Marriages of King Louis XII of France

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Anne of Brittany, Joan of Valois, Louis XII of France, Mary (Tudor) of England, Pope Alexander VI

In 1476 Louis of Orléans was forced by King Louis XI (his second cousin) to marry his daughter Joan of France. 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 XII. Charles had been married to Anne, Duchess of Brittany, in order to unite the quasi-sovereign Duchy of Brittany with the Kingdom of France. To sustain this union, Louis XII had his marriage to Joan annulled (December 1498) after he became king so that he could marry Charles VIII’s widow, Anne of Brittany.

The annulment, described as “one of the seamiest lawsuits of the age”, was not simple. Louis 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 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 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 (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 did not freely marry, but was forced to marry by Joan’s father 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 married the reluctant queen dowager, Anne, in 1499. Anne, who had borne as many as seven stillborn or short-lived children during her previous marriage to King Charles, now bore a further four stillborn sons to the new king, but also two surviving daughters. The elder daughter, Claude (1499–1524), was betrothed by her mother’s arrangement to the future Emperor Charles V in 1501.

But after Anne failed to produce a living son, Louis XII dissolved the betrothal and betrothed Claude to his heir presumptive, Francis of Angoulême, thereby insuring that Brittany would remain united with France. Anne opposed this marriage, which took place only after her death in 1514. Claude succeeded her mother in Brittany and became queen consort to Francis. The younger daughter, Renée (1510–1575), married Duke Ercole II of Ferrara.

After Anne’s death, Louis 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 his throne, for despite two previous marriages the king had no living sons. Louis died on 1 January 1515, less than three months after he married Mary, reputedly worn out by his exertions in the bedchamber, but more likely from the effects of gout. Their union produced no children, and the throne passed to François I of France, who was Louis’s first cousin once removed, and also his son-in-law.

June 27, 1462: Birth of Louis XII, King of France

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Charles of Orléans, Charles VIII of France, King of Naples, Louis XII of France, Pope Alexander VI

Louis XII (June 27, 1462 – January 1, 1515) was King of France from 1498 to 1515 and King of Naples from 1501 to 1504. The son of Charles, Duke of Orléans, and Maria of Cleves, he succeeded his 2nd cousin once removed and brother in law at the time, Charles VIII, who died without direct heirs in 1498.

Before his accession to the throne of France, he was known as Louis of Orléans and was compelled to be married to his disabled and supposedly sterile cousin Joan by his second cousin, King Louis XI. By doing so, Louis XI hoped to extinguish the Orléans cadet branch of the House of Valois.

Louis of Orléans was one of the great feudal lords who opposed the French monarchy in the conflict known as the Mad War. At the royal victory in the Battle of Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier in 1488, Louis was captured, but Charles VIII pardoned him and released him. He subsequently took part in the Italian War of 1494–1498 as one of the French commanders.

When Louis XII became king in 1498, he had his marriage with Joan annulled by Pope Alexander VI and instead married Anne of Brittany, the widow of his cousin Charles VIII. This marriage allowed Louis to reinforce the personal Union of Brittany and France.

Louis persevered in the Italian Wars, initiating a second Italian campaign for the control of the Kingdom of Naples. Louis conquered the Duchy of Milan in 1500 and pushed forward to the Kingdom of Naples, which fell to him in 1501. Proclaimed King of Naples, Louis faced a new coalition gathered by Ferdinand II of Aragon and was forced to cede Naples to Spain in 1504.

Louis XII did not encroach on the power of local governments or the privileges of the nobility, in opposition with the long tradition of the French kings to attempt to impose absolute monarchy in France. A popular king, Louis was proclaimed “Father of the People” (French: Le Père du Peuple) in 1506 by the Estates-General of Tours for his reduction of the tax known as taille, legal reforms, and civil peace within France.

Louis, who remained Duke of Milan after the second Italian War, was interested in further expansion in the Italian Peninsula and launched a third Italian War (1508–1516), which was marked by the military prowess of the Chevalier de Bayard.

Louis XII died in 1515 without a male heir. He was succeeded by his cousin and son-in-law Francis from the Angoulême cadet branch of the House of Valois.

From the Emperor’s Desk: Tomorrow I’ll do an indepth look at the three marriages of Louis XII.

October 23, 1516: Birth of Charlotte de Valois of France

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Anne of Brittany, Charles VIII of France, Charlotte de Valois of France, Claude of France, Francis I of France, Louis XII of France, Margaret of Angoulême

Charlotte de Valois of France (October 23, 1516 – September 18, 1524) was the second child and second daughter of King François I and his wife Claude, daughter of the French king Louis XII of France and the Duchess Anne of Brittany.

Charlotte was born in the Château d’Amboise, on October 23, 1516. She had greenish blue eyes and bright red hair. She was one of the six children of the King and Queen that had red hair, a trait inherited from Anne of Brittany, Claude’s mother. She lived a happy life, moving from the Château d’Amboise to the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye before March 1519.

Later life and death

The Princess spent all of her remaining days at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye. She had always been a delicate, frail child. At age seven, she contracted measles, the same disease which had killed her half-uncle, Charles Orlando, Dauphin of France, thirty years earlier. Charles Orlando, Dauphin of France was the eldest son and heir of Charles VIII of France and Anne of Brittany.

Anne of Brittany was Duchess of Brittany in her own right from 1488 until her death, and queen consort of France from 1491 to 1498 and from 1499 to her death. She is the only woman to have been queen consort of France twice, as the spouse of Charles VIII and Louis XII.

