Yolande (2 November 1428, Nancy – 23 March 1483, Nancy) was

Duchess of Lorraine The royal consorts of the rulers of the Lorraine region have held varying titles, over a region that has varied in scope since its creation as the kingdom of Lotharingia by the Treaty of Prüm, in 855. The first rulers of the newly established r ...

(1473) and

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 ...

(1480). She was the daughter of

Isabella, Duchess 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 Fr ...

, and

René of Anjou René of Anjou ( it, Renato; oc, Rainièr; ca, Renat; 1409–1480) was Duke of Anjou and Count of Provence from 1434 to 1480, who also reigned as King of Naples as René I from 1435 to 1442 (then deposed as the preceding dynasty was restored to ...

(

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 ...

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 and Lorraine,

Count of Provence The land of Provence has a history quite separate from that of any of the larger nations of Europe. Its independent existence has its origins in the frontier nature of the dukedom in Merovingian Gaul. In this position, influenced and affected by ...

). Though she was nominally in control of major territories, she ceded her power and titles to her husband and her son. In addition, her younger sister was

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 ...

, Queen of England. In the 19th century, a romanticised version of her early life was popularised by the play ''

King René's Daughter ''Kong Renés Datter'' (''King René’s Daughter'') is a Danish verse drama written in 1845 by Henrik Hertz. It is a fictional account of the early life of Yolande of Lorraine, daughter of René of Anjou, in which she is depicted as a beautif ...

'' by

Henrik Hertz Henrik Hertz (25 August 1797 – 25 February 1870) was a Danish poet. Biography He was born of Jewish parents in Copenhagen. In 1817 he was sent to the university. His father died in his infancy, and the family property was destroyed in the b ...

, in which she is portrayed as a beautiful blind princess living in an isolated garden paradise. It was later adapted to

Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most popu ...

's opera ''

Iolanta ''Iolanta'', Op. 69, (russian: Иоланта, links=no ) is a lyric opera in one act by Pyotr Tchaikovsky. It was the last opera he composed. The libretto was written by the composer's brother Modest Tchaikovsky, and is based on the Danish play ...

''. There is no evidence that she was ever blind.

Marriage and children

In 1445, she married her

second cousin Most generally, in the lineal kinship system used in the English-speaking world, a cousin is a type of familial relationship in which two relatives are two or more familial generations away from their most recent common ancestor. Commonly, ...

Frederick II, Count of Vaudémont (1420–1470), at Nancy. The marriage was a dynastic alliance, arranged to end the dispute which existed between René of Anjou and Frederick's father,

Antoine of Vaudémont Antoine is a French given name (from the Latin ''Antonius'' meaning 'highly praise-worthy') that is a variant of Danton, Titouan, D'Anton and Antonin. The name is used in France, Switzerland, Belgium, Canada, West Greenland, Haiti, French Guiana ...

, regarding the succession to the Duchy of Lorraine.

Children

# René (future Duke of Lorraine) (1451–1508), Duke of Lorraine. On 1 September 1485 he married, secondly,

Philippa of Guelders Philippa of Guelders (; 9 November 1464 – 28 February 1547), was a Duchess consort of Lorraine. She served as regent of Lorraine in 1509 during the absence of her son. She was the Great-Grandmother of Mary Queen of Scots. Life Philippa was born ...

. # Nicolas of Lorraine, Lord of Joinville and Bauffremont, died in 1476. # Peter of Lorraine, died in 1451. # Jeanne of Lorraine (1458 – 25 January 1480), married in 1474 to

Charles IV, Duke of Anjou Charles IV, Duke of Anjou, also Charles of Maine, Count of Le Maine and Guise (1446 – 10 December 1481) was the son of the Angevin prince Charles of Le Maine, Count of Maine and Isabelle of Luxembourg. He succeeded his father as Count of Maine ...

# Yolande of Lorraine, who died in 1500, married in 1497 to

William II, Landgrave of Hesse William II (29 April 1469 – 11 July 1509) was Landgrave of Lower Hesse from 1493 and Landgrave of Upper Hesse after the death of his cousin, William III, Landgrave of Upper Hesse in 1500. William II is also called "William the Middle" to dist ...

, by whom she had issue. #

Marguerite of Lorraine Marguerite of Lorraine (22 July 1615 – 13 April 1672), Duchess of Orléans, was the wife of Gaston, younger brother of Louis XIII of France. As Gaston had married her in secret in defiance of the King, Louis had their marriage nullified when it ...

