Jeanne de Laval (10 November 1433 – 19 December 1498), was the second wife and titular
Queen consort of
René I of Anjou
René ('' born again'' or ''reborn'' in French) is a common first name in French-speaking, Spanish-speaking, and German-speaking countries. It derives from the Latin name Renatus.
René is the masculine form of the name (Renée being the feminin ...
,
King of Naples
The following is a list of rulers of the Kingdom of Naples, from its first separation from the Kingdom of Sicily to its merger with the same into the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
Kingdom of Naples (1282–1501)
House of Anjou
In 1382, the ...
,
Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
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, demographi ...
, titular
King of Jerusalem
The King of Jerusalem was the supreme ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, a Crusader states, Crusader state founded in Jerusalem by the Latin Church, Latin Catholic leaders of the First Crusade, when the city was Siege of Jerusalem (1099), conqu ...
,
Aragon
Aragon ( , ; Spanish and an, Aragón ; ca, Aragó ) is an autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces (from north to sou ...
, and
Majorca
Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest island in the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain and located in the Mediterranean.
The capital of the island, Palma, is also the capital of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. The Bal ...
;
Duke of Anjou
The Count of Anjou was the ruler of the County of Anjou, first granted by Charles the Bald in the 9th century to Robert the Strong. Ingelger and his son, Fulk the Red, were viscounts until Fulk assumed the title of Count of Anjou. The Robertians ...
,
Bar
Bar or BAR may refer to:
Food and drink
* Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages
* Candy bar
* Chocolate bar
Science and technology
* Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment
* Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud
* Bar (u ...
, and
Lorraine
Lorraine , also , , ; Lorrain: ''Louréne''; Lorraine Franconian: ''Lottringe''; german: Lothringen ; lb, Loutrengen; nl, Lotharingen is a cultural and historical region in Northeastern France, now located in the administrative region of Gr ...
; and Count of
Provence
Provence (, , , , ; oc, Provença or ''Prouvènço'' , ) is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which extends from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the Italian border to the east; it is bor ...
and
Piedmont
it, Piemontese
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.
Early life
Jeanne was born on 10 November 1433 at
Auray
Auray (; br, An Alre, or simply ) is a commune in the Morbihan department, administrative region of Brittany, northwestern France.
Inhabitants of Auray are called ''Alréens'' (French) and ''Alreiz'' (Breton).
Geography
The city is surrounde ...
,
Brittany
Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, Historical region, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known ...
, the daughter of
Guy XIV de Laval
Guy XIV de Laval, François de Montfort-Laval, (28 January 1406 – 2 September 1486, Châteaubriant), comte de Laval, baron de Vitré and of La Roche-Bernard, seigneur of Gâvre, of Acquigny, of Tinténiac, of Montfort and Gaël, of Bécher ...
, Count of Laval and
Isabella of Brittany
Isabella of Brittany (french: Isabelle; 1411 – c. 1444) was a daughter of John V, Duke of Brittany, and his wife, Joan of Valois. Isabella was a member of the House of Dreux.
Family
Isabella's maternal grandparents were Charles VI of France a ...
. Her paternal grandparents were
Jean de Montfort (who following the dispositions in his marriage contract took the name and arms of the Laval family, assuming the name to Guy XIII of Laval) and
Anne de Laval (daughter and heiress of Guy XII de Laval), and her maternal grandparents were
John V, Duke of Brittany
John V, sometimes numbered as VI, (24 December 1389 – 29 August 1442) bynamed John the Wise ( br, Yann ar Fur; french: Jean le Sage), was Duke of Brittany and Count of Montfort from 1399 to his death. His rule coincided with the height of t ...
, and
Jeanne of France (daughter of King
Charles VI of France
Charles VI (3 December 136821 October 1422), nicknamed the Beloved (french: le Bien-Aimé) and later the Mad (french: le Fol or ''le Fou''), was King of France from 1380 until his death in 1422. He is known for his mental illness and psychotic ...
and
Isabeau of Bavaria
Isabeau of Bavaria (or Isabelle; also Elisabeth of Bavaria-Ingolstadt; c. 1370 – September 1435) was Queen of France from 1385 to 1422. She was born into the House of Wittelsbach as the only daughter of Duke Stephen III of Bavaria-Ingol ...
).
Her father Guy fought with
Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc (french: link=yes, Jeanne d'Arc, translit= an daʁk} ; 1412 – 30 May 1431) is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the coronati ...
. His eldest son Francis de Laval, a
Grand Master of France
The Grand Master of France (french: Grand Maître de France) was, during the and Bourbon Restoration in France, one of the Great Officers of the Crown of France and head of the "", the king's royal household. The position is similar to that of ...
, would succeed him as Guy XV, Count of Laval. He had another two sons by his first wife Isabelle, Pierre de Laval and Jean de Laval. Including Jeanne, he had a total of seven daughters, two of them died in early infancy. By his second wife,
Françoise de Dinan
Françoise de Dinan (1436-1499), was a French heiress, courtier and educator. She was the governess of Anne of Brittany.
