I remember how upset I was when our guide didn’t say a word about Duchess Anne during the entire trip to Brittany.
Actually, I already wrote about Anna here
I don’t know if it’s worth repeating) Perhaps I’ll bring some illustrations.
To put it very briefly, Anna was left without a father early on and, as the heiress of the dukedom, was simply bait for all possible suitors. She married Charles VIII of France under military pressure. The marriage as a whole turned out to be happy, but Anna always dreamed of independence for her native duchy. The royal couple had no children, and Charles died suddenly, hitting his forehead on a low door frame. According to the marriage contract, if the king died without leaving an heir, Anna agreed to marry his successor. Louis d'Orléans, Anne's longtime fiancé, became his successor. Louis recognized Anna as the Duchess of Brittany, recognizing her right to rule the duchy. But the twice-queen of France was never able to achieve independence for her native Brittany; after Anna’s death, the duchy passed to the French crown.

This is Anna. According to the testimony of her contemporaries, the girl was very pretty; her beauty was not spoiled even by a slight limp, which the duchess hid with the help of special shoes.

Tri Yann Anne de Bretagn

Muzicons.com

Charles VIII. In the picture he looks, perhaps, even prettier than Louis of Orleans. But according to the description of contemporaries, he had a huge fleshy nose and faded eyes. By the way, noses are an outstanding theme for almost all French kings)) Even the Sun King had a rather noble nose)

Anne of Brittany cries for her absent husband during the Italian Wars. Manuscript of “Messages to the King” (XVI century). Charles, going to Italy for the war, left as regent not his young wife, as was customary, but his sister Anna de Beaujeu, who had previously successfully handled the role of regent. And Anna, who nevertheless became attached to her husband, grieved in his absence.

Anne and Charles had no children, but the queen experienced many pregnancies. Alas, none of the babies survived.

Medal for marriage to Louis XII 1499

Anne of Brittany and Louis XII

Less than a year after the new wedding, Anne gave birth to Princess Claude, and a little later Princess Rene.

Anne of Brittany with her daughter Princess Claude.

Trying to achieve the independence of Brittany, Anna wanted to marry her daughter to the grandson of her former “husband by proxy” Maximilian of Austria, but her husband Louis opposed this marriage, fearing for the future of France. Claude was engaged to the king's cousin, Francis of Angoulême, the future king Francis I. Anna was categorically against this marriage and delayed it as best she could; the princess remained unmarried until the end of her life. But after Claude still married Francis, and along with her hand, Brittany went to France forever.

Queen Anne died in 1513 without providing the king with a male heir. Anna's body was buried on February 16 in the traditional tomb of the Basilica of Saint-Denis for the burial of kings and queens of France, but according to her will, the heart was taken to her native Nantes in a gold reliquary decorated with enamel and placed on March 19, 1514 in the Carmelite crypt next to the grave of her parents . One of the poetic inscriptions on the reliquary reads:

"In that small vessel of pure gold rests the greatest heart, which no lady in the world has ever had; Her name was Anne, twice queen in France, Duchess of the Bretons, regal and autocratic.”

Anna accepts the manuscript “On Famous Women” she ordered from Antoine Dufour. Around 1508

According to the most established point of view in historiography, Anne was an intelligent, educated and politically sophisticated woman who spent most of her time governing Brittany. WITH adolescence Until the end of her short life, she did everything to ensure that her country remained as independent as possible from the French crown, and not without success, but circumstances ultimately turned against her.
Anna was a patron of the arts and loved music. A passionate tapestry collector, she commissioned so-called “unicorn tapestries” for her wedding to Louis XII. She commissioned a luxuriously illuminated Book of Hours from Anne of Brittany and established an institute of ladies-in-waiting.
Anna was interested in the history of her country and during her life she commissioned three historical descriptions of Brittany.
Anna had a collection of precious and semi-precious stones; she had a habit of giving visitors a random stone.

Anna of Breton lived only 36 years, but managed to become the most popular historical figure in his homeland. As the hereditary ruler of Brittany, she stubbornly defended the independence of her country, pursued an independent policy, and twice married French kings. Anne of Brittany was known as an educated and experienced woman in government affairs, and a patron of the arts and music. According to legend, it was she who started the tradition for brides to wear dresses at weddings. white. Anne of Brittany is called the former residence of the dukes. This is due to the deep mark that her life left on history.

Early years and education

Anna was born in 1477 in the city of Nantes, her father was Duke Francis II of Brittany. There were no male heirs in the family. The younger sister Isabella died before she came of age. Anna was prepared from childhood for the role of the full-fledged ruler of the duchy. Her tutors taught her to speak, read and write in French and Latin.

When Anna was 12 years old, her father and mother were no longer alive. She became an orphan and the only heir. At that time, France sought to make Brittany its vassal. According to legend, on her deathbed, her father forced Anna to promise to preserve the independence of the duchy.

