La Belle Corisande
Some people have all the luck. I can't get my sorry friends to call me something fun
like "The Divine Penthesilea," but when Diane d'Andouins, Comtesse de Guiche, suddenly
decided that from now on she wanted to be known as La Belle Corisande,
nobody apparently batted an eyelash.
Corisande was Henri the Fourth's first great mistress.
She was learned, cultured and virtuous -- these were still the days when it was possible
to be someone's mistress and be virtuous, provided
the someone was high enough in the pecking order. Their affair was actively
carried on for about a decade; they remained friends for life.