The Angevin Empire: Part I.

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Angevin Empire, Count of Anjou, Duchy of Aquitaine, Duchy of Normandy, House of Anjou, House of Pl, King Henry II of England, Kingdom of England, Kingdom of France

The Angevin Empire describes the possessions of the Angevin kings of England who held lands in England and France during the 12th and 13th centuries. Its rulers were Henry II (ruled 1154–1189), Richard I (r. 1189–1199), and John (r. 1199–1216). The Angevin Empire is an early example of a composite state.

A composite monarchy (or composite state) is a historical category, introduced by H. G. Koenigsberger in 1975 and popularised by Sir John H. Elliott, that describes early modern states consisting of several countries under one ruler, sometimes designated as a personal union, who governs his territories as if they were separate kingdoms, in accordance with local traditions and legal structures. The composite state became the most common type of state in the early modern era in Europe. Koenigsberger divides composite states into two classes: those, like the Spanish Empire, that consisted of countries separated by either other states or by the sea, and those, like Poland–Lithuania, that were contiguous.

The Angevins of the House of Plantagenet ruled over an area covering roughly half of France, all of England, and parts of Ireland and Wales, and had further influence over much of the remaining British Isles. The empire was established by Henry II, as King of England, Duke of Normandy, Count of Anjou (from which the Angevins derive their name), as well as Duke of Aquitaine by right of his wife, and multiple subsidiary titles. Although their title of highest rank came from the Kingdom of England, the Angevins held court primarily on the continent at Angers in Anjou, and Chinon in Touraine.

The influence and power of the House of Anjou brought them into conflict with the kings of France of the House of Capet, to whom they also owed feudal homage for their French possessions, bringing in a period of rivalry between the dynasties. Despite the extent of Angevin rule, Henry’s son, John, was defeated in the Anglo-French War (1213–1214) by Philip II of France following the Battle of Bouvines. John lost control of most of his continental possessions, apart from Gascony in southern Aquitaine. This defeat set the scene for further conflicts between England and France, leading up to the Hundred Years’ War.

The term Angevin Empire is a neologism* defining the lands of the House of Plantagenet: Henry II and his sons Richard I and John. Another son, Geoffrey, ruled Brittany and established a separate line there. As far as historians know, there was no contemporary term for the region under Angevin control; however, descriptions such as “our kingdom and everything subject to our rule whatever it may be” were used. The term Angevin Empire was coined by Kate Norgate in her 1887 publication, England under the Angevin Kings. In France, the term espace Plantagenet (French for “Plantagenet area”) is sometimes used to describe the fiefdoms the Plantagenets had acquired.

The use of the term Empire has engendered controversy among some historians over whether the term is accurate for the actual state of affairs at the time. The area was a collection of the lands inherited and acquired by Henry, and so it is unclear whether these dominions shared any common identity and so should be labelled with the term Empire.

Some historians argue that the term should be reserved solely for the Holy Roman Empire, the only Western European political structure actually named an empire at that time, although Alfonso VII of León and Castile had taken the title “Emperor of all Spain” in 1135. Other historians argue that Henry II’s empire was neither powerful, centralised, nor large enough to be seriously called an empire. Furthermore, the Plantagenets never claimed any sort of imperial title as implied by the term Angevin Empire.

However, even if the Plantagenets themselves did not claim an imperial title, some chroniclers, often working for Henry II himself, did use the term empire to describe this assemblage of lands. The highest title was “king of England”; the other titles of dukes and counts of different areas held in France were completely and totally independent from the royal title, and not subject to any English royal law. Because of this, some historians prefer the term commonwealth to empire, emphasising that the Angevin Empire was more of an assemblage of seven fully independent, sovereign states loosely bound to each other, only united in the person of the king of England.

* A neologism is a relatively recent or isolated term, word, or phrase that may be in the process of entering common use, but that has not yet been fully accepted into mainstream language.

July 20, 1031: Death of Robert II, King of the Franks.

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Bertha of Burgundy, Holy Roman Empire, Kingdom of France, Kingdom of the Franks, Pope Sylvester II, Robert II of France, Robert the Pious

From the Emperor’s Desk: in this examination of the life of Robert II, King of the Franks, I will mostly examine his three marriages.

Robert II (ca. 972 – 20 July 1031), called the Pious (French: le Pieux) or the Wise (French: le Sage), was King of the Franks from 996 to 1031, the second from the Capetian dynasty.

In contrast of his father, the exact date or birth place of Robert II is unknown, although historians advocated for the year 972 and the city of Orléans, the capital of the Robertians from the 9th century. The only son of Hugh Capet and Adelaide of Aquitaine, he was named after his heroic ancestor Robert the Strong, who died fighting the Vikings in 866. In addition to him, his parents’ marriage produced two other daughters whose parentage is confirmed by contemporary sources without any doubt: Hedwig (wife of Reginar IV, Count of Hainaut) and Gisela (wife of Hugh I, Count of Ponthieu).

Crowned Junior King in 987, he assisted his father on military matters (notably during the two sieges of Laon, in 988 and 991). His solid education, provided by Gerbert of Aurillac (the future Pope Sylvester II) in Reims, allows him to deal with religious questions of which he quickly becomes the guarantor (he heads the Council of Saint-Basle de Verzy in 991 and that of Chelles in 994). Continuing the political work of his father, after became sole ruler in 996, he managed to maintain the alliance with the Duchy of Normandy and the County of Anjou and thus was able to contain the ambitions of Count Odo II of Blois.
Robert II distinguished himself with an extraordinarily long reign for the time.

Immediately after associated his son to the throne, Hugh Capet wanted Robert II to marry a royal princess but due the prohibition to marry people within the third degree of consanguinity, obliges him to seek in the East. He had a letter wrote by Gerbert of Aurillac asking the Byzantine Emperor Basil II the hand of one of his nieces for Robert II; however, no Byzantine response is recorded.

After this rebuffal, and under the pressure from his father (who apparently wanted to reward the Flemish help he received when he seized power in 987), Robert II had to marry with Rozala, daughter of Berengar II of Ivrea, King of Italy and widow of Arnulf II, Count of Flanders. The wedding, celebrated before 1 April 988, brings to Robert II the possession of the cities of Montreuil and Ponthieu and a possible guardianship over the County of Flanders given the still young age of Rozala’s son Baldwin IV, for whom she already acted as regent since her first husband’s death.

