Despair of the Queen—Resumes duchy—Friendship with Louis XII.—Returns to Bretagne—King’s divorce—Charlotte d’Aragon—Marriage of Anne and Louis XII.—Italian war—Birth of Claude de France—Splendour of Court—HÔtel des Tournelles—Maids of honour—Disaster in Italy.

Charles VIII. died at dawn on Palm Sunday.299 The Queen, who was only two and twenty, had now lost her mother, father, sister, children, and husband. In a frenzy of grief and despair she shut herself up in her own rooms where she remained crying, wringing her hands and refusing to eat.

The Duc d’OrlÉans, now Louis XII., was still at Blois, and much distressed at the melancholy state of the Queen. He sent the Cardinal BriÇonnet and the Bishop of Condon, who had been friends of hers and of Charles VIII., to see her.300 They found her lying on the floor sobbing and crying in a corner of the room. She did not get up when they came in, but the Bishop, a man of holy life and intellectual power, succeeded in comforting her so far that she listened to his words of consolation, rose, became calmer, and was persuaded to take some food.

Then she began to think about her beloved Bretagne, now her own again, and directly she had finished that first repast she signed a decree reestablishing the chancellerie which had been suppressed.

Her nearest remaining relation was her brother the Baron d’Avaugour, but she was very fond of her cousin, Jeanne de Laval, Queen-dowager of Sicily, to whom she wrote, telling her of the death of the King; and also of the Prince of Orange, Jean de ChÂlons, for whom she sent at once and whom she made governor of Bretagne.

Three days after the death of Charles, Louis XII. came to see her. He promised to give a splendid funeral to the late King, which he did. Anne ordered her mourning to be black instead of the white usually worn by Queens of France, and sent to the prelates, nobles, and bourgeois of Bretagne to come and escort her to Paris, where, according to custom, she was to pass the first months of widowhood; the hÔtel d’Estampes, one of the group forming the hÔtel St. Paul, having been prepared for her.

On May 15th she left Amboise with her great Breton train, paid a state visit to the King, and establishing herself in her hÔtel turned her attention to the government of Bretagne, demanding from the MÂitre de la Monnaie at Nantes the gold and silver coinage with the effigies of her father and herself, appointing her brother and other Breton nobles governors of the towns, from which the French troops were now withdrawn,301 writing constantly to her relations, friends, and officers, and occasionally seeing Louis XII., who did everything he could to please her.

For although he could not have been in love with her, as some historians assert, before she was ten years old, it is certain that he was now most anxious to marry her, not only as Duchesse de Bretagne but as the woman he admired and loved.302 He was thirty-four, handsome, and extremely attractive, and Anne, besides being ambitious and reluctant to lose the French crown, seems to have returned his affection. A French writer remarks that her love for Charles had arisen from duty, and therefore was not likely to be very lasting,303 which may well have been the case. But it was evident that no such marriage could take place until Louis had obtained a divorce from his present wife, Jeanne de France, for which purpose he began negotiations with the Pope, the friendship between Anne and himself meanwhile increasing as may be seen by the following letter:—

“Monsieur mon bon frÈre,—Je aye receu par le Sr de la Pomeraye, voz lectres & aveques sa charge entendu la singulere benevoleme & amytiÉ que me portÉs, dont je suys trÈs consolÉe & vous en remercie de tout mon cueur, vous priant de tousjours ainsi continuer comme c’est la ferme confiance de celle que est & À jamays serra.

“Vostre bonne seure, cosine & allyÉe,
“Anne.”304

In June they met at Estampes and agreed to marry each other as soon as Louis could get his divorce. Anne went back to Paris, and later in the summer she went to Laval to stay with the Queen-dowager of Sicily, after which she returned to Bretagne, where she was received with great state and universal joy. Delighted to be once more in possession of her own duchy she resolved now that she had recovered the reins of government never again to let them slip out of her hands. Under her supervision a history of Bretagne was written by a learned priest, her almoner, from the papers and records in different monasteries.

She ruled Bretagne as a sovereign princess with much wisdom and capacity, and being generous and charitable she made various excellent laws for the good of the people. Her own household she arranged on a magnificent scale, and appointed a guard of a hundred Breton gentlemen who escorted her wherever she went.

While she was at Nantes her old governess, Madame de Laval, died, to her great sorrow.

The question of the King’s divorce was heard before an ecclesiastical tribunal, and the marriage dissolved by Alexander VI. (Borgia).