Heiress of Brittany

Since he was the last man in the family and left no sons behind, there was a threat of a dynastic crisis. In that era, there was no clear order of succession to the throne, but the so-called Salic law was partially in effect. In accordance with it, power could pass to a woman if the male line was completely suppressed. During his lifetime, Francis II forced the aristocratic class to recognize Anne of Brittany as the future duchess.

Engagement and first marriage

The choice of a contender for the hand and heart of the heir to the throne had enormous political and diplomatic significance. For Duke Francis II, the priority was to save Brittany from foreign rule. The threat of annexation came from France, and he sought strong allies to help counter its intentions. The most logical solution in such a situation was rapprochement with England. Based on these considerations, Anna, at the age of 4, was officially promised as a wife to the equally young Prince of Wales, Edward. But the fate of the potential spouse turned out to be sad: he went missing. Against the backdrop of the flaring Breton-French war, it was urgent to find a new candidate. The choice fell on the King of Germany, Maximilian of Habsburg. An absentee marriage was concluded between him and 14-year-old Anna.

Queen

France responded to this step with military force. The marriage of Anna and the King of Germany ruined plans for the annexation of Brittany. The French army besieged the city of Rennes, where the young duchess was located. King Maximilian was unable to come to the rescue, and the Bretons capitulated.

The winners demanded that Anna dissolve her marriage in absentia and become the wife of the French king Charles VIII. She was forced to agree and went to the castle of Lange, chosen for the wedding. The marriage was concluded, and its legality was confirmed by the Pope. According to the treaty, in the event of the death of Charles VIII, Anne was to marry his successor. This circumstance made absorption inevitable. Anna was crowned and anointed, but her husband did not allow her participation in politics and government. In addition, he forbade the new queen to bear the title of Duchess of Brittany.

Second marriage

Charles VIII died suddenly in 1498 in an accident. Anne of Brittany had seven pregnancies with the king, but each time either a miscarriage occurred or the child died in infancy. Due to the lack of heirs, the throne passed to Duke Louis of Orleans. According to the terms of the agreement, Anna was to become his wife. The difficulty was that the new king, Louis XII, was already married. To obtain a divorce, permission from the Pope was required. Waiting for the pontiff's sanction took several months, which Anne used to return to Brittany and restore her direct power over the duchy. The marriage to Louis took place in 1499. During the wedding ceremonies, Anna wore a white dress, which medieval Europe was considered mourning. Subsequently, this bride's outfit became a universal tradition.

Political struggle

As Queen of France, Anne of Brittany had no real power through her marriage to Charles VIII. Having received the crown for the second time, she intended to achieve her independence in decision-making. In addition, Anna did not abandon the hope of ridding Brittany from French rule. Louis XII differed from Charles in that he was a flexible politician, capable of making compromises. He allowed Anne to rule Brittany directly and recognized her title as duchess. However, this did not mean the end of the country's vassalage to France.

Anne's marriage to Louis produced two daughters, Claude and Rene. Apart from them, the Duchess had no surviving children. Anna tried to arrange the future marriage of her eldest daughter with one of the Habsburgs to weaken French power over Brittany, but she met strong opposition from her husband.

Death and memory of descendants

The queen died in 1514 from kidney stones. Numerous pregnancies and miscarriages exhausted her body. The body of Anne of Brittany was buried with extraordinary honors in the royal tomb of the Basilica of Saint-Denis. Fulfilling the last will of the deceased, her heart in a golden vessel was delivered to her hometown of Nantes. The biography of Anne of Brittany aroused equal admiration among fighters for the independence of the duchy and supporters of an undivided France. For the former, it became a symbol of the desire for independence, for the latter - the embodiment of a peaceful union.

On January 9, 1514, Anne of Brittany, twice Queen of France, failed Holy Roman Empress, and last independent Duchess of Brittany, died.
Brittany (in ancient times Armorica) - a vast peninsula in western France, extending far into the Atlantic, right next to Britain - was in the 5th century AD. inhabited by the inhabitants of the latter - Celtic-speaking Britons, forced out of their island by newcomers from the north of Europe - the Germanic tribes of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes. In 470, the British leader Riotim supported Emperor Anthemius against the Visigoths at the Battle of Berry. Shortly before 511, the king of the Dumnonii tribe arrives in Brittany. Some of the Britons even ended up in Galicia. Among the churches of the Kingdom of the Sueves, the see of the Britons was mentioned. The Britons migrated mainly to Brittany from southern England. But the first Breton power appeared in Gaul no earlier than the end of the 6th century, when the kingdom of Bro Werec was founded. The true founder of the Breton statehood was Nominoe - in the middle. In the 9th century, in the fight against the Carolingians, he united the Breton Peninsula under his rule. In sources he is called the title “Dux” (i.e. “duke”), or even “Rex”, i.e. "king"! On this basis, the Breton nobility subsequently reminded their French overlords of the royal past of their country.

