Anne of Brittany: Conclusion

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Anne of Brittany, Brittany, Claude of France, Duchess of Brittany, Francis I of France, Henri III of France, Henry VIII, King Henri II of France, King Henry VIII of England, Louis XII of France, Margaret Tudor, Salic Law

Three days after the death of Charles VIII the terms of Anne’s marriage contract became an issue. The contract stipulated that Anne had to marry her husbands successor if Anne and Charles did not have an heir. This clause in the contract was made so France would be able to maintain control over the Duchy of Brittany. There was one significant obstacle to adhering to the clause in the contract. The new King, Louis XII, was already married, to Joan of France, daughter of Louis XI and sister to the recently deceased Charles VIII. On August 19, 1498, at Étampes, Anne agreed to marry Louis XII if he obtained an annulment from Joan within a year. Days later, the process for the annulment of the marriage between Louis XII and Joan of France began. In the interim, Anne returned to Brittany by October of 1498 and began the administration of her Duchy.

(Louis XII of France & Naples)

With Anne being a fierce defender of the independence of Brittany it may seem odd that she agreed to abide by the contract and marry Louis XII. It has been theorized by many historical scholars that Anne was hoping that Pope Alexander VI would not grant the annulment. That was not the case, for Pope Alexander VI dissolved the marriage between Louis XII and Joan of France before the end of the year. * At Nantes, on January 7, 1499 Anne’s signed her third marriage contract and was married to Louis XII that very same day. Anne was 21 and Louis XII was 37.

Since Anne was no longer a child as she was at her first two marriages, she was now a Dowager Queen of France and about to turn the ripe old age of 22 two weeks after her marriage to Louis XII, she was determined to ensure the recognition of her rights as sovereign Duchess of Brittany from the start of this marriage.

Although after the marriage Louis XII exercised Anne’s powers in Brittany, and issued decisions in her name, he did formally recognize her right to the title “Duchess of Brittany” and allowed her to formally use her title. The marriage contract settled the issue of the succession to Duchy. The Contract ensured that their second child, son or daughter, would inherit the duchy of Brittany. Sadly this was a clause that would not be respected in the future. Anne also had her second coronation ceremony as Queen of France which took place on November 18, 1504, again at St. Denis Basilica.

Since Anne, as the reigning Duchess of Brittany fiercely defended the independence of her Duchy, she arranged the marriage of her daughter, Claude, heiress of the Duchy, born October 13, 1499, to Archduke Charles of Austria, (future Holy Roman Emperor Karl V, King of Spain) to reinforce the Franco-Spanish alliance and ensure French success in the Italian Wars. This marriage contract was signed on August 10, 1501 in Lyon by François de Busleyden, Archbshop of Besançon, William de Croÿ, Nicolas de Rutter and Pierre Lesseman, all ambassadors of Archduke Philipp of Austria, reigning Duke of Burgundy, Charles’ father.

After several years of marriage, and with Claude being the only surviving child of Anne and Louis XII, it became readily apparent that Anne would not produce a male heir. Therefore, Louis XII had the arranged marriage between Claude and Archduke Charles of Austria canceled. Alternatively, Louis XII arranged a marriage between Claude and the perspective heir to the French throne, Francis of Angoulême. This would continue to bring Brittany under the direct control of the French Crown. Anne was determined to maintain independence for her Duchy and refused to approve of this union. Anne continued to support the planned marriage between Claude and Archduke Charles, and added the addendum that her other daughter, Renée, would inherit the Duchy, forever keeping it out of the clutches of the French Crown. She was so against the marriage between Claude and Francis of Angoulême that she withheld any support or sanctioning of the union until her dying day.

Death

At the still young age of 37 Anne died at 6 a.m. on January 9, 1514 of a kidney-stone attack while at the Château de Blois. It has been theorized that her health declined, hastening her demise, due to her many pregnancies and miscarriages. According to her will her body was partitioned. The customary partitioning of her body (dilaceratio corporis, “division of the body” in heart, entrails and bones) allowed for multiple burials, a privilege of the Capetian dynasty, which also allowed for multiple ceremonies.

(Arms of Anne of Brittany)

Anne’s will also granted the succession of Brittany to her second daughter, Renée. Louis XII ignored Anne’s Will and confirmed Claude as Duchess of Brittany. On May 18, 1514, Francis of Angoulême married his second cousin Claude, the new reigning Duchess of Brittany. The younger daughter, Renée (1510–1575), married Duke Ercole II of Ferrara. After the death of Anne, Louis XII married Mary Tudor, the sister of Henry VIII of England, in Abbeville, France, on October 9, 1514. This represented a final attempt to produce an heir to the French throne, for despite two previous marriages the king had no living sons. On December 24, 1514, Louis was reportedly suffering from a severe case of gout. In the early hours of January 1, 1515, he had received the final sacraments and died later that evening. Louis XII was interred in Saint Denis Basilica. He was 52 years old and had reigned for 17 Years.

Succession

The succession to the throne of France followed Salic Law, which did not allow women to inherit the throne or pass on succession right to their issue. As a result, Louis XII was succeeded by Francis I. Born to Louise of Savoy, on September 12, 1494. Francis I was the son of Charles, Count of Angoulême and he was a great-great grandson of King Charles V of France. This meant that the Duchy of Brittany was once again the property of the queen consort of France.