Upon her marriage, Rozala became in Junior-Queen consort of the Franks and took the name of Susanna; however, after about three or four years of marriage (c. 991–992), the young Robert II repudiates his wife, due to the excesive age difference between them (Rozala was almost 22 years older than him), and probably too old to have more children.
The marriage was formally annulled in late 996, following Hugh Capet’s death and Robert II’s ascension as sole King of the Franks.

Now, Robert II was determined to find a bride who would give him the much hoped-for male offspring. In early 996, probably during the military campaign against Count Odo I of Blois, he met Bertha of Burgundy, the daughter of King Conrad of Burgundy and his wife Matilda, daughter of King Louis IV of the Franks and Gerberga of Saxony (sister of Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor), so was from an undisputed royal lineage. Bertha was first married to Count Odo I of Blois in about 983. They had several children, including Odo II.

Robert II and Bertha quickly became attracted to each other, despite the complete resistance of Hugh Capet (the House of Blois was the great enemy of the Capetian dynasty). However, Robert II sees in addition to his personal feelings, also a territorial gain since Bertha would bring all the Blois territories. The deaths in 996 of Odo I of Blois (March 12) and Hugh Capet (October 24) eliminated the main obstacles for a union between Robert II and Bertha.

However, two important details are opposed to this union: firstly, Robert II and Bertha are second cousins (their respective grandmothers, Hedwig and Gerberga, are sisters), and secondly, Robert II was the godfather of Theobald, one of the sons of Bertha. According to canon law, marriage is then impossible. Despite this, the two lovers began a sexual relationship and Robert II puts part of the County of Blois under his direct rule.

Robert II and Bertha quickly found complacent bishops to marry them off, which Archambaud de Sully, Archbishop of Tours, did in November/December 996, much to the chagrin of the new Pope Gregory V. To please the Holy See, Robert II annuls the sentence of the Council of Saint-Basle, frees Archbishop Arnoul and restores him to the episcopal see of Reims. Gerbert of Aurillac then had to take refuge with Emperor Otto III in 997. Despite this, the Pope ordered Robert II and Bertha to put an end to their “incestuous union”.

Finally, two councils meeting first in Pavia (February 997) then in Rome (summer 998) condemn them to do penance for seven years, and in the event of non-separation, they would be struck with excommunication. Moreover, at the end of three years of union, there are no living descendants: Bertha gave birth only one stillborn son, in 999. That year, the accession of Gerbert of Aurillac to the Papacy under the name of Sylvester II does not change anything. Following a synod, the new Pope accepted the condemnation of the King of the Franks whose “perfidy” he had suffered. Finally, the seven years of penance are completed around 1003.

Despite the threat of excommunication, Robert II and Bertha refused to submit until September 1001, when they finally became separated. The inability of Bertha to produce further offspring after her stillbirth would be probably one of the main reasons for this. Robert II, in need of male heirs, decided to remarry one more time.

After September 1001 and certainly before August 25, 1003, Robert II contracted his third and last marriage, this time with a distant princess he had never met to avoid any close relationship, the 17-years-old Constance, daughter of Count William I of Arles and Provence and his wife Adelaide-Blanche of Anjou. The new Queen’s parents were prestigious in their own right: Count William I was nicknamed “the Liberator” (le Libérateur) thanks to his victories against the Saracens, whom definitely expelled from the Fraxinet fortress in 972, and Countess Adelaide-Blanche was notorious by her several marriages (in the third one, she was briefly Queen of Aquitaine and junior Queen of the West Franks as the wife of King Louis V, whom she abandoned) and also she was the paternal aunt of Count Fulk III of Anjou, so thanks to his new marriage, Robert II could restore the alliance with the House of Ingelger.

But Constance would be a royal consort who does not make the King happy. The Queen’s personality gives rise to unfavorable comments on the part of the chroniclers: “vain, greedy, arrogant, vindictive”; these misogynist remarks, made by monks, where quite exceptional especially to a Queen in the 11th century. The only positive point is that Constance gives birth a large number of offspring. Six children born from her marriage to Robert II are recorded.

The conflict that lead to an attempt to annull this third union all started at the beginning of the year 1008, a day when the King and his faithful Count palatine Hugh of Beauvais were hunting in the forest of Orléans. Suddenly, twelve armed men appear and throw themselves on Hugh before killing him under the eyes of the king. The crime was ordered by Count Fulk III of Anjou and with all probability supported by the Queen.

Robert II, exasperated by his wife after six or seven years of marriage (c. 1009–1010), goes personally to Rome accompanied by Angilramme (a monk from Saint-Riquier) and Bertha de Burgundy. His plan was, of course, to obtain from Pope Sergius IV the annulment from his marriage with Constance and remarry with Bertha, whom Robert II still loved deeply, under the grounds of Constance’s participation in the murder of Hugh of Beauvais.

Odorannus, a Benedictine monk from the Abbey of Saint-Pierre-le-Vif in Sens, explains in his writings that, that during her husband’s journey to Rome, Constance withdrew in distress to her dominions at Theil. According to him, Saint Savinian would have appeared to him and secured that the royal marriage would be preserved; three days later, Robert II was back, definitively abandoning Bertha.

At Constance’s urging, her eldest son Hugh Magnus was crowned co-king alongside his father in 1017. But later Hugh demanded his parents share power with him, and rebelled against his father in 1025. Constance, however, on learning of her son’s rebellion was furious with him, rebuking him at every turn. At some point Hugh was reconciled with his parents but shortly thereafter died, probably about age eighteen. The royal couple was devastated; there was concern for the queen’s mental health due to the violence of her grief.

Robert and Constance quarrelled over which of their surviving sons should inherit the throne; Robert favored their second son Henry, while Constance favored their third son, Robert. Despite his mother’s protests and her support by several bishops, Henry was crowned in 1027. Constance, however, was not graceful when she didn’t get her way. The ailing Fulbert, bishop of Chartres told a colleague that he could attend the ceremony “if he traveled slowly to Reims—but he was too frightened of the queen to go at all”.

Constance encouraged her sons to rebel, and they began attacking and pillaging the towns and castles belonging to their father. Her son Robert attacked Burgundy, the duchy he had been promised but had never received, and Henri seized Dreux. At last King Robert II agreed to their demands and peace was made which lasted until the king’s death.