Subsequently, Brittany became an ordinary Western European medieval feudal state, the rulers of which, as a rule, recognized themselves as vassals of the French kings, contenting themselves with the ducal title. True, from the beginning of the 12th century, they, like other feudal lords of the west of modern France, had an alternative center of gravity - the Kingdom of England, which was ruled first by the Norman dukes, and then by the French counts de Anjou, known as the Plantagenets, who succeeded them. The rivalry between the kings of Paris and London for influence in the lands of what is now France lasted almost four centuries (from the 12th to the 15th centuries), with varying success, and the feudal lords of France caught a lot of fish in its troubled waters. Brittany in this sense was of strategic importance - the territory of Brittany cuts the French coastline in half, and without mastering it the French could hardly threaten England (and the establishment of Breton control over Brittany brought French ports right under the British). Conversely, with Brittany as an ally, the English kings could go straight to the center of the French kingdom.
It is no wonder that Brittany became the scene of numerous Anglo-French wars over and over again. Including the Hundred Years - one of the important moments of this war is connected with Brittany - the War of the Breton Succession. In this war for the empty throne of the Breton dukes, supporters of the French-backed Counts of Blois and the English-backed Counts of Montfort came together. The last ones won. The first duke from this dynasty, Jean V, managed to establish a more or less stable, independent regime in the duchy, however, from the beginning of the 15th century. ongoing Hundred Years' War and feudal unrest again undermines the strength of Brittany. By the way, this period is known for such natives of Brittany as Arthur de Richemont, the constable (commander-in-chief) of France, who later became the Duke of Brittany, and his comrade-in-arms, Marshal Gilles de Retz, convicted of witchcraft and various cruel atrocities...
The Hundred Years' War, as is known, ended in mid. XV century with the defeat of the British and their departure from the continent. This led to a sharp strengthening of royal power in France - the French kings quite quickly and quite easily crushed those large feudal lords of the kingdom who tried to resist them, like the famous Charles the Bold and his supporters, and established the beginnings of future French absolutism.
The position of the Duchy of Breton turned out to be very precarious, and the prospects for maintaining independence were uncertain. The Parisian overlords, as already said, sharply strengthened, the centuries-old possible ally against them - the Kingdom of England - at that time was engulfed in the War of the Scarlet and White Roses, and its kings had no time for the continent.

