Archduchess Eleanor of Austria, Queen of Portugal and Queen of France

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Archduchess Eleanor of Austria, Duchess of Viseu, Felipe I of Spain, Friedrich II of the Palatinate of the Rhine, Infanta Maria of Portugal, Joanna of Castile, King François I of France, King Henry VIII of England and Ireland, King Manuel I of Portugal, Philipp of Austria, Queen of France, Queen of Portugal

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.

Eleanor was born in 1498 at Leuven, the eldest child of Archduke Philipp of Austria and Infanta Joanna of Castile, who would later become co-sovereigns of Castile. Archduke Philipp of Austria is counted as King Felipe I of Castile (Spain).

Archduchess Eleanor of Austria, Queen of Portugal and Queen of France

Eleanor’s father was also the son of the reigning Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I and his deceased consort Mary of Burgundy, while her mother was the daughter of the Catholic Monarchs; namely Fernando II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile.

Eleanor’s siblings were Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I, Queen Isabella of Denmark, Queen Mary of Hungary and Queen Catherine of Portugal. She was named after her paternal great-grandmother, Eleanor of Portugal, Holy Roman Empress, the consort of Holy Roman Emperor Friedrich III and the mother of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I (Eleanor’s grandfather).

After the death of her father in September 1506 Eleanor was educated at her aunt’s court in Mechelen.

When she was a child, Eleanor’s relatives tried to marry her to the future King Henry VIII of England to whom she was betrothed. However, when Henry’s father, King Henry VII, died and he became King, Henry decided to marry Eleanor’s aunt, Catherine of Aragon, who was the widow of King Henry’s older brother, Arthur, Prince of Wales.

Her relatives also tried to marry her to the French Kings Louis XII or François I or to the Polish King Sigismund I, but nothing came of these plans. Eleanor was also proposed as a marriage candidate for Antoine, Duke of Lorraine, in 1510.

In 1517 Eleanor may have had a love affair with Friedrich II, Elector Palatine of the Rhine of the House Wittelsbach. Her brother King Charles, who had succeeded their elderly grandfather King Fernando II as King Carlos I of Spain the year before, once discovered her reading a love letter from Friedrich.

Charles forced Eleanor and Friedrich to swear in front of an attorney that they were not secretly married, after which he expelled Friedrich from court. She followed her brother to Spain in 1517.

Queen of Portugal

Eleanor married her uncle by marriage, King Manuel I of Portugal, after a proposed marriage with her cousin, the future King João III of Portugal, did not occur. Her brother Charles arranged the marriage between Eleanor and the King of Portugal to avoid the possibility of Portuguese assistance for any rebellion in Castile. Manuel had previously been married to two of Eleanor’s maternal aunts, Isabella of Aragon and Maria of Aragon.

King Manuel I of Portugal

Manuel and Eleanor married on July 16, 1518. They had two children: the Infante Carlos (February 18, 1520 – April 15, 1521) and the Infanta Maria, Duchess of Viseu (June 8, 1521– October 10, 1577) and who was later one of the richest princesses of Europe. Although she did not lack suitors and had several marriage proposals, Infanta Maria never married.

Eleanor became a widow on December 13, 1521, when Manuel died of the plague. As Queen Dowager of Portugal, Eleanor returned to the court of her Charles in Spain. Eleanor’s sister Archduchess Catherine later married Eleanor’s stepson, King João III of Portugal.

In July 1523, Eleanor was engaged to Charles III, Duke of Bourbon, in an alliance between Charles and Bourbon against France, but the marriage never took place. In 1526, Eleanor was engaged to King François I of France during his captivity in Spain.

Infanta Maria of Portugal, Duchess of Viseu

The Treaty of Cambrai (1529; called La Paz de las Damas – “The Ladies’ Peace”) paused the conflict between Francois I and Emperor Charles V. It included the stipulation that the previously-agreed marriage of Eleanor and François would take place.

Eleanor left Spain in the company of her future stepsons, who had been held hostage by her brother. The group met King François I at the border, and then departed for an official entrance to Bordeaux.

Eleanor was crowned Queen of France in Saint-Denis on May 31, 1531. She was dressed in purple velvet at her coronation. She was married to King François I on July 4, 1530.