Robert II died on July 20, 1031 and was succeeded by his eldest surviving son as King Henri I of the Franks.

Constance died after passing out following a coughing fit on July 28, 1032 and was buried beside her husband Robert at Saint-Denis Basilica.

His 35-year-long reign was marked by his attempts to expand the royal domain by any means, especially by his long struggle to gain the Duchy of Burgundy (which ended in 1014 with his victory) after the death in 1002 without male descendants of his paternal uncle Duke Henri I, after a war against Otto-William of Ivrea, Henri I’s stepson and adopted by him as his heir. His policies earned him many enemies, including three of his sons.

Robert II’s life is presented as a model to follow, made of innumerable pious donations to various religious establishments, of charity towards the poor and above all of gestures considered sacred, such as the healing of certain lepers: Robert II is the first sovereign considered to be the first “miracle worker”.

The real reconstruction of his action in the Kingdom of the Franks is very difficult to pinpoint as the sources are flattering towards him (hagiographic conception of Helgaud). On the contrary, this was considered by some later historians that Robert II’s reign was a continuation of a decline that began under the last Carolingians; in reality, the charters of the first third of the 11th century rather show a slow adjustment of structures in time. In any case, Robert II, Capetian follower of Carolingian values, remains a great character in the 11th century.

October 21, 1369: Death of Charles VI, King of France. Part I.

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Charles the Mad, Duke of Burgundy, House of Valois, Isabeau of Bavaria-Ingolstadt, King Charles VI of France, Kingdom of France, Philip the Bold, Pope Pius II

Charles VI (December 3, 1369 – October 21, 1422), called the Beloved and later the Mad, was King of France for 42 years, from 1380 until his death in 1422. He is known for his mental illness and psychotic episodes which plagued him throughout his life. Charles’s reign would see his army crushed at the Battle of Agincourt, leading to the signing of the Treaty of Troyes, which made his future son-in-law Henry V of England his regent and heir to the throne of France. However, Henry would die shortly before Charles, which gave the House of Valois the chance to continue the fight against the English, leading to their eventual victory and the end of the Hundred Years’ War in 1453.

Charles was born in Paris, in the royal residence of the Hôtel Saint-Pol, on December 3, 1368, the son of the king of France Charles V, of the House of Valois, and of Joanna of Bourbon. As heir to the French throne, his elder brothers having died before he was born, Charles held the title Dauphin of France.

At his father’s death on September 16, 1380, he inherited the throne of France. His coronation took place on November 4, 1380, at Reims Cathedral. Charles VI was only 11 years old when he was crowned King of France. During his minority, France was ruled by Charles’ uncles, as regents. Although the royal age of majority was 14 (the “age of accountability” under Roman Catholic canon law), Charles terminated the regency only at the age of 21.

The regents were Philippe the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, Louis I, Duke of Anjou, and Jean, Duke of Berry – all brothers of Charles V – along with Louis II, Duke of Bourbon, Charles VI’s maternal uncle. Philippe took the dominant role during the regency. Louis of Anjou was fighting for his claim to the Kingdom of Naples after 1382, dying in 1384; Jean of Berry was interested mainly in the Languedoc, and not particularly interested in politics; and Louis of Bourbon was a largely unimportant figure, owing to his personality (showing signs of mental instability) and status (since he was not the son of a king).

Charles VI brought the regency to an end in 1388, taking up personal rule. He restored to power the highly competent advisors of Charles V, known as the Marmousets, who ushered in a new period of high esteem for the crown. Charles VI was widely referred to as Charles the Beloved by his subjects.

Charles VI’s early successes with the Marmousets as his counselors quickly dissipated as a result of the bouts of psychosis he experienced from his mid-twenties. Mental illness may have been passed on for several generations through his mother, Joanna of Bourbon. Although still called by his subjects Charles the Beloved, he became known also as Charles the Mad.

Charles’s first known episode occurred in 1392 when his friend and advisor, Olivier de Clisson, was the victim of an attempted murder. Although Clisson survived, Charles was determined to punish the would-be assassin, Pierre de Craon, who had taken refuge in Brittany. Jean V, Duke of Brittany, was unwilling to hand him over, so Charles prepared a military expedition.

Contemporaries said Charles appeared to be in a “fever” to begin the campaign and disconnected in his speech. Charles set off with an army on July 1, 1392. The progress of the army was slow, driving Charles into a frenzy of impatience. As the king and his escort were traveling through the forest near Le Mans on a hot August morning, a barefoot leper dressed in rags rushed up to the King’s horse and grabbed his bridle. “Ride no further, noble King!” he yelled: “Turn back! You are betrayed!” The king’s escorts beat the man back, but did not arrest him, and he followed the procession for half an hour, repeating his cries.

The company emerged from the forest at noon. A page who was drowsy from the sun dropped the king’s lance, which clanged loudly against a steel helmet carried by another page. Charles shuddered, drew his sword and yelled “Forward against the traitors! They wish to deliver me to the enemy!” The king spurred his horse and began swinging his sword at his companions, fighting until one of his chamberlains and a group of soldiers were able to grab him from his mount and lay him on the ground. He lay still and did not react, but then fell into a coma. The king had killed a knight known as “The Bastard of Polignac” and several other men.

Periods of mental illness continued throughout the king’s life. During one in 1393, he could not remember his name and did not know he was king. When his wife came to visit, he asked his servants who she was and ordered them to take care of what she required so that she would leave him alone. During an episode in 1395–96 he claimed he was Saint George and that his coat of arms was a lion with a sword thrust through it. At this time, he recognized all the officers of his household, but did not know his wife nor his children. Sometimes he ran wildly through the corridors of his Parisian residence, the Hôtel Saint-Pol, and to keep him inside, the entrances were walled up.

In 1405, he refused to bathe or change his clothes for five months. His later psychotic episodes were not described in detail, perhaps because of the similarity of his behavior and delusions. Pope Pius II, who was born during the reign of Charles VI, wrote in his Commentaries that there were times when Charles thought that he was made of glass, and thus tried to protect himself in various ways so that he would not break. He reportedly had iron rods sewn into his clothes so that he would not shatter if he came into contact with another person. This condition has come to be known as glass delusion.