It was under such conditions that the aforementioned Anna, who was then 12 years old, inherited the duchy in 1488. In search of a foreign ally and patron, the advisers of the young duchess turned their gaze to another powerful foreign ruler - the Archduke of Austria and the “Roman King” (this was the title of the actual heir of the Holy Roman Empire) Maximilian of Habsburg, the future Emperor Maximilian I. The fact is that for 10 years before this, the Archduke had already married a rich French heiress - the daughter of the mentioned Charles the Bold, Mary of Burgundy, from whom he inherited the lands of present-day Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, etc., which were subject to her late father. It was not far from Brittany from there, so if her young duchess did the same as her Brugundian “colleague”, i.e. marries Maximilian, the duchy will receive a monarch who is distant, and therefore not too meddling in his affairs, but at the same time a powerful patron.
No sooner said than done: already on December 19, 1490, a marriage took place in Rennes between the 14-year-old duchess and the 31-year-old Archduke. True, the newlywed did not personally come to the wedding, but sent his ambassador extraordinary there. The latter fully coped with the responsibilities of the bridegroom - having exposed his leg, he put it under the blanket with which the bride was covered, and thus the spouses seemed to have entered into a marital relationship.
The French, however, having discovered that the duchy was slipping away from under their noses, reacted with lightning speed - an expeditionary force was sent to Brittany in the spring of 1491, the duchess's troops were defeated, and she herself was besieged in her capital Rennes. Distant Maximilian decided that his young wife and her dukedom were not the prizes for which it would be worth getting involved in a war with France, and did not come to help. Under these conditions, the French king Charles VIII made Duchess Anna what is called “an offer that cannot be refused” - Anna’s marriage with Maximilian will be declared invalid (in the end, the couple did not even see each other, and the ambassador’s foot under the duchess’s blanket is just a laugh!) , after which she marries Karl himself. Thus she becomes the French queen, and her dukedom is tied to the throne of St. Louis. Anna had no choice but to agree, and already on December 6, 1491. Her marriage to Karl took place - this time with the direct participation of her husband.
Anne's husbands, French kings Charles VIII and Louis XII
However, the duchess did not find happiness in this marriage either - not only did her husband infringe on the independence of her native duchy in every possible way, but he also did not produce viable offspring; all of his and Anna’s children died in infancy. So when the king died in 1498 (having hit his head on the doorframe, his head was clearly not strong point monarch), Anna was left without heirs, but with her dukedom. She tried to manage it on her own, but the French monarchs did not want to let him out of their hands. A distant relative and heir of the late Charles, Duke Louis of Orleans, who took the French throne under the name of Louis XII, again offered his hand and heart to the Queen Duchess. True, he was already married, but this did not bother him - the Pope would soon divorce him. Anna agreed on the condition that she retained the rights of the sovereign Duchess of Brittany, and her husband would not interfere in the internal affairs of the duchy. That’s what they decided, the king’s divorce and her marriage to Anna took place, she thus became the queen of France for the second time, remaining the sovereign duchess of Brittany. The Bretons retained the right to pay only taxes approved by the States of Brittany (the estate-representative body of the duchy), to be judged only by the Breton court, etc. Brittany retained its own “independent” governing bodies.
The couple lived together for almost 15 years. True, in this marriage there were no male children (according to the French tradition, the so-called Salic law, the throne of St. Louis could only be inherited by men), only daughters, the eldest of whom, Claudia, or in French Claude, was supposed to inherit from his mother the Duchy of Breton, which was thus again torn away from the French throne. At the same time, Anna tried to arrange for her daughter what she herself had lost at one time - a marriage with the Habsburg heir, the grandson of her under-wife Maximilian Charles (also the future Holy Roman Emperor - Charles V). However, Anna's husband came out sharply against it - at that time there was a sluggish war with the empire in Italy - and achieved the betrothal of little Claude to his cousin, Count Francois of Angoulême, whom he intended to make heir to the throne.
This marriage took place after Anna’s death, in 1514. Soon Louis will also die, after which the newly-made husband Claude, Count Francois will become the new French king, known as Francis I. This will be, if not the most successful, then at least one of the most active French monarchs. The situation in which the Duchy of Breton was tied by the strings of matrimonial agreements did not suit him. In 1532, with the help of a military demonstration, he obtained the so-called from the States of Brittany. The Act of Vannes, by which Brittany was finally and inextricably annexed to the Kingdom of France.
After Claude's death, the title of the Duchy of Breton was inherited by her and Francis' eldest son, also Francis. After his death in 1536, the title passed to his younger brother Henri, and when he became King Henry II of France in 1547, it became part of the title of French kings. Brittany would become a French province, and as such would enjoy varying degrees of internal independence for the next two and a half centuries. With the beginning of the Great French Revolution, it, like other French provinces, will be abolished in 1790 and divided into departments.

For the next 200 years, Brittany will be listed in reference books as a “historical region” - they say that it remains in tradition and people’s memory, but does not exist as an independent unit. However, in the 2nd half of the 20th century. In the course of the policy of gradual decentralization and regionalization pursued in France, Brittany is formalized as one of the regions of France.

Coronation November 18, Saint Denis Predecessor Jeanne of France Successor Mary Tudor Religion Roman Catholic Church Birth The 25th of January(1477-01-25 )
Castle of the Dukes of Breton, Nantes Death January 9(1514-01-09 ) (36 years)
Blois Burial place Abbey of Saint Denis Genus House of Dreux Father Francis II Mother Margarita Foix Spouse Children From 2nd marriage:
sons: Karl-Orlan, Karl, Francois
daughter: Anna
From 3rd marriage:
daughters: Claude French, Rene French Anna of Breton at Wikimedia Commons

Beginning of the biography

Duchess of Brittany

Memorial plaque in Rennes at the site of the absentee marriage of Anna and Maximilian

Under these conditions, Anna’s advisers decided to do the same as Charles the Bold’s daughter Maria of Burgundy did in the year of her birth - urgently find an independent groom and force the conclusion of a marriage agreement with him. Moreover, the same candidate was chosen - the king of Germany and the future Archduke Maximilian of Habsburg. On October 27, the Anglo-Breton-Imperial Union concluded in 1481 was confirmed, and on December 19, 1490, representatives of Maximilian and Anna entered into an absentee marriage in Rennes, after which Anna, as the wife of the heir to the throne of the Holy Roman Empire, began to bear the title of Queen of the Romans. The French perceived this marriage as a violation of the Treaty of Verges (since the king did not sanction the choice of the groom), and in addition, as an openly unfriendly act - the empire at that time was hostile to France. Hope for Habsburg help was ill-timed. If 13 years ago Maximilian was able to arrive in Ghent, personally marry Maria and occupy her possessions, now the empire was engaged in heavy fighting in Hungary, and the Spaniards who had entered into an alliance with it were preparing for the liberation of Granada. Both Castile and England of Henry VII nevertheless sent small detachments to help the duchess, but none of them wanted to interfere in a serious war with their neighbor. In the spring of 1491, after a series of victories, the troops of Charles VIII and his commander La Tremouille besieged Rennes, where the 14-year-old ruler of Brittany, who had just married in absentia, was staying; they already controlled the rest of the territory of the duchy. This time, King Charles personally sought her hand.

