Anne of Beaujeu: The Least Foolish Woman In France
Anne of Beaujeu
What Louis XI wanted more than anything in the world was a son. Until he got one and indeed, after he got one, his daughter Anne was the next best thing. She was, he said, ‘The Least Foolish Woman In France’.
What he meant was that she was like him. Highly intelligent. Effective. Shrewd. Hard. Cruel even. They were not ego driven, everything they did was to ‘make France great again’ . A hundred years defending it against England had brought the country to its knees.
Anne was nine when Louis, forty-seven, finally got a son. Her brother the Dauphin Charles was born and brought up in Château Amboise.
When she was twelve, she married Peter, Lord of Beaujeu. He was thirty-five. They travelled all over France with the King. Anne spent ten years observing the way her father governed. An important member of his Court, she saw first-hand how to rule.
When Louis died, Charles (VIII) was thirteen. Anne, twenty-two, governed as Regent, King of France in all but name (Salic Law precluded women acceding to the throne).
Anne considered her mother Charlotte not fit to rear a king so removed Charles from her, the first time mother and son had been apart. Both were heartbroken. They never saw each other again.
When Richard III attacked the French coast to kidnap Henry Tudor* who was under her protection, (Henry intended to usurp the throne Richard usurped) Anne funded Henry’s invasion of England which culminated in his victory at the Battle of Bosworth.
It was the end of the royal House which had ruled England for more than three hundred years. The Plantagenets had tried to usurp the French throne on and off for more than a hundred and fifty of them.
At last France had a strong ally on the English throne. Anne had helped bring about regime change and she was still only twenty-four.
Just as she had dealt with one threat another one turned up on her doorstep.
Brittany, another old enemy, started a war with France. Anne won. One result was that Anne of Brittany could not marry without the consent of France.
When Anne heard she had gone through a proxy marriage to another old enemy, Maximilian, the Holy Roman Emperor, she marched into Brittany, had the marriage annulled and married Anne off to Charles.
She annexed Brittany to the French Crown but as a result, lost Burgundy, Picardy, Franche-Comté, Artois, Charolais, Macon, Auxerre, Bar-sur-Seine, the seigneuries of Chinon, Chaussin, Laperrière, Noyers, Salins, the duchies of Limburg, Brabant and Luxembourg and the counties of Namur, Holland and Hainaut.
Anne’s father, Louis XI, to get the lands, had forced Maximilian to sign the Treaty of Arras by which his three year old daughter Margaret married the Dauphin Charles in an official ceremony in Saint Blaise Chapel, Château Amboise. Louis signed a clause in the Treaty by which:
'If it should happen (which God forbid) that my said Lady Margaret being of age, my said Lord the Dauphin should not proceed to the perfect consummation of the said marriage, or that the said marriage should be broken by the king, Monseigneur the Dauphin, or others on their part, during the minority of the young lady or after; in which case, my said lady shall be sent at the king's expense or at that of my said Lord the Dauphin, back to my said Lord the Duke her father, or the Duke Philip her brother, frankly and fully discharged of all bonds of marriage and all other obligations…
Maximilian demanded Anne and Charles return his daughter and her vast dowry. They refused,
Margaret, who grew up in the Château with Charles had an idyllic childhood. Groomed as the future Queen of France, adored and petted by all at Court, the toddler had twenty Ladies, six Lords, her own chaplain, secretaries, physicians and treasurer. She had her own stables, hounds and birds of prey. She was taught art by the gifted Court painter Jean Perréal.
When Margaret, who hero worshipped Charles, was eleven, she was eagerly looking forward to her proper wedding day.
Imagine the trauma of being told he was married. She was taken from Amboise, the only home she knew, from the lovely Loire Valley and exiled north to Château Melun, which was used as a prison.
Margaret lived there in vastly reduced circumstances. Very lonely, her life got worse when she was told her friend and only companion would return to Court. A poignant, heartbreaking letter from the traumatised twelve year old exists. In it she begs ‘Aunt Anne’ to help her. There is no record that Anne replied.
Margaret wrote to her father saying if he didn’t come for her she would escape even if it meant leaving in her petticoat.
Anne and Charles dragged their feet for the next two years until Charles decided to invade Italy. Wanting to draw a line before he left France, he and Maximilian signed The Treaty of Senlis.
The Least Foolish Woman in France was ousted from power following the tragic, early death of Charles and the accession of his successor.
* Henry’s grandmother was Catherine of Valois.
Read more about Anne and the other Ladies of Royal Château Amboise in Out of the Shadows by Pamela Shields.
Post by Pamela (BA History of Art). Artwork by Mark.
Out of the Shadows
The Ladies of Royal Château Amboise
