Anne of Brittany: Duchess, Queen and icon (1477-1514)
What is more incredible that being crowned Queen? Being crowned Queen twice! Anne of Brittany is on that very rarified list, having been crowned Queen twice (along with another famous French woman, Eleanor of Aquitaine).
But that is not the reason that Anne of Brittany is today still remembered as one of the leading figures in French history. Now, Anne wasn’t just a pretty face with a penchant for fancy headwear. She was a shrewd diplomat who knew how to wheel and deal.
At a time when women had little power on their own, Anne was known for her fortitude in trying to carve out the destiny of Bretagne (as the region of Brittany is called in French).
She lost both parents at a young age, and at the same time became a rich prize on the marriage mart. And as the Duchess of the logistically important region of Brittany, she and her people were stuck between France and England.
And she would go to great lengths to protect the Bretons. With a few not-so-subtle nudges from neighboring powers, she agreed to swap her comfy duchess coronet for the glitteringly thorny French crown, becoming the Queen of France twice.
But Anne didn’t just rule, she dazzled the crowd with her intelligence. With an aptitude for admin, culture and diplomacy, Bretons today still look up to her as the ultimate inspiration.
So let’s find out a few facts about Anne’s history, personal life, family and more, shall we? Allons-y!
| Quick facts | |
|---|---|
| Birth: | 25 January 1477 in Nantes, Duchy of Brittany |
| Death: | 9 January 1514 at the age of 36 in Blois, France |
| Parents and siblings: | Only child and heir of the Duke and Duchess of Brittany to survive to adulthood. |
| Reign: | Duchess of Brittany (9 Sept 1488 – 9 Jan 1514) Queen of France (6 Dec 1491 – 7 April 1498) & (8 Jan 1499 – 9 Jan 1514) |
| Marriage and kids: | – Maximilian I, King of Germany (1490 – annulled 1492) – Charles VIII, King of France (1491-1498) – Louis XII, King of France (1499-1514), 2 daughters including future Queen Claude of France |
| Famous for: | Marrying two Kings of France, to become twice Queen Consort of France |
She was born in 1477.
Anne of Brittany was born on 26 January 1477 in the city of Nantes, as the eldest daughter of Duke François II of Bretagne and his second wife Margaret of Foix, Infanta of Navarre.
Her father had no children surviving from his first marriage. Anne would later have a sister named Isabelle, who was four years younger. Unfortunately, Anne’s mother died when she and her sister were young, leaving them to be raised by their father.
She was engaged several times.
As Anne’s father the Duke of Brittany had no male heirs, he tried to make Anne his heiress. As such she and her lands were so coveted, that she was promptly betrothed to:
- Edward, Prince of Wales and heir to the English throne (one of the two princes in the tower presumably killed by their uncle English King Richard III)
- Maximilian, King of the Romans and Archduke of Austria.
- Alain I of Albret, a French count and great-grandson of Duke John V of Brittany
- Louis, Duke of Orléans, cousin of French King Charles VIII.
- John IV of Chalon-Arlay, Prince of Orange (Netherlands)
- Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham (England)
Her father died and made her promise to protect Brittany.
In 1488, Duke Francis II of Brittany was defeated at the Battle of Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier, ending the Mad War (la Guerre Folle) between Brittany and France.
After his defeat, he was forced to accept clauses stipulating that his daughters were not to marry without the approval of the King of France.
However, a few months later the Duke would fall off his horse. On his deathbed, the Duke made his 11-year-old daughter Anne promise never to consent to the subjugation of the Duchy to the Kingdom of France.
She was crowned Duchess of Brittany.
At the time, the law on inheritance was not clear so it took a while for her to be crowned Duchess of Brittany.
Finally on 10 February 1489, Anne was crowned Duchess of Brittany in Rennes at the age of 13-years-old. To try to preserve the duchy, her advisors arranged Anne’s marriage to Maximilian I King of Gernmany by proxy in December 1490.
Charles VIII of France laid siege to Rennes to force her to marry him.
Anne of Brittany didn’t get to fulfil her marriage to Maximillian, fortunately or unfortunately, because King Charles VIII of France insisted that she marry him instead.
Charles VIII brought his army to Brittany and forced the duchess to renounce her marriage to Maximillian.
In order to save the city of Rennes which had been under siege for two months, Anne of Brittany acquiesced and married Charles VIII of France on 6 December 1491.
And thus the Duchy of Bretagne became under the rule of the King of France. During this time, Anne’s sister Isabelle died, leaving Anne more isolated than ever.
She married the King Charles VIII of France to save her duchy.
The official marriage between Anne and King Charles VIII of France was celebrated at Château de Langeais on 6 December 1491. Duchess Anne of Brittany was now the Queen of France.