Maximilian did not have time to come to his wife’s aid; after a heavy siege, exhausted Rennes surrendered. His mistress also agreed to dissolve the absentee marriage and become the French queen. On November 15, 1491, peace was concluded, Anna was engaged to Charles in the chapel of the Jacobin Order in Rennes and, accompanied by the army of the duchy (as a sign that she was not traveling as a captive, but as an empress of her own free will), went to the castle of Langeais, where her wedding to the king was about to take place. The Austrian ambassadors protested, arguing that the marriage was contrary to church law, that Anna was already married to Maximilian, and reminded Charles that he was already engaged - ironically, to Maximilian's daughter, Margaret of Austria. Despite this, on December 6, 1491, the marriage of Anne and Charles VIII took place in Langeais. Already on February 15, 1492, the legality of this marriage was confirmed by Pope Innocent VIII.

The marriage contract provided that the surviving spouse retained power in Brittany. If Charles VIII died without leaving sons, then Anna had to marry his successor. This treaty effectively made the annexation of Brittany by France inevitable.

Queen of France

Going to Langeais to marry Karl, Anna defiantly took two beds with her from Rennes, as a sign that she did not intend to (always) sleep with the Frenchman who forcibly took her as his wife (apparently, this was also a political demonstration for Maximilian). Over time, however, Anna became very attached to her husband (see the notes of Zaccaria Contarini [ Who?]). On February 8, 1492, Anne was anointed and crowned queen consort at Saint-Denis, and her husband forbade her to bear the hereditary ducal title of Brittany, claiming it in his own right. On December 9, 1493, the king abolished the Chancellery of Brittany, introducing direct rule in the duchy. Going to the Italian Wars, Charles made regent not his wife, as was usually done, but his sister Anna de Beaujeu, which could be considered a humiliation (however, Anna de Beaujeu had already successfully coped with the regency before, while the queen was still very Yuna). Anna lived almost the entire reign of Charles in castles in Amboise, Loches or Plessis or (when Charles was in Italy) in the south - Lyon, Grenoble or Moulins. After Charles took Naples, Anne nominally became queen of Naples and Jerusalem for the first time. However, since Charles, having been crowned, was forced to hastily return to France, and also because the main political forces of the Apennine Peninsula united against him in the Italian League, the royal status in relation to Naples was not secured. The second time she actually received this title was thanks to Louis XII, when he, together with Ferdinand of Aragon, captured this kingdom in the period from 1503.

Anna had seven pregnancies with Karl in seven years; Only four children were born alive, none of whom survived early childhood. The eldest, Dauphin Karl Orland (October 11, 1492 - December 16, 1495), a healthy and intelligent child, died at the age of 3 from measles, causing inconsolable grief to his parents who adored him; this misfortune brought them closer. Their subsequent children - Charles Jr., Francis and Anna - did not live even a month. After this, Anna publicly prayed for a new son. From a rosy-cheeked, healthy girl, she turned towards the end of her marriage with Karl into a pale and emaciated woman.

New king, new groom

If Anna had outlived Louis, the further history of Brittany could have turned out differently - but the elderly “Father of the People”, in the nearly year that was allotted to him after the death of his wife, managed to make decisions that finally determined the fate of her state. According to Anne's will, her second daughter Renee was to become the heiress of Brittany. Louis ignored the will, declared Claude the Duchess of Brittany and married her to Francis, and in the fall of the same 1514 he himself married for the third time - to the younger sister of Henry VIII, Mary Tudor, but did not live with her long. On January 1, 1515, Louis XII died and the Duke of Angoulême succeeded him as Francis I. After Claude's death, her young son (the Dauphin Francis III) became the nominal duke, and after his death at the age of 18 in 1536, his younger brother Henry. After the death of Francis I in 1547, Henry became king of France as Henry II; from that time on, the Duchy of Breton ceased its formal independence.

Personality

Anna accepts the manuscript “On Famous Women” she ordered from Antoine Dufour. Around 1508

According to the most established point of view in historiography, Anne was an intelligent, educated and politically sophisticated woman who spent most of her time governing Brittany. From adolescence until the end of her short life, she did everything to ensure that her country remained as independent as possible from the French crown, and not without success, but circumstances ultimately turned against her.

Anna was a patron of the arts and loved music. A passionate tapestry collector, she commissioned so-called “unicorn tapestries” for her wedding to Louis XII. She commissioned a lavishly illuminated Book of Hours for Anne of Brittany and established an institute of ladies-in-waiting ( demoiselles d'honneur).

