130 



RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN FRANCE. 



WINDOWS. 

 127. TOULOUSE: HOTEL LASBORDES. 



128. HOUSE AT JOIGNY. 



of impressive and athletic person, but slight intellectual endowment. 

 Disliked by his father and married at fourteen to an uncongenial foreign 

 bride, he grew up awkward and morose, till he came into contact with 

 the clever and ambitious Diane de Poitiers, widow of Louis de Breze. 

 Though twenty years his senior, she retained great personal charms, and 

 combined with sound practical sense a worship of life, beauty, and 

 action. Sharing with the prince a passion for hunting and outdoor 

 sports, she established an ascendancy over him which ended only with 

 his life. Under the influence of her superior gifts Henry's qualities 

 unfolded, and he became a not undignified or unsuccessful ruler. She 

 was created Duchess of Valentinois, loaded with wealth, and consulted 

 in all things, while the queen was relegated to a position of humiliating 

 dependence. Henry's chief advisers were the Constable Montmorency, 

 whom he recalled from disgrace, and the more popular and enterprising 

 Guises, while Diane held the balance between them. All were un- 

 compromising Catholics, ambitious and greedy. 



His REIGN. Henry II. inherited the struggle with the Empire. 

 France lost her Italian possessions, but gained on her northern borders 

 and established her territorial unity. The royal council was better 