The couple had no children. During his reign, François kept two official mistresses at court. The first 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.

Eleanor was ignored by François, who seldom performed his marital obligations and preferred his lover Anne de Pisseleu d’Heilly. At the official entrance of Eleanor to Paris, François displayed himself openly to the public in a window with his mistress Anne for two hours.

King François I of France

Queen Eleanor performed as the Queen of France at official occasions, such as the wedding between her stepson Henri and Catherine de’ Medici in 1533. She also performed charity and was praised for this. She also took her stepdaughters, Madeleine and Margaret, into her household to raise them further.

As queen, Eleanor had no political power; however, she served as a contact between France and Emperor Charles. Queen Eleanor was present at the peace negotiations between King François I and Emperor Charles V in Aigues-Mortes in 1538.

In 1544, she was given the task of entering peace negotiations with Emperor Charles V and their sister Mary of Hungary. In November 1544, she visited Emperor Charles V in Brussels.

King Francois I died at the Château de Rambouillet on March 31, 1547, and he was succeeded by his son, King Henri II. Ironically his death occurred on his son and successor’s 28th birthday. It is said that François “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.

Later life

As a queen dowager, Eleanor left France for Brussels in 1548. She witnessed the abdication of her brother Emperor Charles V in October 1555 and left for Spain with him and their sister Mary in August 1556.

She lived with her sister in Jarandilla de la Vera, where they often visited their brother, who retired to a monastery nearby. In 1558, she met her daughter Maria in Badajoz for the first time in 28 years. Eleanor died in 1558 on the return trip from Badajoz.

Elisabeth of Austria, Queen of France. Part II.

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Archduchess Elisabeth of Austria, Emperor Maximilian II, Emperor Rudolph II, King Henri III of France, Queen of France

After having completed the 40 days mourning period, Elisabeth – now called la Reine blanche (the White Queen), as, by custom, white clothing was worn by the widow of the deceased King of France after the initial mourning period – was compelled by her father to return to Vienna.

Shortly before, Emperor Maximilian II made the proposition of a new marriage for her, this time with her deceased husband’s brother and successor, King Henri III of France; however, she, as well as Henri, firmly refused. By letters patent dated November 21, 1575, Henri III gave her the County of La Marche as her dower; In addition, she received the title of Duchess of Berry and in 1577 she obtained the duchies of Auvergne and Bourbon in exchange.

On August 28, 1575, Elisabeth visited her almost three-year-old daughter in Amboise for the last time, and on December 5, she left Paris.

Widowhood and death

Back in Vienna, Elisabeth lived at first in the residence of her childhood, Stallburg. On October 12, 1576, her beloved father Maximilian II died, and her brother Rudolph II succeeded him as Holy Roman Emperor.

Her last great tragedy came on April 5, 1578, when her five-and-half-year-old daughter Marie Elisabeth died.

When a new proposal of marriage was made to her, this time from King Felipe II of Spain after the death of his wife Anna in 1580, she again refused; according to Brantôme, she replied to the offer with the famous phrase: “The Queens of France do not remarry” (Les Reines de France ne se remarient point), once said by Blanche of Navarre, widow of King Philippe VI.

In France, where Busbecq managed her properties, Elisabeth built a Jesuit college in Bourges, although she never received the monetary revenues from her domains.

In early 1580, Elisabeth bought some lands near Stallburg and founded the Convent of Poor Clares Mary, Queen of Angels (Klarissinnenkloster Maria, Königin der Engel), also known as the Queen’s Monastery (Königinkloster).

Elisabeth henceforth devoted her life to following the example of her convent’s holy patron in the exercise of piety, relief of the poor, and health care. Even impoverished daughters of the nobility found her support. She also financed the restoration of the All Saints Chapel in Hradčany, Prague, which had been destroyed in a fire in 1541.

Elisabeth acquired several relics for her convent. In 1588, by consent of her brother, Maximilian, as Coadjutor of the Teutonic Order, some of the bones of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary were sent to her from Marburg.

After her departure from France, Elisabeth maintained a regular correspondence with her sister-in-law Queen Margaret of Navarre, and when the latter was ostracised from the rest of the royal family, she made half of the revenues she received from France available to her. Brantôme relates that on one occasion, Elisabeth sent to Margaret two books written by her (now lost): a devotional work (Sur la parole de Dieu) and a historical work (Sur les événements considérables qui arrivèrent en France de son temps).

