Strange to say, even after she was set free, Jeanne appears to have
spent a considerable time at Plessis—which, as we know, she hated
nearly as much as she did the Duke of Clèves—for she was still there
when she heard of the death of Francis I. in the spring of 1547. She at
once joined her father, but does not seem to have tried to console her
mother, who was broken-hearted, and henceforth gave up the life and
studies, in which she had so much delighted, for the service of the
poor. Many years previously Francis had married his son Henri to the
young Catherine de Medici, who now sat on the throne of France, where
the King of Navarre had thought to have placed his daughter. Henri was a
very different man from Francis: he was shy and gloomy, and he had not
the gay and pleasant manners of his father, and his affections were
given to a wholly different set of friends. But on hearing of the fresh
advances made by the Emperor Charles to the King of Navarre for a union
between Jeanne and the young widower, Philip of Spain, Henri bethought
him of the danger from Spain which was so prominently before the eyes of
his father, and summoned Jeanne, then nearly twenty, to Fontainebleau.
So seldom had the princess been at Court that she was almost a stranger,
but her high spirits and quick tongue made her a favourite with most
people. Queen Catherine, however, did not like her; she could not
understand Jeanne, or the bold way in which she set forth her views.
Speech, according to Catherine, was given you to hide your thoughts, and
not to display them; while Jeanne thought the queen's elaborate
compliments and constant reserve very tiresome, and avoided her as much
as possible. 'How cold Catherine was, and how stingy,' said Jeanne to
herself. 'She did not seem to care for anybody, even her own children,
while as for gratitude'—and, with her head held high, Jeanne sat down
to write a letter respecting the care of her old nurse.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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