Anna was interested in the history of her country and during her life she commissioned three historical descriptions of Brittany:

• The first “History of Brittany” was commissioned in 1498 to Pierre le Beau, the presentation in it goes from Conan Meriadec to Anne’s father Francis II. The book was published in 1505.
• the second was commissioned from Alain Bouchard, adviser to Francis II of Breton and lawyer of the Parisian parliament. Finished and published in the year of Anna’s death, under Francis I of France it was reprinted four more times;
• the third was ordered in 1512 to Jean Lemaire de Belge, but remained unpublished.

From June to the end of September 1506, the queen made a traditional pilgrimage around Brittany (Brett. Tro Breizh), venerating the relics of its seven saints.

Anna had a collection of precious and semi-precious stones; she had a habit of giving visitors a random stone.

Anna loved children very much and spent as much time with them as she could. For her beloved son Karl-Orland, who died in childhood, she ordered a prayer book, which was also supposed to become a manual for the future king of France.

Quite a few descriptions of Anna’s appearance and portraits have been preserved; many of them, however, represent its features as part of certain allegories. Thus, Anna apparently served as the model for the allegory of Justice on her father's grave in Nantes; during the time of Louis XII she was painted in the image of the Virgin Mary, bringing peace and the union of France and Brittany. Depictions of Anne from the time of Charles VIII do not show any characteristic portrait features - at that time she was not yet considered an independent figure, but only a shadow of her husband.

She is usually depicted as blonde. One of Anna's legs was shorter than the other, causing lameness; to hide this, she wore higher heels on her short legs, becoming the founder of orthopedic shoes at court. Zaccaria Contarini, the Venetian ambassador, described her in 1492 as follows:

The Queen is fifteen years old, short, thin and noticeably lame on one leg, although she wears high-heeled shoes to hide the defect. She has good color face, and she is very pretty. Her mental acuity is remarkable for her age, and once she decides to do something, she strives to achieve it by any means and at any cost. She is jealous and overly passionate for His Majesty the King, so that for a long time it very rarely happens that his wife does not sleep with him, and it turns out so successfully that every eight months she is pregnant.

Original text (Italian)

La regina è di età di anni diciassette, piccola anche lei e scarna di persona, zoppa da un piede notabilmente, ancora che si aiuti con zoccoli, brunetta e assai formosa di volto, e per la età sua astutissima, di sorte che quello che si Mette in animo, o con risi o con pianti, omnino lo vuole ottenere. È gelosa, e avida della maestà del re oltremodo, tanto che da poi che è sua moglie ha preterito pochissime notti che non abbia dormito con sua maestà, ed in questo ha anche fatto buona operazione rispetto che la si trova gravida in mesi otto.

Marriages and children

1. husband of (1491) Charles VIII, king of France.
   1. Karl-Orlan (1492-1495)
   2. Francis (1493)
   3. Stillborn Daughter (1495)
   4. Anna (1498)

1. husband since (1499) Louis XII, king of France.
   1. Claude of France (1499-1524), Duchess of Brittany and Berry; husband (from 1514) Francis I (1494-1547), Count of Angoulême, then king of France.
   2. Son who died at birth (1500).
   3. Francis (1503).
   4. Miscarriages (from 1505 to 1509).
   5. René d'Orléans (1510-1575), Duchess of Chartres, known in Italy as Renata French; husband (from 1528) Ercole II d'Este (1508-1559), Duke of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio.
   6. Son (1512).

Image in culture

Anne of Brittany is the most popular historical figure in Brittany, second only to Saint Yves. There are a huge number of enterprises, hotels, streets named after her. This is due both to the respect that the Bretons traditionally had for her since the time of the futile struggle for independence (later an additional mythologized plot), and to French propaganda, which always focused on the wife of two French kings as the most outstanding representative of the Breton people.

After her marriage to Louis XII, propaganda began to present Anne as the embodiment of a peaceful union between Brittany and France (especially since, unlike her first marriage, her second did not involve war). She began to be officially called the “Queen of Firm Union” or “Lady of Unity”; she was credited with the “three virtues of a queen” - generosity, diligence in prayer and love for the king.

In art, France was allegorically represented at that time as an enchanted garden (a tradition of the early 14th century), where porcupines (symbol of Louis XII) and ermines (symbol of Brittany and Anne personally) run.

