January 9, 1514: Death of Anne, Duchess of Brittany, Twice Queen of France

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Anullment, Duchess Anne of Brittany and Queen of France, Duke François II of Brittany, King Charles VIII of France, King François I of France, King Louis XI of France, King Louis XII of France, Pope Alexander VI, Salic Law

Anne of Brittany (January 25/26, 1477 – January 9,1514) was reigning Duchess of Brittany from 1488 until her death, and twice Queen of France from 1491 to 1498 and from 1499 to her death. She is the only woman to have been Queen of France twice. During the Italian Wars, Anne also became Queen of Naples, from 1501 to 1504, and Duchess of Milan, in 1499–1500 and from 1500 to 1512.

Anne was born on January 25 or 26, 1477 in the Castle of the Dukes of Brittany in the city of Nantes in what is now the Loire-Atlantique département of France, as the eldest child of Duke François II of Brittany and his second wife Margaret of Foix, Infanta of Navarre. Four years later (before May 10 1481), her parents had a second daughter, Isabelle. Her mother died when Anne was little, while her father died when Anne was eleven years old.

Anne, Duchess of Brittany and Queen of France

Anne was raised in Nantes during a series of conflicts in which King Charles VIII of France sought to assert his suzerainty over Brittany. Her father, François II, Duke of Brittany, was the last male of the House of Montfort.

In this period, the law of succession was unclear, but prior to the Breton War of Succession mainly operated according to 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.

By the time Anne was born, her father was the only male from the Breton House of Montfort, and the Blois-Penthièvre heir was a female, Nicole of Blois, who in 1480 sold her rights over Brittany to King Louis XI of France for the amount of 50,000 écus.

The lack of a male heir gave rise to the threat of a dynastic crisis in the Duchy, or to its passing directly into the royal domain. To avoid this, François 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.

King Charles VIII of France

Upon the death of her father, Duke François II of Brittany in 1488, Anne became Duchess Regnant of Brittany, Countess of Nantes, Montfort, and Richmond, and Viscountess of Limoges. She was only 11 at that time, but she was already a coveted heiress because of Brittany’s strategic position.

The next year, she married Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I of the House of Austria (Habsburg) by proxy, but King Charles VIII of France saw this as a threat since his realm was located between Brittany and Austria. He started a military campaign which eventually forced the duchess to renounce her marriage.

Anne eventually married King Charles VIII in 1491. None of their children survived early childhood, and when the king died in 1498, the throne went to his cousin, Louis of Orléans, the son of Charles, Duke of Orléans, and Maria of Cleves. Louis of Orléans became King Louis XII of France.

Following an agreement made to secure the annexation of Brittany, Anne had to marry the new king.

However, since King Louis XII was already married getting free from his first wife would be difficult and at this time Anne had many opportunities to reassert the independence of her duchy.

In 1476 Louis of Orléans was forced by King Louis XI (his second cousin) to marry his daughter Joan of France. King Charles VIII (son of Louis XI) succeeded to the throne of France in 1483, but died childless in 1498, when the throne passed to Louis of Orléans as King Louis XII as previously mentioned.

In order for to sustain the union between the quasi-sovereign Duchy of Brittany with the Kingdom of France, Louis XII had to have his marriage to Joan annulled so that he could marry Charles VIII’s widow, Anne of Brittany.

King Louis XII of France

The annulment of Louis and Joan has been described as “one of the seamiest lawsuits of the age”, and was not simple. Louis XII did not, as one might have expected, argue the marriage to be void due to consanguinity (the general allowance for the dissolution of a marriage at that time).

Though he could produce witnesses to claim that the two were closely related due to various linking marriages, there was no documentary proof, merely the opinions of courtiers. Likewise, Louis XII could not argue that he had been below the legal age of consent (fourteen) to marry: no one was certain when he had been born, with Louis XII claiming to have been twelve at the time, and others ranging in their estimates between eleven and thirteen. As there was no real proof, he had perforce to bring forward other arguments.

Accordingly, Louis XII (much to the dismay of his wife) claimed that Joan was physically malformed (providing a rich variety of detail precisely how) and that he had therefore been unable to consummate the marriage.

Joan, unsurprisingly, fought this uncertain charge fiercely, producing witnesses to Louis’s boast of having “mounted my wife three or four times during the night”. Louis also claimed that his sexual performance had been inhibited by witchcraft.

