Note 215 — BOOK IV[176]

Anne de Pisseleu, Duchesse d'Étampes (circa 1508-circa 1576), first known as Mademoiselle d'Heilly, maid-of-honour to the Comtesse d'Angoulême, mother of François I. She became the King's mistress at the age of eighteen; he married her to a certain Jean de Brosse, and gave her the county of Étampes, first raising it to a duchy. She practically governed France for two-and-twenty years, until the King's death in 1547, when she retired into obscurity and solaced her solitude by embracing the Reformation.—T.