The image of Anna, according to the historian Didier Le Fur, who studied its evolution, in numerous biographies quickly acquired hagiographical or, on the contrary, sharply critical elements that are at least partly legendary in nature and are not associated with real evidence of her time. So, perhaps, the etiquette convention and political declaration of the Breton nobility is the depiction of Anne in Bouchard’s History as the sole ruler of her region, without any mention of the administration of Louis XII. The stories about Anna as an “orphan heroine”, who at the age of 14, without advisers, opposed the whole of France and allegedly even personally commanded the troops, are partly based on the patriotic “Annals of Brittany” by Bernard d'Argentre, ordered by the provincial estates in 1577 in protest against the new taxes. A similar story was repeated during the Stamp Revolt against the taxes imposed by Louis XIV, which resulted in repression from Paris (1675); The “history of Brittany” published in this and subsequent eras increased the number of Anna’s heroic achievements during the war of 1489-1491, her trips to her homeland, etc. Further, the authors of the 19th century already take 11-year-old Anna to the battlefield of Saint-Aubin (for which there is no evidence), in the spirit of romantic ideas about national revival, the “awakening” of the duchy from “lethargy”, the construction of many churches there, etc., are associated with her trips to Brittany. This line was continued by nationalistically (and even sometimes separatistically) oriented authors XIX-XX centuries. It even came to comparing her with Joan of Arc.

Le Fur associates with Austrian propaganda of 1489-1491 the emphasis and mythologization of the idea of ​​“forced marriage” or even “kidnapping/rape” of the duchess, which was subsequently exploited by the nationalist movement during the era of the Vichy regime (when the “good groom” German Maximilian was considered the forerunner of the Nazis). However, the very fact of Anna being forced into marriage by military force and her desire to enter into an alliance with Austria is beyond doubt (as it is reflected in detail in completely neutral French chronicles of that time, the “Memoirs” of Philippe de Commines and others).

In a number of anti-Breton and royalist authors, as well as in “moral histories” (for example, in Brantôme), Anna, based on some out-of-context passages in the memoirs of Commines or the court case of Marshal Rohan-Gier, is presented as a cynical and calculating ambitious woman, with bad character, only dreaming of escaping from Louis XII, who was supposedly in love with her, robbing his treasury, treacherously helping the enemies of France in the name of the interests of Brittany, etc. Historian Jules Michelet, logically completing this tradition, presented Louis, who was very active politically, as a weak sovereign , under the thumb of a smart wife.

Regionalists and nationalists of the 19th and 20th centuries endowed Anna with Breton common features. Thus, her cap (in fact, common at that time for noble ladies throughout Europe) was declared evidence of the simplicity and naturalness of Breton tastes and democracy of Anna personally; it even came into fashion in Brittany at that time as an element of the “national costume”. The song “Duchess in clogs” that appeared in those years attributed to her wearing peasant wooden shoes; the corresponding cliché has even penetrated into some historical works about Anna, although, of course, it has no real basis.

In 1991, the 500th anniversary of the marriage of Anna and Karl was widely celebrated in Langeais; in Rennes, which paid for the hand of its empress with siege, famine and occupation, they avoided even mentioning the anniversary.

Some references to Anna in modern popular culture:

• nationalist song by Gilles Serva Koc'h ki gwenn ha koc'h ki du, which lists the various misfortunes suffered by Brittany under French rule, and states as a refrain: this is not what Anna wanted;
• Mentioned in the song by Soldier Louis, c'est un pays
• Duchesse Anne- name of Breton beer;
• three-masted ship Duchesse Anne, anchored in Dunkirk.
• Anna of Breton- Breton opera starring Agnès Beauvais
• Anne de Bretagne- song by the Breton folk group Tri Yann (“Portraits” 1995)

To the cinema

• TV series "Borgia" (France, Germany, Czech Republic, Italy. 2011-2014). Role plays

  Literature in French

  • Leroux de Lincy, Vie de la reine Anne de Bretagne, femme des rois de France, Charles VII et Louis XII. 1858
  • Ant. Dupuy, Histoire de l" Union de la Bretagne à la France, 2 vol. de 447 p et 501 p., Librairie Hachette, Paris, 1880.
  • Hervé Le Boterf, Anne de Bretagne. Editions France-Empire, 1976-1996.
  • Jean Kerhervé, L"État breton aux XIVe et XVe siècles, 2 vol., Maloine, 1987. ISBN 2-224-01703-0. 2-224-01704-9
  • Arthur Le Moyne de la Borderie, Membre de l" Institut, Histoire de la Bretagne, 6 volumes in-quarto, Plihon Editeur, Imprimerie Vatar, Rennes 1905-1914
  • Jean-Pierre Legay et Hervé Martin, Fastes et malheurs de la Bretagne ducale 1213-1532, Éditions Ouest-France Université, 435 pages, Rennes, 1982
  • Philippe Tourault, Anne de Bretagne, Paris 1990, 1996, 2004, 2006.
  • Geneviève-Morgane Tanguy., Les jardins secrets d'Anne de Bretagne, F. Sorlot-F. Lanore, 1991
  • Collectif d'universitaires des universités de Brest, Nantes, Rennes, Toute l'histoire de Bretagne, dans l"Île de Bretagne et sur le continent, ouvrage in-8°, 800 pages, editions Skol-Vreizh, Morlaix 1996
  • Georges Minois, Anne de Bretagne, Edition Fayard, 1999
  • Didier Le Fur, Anne de Bretagne, Paris, editions Guénégaud, 2000. ISBN 2-85023-103-7
  • Didier Le Fur, Louis XII: un autre César?, Paris: Perrin, 2001
  • Geneviève-Morgane Tanguy, Sur les pas d'Anne de Bretagne, Editions Ouest-France, 2003
  • Collectif Pour en finir avec Anne de Bretagne, Archives départementales, Nantes 2004
  • Didier Le Fur, Charles VIII, Paris, ed. Perrin, 2006. ISBN 2-85023-103-7
  • Henri Pigaillem. Anne de Bretagne. Paris, Pygmalion, 2008. ISBN 978-2-7564-0079-2