Elisabeth died on January 22, 1592 victim of pleurisy, and was buried under a simple marble slab in the church of her convent.

In the course of the Josephinist reforms, the Queen’s monastery was closed in 1782 in order to create the Lutheran City Church. By order of Emperor Joseph II, Elisabeth’s remains were transferred to one of the crypts beneath St. Stephen’s Cathedral, Vienna.

In her will, Elizabeth donated money not only to the poor and sick, but also included funds for prayers for her late husband in the convent’s church.

The Spanish, German, French, Italian, and Latin books from her library, a number of works of the Jesuit preacher Georg Scherer, a book of prophecies of the French astrologer Nostradamus written in 1571, and the tragedy of Antigone of the ancient Greek poet Sophocles were left to her brother, Emperor Rudolph II. Her wedding ring was given to another brother Ernst.

July 5, 1554: Birth of Archduchess Elisabeth of Austria, Queen of France. Part I.

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Archduchess Elisabeth of Austria, Carlos I of Spain, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II, King Charles IX of France, Queen of France, St. Bartholomew Day Massacre

Archduchess Elisabeth of Austria (July 5, 1554 – January 22, 1592) was Queen of France from 1570 to 1574 as the wife of King Charles IX. A member of the House of Habsburg, she was the daughter of Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor, and Infanta Maria of Spain, daughter of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (King Carlos I of Spain) and Infanta Isabella of Portugal.

Archduchess Elisabeth of Austria was the fifth child and second daughter of her parents’ sixteen children, of whom eight survived infancy. During her childhood, she lived with her elder sister Archduchess Anna and younger brother Archduke Matthias in a pavilion in the gardens of the newly built Stallburg, part of the Hofburg Palace complex in Vienna.

Archduchess Elisabeth of Austria, Queen of France

With her flawless white skin, long blonde hair and perfect physique, she was considered one of the great beauties of the era. She was also regarded as demure, pious, and warmhearted but naive and intensely innocent because of her sheltered upbringing. Still, she was intellectually talented.

Very early on, around 1559, a match between Elisabeth and Charles, Duke of Orléans, was suggested. In 1562, the Maréchal de Vieilleville, a member of the French delegation sent to Vienna upon seeing the eight-year-old princess, exclaimed: “Your Majesty, this is the Queen of France!”

Although Vieilleville was not entitled to make an offer, Elisabeth’s grandfather Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor appeared interested: gifts were exchanged and contacts initiated between the two courts – but no one bothered to teach French to the young princess.

Queen of France

Only in 1569, after the failure of marriage plans with King Frederik II of Denmark and Sebastian of Portugal, the French offer was seriously considered. Catherine de’ Medici, mother of the Duke of Orléans and the power behind the throne, initially preferred Elisabeth’s elder sister Archduchess Anna; but the latter was already chosen as the new wife of her uncle King Felipe II of Spain.

Catherine de’ Medici finally agreed to the marriage with the younger Elisabeth, as France absolutely needed a Catholic marriage in order to combat the Protestant party, the Huguenots, as well as to cement an alliance between the House of Habsburg and the French Crown.

Elisabeth was first married by proxy on October 22, 1570 in the cathedral of Speyer. Her uncle, Archduke Ferdinand of Further Austria-Tyrol, was standing as proxy for Charles. After long celebrations, she left Austria on November 4 accompanied by high-ranking German dignitaries, including the Archbishop-Elector of Trier.

Because of bad weather upon her arrival in France, whereas constant rain had made roads impassable, the decision was taken to have the official wedding celebrated in the small border town of Mézières in Champagne. Before reaching her destination, Elisabeth stayed in Sedan, where her husband’s two younger brothers Henri, Duke of Anjou and François, Duke of Alençon greeted her.

Curious about his future wife, Charles dressed himself as a soldier and went to Sedan, where he mixed in the crowd of courtiers to observe her incognito while his brother Henri was showing her the architecture of the fortress of Sedan. Charles was reportedly delighted with the sight of her.