Technically the marriage was illegal until Pope Innocent VIII could annul the proxy marriage to Maximillian. In exchange for a substantial monetary concessions, of course.
Their wedding made Brittany part of France.
Anne was now Queen of France at the age of 14. The marriage also brought the region of Brittany fully under French control, against the English.
Although the Hundred Years’ War had mostly ended in 1453, tensions were still high between the two countries. The Peace of Étaples was signed a year after the wedding, on 3 November 1492, in the town of Étaples between Charles VIII of France and King Henry VII of England.
The French King Charles VIII agreed to end his support for the Yorkist Pretender Perkin Warbeck, in return for being recognised as ruler of the Duchy of Brittany.
Her husband died unexpectedly at the age of 27.
Her husband King Charles VIII would not last long however, dying at the age of 27 after accidentally striking his head on a door at the Château d’Amboise.
Their son Charles Orlando had already died at the age of 3, and when the king died in 1498, the throne went to his cousin, King Louis XII.
She had to marry the new King Louis XII.
The new King, Louis XII, was already married to Joan, Anne’s sister-in-law, the sister to Charles VIII. However, Louis XII proclaimed Joan was sickly and had a hunched back and asked for an annulment.
Following an agreement made to secure the annexation of the Duchy of Brittany by France, Anne was required to try to maintain the peace between Brittany and France.
On 19 August 1498, Anne agreed to marry Louis XII if he obtained an annulment from Joan within a year. Louis XII managed to get the annulment and Anne married the new king in 1499, making her twice the Queen of France. (The spurned Joan went on to become a saint of France.)
Anne’s marriage contract stated that she personally retained rights to the duchy. The contract stated that it should be the couple’s second child, son or daughter who would be Anne’s own heir, thus keeping the duchy separate from the throne of France. (Sadly, the clause would not be respected in the future.)
Her new husband Louis XII loved her very much.
Anne was now 22-years old and her new husband was 15 years older than her. Historical reports suggest that Anne’s new husband Louis XII was deeply in love with his wife, although it is not clear that she reciprocated the feeling.
Louis XII let her advocate for Brittany, for which she fiercely maintained much independence.
She had two daughters, Claude and Renée.
Anne and Louis XII had 2 daughters together, Claude and Renée, who were both born in Château Royale de Blois, in Louis’s stronghold of Blois in the Loire Valley.
However, neither could succeed to the French throne due to the Salic Law which said women could not inherit. Nevertheless, the eldest Claude was proclaimed the Duchess of Brittany, and was a much sought after heiress herself.
(Her younger daughter Renée would eventually marry the Duke of Ferrera, who was the son of the infamous Lucrezia Borgia.)
Brittany was governed as a separate country because of Anne.
Anne de Bretagne died in 1514 at the age of 36 of a kidney-stone attack, without a male heir. Her husband Louis XII would briefly marry Mary Tudor, the sister of Henry VIII of England, although he too would die within a year at the age of 52.
Her daughter Claude became Queen of France.
The French throne and the Duchy of Brittany was inherited by a cousin, King François I who married to Anne’s daughter, Claude four months after Anne’s death. He formally united the two crowns was in 1532.
He did however grant several privileges to Brittany, such as exemption from a tax on salt. Brittany and France were governed as separate countries but under the same crown, so Breton aristocrats in the French royal court were classed as Princes étrangers (foreign princes).
(In 1515, Anne Boleyn stayed as a member of Claude’s household. Claude was only 14-years-old at the time of her marriage, and Anne Boleyn was around the same age.)
She had pushed for the Parliament of Brittany to keep its governing status.
The Parliament of Brittany had been established in 1485 by Duke François II of Brittany, the Anne de Bretagne’s father, providing a direct link to the fight for independence.
The Kings of France and their descendants reluctantly let Bretagne continue to maintain its own parliament, under the agreement insisted upon Anne.
Throughout her life Anne de Bretagne fought for the rights of Bretons. To this day the region of Brittany considers itself a separate entity, paying her tribute.
Her legacy still inspires local Bretons.
Brittany’s special independent status came to an end with the French Revolution and the storming of the Bastille in 1789.
The Bretagne Parliament was dissolved by the French National Assembly but famously never ratified by the Parliament itself. The Parliament of Brittany met on the same day for the final time to declare the decision “null and void forever”.
Throughout her lifetime and after, Anne of Brittany inspired an independence movement in Brittany has been ongoing at low boil.
The region still maintains its own language, culture, and flag which is inspired by the flag that Anne was known to carry (as in the featured image at the top).
¹ Featured Image: Courtesy of Wikipedia