Joan responded by asking how he was able to know what it was like to try to make love to her. Had the Papacy been a neutral party, Joan would likely have won, for Louis’s case was exceedingly weak.

Pope Alexander VI, however, had political reasons to grant the annulment, and ruled against Joan accordingly. He granted the annulment on the grounds that Louis XII did not freely marry, but was forced to marry by Joan’s father King Louis XI. Outraged, Joan reluctantly submitted, saying that she would pray for her former husband. She became a nun; she was canonized in 1950.

Louis XII married the reluctant Queen Dowager, Anne, in 1499.

They had two daughters together and, although neither could succeed to the French throne due to the Salic Law, the eldest was proclaimed the heiress of Brittany. Anne managed to have her eldest daughter engaged to Archduke Charles of Austria, (Holy Roman Emperor Charles V), grandchild of Maximilian I, but after her death in 1514, her daughter married her cousin King François I of France. This marriage later led to the formal union between France and Brittany.

King François I of France

Exhausted by many pregnancies and miscarriages, Anne died of a kidney-stone attack in the Château de Blois at 6 a.m. on 9 January 1514, after having dictated in her will the customary partition of her body (dilaceratio corporis, “division of the body” in heart, entrails and bones) with multiple burials, a privilege of the Capetian dynasty, which allowed for multiple ceremonies (funerals of the body – the most important – and heart) and places (the burial of the body and heart).

She was buried in the necropolis of Saint Denis. Her funeral was exceptionally long, lasting 40 days, and it inspired all future French royal funerals until the 18th century.

She was buried in the necropolis of Saint Denis. Her funeral was exceptionally long, lasting 40 days, and it inspired all future French royal funerals until the 18th century.

Anne was a highly intelligent woman who spent much of her time on the administration of Brittany. She was described as shrewd, proud and haughty in manner. She made the safeguarding of Breton autonomy, and the preservation of the Duchy outside the French crown, her life’s work, although that goal would prove to have failed shortly after her death.

Anne was also a patron of the arts and enjoyed music. A prolific collector of tapestries, it is very likely that the unicorn tapestries now on view at The Cloisters museum in New York City were commissioned by her in celebration of her wedding to Louis XII. Of her four surviving illuminated manuscript books of hours the most famous is the Grandes Heures of Anne of Brittany. She also patronized printed books and their authors.

Anne as Queen, receives a book in praise of famous women, painted by Jean Perréal.

She was a devoted mother, spending as much time as possible with her children. She commissioned a book of prayers for her son, Charles-Orland, to use in teaching him how to pray, and as guidance for his role as future King of France. Unfortunately, Charles-Orland died in 1495, and no other son lived more than a few weeks. She also commissioned a primer, yet extant, for her then 8-year-old daughter Claude.

Anne is highly regarded in Brittany as a conscientious ruler who defended the duchy against France. In the Romantic period, she became a figure of Breton patriotism and she was honoured with many memorials and statues.

Her artistic legacy is important in the Loire Valley, where she spent most of her life. She was notably responsible, with her husbands, for architectural projects in the châteaux of Blois and Amboise.

October 13, 1453: Birth of Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales

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3rd Duke of York, Battle of Tewkesbury, Edward of Westminster, King Edward IV of England, King Henry VI of England, King Louis XI of France, Margaret of Anjou, Prince George Duke of Clarence, Prince of Wales, Richard of York, The Earl of Warwick

Edward of Westminster (October 13, 1453 – May 4, 1471), also known as Edward of Lancaster, was the only son of King Henry VI of England and Margaret of Anjou. He was killed aged seventeen at the Battle of Tewkesbury.

Early life

Edward was born at the Palace of Westminster, London, the only son of King Henry VI of England, Lord of Ireland and his wife, Margaret of Anjou. Margaret was born at Pont-à-Mousson in Lorraine, a fief of the Holy Roman Empire, east of France ruled by a cadet branch of the Capetian French kings, the House of Valois-Anjou. Margaret was the second daughter of René, King of Naples, and of Isabella, Duchess of Lorraine.

At the time of Edward’s birth, there was strife between Henry’s supporters and those of Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York, who had a superior claim to the throne and challenged the authority of Henry’s officers of state. Henry was suffering from mental illness, and there were widespread rumours that the prince was the result of an affair between his mother and one of her loyal supporters.

Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset and James Butler, 5th Earl of Ormond, were both suspected of fathering Prince Edward; however, there is no firm evidence to support the rumours, and King Henry himself never doubted the boy’s legitimacy and publicly acknowledged paternity. Edward was invested as Prince of Wales at Windsor Castle in 1454.

War over the English throne

In 1460, King Henry was captured by the supporters of the Duke of York at the Battle of Northampton and taken to London. The Duke of York was dissuaded from claiming the throne immediately, but he induced Parliament to pass the Act of Accord, by which Henry was allowed to reign but Edward was disinherited, as York or his heirs would become king on Henry’s death.

Queen Margaret and Edward had meanwhile fled through Cheshire. By Margaret’s later account, she induced outlaws and pillagers to aid her by pledging them to recognise the seven-year-old Edward as rightful heir to the crown. They subsequently reached safety in Wales and journeyed to Scotland, where Margaret raised support, while the Duke of York’s enemies gathered in the north of England.

After the Duke of York was killed at the Battle of Wakefield, the large army which Margaret had gathered advanced south. They defeated the army of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, one of York’s most prominent supporters, at the Second Battle of St Albans.

Warwick had brought the captive King Henry VI in the train of his army, and he was found abandoned on the battlefield. Two of Warwick’s knights, William Bonville, 1st Baron Bonville, and Sir Thomas Kyriell, who had agreed to remain with Henry VI and see that he came to no harm, were captured. The day after the battle, Margaret asked Edward what death the two knights should suffer. Edward readily replied that their heads should be cut off.

Exile in France

Margaret hesitated to advance on London with her unruly army, and subsequently retreated. They were routed at the Battle of Towton a few weeks later. Margaret and Edward fled once again, to Scotland. For the next three years, Margaret inspired several revolts in the northernmost counties of England, but was eventually forced to sail to France, where she and Edward maintained a court in exile. (Henry VI had once again been captured and was a prisoner in the Tower of London.)

In 1467 the ambassador of the Duchy of Milan to the court of France wrote that Edward “already talks of nothing but cutting off heads or making war, as if he had everything in his hands or was the god of battle or the peaceful occupant of that throne.”

After several years in exile, Margaret took the best opportunity that presented itself and allied herself with the renegade Earl of Warwick. King Louis XI of France wanted to start a war with Burgundy, allies of the Yorkist King Edward IV. He believed if he allied himself to restoring Lancastrian rule they would help him conquer Burgundy.

As a compliment to his new allies Louis XI made young Edward godfather to his son Charles. Prince Edward was married to Anne Neville, Warwick’s younger daughter, in December 1470, though there is some doubt as to whether the marriage was ever consummated.

Battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury

The Earl of Warwick returned to England and deposed Edward IV, with the help of Edward IV’s younger brother, George, Duke of Clarence. Edward IV fled into exile to Burgundy with his youngest brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester, while the Earl of Warwick restored Henry VI to the throne.

Prince Edward and Margaret lingered behind in France until April 1471. However, Edward IV had already raised an army, returned to England, and reconciled with his brother George, Duke of Clarence. On the same day Margaret and Edward landed in England (April 14), Edward IV defeated and killed the Earl of Warwick at the Battle of Barnet.

With little real hope of success, the inexperienced Prince Edward and his mother led the remnant of their forces to meet Edward IV in the Battle of Tewkesbury. They were defeated and Prince Edward of Westminster was killed.

According to contemporary sources, Edward was overtaken and slain in the battle during the rout of the Lancastrians, with some accounts attributing the deed to George, Duke of Clarence, to whom the prince appealed to for help. Paul Murray Kendall, a biographer of Richard III, accepts this version of events. Another version states that Clarence and his men found the grieving prince near a grove following the battle, and immediately beheaded him on a makeshift block, despite his pleas.

Another account of Edward’s death is given by three Tudor sources: The Grand Chronicle of London, Polydore Vergil, and Edward Hall. It was later dramatised by William Shakespeare in Henry VI, Part 3, Act V, scene v.

Their story is that Edward was captured and brought before the victorious Edward IV and his brothers and followers. The king received the prince graciously, and asked him why he had taken up arms against him. The prince replied defiantly, “I came to recover my father’s heritage.” The king then struck the prince across his face with his gauntlet hand, and his brothers killed the prince with their swords.