Charles IX, King of France

King Charles IX of France and Archduchess Elisabeth of Austria were formally married on November 26, 1570 in Mézières; Charles, Cardinal de Bourbon performed the ceremony. The occasion was celebrated with immense pomp and extravagance, despite the dire state of French finances. The new queen’s wedding dress was of a cloth of silver sprinkled with pearls, and her tiara was studded with pearls, emeralds, diamonds, sapphires and rubies.

Because of the difficult journey and the cold weather, at the beginning of 1571 Elisabeth fell ill. Since the wedding took place far away from Paris, it was only in the spring that the German-French alliance was celebrated once again with magnificent feasts in the capital. On March 25, 1571, Elisabeth was consecrated as Queen of France by the Archbishop of Reims at the Basilica of Saint-Denis. The new queen officially entered Paris four days later, on March 29. Then, she disappeared from public life.

Elisabeth was so delighted about her husband that she, to general amusement, did not hesitate to kiss him in front of others. However, Charles IX already had a long-term mistress, Marie Touchet, who famously quoted: “The German girl doesn’t scare me” (L’Allemande ne me fait pas peur); after a brief infatuation with his teenage bride, Charles IX soon returned to his mistress.

However, the royal couple had a warm and supportive relationship. Charles realised that the liberal ways of the French Court might shock Elisabeth and, along with his mother, made an effort to shield her from its excesses. In addition, Catherine de’ Medici made sure that her new daughter-in-law was kept out of the affairs of state.

Elisabeth spoke German, Spanish, Latin and Italian with fluency, but she learned French with difficulty; also, she felt lonely in the lively and dissolute French court; yet, one of her few friends was her sister-in-law, Margaret of Valois, who was not known for her virtue. Busbecq, her former tutor who accompanied her to France, was made Lord Chamberlain of her Household, and Madeleine of Savoy was appointed her Première dame d’honneur.

Elisabeth, shocked with the licentious ways of the French court, dedicated her time to embroidery work, reading and especially the practice of charitable and pious works. She continued to hear mass twice a day, and was appalled at how little respect was shown for religion by the supposedly Catholic courtiers.

Archduchess Elisabeth of Austria, Queen of France

Her one controversial act was to make a point of rejecting the attentions of Protestant courtiers and politicians by refusing the Huguenot leader, Gaspard II de Coligny the permission to kiss her hand when he paid homage to the royal family.

Despite her strong opposition to Protestantism in France, she was horrified when she received news of the Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre begun on 24 August 24, 1572, and which continued for several days afterwards, when thousands of French Protestants were slaughtered in Paris.

According to Brantôme, the following morning, shocked upon learning from someone in her entourage about the massacre, she asked if her husband knew. Told that he not only knew about it, but was its initiator, exclaimed: “Oh, my God! What is this? Who are these counselors who gave him such advice? My God, I ask of you to forgive him…”

Then she asked for her book of hours and began to pray. During those days, Elisabeth was given petitions to speak for the innocent, and she managed to assure a promise to spare the lives of the foreign (especially numerous German) Protestants. Quite advanced in pregnancy at the time, (she was seven months pregnant), she did not publicly rejoice at so many deaths – like other prominent Catholics did.

Two months later, on 27 October 1572, Elisabeth gave birth to her first and only child, a daughter, in the Louvre Palace. The child was named Marie Elisabeth after her grandmother, Empress Maria, and Queen Elizabeth I of England, who were her godmothers.

By the time of her birth, the health of Marie Elisabeth’s father was deteriorating rapidly, and after long suffering, in which Elisabeth rendered him silent support and prayed for his recovery, Charles IX died on 30 May 1574; Elisabeth wept “tears so tender, and so secret,” according to Brantôme, at his bedside.

November 15, 1498: Birth of Eleanor of Austria, Queen consort of Portugal and France

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Archduke Philipp of Austria, Carlos I of Spain, Eleanor of Austria, Elector Friedrich II of the Palatinate of the Rhine, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, House of Habsburg, Joanna of Castile, King François I of France, King Manuel I of Portugal, Queen of France, Queen of Portugal

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 subsequently became Queen consort of Portugal (1518–1521) and of France (1530–1547). She also held the Duchy of Touraine (1547–1558) in dower. She is called “Leonor” in Spanish and Portuguese and “Eléonore” or “Aliénor” in French.

