La Belle Châteauneuf

[1] She was maid of honour to France's queen mother, Catherine de' Medici, and a member of her notorious "Flying Squadron" (L'escadron volant).

This intrigue deterred the duke from agreeing to an arranged marriage with Elizabeth I of England; but he soon abandoned la Châteauneuf for Marie of Cleves (1571).

The court then wished to find a husband for her, whose singular beauty gave her an influence which the queen-mother feared, and matches were in turn suggested with the Voivode of Transylvania, the Earl of Leicester; with Antoine Duprat, provost of Paris;[2] and with the Count of Brienne, all of which came to nothing.

[1] Ultimately, Renée was banished from the court on the ground that she had been lacking in respect toward the queen, Louise of Lorraine.

She remarried, her husband being Philip Altoviti, who in 1586 was killed in a duel by the Grand Prior Henri d'Angoulême, who was himself mortally wounded.