Charles VI married Isabeau of Bavaria (ca. 1371 – 24 September 1435) on July 17, 1385. She gave birth to 12 children. Isabeau of Bavaria (or Isabelle; also Elisabeth of Bavaria-Ingolstadt; c. 1370 – 1435) was queen of France between 1385 and 1422. She was born into the House of Wittelsbach as the eldest daughter of Duke Stephen III of Bavaria-Ingolstadt and Taddea Visconti of Milan. At age 15 or 16, Isabeau was sent to the young King Charles VI of France; the couple wed three days after their first meeting.

October 5, 1285: Death of Philippe III, King of France, Part I.

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Crusades, James I of Aragon, Kingdom of France, Louis IX of France, Margaret of Aragon, Philip III of France, The Eighth Crusade at Tunis

Philippe  III (April 30, 1245 – October 5, 1285), called the Bold, was king of France from 1270 until his death in 1285. His father, Louis IX, died in Tunis during the Eighth Crusade. Philippe who was accompanying him, returned to France and was anointed king at Reims in 1271.

Philippe inherited numerous territorial lands during his reign, the most notable being the County of Toulouse, which was returned to the royal domain in 1271. With the Treaty of Orléans, he expanded French influence into the Kingdom of Navarre and following the death of his brother Pierre during the Sicilian Vespers, the county of Alençon was returned to the crown lands.

Following the Sicilian Vespers, Philippe III led the Aragonese Crusade in support of his uncle. Initially successful, Philip, his army racked with sickness, was forced to retreat and died from dysentery in Perpignan in 1285. He was succeeded by his son Philippe IV.

Early life

Philippe was born in Poissy, the second son of King Louis IX of France and Margaret of Provence. As a younger son, Philippe as not expected to rule France. At the death of his older brother Louis in 1260, he became the heir apparent to the throne.

Philippe’s  mother Margaret made him promise to remain under her tutelage until the age of 30, however Pope Urban IV released him from this oath on June 6, 1263. From that moment on, Pierre de La Brosse was Philippe’s mentor. His father, Louis IX also provided him with advice, writing in particular Enseignements, which inculcated the notion of justice as the first duty of a king.

According to the terms of the Treaty of Corbeil (1258), concluded on  March 11, 1258 between Louis IX and James I of Aragon, Philippe was married in 1262 to Isabella of Aragon in Clermont  daughter of King James I of Aragon and his second wife Yolande of Hungary by the archbishop of Rouen, Eudes Rigaud.

Crusade
As Count of Orléans, Philippe accompanied his father on the Eighth Crusade to Tunis in 1270. Shortly before his departure, Louis IX had given the regency of the kingdom into the hands of Mathieu de Vendôme and Simon II, Count of Clermont, to whom he had also entrusted the royal seal. After taking Carthage, the army was struck by an epidemic of dysentery, which spared neither Philippe nor his family. His brother Jean Tristan, Count of Valois died first, on August 3 and on August 25 the king died. To prevent putrefaction of the remains of Louis, they decided on Mos Teutonicus.

Philippe was only 25 years old and stricken with dysentery, was proclaimed king in Tunis. His uncle, Charles I of Naples, was forced to negotiate with Muhammad I al-Mustansir, Hafsid Sultan of Tunis. A treaty was concluded  November 5, 1270 between the kings of France, Sicily and Navarre and the caliph of Tunis.

Other deaths followed this debacle. In December, in Trapani, Sicily, the brother-in-law of Philippe King Theobald II of Navarre, died. He was followed in February by Philippe III wife, Isabella, who fell off her horse pregnant with their fifth child. She died in Cozenza (Calabria). In April, Theobald’s widow and Philippe’s sister Isabella also died.

Philippe III arrived in Paris on 21 May 1271, and made foremost tribute to the deceased. The next day the funeral of his father was held. The new sovereign was crowned King of France in Reims 15 August 15, 1271.

September 12, 1494: Birth of François I, King of France.

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Charles of Orléans, Claude of France, Count of Angoulême, Filed of the Cloth of Gold, Francis I of France, King François I of France, King Henri II of France, King Louis XII of France, Kingdom of France, Kings and Queens of France, Louise of Savoy, Salic Law

From the Emperor’s Desk: Yesterday, September 11, was the Anniversary of the birth of Louise of Savoy, today is the anniversary the birth of her son, King François I of France.

François I (September 12, 1494 – March 31, 1547) was King of France from 1515 until his death in 1547.

François of Orléans was born on September 12, 1494 (the day after his mother’s birthday) at the Château de Cognac in the town of Cognac, which at that time lay in the province of Saintonge, a part of the Duchy of Aquitaine. Today the town lies in the department of Charente.

François was the only son of Charles of Orléans, Count of Angoulême, and Louise of Savoy, eldest daughter of Philip II, Duke of Savoy and his first wife, Margaret of Bourbon, the daughter of Charles I, Duke of Bourbon (1401–1456) and Agnes of Burgundy (1407–1476). François was a great-great-grandson of King Charles V of France, through his father and it was from this line François drew his claim to the French throne.

His family was not expected to inherit the throne, as his third cousin King Charles VIII was still young at the time of his birth, as was his father’s cousin the Duke of Orléans, later King Louis XII. However, Charles VIII died childless in 1498 and was succeeded by Louis XII, who himself had no male heir. The Salic Law prevented women from inheriting the throne. Therefore, the four-year-old François (who was already Count of Angoulême after the death of his own father two years earlier) became the heir presumptive to the throne of France in 1498 and was vested with the title of Duke of Valois.

In 1505, Louis XII, having fallen ill, ordered that his daughter Claude and François be married immediately, but only through an assembly of nobles were the two engaged. Claude was heir presumptive to the Duchy of Brittany through her mother, Anne of Brittany. Following Anne’s death, the marriage took place on May 18, 1514. On January 1, 1515, Louis XII died, and François inherited the throne. He was crowned King of France in the Cathedral of Reims on 25 January 1515, with Claude as his queen consort.

By the time François ascended the throne in 1515, the Renaissance had arrived in France, and prodigious patron of the arts, he initiated the French Renaissance by attracting many Italian artists to work for him, including Leonardo da Vinci, who brought the Mona Lisa with him, which François had acquired. François’ reign saw important cultural changes with the rise of absolute monarchy in France, the spread of humanism and Protestantism, and the beginning of French exploration of the New World. Jacques Cartier and others claimed lands in the Americas for France and paved the way for the expansion of the first French colonial empire.

