the stormy skies of Saint Quentin the bow, herald of peace, had shot the scarf of Iris, entwined about its arrow. The crescent had temporarily disappeared. Catherine’s first act of revenge against Diane was a political one—the sweetest, to this careful student of Machiavelli.