She was the daughter and heir of Jacques de Dinan (d. 1444), lord of Beaumanoir and chamberlain at the court of Brittany, and ...
, he had three sons.
Marriage
A marriage contract was drawn up on 3 September 1454 between Jeanne's father and King René of Naples and Sicily. The wedding was celebrated on 10 September 1454, at the Abbey of St. Nicholas in
Angers
Angers (, , ) is a city in western France, about southwest of Paris. It is the prefecture of the Maine-et-Loire department and was the capital of the province of Anjou until the French Revolution. The inhabitants of both the city and the prov ...
. At the age of twenty-one Jeanne married René, whose first wife,
Isabella of Lorraine
Isabella (1400 – 28 February 1453) was suo jure Duchess of Lorraine, from 25 January 1431 to her death in 1453. She was also Queen of Naples by marriage to René of Anjou. Isabella ruled the Kingdom of Naples and her husband's domains in F ...
, had died the previous year. Jeanne's husband was more than twenty years her senior. The marriage, however, was happy. Jeanne, who was sweet and affectionate, seems to have been much loved by her husband. She became stepmother to René's children, who included the future
John II, Duke of Lorraine
John II of Anjou ( Nancy, August 2, 1426 – December 16, 1470, Barcelona) was Duke of Lorraine from 1453 to his death. He was the son of René of Anjou and Isabella, Duchess of Lorraine. He was married to Marie de Bourbon, daughter of Charl ...
,
Margaret of Anjou
Margaret of Anjou (french: link=no, Marguerite; 23 March 1430 – 25 August 1482) was Queen of England and nominally Queen of France by marriage to King Henry VI from 1445 to 1461 and again from 1470 to 1471. Born in the Duchy of Lorrain ...
, and
Yolande, Duchess of Lorraine
Yolande (2 November 1428, Nancy – 23 March 1483, Nancy) was Duchess of Lorraine (1473) and Bar (1480). She was the daughter of Isabella, Duchess of Lorraine, and René of Anjou (King of Naples, Duke of Anjou, Bar and Lorraine, Count of Provence ...
. Jeanne's marriage to René was childless.
After living three years in the surrounding mansions of Angers and
Saumur
Saumur () is a commune in the Maine-et-Loire department in western France.
The town is located between the Loire and Thouet rivers, and is surrounded by the vineyards of Saumur itself, Chinon, Bourgueil, Coteaux du Layon, etc.. Saumur statio ...
, the king and queen lived in
Provence
Provence (, , , , ; oc, Provença or ''Prouvènço'' , ) is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which extends from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the Italian border to the east; it is bor ...
in 1457 to 1462, in Anjou from 1462 to 1469. In
Aix-en-Provence
Aix-en-Provence (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Ais de Provença in classical norm, or in Mistralian norm, ; la, Aquae Sextiae), or simply Aix ( medieval Occitan: ''Aics''), is a city and commune in southern France, about north of Marseille. ...
, Angers, she participated with her husband in literary and scholarly pursuits at his court.
René composed a 10,000 verse ode to Jeanne entitled, "The Idyl of Regnault and Jeanneton". The poem was a debate on love between a shepherd and shepherdess with a pilgrim as arbiter. However, it sometimes seems to contain a good dose of conventional fiction. During his stay at Tarascon in Provence, René granted Jeanne the barony of
Les Baux, which belonged to the Counts of Provence. She exchanged it on 18 February 1475 at Aix-en-Provence for
Berre.
[Charles Cawley. ''Medieval Lands'', Anjou] She continued to live in Provence from 1469 to 1480.
Later life
René died on 10 July 1480. In his will, he bequeathed his wife a very large income in Anjou, Provence, and the
Barrois
Barrois () is a (a French territorial division roughly equivalent to a county) in eastern France. In the Middle Ages it was part of the Duchy of Bar, then bordering the Duchy of Lorraine
The Duchy of Lorraine (french: Lorraine ; german: Lot ...
. She also retained the County of
Beaufort Beaufort may refer to:
People and titles
* Beaufort (surname)
* House of Beaufort, English nobility
* Duke of Beaufort (England), a title in the peerage of England
* Duke of Beaufort (France), a title in the French nobility
Places Polar regions ...
and the lordship of
Mirebeau
Mirebeau (; Poitevin: ''Mirebea'') is a commune in the Vienne department, in the region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, western France.
History
Fulk Nerra (970-1040), Count of Anjou conquered Mirebeau and built a castle there. His son, Geoffrey of Anjo ...