For his role in the development and promotion of a standardized French language, he became known as le Père et Restaurateur des Lettres (the ‘Father and Restorer of Letters’). He was also known as François du Grand Nez (‘Francis of the Large Nose’), the Grand Colas, and the Roi-Chevalier (the ‘Knight-King’) for his personal involvement in the wars against his great rival Emperor Charles V, who was also King of Spain.

Following the policy of his predecessors, Francis continued the Italian Wars. The succession of Charles V to the Burgundian Netherlands, the throne of Spain, and his subsequent election as Holy Roman Emperor meant that France was geographically encircled by the Habsburg monarchy. In his struggle against Imperial hegemony, he sought the support of Henry VIII of England at the Field of the Cloth of Gold. When this was unsuccessful, he formed a Franco-Ottoman alliance with the Muslim sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, a controversial move for a Christian king at the time.

His first wife, Claude of France, died in 1524 and On July 7, 1530, François I married his second wife Eleanor of Austria (November 15, 1498 – February 25, 1558), also called Eleanor of Castile, was born an Archduchess of Austria and Infanta of Castile from the House of Habsburg and a sister of the Emperor Charles V. The couple had no children. During his reign, François kept two official mistresses at court.

The first mistress was Françoise de Foix, Countess of Châteaubriant. In 1526, she was replaced by the blonde-haired, cultured Anne de Pisseleu d’Heilly, Duchess of Étampes who, with the death of Queen Claude two years earlier, wielded far more political power at court than her predecessor had done. Another of his earlier mistresses was allegedly Mary Boleyn, mistress of King Henry VIII and sister of Henry’s future wife, Anne Boleyn.

Death

François died at the Château de Rambouillet on March 31 1547, on his son and successor’s 28th birthday. It is said that “he died complaining about the weight of a crown that he had first perceived as a gift from God”. He was interred with his first wife, Claude, Duchess of Brittany, in Saint Denis Basilica. He was succeeded by his son, Henri II.

François’ tomb and that of his wife and mother, along with the tombs of other French kings and members of the royal family, were desecrated on 20 October 1793 during the Reign of Terror at the height of the French Revolution.

François I has a poor reputation in France–his 500th anniversary was little noted in 1994. Popular and scholarly historical memory ignores his building of so many fine chateaux, his stunning art collection, his lavish patronage of scholars and artists. He is seen as a playboy who disgraced France by allowing himself to be defeated and taken prisoner at Pavia. The historian Jules Michelet set the negative image.

British historian Glenn Richardson considers Francis a success:

“He was a king who ruled as well as reigned. He knew the importance of war and a high international profile in staking his claim to be a great warrior-king of France. In battle he was brave, if impetuous, which led equally to triumph and disaster. Domestically, François exercised the spirit and letter of the royal prerogative to its fullest extent. He bargained hard over taxation and other issues with interest groups, often by appearing not to bargain at all.

He enhanced royal power and concentrated decision-making in a tight personal executive but used a wide range of offices, gifts and his own personal charisma to build up an elective personal affinity among the ranks of the nobility upon whom his reign depended….Under Francis, the court of France was at the height of its prestige and international influence during the 16th century. Although opinion has varied considerably over the centuries since his death, his cultural legacy to France, to its Renaissance, was immense and ought to secure his reputation as among the greatest of its kings.”

September 11, 1476: Birth of Louise of Savoy

Tags

Charles Orléans, Count of Angoulême, Duchy of Savoy, Francis I of France, Henri IV of France, Kingdom of France, Louise of Savoy

Louise of Savoy
Mother of King Francis I of France (1476-1531)

Louise of Savoy (September 11, 1476 – September 22, 1531) was a French noble and regent, Duchess suo jure of Auvergne and Bourbon, Duchess of Nemours, and the mother of King François I of France. She was politically active and served as the regent of France in 1515, in 1525–1526 and in 1529.

Family and early life

Louise of Savoy was born at Pont-d’Ain, the eldest daughter of Philip II, Duke of Savoy and his first wife, Margaret of Bourbon. Her brother, Philibert II, Duke of Savoy, succeeded her father as ruler of the duchy and head of the House of Savoy. He was, in turn, succeeded by their half-brother Charles III, Duke of Savoy.

Because her mother died when she was only seven, she was brought up by Anne de Beaujeu,who was regent of France for her brother King Charles VIII of France. At Amboise she met Margaret of Austria, who was betrothed to the young king and with whom Louise would negotiate peace several decades later.

Marriage

At age eleven, Louise married Charles of Orléans, Count of Angoulême, aged 29, on February 16, 1488 in Paris. She only began living with him when she was fifteen, though. Despite her husband having two mistresses, the marriage was not unhappy and they shared a love for books.

The household of Charles was presided over by his châtelaine, Antoinette de Polignac, Dame de Combronde, by whom he had two illegitimate daughters, Jeanne of Angoulême and Madeleine.

September 1, 1715: Death of King Louis XIV of France and Navarre.

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Duke of Burgundy, King Louis XIV of France and Navarre, Kingdom of France, Louis the Dauphin, Louis XIV of France, Louis XV, Maria Theresa of Spain, Philip IV of France

Louis XIV (Louis Dieudonné; September 5, 1638 – September 1, 1715), known as Louis the Great (Louis le Grand) or the Sun King (le Roi Soleil), was King of France and Navarre from May 14, 1643 until his death in 1715. His reign of 72 years and 110 days is the longest recorded of any monarch of a sovereign country in European history. Louis XIV’s France was emblematic of the age of absolutism in Europe.

Louis XIV was born on September 5, 1638 in the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, to Louis XIII of France and Navarre and Anne of Austria. He was named Louis Dieudonné (Louis the God-given) and bore the traditional title of French heirs apparent: Dauphin. At the time of his birth, his parents had been married for 23 years. His mother had experienced four stillbirths between 1619 and 1631. Leading contemporaries thus regarded him as a divine gift and his birth a miracle of God.

Louis XIV began his personal rule of France in 1661, after the death of his chief minister, the Italian Cardinal Mazarin. An adherent of the concept of the divine right of kings, Louis continued his predecessors’ work of creating a centralised state governed from the capital. He sought to eliminate the remnants of feudalism persisting in parts of France and, by compelling many members of the nobility to inhabit his lavish Palace of Versailles, succeeded in pacifying the aristocracy, many members of which had participated in the Fronde rebellion during his minority.