  Links

Charles VIII and Anne of Brittany

How do heiresses of rich lands marry? Long negotiations with applicants for her hand, no less lengthy discussions of each point of the marriage contract, preparation for a magnificent celebration... In a word, months, and sometimes even years, can pass until the wedding finally takes place. However, there are exceptions, and the “Breton bride kidnapping” is one of the most famous in history.

Anne, daughter of Duke Francis II of Brittany, was the sole heir, and at the age of eleven, after the death of her father, she became the ruler of this rich duchy. Of course, the young duchess, in order to protect her lands from France, which dreamed of annexing Brittany, needed a strong and reliable husband. The list of candidates was not the shortest, and as a result the choice fell on Maximilian of Habsburg, the German king and future Holy Roman Emperor. Several years ago, he lost his beloved wife Mary of Burgundy (also, note, who became the heiress of very rich lands after the death of his father), and now he was going to remarry. His little daughter, Margaret of Austria, was betrothed to the Dauphin Charles, soon to become King Charles VIII of France.

Charles VIII. Unknown artist

So, 1490. Ten-year-old Margarita, engaged to Karl, and thirteen-year-old Anna, who is going to marry (or rather, they are going to marry her off) Maximilian, two young brides. The exact date of the wedding of the first couple had not yet been set, but as for the second, in December of the same year in the city of Rennes a marriage by proxy was concluded between Anne of Brittany and Maximilian. But soon everything changed. Charles VIII considered that the rich Breton heiress was much more important for France, and set out to take away the bride, or rather, now actually the wife of his future father-in-law. Since an agreement was once concluded between Brittany and France that Anne’s wife would be chosen only with the permission of the French king, and no one asked Charles for permission to marry Maximilian, Charles considered himself entitled to act sharply.

Anne of Brittany with St. Anne, St. Ursula and St. Helena. Artist J. Bourdichon

In April 1491, French troops invaded Brittany and captured its capital Nantes, and the second major city, Rennes, was subjected to a long siege and eventually surrendered. Anna was also surrendered to the mercy of the winner... Yes, she was already married to Maximilian, but they had never seen each other, there was no second, “real” wedding, the marriage was not consummated, and besides, it was concluded without his consent. This means, Karl believed, everything can be replayed. And he outplayed it.

So, just now Anna of Brittany was in her own country and was waiting to meet her husband Maximilian, and suddenly everyone finds out that she was transported to the French castle of Lange, where she became the wife of Charles VIII!

Even before the wedding, Anne had to sign an agreement, according to which, in the event of her death, all the lands she owned would pass to France, and in the event of Charles's death before she gave birth to a male heir, Anne was obliged to marry the next French king ( this is what will happen, we note, that Anna will subsequently be the wife of King Louis XII and will marry in a snow-white dress, becoming the harbinger of a tradition that will be established more than three centuries later). One way or another, Brittany went to France. But what could Anna, who had already sacrificed herself for her country, do? Unless, as the often mentioned historical anecdote goes, she supposedly took two beds with her to Langeux Castle, where she was taken from Rennes, hinting that she was not going to share a bed with Charles. Even if this is true, then looking ahead, let’s say it had to. And how could it be otherwise?

On December 6, 1491, a wedding took place on the top floor of the castle - dressed in an outfit of gold brocade, trimmed with sable fur, the fourteen-year-old Duchess of Breton married the French king, who actually forced her to do it. In one of the halls of this castle today you can see a composition of wax figures - the bride and groom stand in front of two bishops. On the right is Anna in luxurious attire, behind her are the ladies of the court, on the left is Karl, behind whom are his older sister Anna de Beaujeu and her husband. And after the wedding, Karl did what Maximilian did not have time to do - he hurried to consummate the marriage as quickly as possible, which was done in the presence of witnesses.

There was no way back - Anne of Brittany became Queen of France. Subsequently, the spouses will even become closer, but we will never know whether Anna has forgiven Karl for the fact that he once changed her fate so dramatically...

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