Louise de Lorraine – the White Queen

We spent two weeks on holiday in France this year, where we visited the Loire Valley, a fantastic part of the country with all its castles.

This time we visited the beautiful Chenonceau Castle and I was completely captivated by both its beauty and history. It is a royal castle built in the 16th century in the Renaissance style and interestingly enough, women have been the mistresses of the castle throughout the royal era. The castle was spared destruction during the French Revolution thanks to Madame Dupin (royal mistress) who held literary salons together with the writers and philosophers whose ideas were the basis for the revolution, e.g. Rousseau. The castle is therefore relatively intact from its heyday.

Another of the castle’s mistresses with a poignant fate was Louise de Lorraine. She inherited the castle after the death of her mother-in-law, Catherine de Medici. After the murder of Louise’s husband, Henri III, she fell into a state of deep depression and spent her days aimlessly wandering the long corridors, dressed entirely in white, which was the etiquette of royal mourning. This is why she became known as the White Queen. She expressed her grief by decorating her bedroom entirely in black. Black walls and ceilings were decorated with mourning symbols such as tears, thorns and a monogram with her and her deceased husband’s initials.