Life

Eleanor was born in 1498 at Leuven, the eldest child of Archduke Philipp of Austria and Infanta Joanna of Castile, who would later become co-sovereigns of Castile. Her father is considered King Felipe I of Castile (Spain) and he was also the son of the reigning Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I and his deceased consort Mary of Burgundy, while her mother was the daughter of the Catholic Monarchs; namely Fernando II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile.

Eleanor’s siblings were Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (King Carlos I of Spain), Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I, Queen Isabella of Denmark (wife of King Christian II), Queen Mary of Hungary (wife of King Louis II), and Queen Catherine of Portugal (wife of King João III).

Eleanor was named after her paternal great-grandmother, Eleanor of Portugal, Holy Roman Empress. Eleanor of Portugal was the daughter of King Duarte of Portugal and his wife Eleanor of Aragon, she was the consort of Holy Roman Emperor Friedrich III and the mother of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I.

After the death of her father in September 1506 Eleanor was educated at her aunt’s court in Mechelen.

When she was a child, Eleanor’s relatives tried to marry her to the future King of England, Henry VIII, to whom she was betrothed. However, when Henry’s father died and he became King, Henry decided to marry Eleanor’s aunt, Catherine of Aragon, who was the widow of King Henry’s older brother, Arthur, Prince of Wales.

Her relatives also tried to marry her to the French Kings Louis XII or François I or to the Polish King Sigismund I, but nothing came of these plans. Eleanor was also proposed as a marriage candidate for Antoine, Duke of Lorraine, in 1510.

In 1517 Eleanor may have had a love affair with Friedrich II, Elector Palatine of the Rhine. Her brother King Carlos I, who had succeeded their elderly grandfather King Fernando as King of Spain the year before, once discovered her reading a love letter from Friedrich. Carlos forced Eleanor and Friedrich to swear in front of an attorney that they were not secretly married, after which he expelled Friedrich from court. She followed her brother to Spain in 1517.

Queen of Portugal

Eleanor married her uncle by marriage, King Manuel I of Portugal, after a proposed marriage with her cousin, the future King João III of Portugal, did not occur. Her brother Carlos arranged the marriage between Eleanor and the King Manuel I of Portugal to avoid the possibility of Portuguese assistance for any rebellion in Castile.

King Manuel I had previously been married to two of Eleanor’s maternal aunts, Isabella of Aragon and Maria of Aragon.

Manuel and Eleanor married on July 16, 1518. They had two children: the Infante Carlos (born February 18, 1520 – April 15, 1521) and the Infanta Maria (born June 8, 1521, and who was later one of the richest princesses of Europe). She became a widow on December 13, 1521, when Manuel died of the plague. As Queen Dowager of Portugal, Eleanor returned to the court of Carlos in Spain. Eleanor’s sister Catherine later married Eleanor’s stepson, King João III of Portugal.

In July 1523, Eleanor was engaged to Charles III, Duke of Bourbon, in an alliance between Charles and Bourbon against France, but the marriage never took place. In 1526, Eleanor was engaged to King François I of France during his captivity in Spain.

Queen of France

The Treaty of Cambrai (1529; called La Paz de las Damas – “The Ladies’ Peace”) paused the conflict between François and Charles. It included the stipulation that the previously-agreed marriage of Eleanor and François would take place.

Eleanor left Spain in the company of her future stepsons, who had been held hostage by her brother. The group met Francis at the border, and then departed for an official entrance to Bordeaux. Eleanor was crowned Queen of France in Saint-Denis on May 31, 1531. She was dressed in purple velvet at her coronation. She was married to François on July 4, 1530. They had no children.

Eleanor was ignored by François, who seldom performed his marital obligations and preferred his lover Anne de Pisseleu d’Heilly. At the official entrance of Eleanor to Paris, Francis displayed himself openly to the public in a window with Anne for two hours.

Queen Eleanor performed as the Queen of France at official occasions, such as the wedding between her stepson Henry and Catherine de’ Medici in 1533. She also performed charity and was praised for this. She also took her stepdaughters, Madeleine and Margaret, into her household to raise them further.

