A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Pienne, Joan de Halluin
PIENNE, JOAN DE HALLUIN,
Maid of honour to Catharine de Medicis, was passionately beloved by Francis de Montmorenci, eldest son of the constable, Aun de Montmorenci. He engaged himself to her, but his parents opposed it, as they wished him to marry the widow of the Duke de Castro, Henry's natural daughter. They sent to Pope Paul the Fourth, to obtain a dissolution of the engagement, which he would not grant, as he wished the Duchess de Castro to marry a nephew of his. Henry the Second then published an edict declaring clandestine marriages null and void, and ordered the Lady de Pienne to be shut up in a monastery, and Francis de Montmorenci married the duchess. The Lady de Pienne was married some time after, to a man inferior in rank to her first lover.