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King Louis XIV of France and Navarre

By these means he became one of the most powerful French monarchs and consolidated a system of absolute monarchy in France that endured until the French Revolution. He also enforced uniformity of religion under the Gallican Catholic Church. His revocation of the Edict of Nantes abolished the rights of the Huguenot Protestant minority and subjected them to a wave of dragonnades, effectively forcing Huguenots to emigrate or convert, and virtually destroying the French Protestant community.

Louis XIV surrounded himself with a variety of significant political, military, and cultural figures, such as Mazarin, Colbert, Louvois, the Grand Condé, Turenne, Vauban, Boulle, Molière, Racine, Boileau, La Fontaine, Lully, Charpentier, Marais, Le Brun, Rigaud, Bossuet, Le Vau, Mansart, Charles, Claude Perrault, and Le Nôtre.

During Louis’s long reign, France emerged as the leading European power and regularly asserted its military strength. A conflict with Spain marked his entire childhood, while during his reign, the kingdom took part in three major continental conflicts, each against powerful foreign alliances: the Franco-Dutch War, the War of the League of Augsburg, and the War of the Spanish Succession.

In addition, France also contested shorter wars, such as the War of Devolution and the War of the Reunions. Warfare defined Louis’s foreign policy and his personality shaped his approach. Impelled by “a mix of commerce, revenge, and pique”, he sensed that war was the ideal way to enhance his glory. In peacetime he concentrated on preparing for the next war. He taught his diplomats that their job was to create tactical and strategic advantages for the French military.

In 1658, as war with France began to wind down, a union between the royal families of Spain and France was proposed as a means to secure peace. Infanta Maria Theresa and Louis XIV were double first cousins: Louis XIV’s father was Louis XIII of France, who was the brother of Infanta Maria Theresa’s mother, while her father was brother to Anne of Austria, Louis XIV’s mother.

Spanish procrastination led to a scheme in which France’s prime minister, Cardinal Mazarin, pretended to seek a marriage for his master with Margaret Yolande of Savoy. When Felipe IV of Spain heard of a meeting at Lyon between the Houses of France and Savoy in November 1658, he reputedly exclaimed of the Franco-Savoyard union that “it cannot be, and will not be”. Felipe then sent a special envoy to the French court to open negotiations for peace and a royal marriage.

A marriage by proxy to the French king was held in Fuenterrabia. Her father and the entire Spanish court accompanied the bride to the Isle of Pheasants on the border in the Bidassoa river, where Louis and his court met her in the meeting on the Isle of Pheasants on June 7, 1660, and she entered France. On June 9, the marriage took place in Saint-Jean-de-Luz at the recently rebuilt church of Saint Jean the Baptist. After the wedding, Louis wanted to consummate the marriage as quickly as possible. The new queen’s mother-in-law (and aunt) arranged a private consummation instead of the public one that was the custom.

Louis XIV and his wife Maria Theresa of Spain had six children from the marriage contracted for them in 1660. However, only one child, the eldest, survived to adulthood: Louis, le Grand Dauphin, known as Monseigneur. Maria Theresa died in 1683, whereupon Louis remarked that she had never caused him unease on any other occasion.

Despite evidence of affection early on in their marriage, Louis was never faithful to Maria Theresa. He took a series of mistresses, both official and unofficial. Among the better documented are Louise de La Vallière (with whom he had five children; 1661–67), Bonne de Pons d’Heudicourt (1665), Catherine Charlotte de Gramont (1665), Françoise-Athénaïs, Marquise de Montespan (with whom he had seven children; 1667–80), Anne de Rohan-Chabot (1669–75), Claude de Vin des Œillets (one child born in 1676), Isabelle de Ludres (1675–78), and Marie Angélique de Scorailles (1679–81), who died at age 19 in childbirth. Through these liaisons, he produced numerous illegitimate children, most of whom he married to members of cadet branches of the royal family.

Louis proved relatively more faithful to his second wife, Françoise d’Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon. He first met her through her work caring for his children by Madame de Montespan, noting the care she gave to his favorite, Louis Auguste, Duke of Maine. The king was, at first, put off by her strict religious practice, but he warmed to her through her care for his children.

When he legitimized his children by Madame de Montespan on December 20, 1673, Françoise d’Aubigné became the royal governess at Saint-Germain. As governess, she was one of very few people permitted to speak to him as an equal, without limits. It is believed that they were married secretly at Versailles on or around October 10, 1683 or January 1684. This marriage, though never announced or publicly discussed, was an open secret and lasted until his death.

Despite the image of a healthy and virile king that Louis sought to project, evidence exists to suggest that his health was not very good. He had many ailments: for example, symptoms of diabetes, as confirmed in reports of suppurating periostitis in 1678, dental abscesses in 1696, along with recurring boils, fainting spells, gout, dizziness, hot flushes, and headaches.

From 1647 to 1711, the three chief physicians to the king (Antoine Vallot, Antoine d’Aquin, and Guy-Crescent Fagon) recorded all of his health problems in the Journal de Santé du Roi (Journal of the King’s Health), a daily report of his health. On November 18, 1686, Louis underwent a painful operation for an anal fistula that was performed by the surgeon Charles Felix de Tassy, who prepared a specially shaped curved scalpel for the occasion. The wound took more than two months to heal.

Louis died of gangrene at Versailles on September 1, 1715, four days before his 77th birthday, after 72 years on the throne. Enduring much pain in his last days, he finally “yielded up his soul without any effort, like a candle going out”, while reciting the psalm Domine, ad adjuvandum me festina (O Lord, make haste to help me). His body was laid to rest in Saint-Denis Basilica outside Paris. It remained there undisturbed for about 80 years, until revolutionaries exhumed and destroyed all of the remains found in the Basilica.

Succession

Louis outlived most of his immediate legitimate family. His last surviving in-wedlock son, Louis. the Grand Dauphin, died in 1711. Barely a year later, Louis, Duke of Burgundy, the eldest of the Dauphin’s three sons and then heir to Louis XIV, followed his father to the grave. Burgundy’s elder son, Louis, Duke of Brittany, joined them a few weeks later. Thus, on his deathbed, Louis’ heir was his five-year-old great-grandson, Louis, Duke of Anjou, Burgundy’s younger son, who became King Louis XV.

