King René d'Anjou and His Seven QueensStaley, Edgcumbe
History
King René d'Anjou and His Seven Queens
Staley, Edgcumbe
France -- Court and courtiers; René I, King of Naples and Jerusalem, 1409-1480
Queen Isabelle and her children took up their residence at the Palace
of Capua. Queen Giovanna offered her the new royal palace in Naples,
but Isabelle’s instinct was not in error when she chose to dwell a
little distance from the royal hussy. There King René joined his
family, bringing with him both Louis, his second son, and Yolande.
The reunion was the happiest that could be. Upon the King devolved,
of course, the onus of government, with the co-operation of Queen
Giovanna. Queen Isabelle, relieved from the trammels of the executive,
had now a much-longed-for respite in which to give attention to the
neglected education of her children. She constituted herself their
teacher-in-chief, but called to her assistance the very noted writer
of French romance, Antoine de Salle. Alas! it was a brief interlude
indeed, for the studies had hardly had time to affect the young pupils
when the King of Aragon resumed his hostile demonstration against
the Angevine dynasty, and René and his were locked in the grip of
war. Very unwillingly Queen Isabelle agreed to return to France
with her children, Naples being an armed camp and the whole country
in a turmoil. They wended their way leisurely to Anjou, and not to
Lorraine. Two reasons dictated this course. Angers was the capital
_par excellence_ of the dominions of the King of Sicily-Anjou, the
ancestral seat of his house, and Anjou was more favourably conditioned
than Lorraine or Bar for the completion of the training of the royal
children. Queen Yolande was only too delighted to welcome her brave
daughter-in-law and to caress her beloved grandchildren. She went off
to the Castle of Saumur, her favourite residence, and the walls of
the grim Castle of Angers once more resounded to the merry laughter
of childish games. Sadly enough those joyous sounds yielded place
to saddest dirges when Prince Nicholas, not yet ten years old, died
suddenly of poison. This was the first break by Death into that home
circle.
The King and Queen were again in residence at the Castle of Tarascon
in 1443, and there, on February 2, they received an imposing mission
from the Duke of Burgundy, headed by Guillaume Harancourt, Bishop of
Verdun, the Seigneurs Pierre de Beauprémont and Adolphe de Charny,
with Antoine de Gaudel, the Duke’s principal secretary. They came to
Tarascon to negotiate a marriage between the Duke’s nephew, Charles de
Borugges, son of Philippe, Count of Nevers, and the Princess Margaret.
This bridegroom expectant had been very much in the matrimonial market
before accepting the choice of his uncle. His first fiancée was Jeanne,
daughter of Robert, Count de la Marche; she gave place to Anne, Duchess
of Austria; and she in turn was passed over before the greater charms
of the Angevine Princess. The contract of betrothal with Pierre de
Luxembourg was cancelled, and Charles de Nevers was the choice of René
and Isabelle.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
King René d'Anjou and His Seven Queens — John Shaqi
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