The Royal House of Valois

Château Royal d'Amboise.

Out of The Shadows: The Ladies of Chateau Amboise starts and ends with The Royal House of Valois (Valois is a region north of Paris). Its emblem, the famous fleur-de-lys*, was inherited from the preceding dynasty, The Royal House of Capet.

When we envisage the French Court, we think of Versailles with its courtly etiquette. The Court during the time covered in this book was nothing like that.

Charles VII was so broke that for many years France had a skeleton Court. The French nobility was virtually wiped out at Crécy, Poitiers and Agincourt. The War which lasted more than a hundred years laid waste to much of France. What little wealth left for the French Crown was plundered by the English.

Charles VII was, in a word, broke, on his uppers. When his son the Dauphin Louis married Margaret Stewart of Scotland in Tours there was no wedding reception, no celebratory banquet. The Court had no money. Offended guests were ushered out after the ceremony.

Charles depended on handouts, mainly from the woman who brought him up, his mother-in-law Yolande of Aragon. One of France’s greatest patriots, she was not even French. She was a Spanish princess. Supporting the French Court meant Yolande died almost penniless. She apologised to her family for leaving them next to nothing in her will.

Charles’ son, Louis XI, dubbed Louis The Prudent, never held or attended ceremonies, balls, banquets or tournaments. He ordered festivals only when necessary to impress important foreign visitors. He lived like a private gentleman. What went for his Court in Tours was devoid of pomp and ceremony. He ate, not at Court, but in a tavern on the market square. Louis detested fuss. He preferred ordinary men and shunned the nobility.

Louis often gets a bad press but should be remembered with gratitude as the King of France who drew a line under the never ending, expensive wars with England. He paid Edward IV to stay away from France. It was cheaper.

When Louis died, his son Charles (VIII) was a minor so Louis’s daughter Anne moved into Château Amboise as Regent and established a modest royal Court around her brother.

Charles appears to be as uninterested in pomp and ceremony as his father and grandfather. He and his wife Anne of Brittany were far more interested in home improvements. They transformed Château Amboise into the first Renaissance palace in France.

Charles’ successor, Louis XII, his loyal cousin, boyhood companion and soldier in arms didn’t stand on ceremony either. Positively parsimonious, he put on large expensive ceremonies only for important events.

Louis, like Charles, died without a male heir.

Next in line was Francis I. The days of prudence and penny pinching at Court were over. His son, Henry II, was unassuming, nothing like his father, his grandson Henry III, the last Valois king, was so extravagant he virtually bankrupted France.

* The fleur-dy-lys seen all over Florence is from France. Louis XI allowed the Medici family to use it on its Arms.

Post by Pamela (BA History of Art). Photography by Mark.