As queen, Eleanor had no political power; however, she served as a contact between France and her brother Emperor Charles V. Queen Eleanor was present at the peace negotiations between Francis and Charles in Aigues-Mortes in 1538. In 1544, she was given the task of entering peace negotiations with Charles and their sister Mary of Hungary. In November 1544, she visited Charles in Brussels.

Later life

As a queen dowager, Eleanor left France for Brussels in 1548. She witnessed the abdication of her brother Charles in October 1555 and left for Spain with him and their sister Mary in August 1556. She lived with her sister in Jarandilla de la Vera, where they often visited their brother, who retired to a monastery nearby. In 1558, she met her daughter Maria in Badajoz for the first time in 28 years. Eleanor died in 1558 on the return trip from Badajoz.

May 14, 1610: Assassination of Henri IV, King of France and Navarre. Part II.

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Assassination, Catherine-Henriette de Balzac d'Entragues, Edict of Nantes, Gabrielle d'Estrées, King Henri IV of France and Navarre, Lorenzo the Magnificent, Marie de' Medici, Princess Marguerite de Valois of France, Queen of France, Regent of France, Royal Mistress

In the last installment of this series we left of with the marriage of King Henri IV of France and Navarre to Marie de’ Medici (April 26, 1575 – July 3, 1642) after the annulment of his marriage to Princess Marguerite de Valois of France in 1599.

Marie de’ Medici

Marie de’ Medici was born at the Palazzo Pitti of Florence, the sixth daughter of Francesco I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and Archduchess Joanna of Austria, the youngest daughter of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor, and Anna of Bohemia and Hungary.

Marie was not a male-line descendant of Lorenzo the Magnificent but from Lorenzo the Elder, a branch of the Medici family sometimes referred to as the ‘cadet’ branch. She did descend from Lorenzo in the female line however, through his daughter Lucrezia de’ Medici. She was also a Habsburg through her mother, who was a direct descendant of Joanna of Castile and Felipe I of Castile, Archduke of Austria.

King Henri IV was almost 47 and Marie de’ Medici was 25 when they married in October of 1600. After the annulment dynastic considerations required him to take a second wife, his first spouse, Princess Marguerite de Valois, never produced children with Henri. The King chose Marie de’ Medici because HenrI “owed the bride’s father, Francesco de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, who had helped support his war effort, a whopping 1,174,000 écus and this was the only means Henry could find to pay back the debt….”

King Henri IV of France and Navarre.

The wedding ceremony was held in Florence, and was celebrated by four thousand guests with lavish entertainment, including examples of the newly invented musical genre of opera, such as Jacopo Peri’s Euridice. Henry did not attend the ceremony, and the two were therefore married by proxy. Marie brought as part of her dowry 600,000 crowns. Her eldest son, the future King Louis XIII, was born at Fontainebleau the following year.

The marriage was successful in producing children, but it was not a happy one. Even after the marriage Henri continued with his long succession of mistresses. Queen Marie feuded with Henri’s mistresses in language that shocked French courtiers. She quarreled mostly with her husband’s leading mistress, Catherine-Henriette de Balzac d’Entragues.

Catherine-Henriette de Balzac d’Entragues, Marquise de Verneuil (1579–1633) who became the favorite mistress of Henri IV of France after Gabrielle d’Estrées died: her sister Marie-Charlotte de Balzac d’Entragues was also a mistress of King Henri. Both sisters were the daughter of Charles Balzac d’Entragues and his wife Marie Touchet, who was formerly the sole mistress of King Charles IX of France.

Catherine-Henriette de Balzac d’Entragues

King Henri often promised he would marry following the death of his former “official mistress”, Gabrielle d’Estrées.

Gabrielle d’Estrées, Duchess of Beaufort and Verneuil, Marchioness of Monceaux (1573-1599) was a confidante and adviser and favorite mistress of Henri IV. She persuaded Henri to renounce Protestantism in favour of Catholicism in 1593. Later she urged French Catholics to accept the Edict of Nantes, which granted certain rights to the Protestants. It was legally impossible for the king to marry her, because he was already married to Princess Marguerite de Valois, but he acknowledged Gabrielle as the mother of three of his children, and as “the subject most worthy of our friendship”.

