HENRIIV, THE vert galant (lusty seducer), who ascended the throne in 1594, was well aware of the discourse surrounding Agnès Sorel. His secretary, Jules Gassot, describes the king comparing his passion for Gabrielle d’Estrees and, after Gabrielle's death, other mistresses, to Charles VII's for Agnès. The king “never got tired of such loves,” writes Gassot, “saying that Charles VII with his lady Agnès Sorel had conquered the kingdom.” By claiming that Gabrielle was the inspiration behind his chivalry, the king may also have hoped to enhance her chances of being accepted as his queen. Henri IV had emphasized his reassuring virility as one justification for succeeding the childless Henri III on the French throne, but he needed to produce a legitimate heir to make good on the claim. Gabrielle, like Agnès, bore the king three children, and Henri IV's associating her with this earlier mistress seems strategic. The pairing of the two women will recur. In his false memoir of Gabrielle, Paul Lacroix has Henri IV's mistress declare that she will aid her king by keeping his spirits up. “I will be your Agnès Sorel,” she cries, “and I will guard you from despair as long you have a sword in your hand and a hand to hold it.” Henri IV tears up, commending Gabrielle's noble words and assuring her that he counts on her to inspire his martial ardor and his honour.

We have noted that the first clear example of the identification of Agnès as the Melun Virgin dates from Henri IV's reign. As we saw in Chapter Four, the king's son, the dauphin who became Louis XIII, was sent to Melun to marvel at the diptych in 1608. In 1610 the king attempts to buy the diptych from the church for ten thousand livres. Based on his show of interest in this painting, François Avril posits that, during construction under his watch of a new portrait gallery of the kings and queens of France in the Louvre, Henri IV may have commissioned a copy of the Melun diptych to hang there.

Avril also attributes Henri IV with being the force behind a new series of portraits of Agnès, which begin to proliferate around the end of the sixteenth century. Possibly at the king's instigation, painters turned away from the Fouquet sketch and returned to the Melun diptych as a model, Avril explains.