Louis made Jeanne Duchesse de Berry and gave her a splendid appanage of lands and money. She retired to Bourges, founded the order of the Annonciades, became Superior of it, and died in 1500, after a life of charity and devotion. The dissolution of a marriage to which he had always had an unconquerable repugnance cannot be considered surprising, but at first many of the people were indignant and pointed at the judges, saying, “There is Caiaphas, there is Herod, there is Pontius Pilate; they have judged against la haute dame that she is not Queen of France.”305

Alexander VI.,306 of the noble Spanish family of Borgia, had in his youth a natural daughter, the famous Lucrezia, Duchess of Ferrara, and four sons. The eldest and youngest he married to daughters of the King of Naples, the second, Giovanni, Duca di Gandia was supposed to have been murdered by his next brother, the Cardinal Cesare, or CÆsar, who had become a soldier and who surpassed most of his contemporaries in the enormity of his crimes. The Pope now sent him to France with a Cardinal’s hat for George d’Amboise, the King’s favourite minister, and the bull for the dissolution of his marriage, Louis promising him the duchy of Valentinois, a large pension and one of his relations in marriage.

The court was at Chinon when he arrived. His followers, horses, and mules were covered with silk, velvet, and cloth of gold. The horse he rode had trappings of cloth of gold covered with precious stones; he himself wore a dress of red satin and cloth of gold bordered with pearls and gems; his hat was trimmed with a double row of rubies as big as beans, which shed a strange light; even his boots were covered with gold cords and edged with pearls. Around his neck was a necklace or collar worth 30,000 ducats.307 He gave the cardinal’s hat to the King, telling him that the bull was not ready, although he had it with him, as he hoped to be able to extort something more from Louis. The Pope’s nuncio however told the King that the dispensation had been made out long ago, and that CÆsar had got it. He was therefore obliged to deliver it up, but he invited the nuncio to dinner, and, as he was foolish enough to accept, he died of poison shortly afterwards.

The wife upon whom Borgia fixed his choice was Charlotte d’Aragon, daughter of Frederic III., King of Naples and Sicily, called Princesse de Tarente at the French Court, where her mother, the niece of Queen Charlotte de Savoie, had been brought up. When she died, as Frederic, engaged in perpetual strife, could not look after his daughter, she had been adopted by Charles VIII. when about ten years old, and lived at court ever since.308 She had a complete household, a litter, mule, and several horses, being treated as a royal princess,309 and was demoiselle d’honneur to the Queen. She grew up into a most attractive girl—pretty, clever, amusing, kind-hearted; the favourite of the whole court. The Queen, who was extremely fond of her, when, after the death of Charles VIII., she returned to Bretagne, gave her a silver toilette service and parted from her reluctantly.

When Charlotte heard that CÆsar Borgia wanted to marry her she was very much alarmed, very much horrified, and very angry. She declared that she would not marry that abominable man, and entreated her father and every one she knew to protect her. Borgia, who had set his mind on her, and also hoped to get hold of the principality of Tarentum, pressed for an answer. Charlotte positively refused, declaring that she would not have for her husband a priest, the son of a priest, and a fratricide, whose birth and conduct were alike, infamous. CÆsar revenged himself by getting up a league against Frederic, who fled to Ischia and thence to France. The Queen was delighted with her courage, and in 1500 married her to Guy de Laval, a handsome young Breton noble, very rich and a cousin of her own, so that Charlotte not only became still more nearly connected with the Queen, but remained at court.

Anne chose to be married at Nantes in January, and this time the contract secured her entire control of the government and revenues of Bretagne, with power to leave it to her own heirs after the death of the King if they had no children. Besides her dowry from Charles she had one of equal amount for her life from Louis.

The King and Queen spent most of the winter in Bretagne, hunting and amusing themselves, and in April travelled slowly to Blois, great festivities attending their progress.

The Queen’s second marriage was much happier than the first. In appearance, intellect, and character Louis was far superior to Charles. The intrigues and dissipations of his former life disappeared before the higher, nobler love of which Charles was incapable. No suspicion of unfaithfulness ever arose between Anne and Louis;310 she had regained her beloved duchy, the management of which was her chief interest and occupation, besides the share she took in the government of France. Though she had no better luck with the sons of her second than of her first marriage her two daughters lived, and upon them she lavished the passionate affection she had given to the first Dauphin. Louis was the idol of France; since the days of St. Louis there had been no such king. To the virtues of Charles V. he united the gallant grace and charm of the Valois, and the people called him “le pÈre du peuple.”

Inheriting also the warlike spirit of his house, he resolved to make an expedition to conquer the duchy of Milan, now seized by Ludovico Sforza, but which he claimed as heir of his grandmother, Valentine Visconti.

The Queen, in her anxiety about the child she was expecting, instead of accompanying him to the frontier waited at Romorantin as the plague was at Blois. Even there some of her household had it, and when it abated she proceeded to Blois where her daughter was born and named after Ste. Claude, to whose shrine she had just made a pilgrimage.