(Tomb of Anne of Brittany and Charles VIII of France)

Anne’s marriage with Louis XII of France, produced at least another nine pregnancies:

* Claude of France (13 October 1499 – 20 July 1524), who succeeded her as Duchess of Brittany and later also became Queen consort of France as wife of Francis I.
* miscarriage (1500).
* Stillborn son (21 January 1503).
* miscarriage (end 1503).
* miscarriage (1505).
* miscarriage (1508).
* miscarriage (1509).
* Renée of France (25 October 1510 – 12 June 1574), married Ercole II d’Este, the Duke of Ferrara, and became Duchess of Ferrara of Chartres, and Lady of Montargis on occasion of her wedding.
* Stillborn son (January 1512).

Each miscarriage or stillbirth is said to have delighted the ambitious Louise of Savoy, whose son Francis was the heir apparent under the Salic Law. There even existed contemporary rumours that Louise used witchcraft to kill Anne’s sons. Anne’s male bloodline ended with her great-grandson Henri III of France in 1589.

Through her granddaughter Margaret, Duchess of Savoy (Claude’s youngest daughter), Anne of Brittany was the ancestor of Vittorio Emanuele IV, Prince of Naples, and the current pretender to the throne of Italy. Through her great-granddaughter Claude, Duchess of Lorraine (daughter of Henri II of France), Anne is also the ancestor of Karl II von Habsburg, Archduke of Austria, the current pretender to the throne of Austria. Through her granddaughter Anna d’Este (Renée’s eldest daughter), Anne of Brittany is also the ancestor of the Houses of Guise and Savoy-Nemours.

* The marriage and annulment between Louis XII and Joan of France was rather complex and the details of this will be addressed in a future blog post.

Anne of Brittany: Part I

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Anne of Brittany, Brittany, Duchy of Brittany, Francis II of Brittany, Henri II of France, King Charles VIII of France, Kingdom of Brittany, Kingdom of England, Kingdom of France, Milan, Queen of France

On the 504 anniversary of the death of Anne of Brittany I would like to begin this short series on her life and the marriages that shaped her destiny.

First some historical background of the Duchy of Brittany itself. The Duchy of Brittany was a independent medieval feudal state that existed between approximately 939 and 1547. Its territory covered the northwestern peninsula of Europe in what is now modern day France, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean on the west, the English Channel to the north, and less definitively by the Loire River to the south, and Normandy and other French provinces to the east. The Duchy was established after the expulsion of raiding Viking armies from the region around 939. The Duchy had a rich history and because of its strategic location was a sought after jewel for the crowns of the Kingdoms of France and England and the Duchy of Normandy. This would lead to great conflicts as Brittany struggled to maintain its independence.

Anne of Brittany (January 25/26 1477 – January 9 1514) was Duchess of Brittany in her own right from 1488 until her death, and twice queen consort of France from 1491 to 1498 and from 1499 to her death in 1514. From 1501-1504 Anne was also queen consort of Naples when her husband Charles VIII of France became King of Naples. Anne was also duchess consort of Milan, in 1499–1500 and from 1500 to 1512 as the spouse of Charles VIII of France.

Anne was born on 25 or 26 January 1477 in the Castle of the Dukes of Brittany in the city of Nantes in what is now the Loire-Atlantique region of France, as the eldest child of Duke Francis II of Brittany and his second wife Margaret of Foix, Infanta of Navarre (herself the daughter of Queen Eleanor of Navarre [1425–1479] and of Gaston IV, Count of Foix [1425–1472]).

Heiress of Brittany

During this time period, the laws of succession were unclear and guided by a vague tradition rather than a strict coded law of succession. Before the Breton War of Succession the Duchy mainly adhered to the Franco-Germanic semi-Salic Law; i.e., women could inherit, but only if the male line had died out. The Treaty of Guérande in 1365, however, stated that in the absence of a male heir from the House of Montfort, the heirs of Joanna of Penthièvre would succeed. At the time of Anne’s birth, her father was the only male representative from the House of Montfort, and the Blois-Penthièvre heir was a female, Nicole of Blois, and she had sold her rights to Brittany to King Louis XI of France for the amount of 50,000 écus in 1480, leaving Anne the only viable heiress to the Duchy of Brittany.

This lack of a male heir gave rise to the threat of not only a dynastic crisis within the Duchy, but the direct possibility of the Duchy passing directly into the royal domain to be incorporated into the Kingdom of France. To avoid this, Francis II had Anne officially recognised as his heiress by the Estates of Brittany on February 10, 1486. However, the question of her marriage remained a diplomatic issue.

In 1488, the armies of Francis II were defeated at the Battle of Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier, ending the Mad War (la Guerre Folle) between Brittany and France. In the subsequent Treaty of Sablé signed on August 9, 1488 Duke Francis II was forced to accept clauses stipulating that his daughters were not to marry without the approval of the King of France. For whomever married Anne would also have a hand in governing the Duchy of Brittany and for that reason the French king wanted a say in whom she married.

The death of Francis II shortly a month after signing the treaty (September 9, 1488) as a result of a fall from his horse, Brittany was plunged into a new crisis, which lead to the final Franco-Breton war. On his deathbed, the Duke extracted a promise from Anne to never to consent to the subjugation of the Duchy to the Kingdom of France. His final act as Duke, Francis II appointed the Marshal of Rieux guardian of his daughter who was only 11 years old at the time.

The independent sovereign nature of the Duchy began to crumble upon the death of Francis II in 1488. The Duchy was inherited by his daughter, Anne, but King Charles VIII of France had his eye on the Duchy for himself.