However, none of these accounts appear in any of the contemporaneous sources, which all report that Edward died in battle.

Edward’s body is buried at Tewkesbury Abbey. His widow, Anne Neville, married the Duke of Gloucester, who eventually succeeded as King Richard III in 1483.

January 12, 1519: Death of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor

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Charles V Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, Holy Roman Empire, King Louis XI of France, Mary of Burgundy, Pope Julius II

Maximilian I (March 22, 1459 – January 12, 1519).

Maximilian was the son of Friedrich III, Holy Roman Emperor, and Eleanor of Portugal, a Portuguese infanta (princess), daughter of King Duarte of Portugal and his wife Eleanor of Aragon.

He ruled jointly with his father for the last ten years of the latter’s reign, from c. 1483 until his father’s death in 1493.

Maximilian was elected King of the Romans on 16 February 16, 1486 in Frankfurt-am-Main at his father’s initiative and crowned on April 9, 1486 in Aachen. Much of th Austrian territories and Vienna were under the rule of king Matthias Corvinus of Hungary, as a result of the Austrian–Hungarian War (1477–1488). Maximilian was now a king without lands. After the death of king Matthias, from July 1490, Maximilian began a series of short sieges that reconquered cities and fortresses that his father had lost in Austria.

Maximilian was never crowned by the pope, as the journey to Rome was blocked by the Venetians.

In 1508, Maximilian, with the assent of Pope Julius II, took the title Erwählter Römischer Kaiser (“Elected Roman Emperor”), thus ending the centuries-old custom that the Holy Roman Emperor had to be crowned by the Pope.

Maximilian expanded the influence of the House of Habsburg through war and his marriage. In 1477 Maximilian married Mary of Burgundy, the only child of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, and his wife Isabella of Bourbon, she inherited the Burgundian lands at the age of 19 upon the death of her father in the Battle of Nancy on 5 January 1477. She spent most of her reign defending her birthright; in order to counter the appetite of the French king Louis XI for her lands.

Maximilian and Mary’s wedding contract stipulated that their children would succeed them but that the couple could not be each other’s heirs. Mary tried to bypass this rule with a promise to transfer territories as a gift in case of her death, but her plans were confounded. After Mary’s death in a riding accident on March 27, 1482 near the Wijnendale Castle, Maximilian’s aim was now to secure the inheritance to his and Mary’s son, Philipp the Handsome.

Maximilian lost his family’s original lands in today’s Switzerland to the Swiss Confederacy. Through marriage of his son Philipp the Handsome to eventual Queen Joanna of Castile in 1498, Maximilian helped to establish the Habsburg dynasty in Spain, which allowed his grandson Charles to hold the thrones of both Castile and Aragon, and he was the eventual successor to the Imperial Throne of the Holy Roman Empire.

The historian Thomas A. Brady Jr. describes him as “the first Holy Roman Emperor in 250 years who ruled as well as reigned” and also, the “ablest royal warlord of his generation.”

After 1517 Maximilian began to focus entirely on the question of his succession. His goal was to secure the throne for a member of his house and prevent François I of France from gaining the imperial throne.

In 1501, Maximilian fell from his horse and badly injured his leg, causing him pain for the rest of his life. Some historians have suggested that Maximilian was “morbidly” depressed: from 1514, he travelled everywhere with his coffin.

Maximilian died in Wels, Upper Austria, on January 12, 1519 at the age of 59. The death of Maximilian seemed to put the succession at risk. However, The Fugger family provided Maximilian a credit of one million gulden, which was used to bribe the prince-electors. However, the bribery claims have been challenged. At first, this policy seemed successful, and Maximilian managed to secure the votes from Mainz, Cologne, Brandenburg and Bohemia for his grandson Charles.

Maximilian’s son, Philipp the Handsome (King Felipe I of Castile by right of his wife) had died in 1506. The resulting “election campaign” was unprecedented due to the massive use of bribery. Within a few months the election of his grandson as Holy Roman Emperor Charles V was secured. Charles had also succeeded his maternal grandfather, King Fernando II-V of Aragon and Castile in 1516 and became King Carlos I of a united Spain. With his election as Emperor, Charles V ruled an empire as vast and as powerful as that of Charlemagne ‘s centuries earlier.