Notwithstanding his desire to have a son, Louis received the news with great joy just as he was entering Milan, and both he and the Queen were always devoted to this child, which though small and delicate lived to grow up. Not long afterwards Louis returned with his victorious army, and the court resumed its wonted gaiety, the Queen being anxious that it should be the most magnificent in Europe. She was very rich, exceedingly generous, and always ready to pay any expenses that Louis, who was more economical, thought too great. She held many tournaments, at which she gave splendid prizes; she was a great benefactress to the religious orders, especially to the Cordeliers and Minimes, to whom she gave convents,311 and crowds of poor people waited for alms at her gates.

The hÔtel St. Paul, the favourite palace of Charles V. and Charles VI., was now deserted. It was considered unhealthy because of the malaria arising from its many moats and ponds, and Louis XI. gave away most of the splendid hÔtels belonging to it.312

Louis XII. and Anne, when in Paris, lived at Les Tournelles, a most picturesque and delightful old chÂteau near St. Paul, but more healthy. It was built in 1380, and had belonged to Jean Duc de Berry, Charles VI., and Louis d’OrlÉans. It was named from being a mass of little towers and turrets, was very large and convenient, stood in a wood like a country house, had chapels, galleries and gardens with fountains and seats of turf. The Duke of Bedford lived there during the English rule, and his beautiful wife, Anne of Burgundy; they kept flocks of peacocks and other rare birds.

Louis and Anne were as fond of animals as their predecessors. The Queen kept a large hawking establishment, and numbers of horses and mules; her stables were magnificent, and her litters and chariots branlants (suspended) lined with soft cushions and costly stuffs. She had many dogs of different breeds and sizes.

The position of the Queen’s ladies was very distinguished and important. Already in 1492 she had sixteen dames and eighteen demoiselles, of the noblest families. She was very strict, keeping constant supervision over their books, songs, and amusements, and forbidding them to be alone with the gentlemen of the court, or talk to them about love that had nothing to do with marriage. If they disobeyed her she was implacable, otherwise she treated them with unbounded kindness, gave them the same luxuries she had herself, and took the greatest care of them in illness. An existing account mentions silver plate and a fur-lined coverlet for the night, ordered for Anne de Foix when she was ill. She gave them dowries, arranged their marriages, and if their husbands lived far away sent somebody to take care of them and bring her news of them. Some she loved almost like her own children.

Ladislas, King of Hungary, Poland, and Bohemia, being a widower, wanted a French princess for his wife. The Queen selected Anne de Candale and Germaine de Foix, both pretty girls and princesses of Foix, and sent him their portraits. He chose Anne, who did not wish to be Queen of Hungary, but to marry the Comte de Dunois, son of the Queen’s old friend whom he did not resemble, for though handsome and agreeable he was supposed to be wanting in courage. The Queen would not hear of it, and notwithstanding the tears and objections of the young princess the marriage was celebrated by proxy, and she started with a brilliant retinue in charge of Bretagne, King-at-arms, whose account of the grandeur of her reception, presents, &c., still exists in the BibliothÈque ImpÉriale. Ladislas was enchanted with her and wrote with enthusiastic gratitude to the Queen, who was very fond of and anxious about her, and many messengers and letters passed between them; but the princess, who never became reconciled to her splendid exile, died in giving birth to a son.

Germaine de Foix became the second wife of Ferdinand, King of Spain.

The Queen apparently acted in an arbitrary manner towards Anne de Rohan, who clandestinely married a natural son of the house of Bourbon, and who, after a stormy scene with her royal mistress, left the court and was imprisoned by her father at a chÂteau in a forest until, hearing that her husband had married somebody else in Germany, she became the wife of her cousin, Pierre de Rohan.313

CÆsar Borgia had insisted on a wife being found for him, and the person so sacrificed was Charlotte, the youngest daughter of Alain d’Albret. His consent was bought by an enormous dowry from the Pope and a cardinal’s hat for one of his family. Five years later CÆsar Borgia was killed in a skirmish, and the Duchess de Valentinois, his widow, who was universally respected, retired in peace with her daughter to a castle in Berry.314

In April came disastrous news from Milan, which had revolted against the French, who now only held the fortress itself.315 The King sent Louis de la TrÉmoille and the Cardinal d’Amboise immediately to take command, and the wise counsels of the one and the military capacity of the other so rapidly turned the tide that France was again victorious, Sforza was taken prisoner, “and thus,” says the chronicler, “was the duchy of Milan twice conquered in seven months and a half, and for this time the war in Lombardy finished.”316