June 2, 1489: Birth of Charles de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme.

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Charles de Bourbon, Charles III of Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme, Francis I of France, Henri IV of France, House of Bourbon, Kingdom of France, Louis I de Bourbon, Prince of Conde

Charles de Bourbon (June 2, 1489 – March 25, 1537) was a French Prince du Sang and military commander at the court of King François I of France. He is notable as the paternal grandfather of King Henri IV of France and Navarre.

Charles de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme

Charles was born at the Château de Vendôme, eldest son of François de Bourbon, Count of Vendôme and Marie of Luxembourg. Marie of Luxembourg (died April 1, 1547) was a French princess, the elder daughter and principal heiress of Peter II of Luxembourg, Count of Saint-Pol and Soissons, and Margaret of Savoy, a daughter of Louis I, Duke of Savoy. She belonged to the French, cadet branch of a dynasty which had reigned as Dukes of Luxembourg, and whose senior line provided several Holy Roman Emperors, before becoming extinct in 1437.

Charles succeeded his father as Count of Vendôme in 1495. Charles’s first military service was in Italy, under King Louis XII of France. In 1514, he was created Duke of Vendôme when the county of Vendôme was elevated into a duchy. He fought at the Battle of Marignano (1515) and participated in the Flemish campaign. Because of his loyalty to the King, he was appointed head of the council when King François I was captured at the Battle of Pavia.

On May 18, 1513, Charles married Françoise d’Alençon (1490 – September 14, 1550) she was the eldest daughter of René of Alençon and Margaret of Lorraine, and the younger sister and despoiled heiress of Charles IV, Duke of Alençon.

They had thirteen children:

1. Louis de Bourbon (1514–1516), died in infancy.
2. Marie de Bourbon (1515–1538), unmarried, prospective bride of King James V of Scotland in 1536.
3. Marguerite de Bourbon (1516–1589), married in 1538, Francis I, Duke of Nevers (1516–1561)
4. Antoine de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme (1518–1562)
5. François de Bourbon, Count of Enghien (1519–1546), unmarried.
6. Madeleine de Bourbon (1521–1561), Abbess of Sainte-Croix de Poitiers.
7. Louis de Bourbon (1522–1525), died in infancy.
8. Charles de Bourbon (1523–1590), Archbishop of Rouen.
9. Catherine de Bourbon (1525–1594), Abbess of Soissons.
10. Renée de Bourbon (1527–1583), Abbess of Chelles.
11. Jean de Bourbon, Count of Soissons and Enghien (1528–1557), married in 1557, his first cousin, Marie, Duchess of Estouteville (1539–1601).
12. Louis I de Bourbon, Prince of Condé (1530–1569), married Eléonore de Roye, daughter of Charles de Roye, Count of Royce.
13. Léonore de Bourbon (1532–1611), Abbess of Fontevraud.

The successive deaths of his cousins Charles IV, Duke of Alençon (1525) and Charles III, Duke of Bourbon (1527) made him the fourth in the order of succession to the French throne, just behind the king’s sons. At the natural course of affairs his wife, a sister of the last duke of Alençon, would have been the heiress of her brother; but François I allowed his sister, Marguerite of Angoulême, the late duke’s wife, to keep them, even though they did not have children.

Charles de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme

Charles would also have been heir to the duchy of Bourbon, but it was forfeited to the crown by the treason of the last holder. At the death of Constable de Bourbon in 1527, he became the Head of the House of Bourbon.

His son Antoine married Jeanne III d’Albret, Queen of Navarre, daughter of Marguerite of Angoulême, settling the Alençon inheritance. Their son would succeed to the French throne as Henri IV. Antoine and Louis, Prince of Condé, became powerful military leaders on opposite sides in the French Wars of Religion. Charles died at Amiens in 1537 at the age of 47.

French Titles of Nobility

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Comte, Duc, Fils de France, French Monarchy, House of Boutbon, Kingdom of France, Louis XIV, Petit-fils, Prince Du Sang, Prince légitimé, Vicomte

The French nobility (French: la noblesse) was a privileged social class in France during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period to the revolution in 1790. The nobility was revived in 1805 with limited rights as a titled elite class from the First Empire to the fall of the July Monarchy in 1848, when all privileges were permanently abolished. Hereditary titles, without privileges, continued to be granted until the Second Empire fell in 1870. They survive among their descendants as a social convention and as part of the legal name of the corresponding individuals.

In the political system of pre-Revolutionary France, the nobility made up the Second Estate of the Estates General (with the Catholic clergy comprising the First Estate and the bourgeoisie and peasants in the Third Estate). Although membership in the noble class was mainly inherited, it was not a fully closed order. New individuals were appointed to the nobility by the monarchy, or they could purchase rights and titles, or join by marriage.

Titles, peerage, and orders

There were two kinds of titles used by French nobles: some were personal ranks and others were linked to the fiefs owned, called fiefs de dignité.

During the ancien régime, there was no distinction of rank by title (except for the title of duke, which was often associated with the strictly regulated privileges of the peerage, including precedence above other titled nobles).

The hierarchy within the French nobility below peers was initially based on seniority; a count whose family had been noble since the 14th century was higher-ranked than a marquis whose title only dated to the 15th century. Precedence at the royal court was based on the family’s ancienneté, its alliances (marriages), its hommages (dignities and offices held) and, lastly, its illustrations (record of deeds and achievements).
* Titles:
* King
* Foreign Prince
* Duc: possessor of a duchy (duché—a feudal property, not an independent principality) and recognition as duke by the king.
* Prince: possessor of a lordship styled a principality (principauté); most such titles were held by family tradition and were treated by the court as titres de courtoisie—often borne by the eldest sons of the more important duke-peers. This title of prince is not to be confused with the rank of prince, borne by the princes du sang, the princes légitimés or the princes étrangers whose high precedence derived from their kinship to the King.
* Marquis: possessor of a marquessate (marquisat), but often assumed by a noble family as a titre de courtoisie
* Comte: possessor of a county (comté) or self-assumed.
* Vicomte: possessor of a viscounty (vicomté) or self-assumed.
* Advocatus
* Baron: possessor of a barony (baronnie) or self-assumed.
* Vidame: a rare title, always with the name of a diocese, as their origin was as the commander of a bishop’s forces. The Vidame de Chartres is the best known.
* Ranks:
* Fils de France: son of a king or dauphin.
* Petit-fils de France: grandson of a king in the male line.
* Prince du Sang (“prince of the blood”): a remote, legitimate male-line descendant of a king of France.
* Peer of France was technically a dignity of the Crown (as, e.g., marshal of France), but became in fact the highest hereditary rank borne by the French nobility—always in conjunction with a title (e.g. “Duc et Pair”, “Comte-Pair”). The peerage was originally awarded only to princes of the blood, some legitimised and foreign princes, often the heads of the kingdom’s most ancient and powerful families, and a few bishops.