(1463–1521), married in 1488 to

René, Duke of Alençon René of Alençon (1454 – 1 November 1492) was a French nobleman. He succeeded his father John II of Alençon as Duke of Alençon. Life René was born in 1454 to the House of Valois-Alençon. He was the son of John II of Alençon and Marie o ...

(1454–1492)

Reign

In 1473, on the death of her nephew Nicolas, she inherited the Duchy of Lorraine, but passed it immediately to her eldest son René II. In 1480, after the death of her father, she did the same with the Duchy of Bar. She died on 23 March 1483, which was the birthday of her sister Queen Margaret, who had died the previous summer. Yolande was 54 years old.

Cultural references

In 1845 the Danish poet

wrote the poetic drama ''Kong Renés Datter'' (''

King René’s Daughter King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

''), a romanticised account of her life, in which she is depicted as a beautiful sixteen-year-old princess who lives in a protected garden paradise. Blinded in a childhood accident, her attendants must keep from her the knowledge that she is blind, while a Moorish physician conducts a long slow medical procedure to restore her sight. Once it is complete, she must be told of her blindness to awaken the desire to see. Count Vaudémont arrives for his arranged marriage, which he resents. He accidentally finds her secret garden, and falls in love with her without knowing who she is. He discovers she is blind, and tells her so, but she cannot understand him. However, the physician is now able to complete the treatment and she is cured. The portrayal of Yolande as a saintly dreaming beauty (regularly placed in an entranced sleep by the physician) was immensely popular. The play was translated into numerous languages. The Russian translation by Fyodor Miller was adapted by Vladimir Zotov, whose version was used as the basis for the opera ''

'', written by Tchaikovsky, with libretto by his brother

Modest Ilyich Tchaikovsky Modest Ilyich Tchaikovsky (russian: Моде́ст Ильи́ч Чайко́вский; –) was a Russian dramatist, opera librettist and translator. Early life Modest Ilyich was born in Alapayevsk, Verkhotursky Uyezd, Perm Governorate, the ...

. It received its premiere on 18 December 1892 in

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

. The heroine's name was given as "Iolanthe" in the original Danish version and in the English translation by

Theodore Martin Sir Theodore Martin (16 September 1816 – 18 August 1909) was a Scottish poet, biographer, and translator. Biography Martin was the son of James Martin, a solicitor in Edinburgh, where Theodore was born and educated at the Royal High Scho ...

, making this version of her name familiar in the 19th century. In 1913 a silent film of Hertz's play was made by the

Thanhouser Company The Thanhouser Company (later the Thanhouser Film Corporation) was one of the first motion picture studios, founded in 1909 by Edwin Thanhouser, his wife Gertrude and his brother-in-law Lloyd Lonergan. It operated in New York City until 1920, ...

, starring

Maude Fealy Maude Fealy (born Maude Mary Hawk; March 4, 1883 – November 9, 1971) was an American stage and silent film actress whose career survived into the sound era. Early life Maude Mary Hawk was born on March 4, 1883 in Memphis, Tennessee, the daugh ...

as Yolande. It was also adapted in 1990 as the German film ''Das Licht der Liebe''.Das Licht der Liebe (1990)
/ref> In the pseudohistorical book ''

The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail ''The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail'' (published as ''Holy Blood, Holy Grail'' in the United States) is a book by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh (author), Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln. The book was first published in 1982 by Jonathan Cape in ...

'' Yolande de Bar was alleged to have been the tenth Grand Master of the Priory of Sion, succeeding her father, King René. The evidence for this claim was derived from the ''

Dossiers Secrets d'Henri Lobineau The ''Dossiers Secrets d'Henri Lobineau'' ("Secret Files of Henri Lobineau"), supposedly compiled by Philippe Toscan du Plantier, is a 27-page document which was deposited in the Bibliothèque nationale de France on 27 April 1967. The document purp ...

'', forged documents created in 1967.

Notes

Sources

* * , - , width="30%" align="center" , Preceded by:
Nicholas I , width="40%" align="center" ,

1473 , width="30%" align="center" rowspan="4" , Succeeded by:
René II , - , width="30%" align="center" , Preceded by:
Rene I of Anjou , width="40%" align="center" , Duchess of Bar
1480 , - {{s-end 1428 births 1483 deaths Dukes of Bar Dukes of Lorraine 15th-century women rulers Daughters of kings