Diane d'Andoins

Diane d'Andoins or d'Andouins (Diane of Andoins) was born in Hagetmau in the fall of 1554, and died there in February 1621. The Countess of Guiche, and called "the beautiful Corisande", she was known for having been a royal mistress of King Henri III of Navarre (the future Henri IV of France) between 1582 and 1591. Biography She was the daughter of Marguerite of Cauna and of Paul, Baron of Andoins, Lord of Lescar, Viscount and later Count of Louvigny. She later became one of the wealthiest heiresses of Béarn. Emancipated on 6 August 1567 (at the age of 13), she was married on Thursday 21 November 1568 to Philibert of Gramont, Seneschal of Béarn, Count of Gramont and of Guiche, Viscount of Aster and of Louvigny, Lord of Lescure, and Governor of Bayonne (1552–1580) who was, at the time only 15 himself. Philibert died of a wound received in 1580 during the siege of La Fère in Picardy, and Diane found herself a widow at the age of 26. She was the mother of Antoine II, Duke of Gramont, and a daughter, Catherine. A woman renowned for great beauty and no less extensive culture, she was particularly acquainted with Montaigne. She fell in love with courtly literature, and it was in the chivalric romance Amadis de Gaula that she found a heroine that she could identify with, and whose name she adopted: "Corisande".