King Louis XIV of France and Navarre

Eventually it was almost always granted in conjunction with the title of duke. Gradually the peerage came to be conferred more broadly as a reward for distinguished military or diplomatic service, but also on favourites of the king (e.g. les mignons). The peers were entitled to seats in the Parliament of Paris, the most important judicial court in the kingdom.
* Prince légitimé: legitimised son or male-line descendant of a king. Precise rank depended upon the king’s favour.
* Prince étranger (“foreign prince”): members of foreign royal or princely families naturalized at the French court, such as the Clèves, Rohan, La Tour d’Auvergne, and Lorraine-Guise.

March 21, 1152: Annulment of the marriage of Louis VII of France and Eleanor of Aquitaine

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Annulment, Conrad III of Germany, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Géza II of Hungary, Henry II of England, Kingdom of France, Kingdom of the Franks, Louis VII of France

Louis VII (1120 – September 18, 1180), called the Younger or the Young was King of the Franks from 1137 to 1180. He was the son and successor of King Louis VI, hence his nickname, and married Duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine, one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in western Europe. The marriage temporarily extended the Capetian lands to the Pyrenees, but was annulled in 1152 after no male heir was produced.

Louis was born in 1120 in Paris, the second son of Louis VI, King of the Franks and Adelaide of Maurienne. The early education of Prince Louis anticipated an ecclesiastical career. As a result, he became well-learned and exceptionally devout, but his life course changed decisively after the accidental death of his older brother Philippe in 1131, when he unexpectedly became the heir to the throne of France. In October 1131, his father had him anointed and crowned by Pope Innocent II in Reims Cathedral.

Louis VII, King of the Franks

Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122 – April 1, 1204) was queen consort of France (1137–1152) and England (1154–1189) and Duchess of Aquitaine in her own right (1137–1204). As a member of the Ramnulfids (House of Poitiers) rulers in southwestern France, she was one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in western Europe during the High Middle Ages. Eleanor (or Aliénor) was the oldest of three children of Guillém X Duke of Aquitaine, whose glittering ducal court was renowned in early 12th-century Europe, and his wife, Aenor de Châtellerault, the daughter of Aimery I, Viscount of Châtellerault, and Dangereuse de l’Isle Bouchard, who was Guillém IX’s longtime mistress as well as Eleanor’s maternal grandmother. Her parents’ marriage had been arranged by Dangereuse with her paternal grandfather Guillém IX.

Following the death of Duke Guillém X of Aquitaine, Louis VI moved quickly to have his son married to Eleanor of Aquitaine, who had inherited William’s territory, on July 25, 1137. In this way, Louis VI sought to add the large, sprawling territory of the duchy of Aquitaine to his family’s holdings in France. On August 1, 1137, shortly after the marriage, Louis VI died, and Louis VII became king. The pairing of the monkish Louis and the high-spirited Eleanor was doomed to failure; she reportedly once declared that she had thought to marry a king, only to find she had married a monk. Louis VII and Eleanor had two daughters, Marie and Alix.

In June 1147, in fulfillment of his vow to mount the Second Crusade, Louis VII and his queen set out from the Basilica of St Denis, first stopping in Metz on the overland route to Syria. Soon they arrived in the Kingdom of Hungary, where they were welcomed by the king Géza II of Hungary, who was already waiting with King Conrad III of Germany.

Louis VII and his army finally reached the Holy Land in 1148. His queen Eleanor supported her uncle, Raymond of Antioch, and prevailed upon Louis to help Antioch against Aleppo. But Louis VII’s interest lay in Jerusalem, and so he slipped out of Antioch in secret. He united with King Conrad III of Germany and King Baldwin III of Jerusalem to lay siege to Damascus; this ended in disaster and the project was abandoned. Louis VII decided to leave the Holy Land, despite the protests of Eleanor, who still wanted to help her doomed uncle Raymond. Louis VII and the French army returned home in 1149.

Eleanor, Queen of the Franks, Queen of the English, Duchess of Aquitaine

The expedition to the Holy Land came at a great cost to the royal treasury and military. It also precipitated a conflict with Eleanor that led to the annulment of their marriage. Perhaps the marriage to Eleanor might have continued if the royal couple had produced a male heir, but this had not occurred. The Council of Beaugency found an exit clause, declaring that Louis VII and Eleanor were too closely related for their marriage to be legal, thus the marriage was annulled on March 21, 1152.

The pretext of kinship was the basis for annulment, but in fact, it owed more to the state of hostility between Louis and Eleanor, with a decreasing likelihood that their marriage would produce a male heir to the throne of France. On May 18, 1152, Eleanor married the Count of Anjou, the future King Henry II of England. She gave him the duchy of Aquitaine and bore him three daughters and five sons.

In 1154, Louis VII married Constance of Castile, daughter of Alfonso VII of León and Castile and Berengaria of Barcelona. She also failed to supply him with a son and heir, bearing only two daughters, Margaret and Alys. The official reason for her husband’s annulment from Eleanor of Aquitaine had been that he was too close a relative of Eleanor for the marriage to be legal by Church standards; however, he was even more closely related to Constance. Constance died giving birth to her second child.

Louis VII was devastated when Constance died in childbirth on October 4, 1160. As he was desperate for a son, he married Adela of Champagne just 5 weeks later. Adela of Champagne was the third child and first daughter of Theobald II, Count of Champagne and Matilda of Carinthia, and had nine brothers and sisters. Adela’s coronation was held the same day. She went on to give birth to Louis VII’s only male heir, Philippe II of France and Agnes, a Byzantine Empress by marriage to Alexios II Komnenos and Andronikos I Komnenos.