(exchanged with the baronies of
Aubagne
Aubagne (, ''Aubanha'' in Occitan language, Occitan according to the classic norm or ''Aubagno'' according to the Mistralian norm) is a Commune in France, commune in the southern French Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône. In ...
and Provence). After her husband's death, she sometimes lived in Beaufort and sometimes in Saumur. She was popular for her kindness and generosity. The people of Beaufort were grateful to her when she regulated the use of common pastures. Jeanne died on 19 December 1498 at the Chateau de Beaufort-en-Vallée,
Maine-et-Loire
Maine-et-Loire () is a department in the Loire Valley in the Pays de la Loire region in Western France. It is named after the two rivers, Maine and the Loire. It borders Mayenne and Sarthe to the north, Loire-Atlantique to the west, Indre-e ...
. She was sixty-five years of age. A street still bears her name, "Queen of Sicily." By her will, she wished to be buried simply, without any monument, in the cathedral of Angers. Her heart was placed in the
Cordeliers
The Society of the Friends of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (french: Société des Amis des droits de l'homme et du citoyen), mainly known as Cordeliers Club (french: Club des Cordeliers), was a populist political club during the French R ...
d'Angers, alongside that of her husband.
Jeanne and the arts
Jeanne and her husband René appears in the triptych of the ''Burning Bush'' of the cathedral of
Aix-en-Provence
Aix-en-Provence (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Ais de Provença in classical norm, or in Mistralian norm, ; la, Aquae Sextiae), or simply Aix ( medieval Occitan: ''Aics''), is a city and commune in southern France, about north of Marseille. ...
, painted by
Nicolas Froment
Nicolas Froment (c. 1435, Uzès, Gard – c. 1486 in Avignon) was a French painter of the Early Renaissance.
Nicolas Froment is one of the most notable representatives of the Second School of Avignon, (''École d'Avignon''), a group of arti ...
, and a painting in the
museum of Cluny, where she is represented with King René listening to the preaching of
Sainte-Madeleine. Jeanne used the ''Burning Bush'' triptych to illuminate a
psalter
A psalter is a volume containing the Book of Psalms, often with other devotional material bound in as well, such as a liturgical calendar and litany of the Saints. Until the emergence of the book of hours in the Late Middle Ages, psalters we ...
(ms. 41 of the Public Library of
Poitiers
Poitiers (, , , ; Poitevin: ''Poetàe'') is a city on the River Clain in west-central France. It is a commune and the capital of the Vienne department and the historical centre of Poitou. In 2017 it had a population of 88,291. Its agglomerat ...
). The
Cabinet of medals of the
National Library of France
National may refer to:
Common uses
* Nation or country
** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen
Places in the United States
* National, Maryland, ce ...
has two medals, the King René'' and ''Queen Jeanne'' dating from 1462. It consists of a miniature of Jeanne, surrounded by her ladies, in the manuscript of the French version of the ''Pilgrimage of Life'' (in the
Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal
The Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal (''Library of the Arsenal'', founded 1757) in Paris has been part of the Bibliothèque nationale de France since 1934.
History
The collections of the library originated with the private library of Marc-René, 3rd ...
). Monuments to Jeanne have been raised in
Beaufort Beaufort may refer to:
People and titles
* Beaufort (surname)
* House of Beaufort, English nobility
* Duke of Beaufort (England), a title in the peerage of England
* Duke of Beaufort (France), a title in the French nobility
Places Polar regions ...
(1842),
Rosiers-d'Égletons
Rosiers-d'Égletons (, literally ''Rosiers of Égletons''; oc, Rosiers daus Gletons) is a commune in the Corrèze department in central France.
Population
See also
*Communes of the Corrèze department
*Pope Gregory XI
Pope Gregory XI ...
(1875), and
Tarascon
Tarascon (; ), sometimes referred to as Tarascon-sur-Rhône, is a commune situated at the extreme west of the Bouches-du-Rhône department of France in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Inhabitants are referred to as Tarasconnais or Tarasc ...
. A statue of Jeanne can be seen in the "Public Garden" in the Noisay village in
Indre-et-Loire
Indre-et-Loire () is a department in west-central France named after the Indre River and Loire River
The Loire (, also ; ; oc, Léger, ; la, Liger) is the longest river in France and the 171st longest in the world. With a length of , it ...
.
Ancestry
Sources
*Accounts of
John Legay, fundraiser for the Queen of Sicily, the manuscript of the library of Angers, published in the History Anjou in 1900.
*King Lecoy by René de la Marche.
*Conduct of King René J. Levron.
*Histoire de Charles VII by Vallet of Viriville.
*Queen Jeanne. Jeanne de Laval. Second wife of King René.
Pierre Le Roy
Pierre Le Roy (1717–1785) was a French clockmaker. He was the inventor of the detent escapement, the temperature-compensated balance and the isochronous balance spring. His developments are considered as the foundation of the modern precisi ...
. Regional editions of the West.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Laval, Jeanne de
1433 births
1498 deaths
People from Auray
Jeanne
Duchesses of Anjou
Countesses of Provence
15th-century French people
15th-century French women
Jeanne