MovieChat Forums > The Serpent Queen (2022) Discussion > Madame de Poitiers

Madame de Poitiers

posted 2 years ago by agentalbert (3080)
2 replies | jump to latest

I think Ludivine Sagnier as Madame Diane de Poitiers is the best thing about this series. They're stretching with her age a bit. At one point someone comments that she is twice the age of the king, but the actress was only 42-43 when this was filmed. I suppose that worked when it was young teenage Henri before he was king, but she should have been in her 70's by the time he's been on the throne awhile.

Still, god bless her for that beautiful scene getting up out of the gold bath!

[–] Pacer88 (233) 4 months ago

She certainly was a vision to behold!

[–] mobocracy (891) 2 months ago

I did the math, and Henry II took the throne at about 28, which would have made Madame du Poitiers 56. He held the throne until he was 40, which meant du Poitiers would have been 68.

IIRC, the line was "almost double his age" but that's a bit of an exaggeration. Wikipedia says she was 35 when they got involved in 1534. He ascended the throne in 1547, which would have made her 48, and 60 when he died in 1559.

Henry I banished her from court at least for a time in the mid-1540s but the show seems to gloss over this, and she wasn't really put out to pasture until Henry II died in 1559.