January 10, 1530: Archduchess Margaret of Austria, Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands. Part I.

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Archduchess Margaret of Austria, Archduke Philipp of Austria, Duchess of Savoy, Governor of the Hapsburg Netherlands, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, King Charles VIII of France, King Louis XI of France, Philiberto II of Savoy

Archduchess Margaret of Austria (January 10, 1480 – December 1, 1530) was Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands from 1507 to 1515 and again from 1519 to 1530. She was the first of many female regents in the Netherlands.

Archduchess Margaret was born on January 10, 1480 and named after her stepgrandmother, Margaret of York. She was the second child and only daughter of Maximilian of Austria (future Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I) and Mary of Burgundy, co-sovereigns of the Low Countries. In 1482, her mother died and her three-year-old brother Archduke Philipp the Handsome succeeded her as sovereign of the Low Countries, with her father as his regent.

The same year her mother died, King Louis XI of France signed the Treaty of Arras, whereby her father promised to give her hand in marriage to Louis’ son, Dauphin Charles. The engagement took place in 1483. With Franche-Comté and Artois as her dowry, Margaret was transferred to the guardianship of Louis XI, who died soon after. The Dauphin became King Charles VIII and Margaret was raised as a fille de France and prepared for her future role as Queen of France.

Under the supervision of her governess Madame de Segré, and Charles VIII’s sister, regent of France Anne de Beaujeu, Margaret received a fine education alongside several noble children, amongst whom was Louise of Savoy.

Although their union was political, the young Margaret developed a genuine affection for Charles VIII. However, he renounced the treaty in the autumn of 1491 and forcibly married Margaret’s former stepmother Anne, Duchess of Brittany, for political reasons.

The French court had ceased treating Margaret as their future queen but she could not return to her ex-stepmother’s (Anne of Brittany) court until June 1493 after the Treaty of Senlis had been signed in May that year. She was hurt by Charles’ actions and was left with a feeling of enduring resentment towards the House of Valois.

In order to achieve an alliance with Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Fernando II of Aragon, Maximilian started negotiating the marriage of their only son and heir, Juan, Prince of Asturias, to Margaret, as well as the marriage of their daughter Juana to Archduke Philipp. Margaret left the Netherlands for Spain late in 1496. Her engagement to the Prince of Asturias seemed doomed when the ship carrying her to Spain hit a storm in the Bay of Biscay. In haste, she wrote her own epitaph should she not reach Spain:

“Here lies Margaret, the willing bride,
Twice married – but a virgin when she died.”

However, Margaret actually married Prince Juan on April 3, 1497 in Burgos Cathedral. Tragically, John died of a fever after only six months, on October 4. Margaret was left pregnant but gave birth to a premature stillborn daughter on April 2, 1498.

Duchess of Savoy

In 1501, Margaret married Philiberto II, Duke of Savoy (1480–1504), whose realm played a decisive role in the rivalry between France and the Habsburgs in Italy on account of its strategic position in the Western Alps. They had a very stable relationship for those 3 years. When Margaret came to Savoy, the government was in the hands of René, Philiberto’s bastard brother.

Margaret fought hard to strip away his powers and possessions, even involving Maximilian (as Holy Roman Emperor, he was overlord of Savoy) to nullify the letters that gave René legitimacy. René, being declared a traitor, took refuge in France and was welcomed by his half-sister Louise of Savoy, mother of King François I of France. She then took hold of the government, while her husband focused on private hobbies like hunting (which she did share with him). She summoned councils, appointed officers, and when her brother Philipp visited, she discussed and approved his plan regarding a continued reapproachement with France.

June 30, 1470: Birth of King Charles VIII of France.

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Anne of Brittany, Duchy of Brittany, King Charles VIII of France, King Louis XI of France, King Louis XII of France, Kings of france, Pope Alexander VI, Pope Innocent VIII

Charles VIII, called the Affable (June 30, 1470 – April 7, 1498), was King of France from 1483 to his death in 1498. He was the eldest son of King Louis XI of France and his second wife Charlotte of Savoy daughter of Louis, Duke of Savoy and Anne of Cyprus. Her maternal grandparents were Janus of Cyprus and Charlotte de Bourbon-La Marche. Her maternal grandmother, for whom she was probably named, was a daughter of Jean I, Count of La Marche, and Catherine de Vendôme. She was one of 19 children, 14 of whom survived infancy.

