Isabelle was a member of a branch of the House of La Tour d’Auvergne, to which Madeleine de la Tour, the mother of Catherine de’ Medici, had belonged, and was therefore a kinswoman of the Queen-Mother.[29] She was a blond, with beautiful blue eyes and a dazzling complexion, in figure somewhat thin, but exquisitely formed. She had been well-educated, was extremely intelligent and possessed of a mordant wit, which she used freely at the expense of those admirers who did not suit her fancy, not sparing even the most exalted personages. Brantôme relates how, one day during the siege of Rouen, she rebuffed the old Connétable de Montmorency, whose bitter tongue was dreaded by all the Court. The Constable, who, in spite of his age and gravity, did not disdain an occasional amourette attempted to make love to her and addressed her, in anticipation, as “his mistress.” She replied tartly that, if he supposed he would ever have the right to address her thus, he was greatly mistaken, and promptly turned her back on him. Little accustomed to such a rebuff, the old gentleman took his departure, decidedly crestfallen. “My mistress,” said he, “I leave you; you snub me cruelly.” “Which is quite fitting,” she retorted, “since you are accustomed to snub everybody else.”
Her soupirants were legion, and included the Duc d’Aumale; Florimond Robertet, Sieur du Fresne, one of his Majesty’s Secretaries of State;[30] Charles de la Marck, Comte de Maulevrier; Claude de la Châtre, afterwards maréchal de France; Brantôme and Ronsard, one of whose most charming chansons she inspired:
“Quand ce beau printemps je voy,
J’apercoy
Rajeunir la terre et l’onde,
Et me semble que le jour
Et l’amour
Comme enfans naissent au monde.
Quand le soleil tout riant
D’Orient