Secrets of History - Agnès Sorel, first of the favourites

She was the first official mistress of a French king, in 1444. Agnes Sorel was barely 20 years old when she met Charles VII. She was then distinguished by her youth and her great beauty. A charm that even his fiercest enemies, like Pope Pius II, recognize. Her debauchery of jewels, her extravagant outfits and her taste for the arts created scandal at the same time that they brought light into the old palaces of the kingdom. Both free and pious, Agnes transformed King Charles VII, her eldest of 18 years, and played a major political role at his side, in a kingdom tormented by the Hundred Years War.