by Deryn Lake
Madame de Giac is another figure shrouded in mystery, even French experts not being certain whether she was de Giac’s mother or wife. The facts are that there certainly was a Madame de Giac, that she was the mistress of the Duke of Burgundy, that she had a powerful influence over Charles, that she actually stopped the argument between Burgundy and the young King by the extraordinary means of physically stepping between the two departing entourages and sending them back to the conference table. My portrait of her is based on what shadowy facts there are available, yet what is certain is that she died in the horrific way described.
Many writers believe Agnès Sorel to have been not only the most beautiful woman of her time but also the most honourable, yet contemporary evidence points another way. The monumental row between Louis and Charles — they literally never saw one another again after they parted company in late 1446 — begins to make sense if one gives credence to the theory that Agnès was the Dauphin’s mistress before becoming that of the King. To quote Malcolm Vale: ‘If Louis, as well as his father, was her lover, then she might have been the principal cause of the estrangement between them.’ And as for the volatile Pierre de Brézé, to quote a contemporary source, ‘…he keeps himself marvellously well in with the King, partly by means of Agnès, from whom he has what he wants.’ Enough said I think!
Interestingly, Agnès’s second daughter, Charlotte, married Jacques de Brézé, Pierre’s son. Their son was Louis de Brézé whose second wife was Diane de Poitiers, the legendary beauty who became mistress of Henri II. Agnès’s eldest girl, Marie-Marguerite, married Olivier de Coetivy, the Seneschal of Guyenne, while her third child, Jeanne, married Antoine de Bueil. Her fourth daughter, whose birth killed Agnès, survived her mother only six months.
The Queen, Marie d’Anjou, even today remains in the background of Charles’s life, remembered only for her large brood of children and her refusal to dabble in political affairs. My theory that their marriage was a happy one, bringing the King a curious kind of contentment, is supposition only. Yet the fact remains that Charles of France was born to the Queen late, the last of fourteen offspring, proving that despite Agnès the sex life of Charles and Marie, if nothing else, remained active.
As to the rest of the story, reality and fiction are sometimes interwoven, though the facts have been researched as well as they possibly could be. This extraordinary account of those grim and terrible times is as close to the truth as I could make it.
Bibliography
The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln.
The True Story of the Maid of Orleans, Maurice David-Damac.
Charles VII et son Mystere, Philippe Erlanger.
Life in Medieval France, Joan Evans.
Operation Shepherdess, Andre Guerin and Jack Palmer White.
Joan of Arc, John Holland Smith.
Yolande d’Anjou, la Reine des Quatre Royaumes, Jehanne d’Orliac.
Joan of Arc and her Secret Missions, Pierre de Sermoise.
Charles VII, M. G. A. Vale.
Gilles de Rais, A. L. Vincent and Clare Binns.
Bluebeard, Thomas Wilson.