Gabrielle d’Estrées, Duchess of Beaufort and Verneuil, Marchioness of Monceaux

After Gabrielle d’Estrées death in 1599 King Henri failed to keep his promise and marry Catherine-Henriette de Balzac and instead married Marie de’ Medici that next year. That resulted in Catherine-Henriette de Balzac and Queen Marie in competition for the affections of the king; there was was constant bickering and political intrigues behind the scenes.

Catherine-Henriette de Balzac referred to Queen Marie as “the fat banker’s daughter”; Henri used Marie for breeding purposes, which was exactly as Henri II of France had treated his wife, Catherine de’ Medici. Although Henri could have easily banished his mistress, supporting his queen, he never did so. Queen Marie, in turn, showed great sympathy and support to her husband’s banished ex-wife Marguerite de Valois, prompting Henri to allow her back into the realm.

King Henri IV

During his reign, Henri IV worked through his faithful right-hand man, the minister Maximilien de Béthune, Duke of Sully, to regularize state finance, promote agriculture, drain swamps, undertake public works, and encourage education. He established the Collège Royal Henri-le-Grand in La Flèche (today the Prytanée Militaire de la Flèche). He and Sully protected forests from further devastation, built a system of tree-lined highways, and constructed bridges and canals. He had a 1200-metre canal built in the park at the Château Fontainebleau (which may be fished today) and ordered the planting of pines, elms, and fruit trees.

The King restored Paris as a great city, with the Pont Neuf, which still stands today, constructed over the river Seine to connect the Right and Left Banks of the city. Henri IV also had the Place Royale built (since 1800 known as Place des Vosges), and added the Grande Galerie to the Louvre Palace. More than 400 metres long and thirty-five metres wide, this huge addition was built along the bank of the Seine River.

At the time it was the longest edifice of its kind in the world. King Henri IV, a promoter of the arts by all classes of people, invited hundreds of artists and craftsmen to live and work on the building’s lower floors. This tradition continued for another two hundred years, until Emperor Napoleon I banned it. The art and architecture of his reign have become known as the “Henri IV style” since that time.

During the reign of Henri IV, rivalry continued among France, the Habsburg rulers of Spain, and the Holy Roman Empire for the mastery of Western Europe. The conflict was not resolved until after the Thirty Years’ War.

HenrI IV proved to be a man of vision and courage. Instead of waging costly wars to suppress opposing nobles, Henri simply paid them off. As king, he adopted policies and undertook projects to improve the lives of all subjects, which made him one of the country’s most popular rulers ever. Henri is said to have originated the oft-repeated phrase “a chicken in every pot”.

This statement epitomises the peace and relative prosperity which Henri IV brought to France after decades of religious war, and demonstrates how well he understood the plight of the French worker and peasant farmer. This real concern for the living conditions of the “lowly” population—who in the final analysis provided the economic basis for the power of the king and the great nobles—was perhaps without parallel among the kings of France. Following his death Henry would be remembered fondly by most of the population.

Assassination

Henri was the subject of numerous attempts on his life, including one by Pierre Barrière in August 1593 and Jean Châtel in December 1594.

Despite being married to the king since 1600 Queen Marie never had a coronation. This was rectified when Marie was crowned Queen of France on May 13, 1610, a day before her husband’s death.

Assassination of King Henri IV

King Henri IV was assassinated in Paris on May 14, 1610 by a Catholic fanatic, François Ravaillac, who stabbed him in the Rue de la Ferronnerie. Henri IV’s coach was stopped by traffic congestion associated with the celebrations of Queen’s coronation, as depicted in the engraving by Gaspar Bouttats. Hercule de Rohan, duc de Montbazon, was with him when he was killed; Montbazon was wounded, but survived. Henri IV was buried at the Saint Denis Basilica.

Queen Marie de’ Medici, Regent of France.

Hours after Henri IV’s assassination, Queen Marie was confirmed as Regent by the Parliament of Paris for her young son, the new nine-year-old King Louis XIII. Queen Marie would serve as Regent until 1617. Queen Marie immediately banished Henry’s mistress, Catherine Henriette de Balzac, from the court.

Anne of Brittany: Part I

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

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

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

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

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

Heiress of Brittany

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

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

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

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

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