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Odette de Champdivers
 
 
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Odette de Champdivers, La Petite Reine (b. about 1390) was the mistress
Mistress (lover)

A mistress is a man's long-term female sexual partner and companion who is not marriage to him, especially used when the man is married to another woman....
 of Charles VI of France
Charles VI of France

Charles VI , called the Well-loved and the Mad , was the List of French monarchs from 1380 to 1399, as a member of the House of Valois....
 (the Mad) and previously his brother, the Duke of Orléans
Louis of Valois, Duke of Orléans

Louis I of Valois was Duke of Orl?ans from 1392 to his death. He was also Count of Valois, Duke of Touraine , Count of Blois , Counts and dukes of Angouleme , P?rigord, Dreux and Soissons....
.

Mistress to royalty
Called la petite reine, "the little queen" by her contemporaries, Odette de Champdivers (sometimes Odinette or Oudine) was sent by Queen consort Queen Isabella
Isabeau of Bavaria

Isabeau de Bavi?re was a Queen Consort of France after marrying Charles VI of France, a member of the Valois Dynasty, on July 17, 1385. She assumed a prominent role in public affairs during the disastrous later years of her husband's reign....
 to attend upon the sick king, Charles VI, and to ultimately replace the queen in the king's bed.






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Odette de Champdivers, La Petite Reine (b. about 1390) was the mistress
Mistress (lover)

A mistress is a man's long-term female sexual partner and companion who is not marriage to him, especially used when the man is married to another woman....
 of Charles VI of France
Charles VI of France

Charles VI , called the Well-loved and the Mad , was the List of French monarchs from 1380 to 1399, as a member of the House of Valois....
 (the Mad) and previously his brother, the Duke of Orléans
Louis of Valois, Duke of Orléans

Louis I of Valois was Duke of Orl?ans from 1392 to his death. He was also Count of Valois, Duke of Touraine , Count of Blois , Counts and dukes of Angouleme , P?rigord, Dreux and Soissons....
.

Mistress to royalty


Called la petite reine, "the little queen" by her contemporaries, Odette de Champdivers (sometimes Odinette or Oudine) was sent by Queen consort Queen Isabella
Isabeau of Bavaria

Isabeau de Bavi?re was a Queen Consort of France after marrying Charles VI of France, a member of the Valois Dynasty, on July 17, 1385. She assumed a prominent role in public affairs during the disastrous later years of her husband's reign....
 to attend upon the sick king, Charles VI, and to ultimately replace the queen in the king's bed. Odette became royal mistress about 1407.

Charles VI had begun to display ambivalent characteristics of schizophrenia
Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia , from the Ancient Greek Root schizein and phren, phren- is a psychiatry diagnosis that describes a mental disorder characterized by abnormalities in the perception or expression of reality....
. His often violent fits led Isabella to fear him. Finally she abandoned Charles entirely, leaving him without necessaries and proper food.

Isabella found a lookalike, the fair, young Burgundian
House of Burgundy

The House of Burgundy was a cadet branch of the Capetian dynasty, descending from Robert I, Duke of Burgundy, a younger son of Robert II of France....
 Odette de Champdivers, who was then lover to Charles VI's brother, allegedly. She is described as a lively, beautiful young girl with a gentle disposition. She was daughter to a dealer in horses. Isabella arranged for Odette to take her place as caregiver and lover of the unapproachable king.

Odette cared for her unhappy sovereign with the utmost patience and devotion. She is credited for introducing playing cards
Playing card

A playing card is a piece of specially prepared heavy paper, thin card, or thin plastic, figured with distinguishing motifs and used as one of a set for playing card games....
 into France, "for the amusement of [Charles VI] during his paroxysms of insanity."

Meanwhile, the voluptuous Isabella found consolation in the arms of her debonair brother-in-law, the Duke of Orléans
Louis of Valois, Duke of Orléans

Louis I of Valois was Duke of Orl?ans from 1392 to his death. He was also Count of Valois, Duke of Touraine , Count of Blois , Counts and dukes of Angouleme , P?rigord, Dreux and Soissons....
, Odette's former lover. Together, Odette and Charles VI had a daughter, Margaret
Marguerite bâtarde de France

Marguerite de Valois, la demoiselle de Belleville, also known as Marguerite b?tarde de France was the Illegitimacy daughter of Charles VI of France and his beloved Mistress Odette de Champdivers....
. On his deathbed, the last words of Charles VI were her name: "Odette. Odette." She later passed into the service as mistress of Charles VII of France
Charles VII of France

File:Charles VII Franc a cheval 1422 1423.jpgCharles VII , called the Victorious or the Well-Served , was List of French monarchs from 1422 to his death, though he was initially opposed by Henry VI of England, whose Regent ruled much of France from Paris....
, the son of Charles VI and Isabella.

A breed of French rose
Rosa gallica

Rosa gallica, is a species of rose native to southern and central Europe eastwards to Turkey and the Caucasus. The rosa gallica officinalis is also called Apothecary's Rose....
 has been named for her.

Also, the nineteenth-century French novelist Balzac
Honoré de Balzac

Honor? de Balzac was a French novelist and playwright. His magnum opus was a Novel sequence of almost 100 novels and plays collectively entitled La Com?die humaine, which presents a panorama of French life in the years after the fall of Napol?on Bonaparte in 1815....
 wrote a historical novel
Historical novel

A historical novel is a novel in which the story is set among historical events, or more generally, in which the time of the action predates the lifetime of the author....
 inspired by her life titled Odette de Champdivers.

See also

  • French royal mistresses