The only person who looked after her while she was sick was her aunt, Margaret of Angoulême, as her mother had already died two months earlier, her grandmother Louise of Savoy was very sick, and her father had gone to war. He was later imprisoned, so was nowhere near his daughter at the time of her death. It appears as if Charlotte was very close to her aunt, who was heartbroken and distraught when her “little one” died, on September18, 1524 at the age of seven.

June 5, 1523: Birth of Marguerite de Valois of France, Duchess of Berry, Countess of Savoy.

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Anne of Brittany, Charles V, Claude of France, Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy, Felipe II of Spain, Francis I of France, King Henri II of France, Louis XII of France, Marguerite de Valois

Marguerite de Valois of France, Duchess of Berry (June 5, 1523 – September 15, 1574)

Family

Marguerite de Valois was born at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, was the youngest daughter of King François I of France and Claude, Duchess of Brittany.

Marguerite de Valois of France, Duchess of Berry

Claude of France (1499-1524) was a queen consort of France by marriage to François I. She was also ruling Duchess of Brittany from 1514. She was a daughter of the French King Louis XII of France and Anne of Brittany.

Because her mother, Anne, Duchess of Brittany, had no surviving sons, Claude was heir presumptive to the Duchy of Brittany. The crown of France, however, could pass only to and through male heirs, according to Salic Law. Eager to keep Brittany separated from the French crown.

François I, King of France

On August 10, 1501 at Lyon was signed the marriage contract between Claude and the future Holy Roman Emperor Charles V by François de Busleyden, Archbishop of Besançon, William de Croÿ, Nicolas de Rutter and Pierre Lesseman, all ambassadors of Duke Philippe of Burgundy, (Felipe I of Spain) Charles’ father.

In 1505, King Louis XII of France was very sick, fearing for his life and not wishing to threaten the reign of his only heir, cancelled the engagement in the Estates Generals of Tours, in favor of the young Duke of Valois, the future François I. Indeed, previously Louise of Savoy obtained from the king a secret promise that Claude could be married to her son.

Anne, Duchess of Brittany (grandmother)

Louise of Savoy was married to Charles d’Orléans (1459-1496) was the Count of Angoulême from 1467 until his death. Charles was a grandson of Louis I, Duke of Orléans, a younger son of King Charles V of France. He was thus a member of the Orléans cadet branch of the ruling House of Valois. The Orléans came to the throne in 1498 in the person of Charles’s nephew Louis XII, who was followed in 1515 by Charles’s own son François I.

Anne of Brittany, furious to see the triumph of Marshal of Gié, exerted all her influence to obtain his conviction for treason before the Parliament of Paris.

Henri II, King of France (Brother)

On January 9, 1514, when her mother died, Claude became Duchess of Brittany; and four months later, on May 18, she married her cousin François at Saint-Germain-en-Laye. With this union, it was secured that Brittany would remain united to the French crown, if the third marriage of Louis XII with Mary of England (celebrated on October 9, 1514) would not produce the long-waited heir. However, the union was short-lived and childless: Louis XII died less than three months later, on January 1, 1515, reputedly worn out by his exertions in the bedchamber. François and Claude became king and queen, the third time in history that the Duchess of Brittany became Queen of France.

Early Life

Marguerite de Valois was very close to her paternal aunt, Marguerite de Navarre, who took care of her and her sister Madeleine during her childhood, and her sister-in-law Catherine de’ Medici.

Near the end of 1538, her father and Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, agreed that Marguerite should marry Charles’ son, the future Felipe II of Spain. However, the agreement between François and Charles was short-lived and the marriage never took place.

On April 29, 1550 at the age of 26 she was created suo jure Duchess of Berry.

Marriage

Shortly before her 36th birthday, a marriage was finally arranged for her by her brother King Henri II of France and her former suitor Felipe II of Spain as part of the terms stipulated in the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis which was signed by the ambassadors representing the two monarchs on April 3, 1559.

The husband selected for her was Felipe II’s ally, and a cousin of Marguerite, Emanuele Filiberto, Duke of Savoy, Prince of Piedmont. At the time, Marguerite was described as having been a “spinster lady of excellent breeding and lively intellect”.

Emanuele-Filiberto I, Duke of Savoy

Emanuele-Filiberto was the only child of Carlo III, Duke of Savoy, and Beatrice of Portugal to reach adulthood. His mother was sister-in-law to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, and the future duke served in Charles’s army during the war against his future father-in-las, François I of France.

The wedding took place in tragic circumstances. On June 30, 1559 just three days after her marriage contract had been signed, King Henri II was gravely injured during a tournament celebrating the wedding of his eldest daughter Elisabeth to the recently widowed King Felipe II.

A lance wielded by his opponent the Count of Montgomery accidentally struck his helmet at a point beneath the visor and shattered. The wooden splinters deeply penetrated his right eye and entered his brain. Close to death, but still conscious, the king ordered that his sister’s marriage should take place immediately, for fear that the Duke of Savoy might profit from his death and renege on the alliance.

The ceremony did not take place in Notre Dame Cathedral as had been planned. Instead it was a solemn, subdued event conducted at midnight on July 9, in Saint Paul’s, a small church not far from the Tournelles Palace where Margaret’s dying brother was ensconced. Among the few guests was the French queen consort Catherine de’ Medici who sat by herself, weeping. King Henri II died the following day.

Marguerite and her husband had only one surviving child: Charlo-Emanuele I, Duke of Savoy who was born in January 1562, when Marguerite was 38 years of age. He later married Infanta Catherine-Michelle of Spain, the daughter of King Felipe II by his marriage to Marguerite’s niece, Elisabeth de Valois.

Marguerite died on September 15 1574 at the age of 51. She was buried in Turin at the Cathedral of Saint Giovanni Battista.

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.