Charles VIII, King of France

Prince Charles succeeded his father Louis XI at the age of 13. His elder sister Anne acted as regent jointly with her husband Peter II, Duke of Bourbon until 1491 when the young king turned 21 years of age. During Anne’s regency, the great lords rebelled against royal centralisation efforts in a conflict known as the Mad War (1485–1488), which resulted in a victory for the royal government.

Charles was betrothed on July 22, 1483 (a month before he succeeded to the throne) to the 3-year-old Archduchess Margaret of Austria, daughter of the Archduke Maximilian of Austria (later Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I) and Mary, Duchess of Burgundy. The marriage was arranged by Louis XI, Maximilian, and the Estates of the Low Countries as part of the 1482 Peace of Arras between France and the Duchy of Burgundy. Archduchess Margaret brought the counties of Artois and Burgundy to France as her dowry, and she was raised in the French court as a prospective queen.

In 1488, however, François II, Duke of Brittany, died in a riding accident, leaving his 11-year-old daughter Anne his daughter by his second wife Margaret of Foix, Infanta of Navarre, as his heir. Anne, who feared for the independence of her duchy against the ambitions of France, arranged a marriage in 1490 between herself and the widower Archduke Maximilian.

Anne of Brittany, Queen Consort of France

The regent Anne of France and her husband Peter refused to countenance such a marriage, however, since it would place Maximilian and his family, the Habsburgs, on two French borders. The French army invaded Brittany, taking advantage of the preoccupation of Maximilian and his father, Emperor Friedrich III, with the disputed succession to Mathias Corvinus, King of Hungary. Anne of Brittany was forced to renounce Maximilian, whom she had only married by proxy in a ceremony of questionable validity and agreed to be married to Charles VIII instead.

Preoccupied by the problematic succession in the Kingdom of Hungary, Maximilian failed to press his claim. Upon his marriage, Charles became administrator of Brittany and established a personal union that enabled France to avoid total encirclement by Habsburg territories.

The official marriage between Anne and King Charles VIII of France was celebrated in the Great Hall of the Château de Langeais on December 6, 1491 at dawn. The ceremony was concluded discreetly and urgently because it was technically illegal until Pope Innocent VIII, in exchange for substantial concessions, validated the union on February 15, 1492, by granting the annulment of the marriage by proxy with Maximilian, and also giving a dispensation for the marriage with Charles VIII, needed because the King and Anne were related in the forbidden fourth degree of consanguinity.

To secure his rights to the Neapolitan throne that René of Anjou had left to his father, Charles made a series of concessions to neighbouring monarchs and conquered the Italian peninsula without much opposition. A coalition formed against the French invasion of 1494–98 finally drove out Charles’ army, but Italian Wars would dominate Western European politics for over 50 years.

Charles died on April 4, 1498 after accidentally striking his head on the lintel of a door at the Château d’Amboise, his place of birth. Since he had no male heir, he was succeeded by his cousin Louis XII from the Orléans cadet branch of the House of Valois. Louis XII the son of Charles, Duke of Orléans, and Maria of Cleves, and cousin Charles VIII.

Louis XII, King of France

When Charles VIII, Anne of Brittany was 21 years old and without surviving children. Three days after her husband’s death, the terms of her marriage contract came into force; however, the new King, Louis XII, was already married, to his cousin Jeanne, daughter of Louis XI and sister to 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 in October 1498.

The initial marriage contract with Charles VIII provided that the spouse who outlived the other would retain possession of Brittany; however, it also stipulated that if Charles VIII died without male heirs, Anne would marry his successor, thus ensuring the French kings a second chance to annex Brittany permanently.

If Anne was gambling that the annulment would be denied, she lost: Louis’s first marriage was dissolved by Pope Alexander VI before the end of the year. Anne’s third marriage contract, signed the day of her marriage (Nantes, January 7, 1499), was concluded.

Louis XII and Anne of Brittany left only two daughters, the eldest Claude of France (1499-1524), who succeeded her mother as Duchess of Brittany and later also became Queen consort of France as wife of François I, who was the son of Charles, Count of Angoulême, and Louise of Savoy. François I was first cousin once removed from Louis XIII who was also his and father-in-law.