The illustrations which adorn my pages have been gathered from many sources. I think they will greatly assist the appreciation of my work. With respect to portraits of my “Queens,” there are no extant likenesses of Yolanda and Jeanne: for the latter I have chosen to reproduce the historical imaginative fresco of M. Lepenveu, at the Pantheon in Paris; for the former the stained-glass window effigy at Le Mans Cathedral must do duty. Queen Isabelle is an enlargement of a miniature by René; Queen Marie is after a French picture of the School of Jean Focquet, now at the National Gallery, London, but wrongly entitled. Queen Giovanna II. is from an altar-piece in the National Museum at Naples. Queen Marguerite is from a miniature by her father,--her portraits in England are eminently unsatisfactory and non-contemporary,--Queen Jehanne is from the right wing of the Aix triptych, by Nicholas Froment. There is, I think, nothing more to add to my preface, so I leave “King René and his Seven Queens” _tête-à-tête_ with my discerning public. If they are found to be entertaining company I am repaid. EDGCUMBE STALEY. CHRONOLOGY 1399. Marriage of Louis II. d’Anjou and Yolanda d’Arragona. 1408. Birth of René d’Anjou. 1411. Giovanna II. succeeds to throne of Naples. 1417. René adopted by Cardinal de Bar. 1420. Marriage of René and Isabelle de Lorraine. 1422. Marie d’Anjou marries Charles VII. 1424. René, Duke of Barrois. 1429. Jeanne d’Arc and René at Siege of Orléans. 1431. René, Duke of Lorraine; prisoner at Bulgneville. 1433. René’s campaign in Italy. 1434. René, King of Sicily, etc. 1435. Giovanna II. dies; René, King of Naples. 1437. René released finally from Tour de Bar. 1441. René retires from Italy. 1442. Queen Yolanda dies. 1445. Marriage of Marguerite d’Anjou and Henry VI. 1448. Order of the _Croissant_ established. 1453. Queen Isabelle dies. 1455. Marriage of René and Jehanne de Laval. 1463. Queen Marie dies. 1465. René proclaimed King of Catalonia. 1470. Jean, Duke of Calabria, King of Catalonia, dies. 1473. René retires from Anjou, which is seized by Louis XI. 1480. René dies. 1482. Queen Marguerite dies. 1498. Queen Jehanne dies. KING RENÉ D’ANJOU AND HIS SEVEN QUEENS CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY “René, King of Jerusalem, the Two Sicilies, Aragon, Valencia, Majorca, Sardinia and Corsica; Duke of Anjou, Barrois, and Lorraine; Count of Provence, Forcalquier and Piemont,” so runs the preamble of his Will. To these titles he might have added Prince of Gerona, Duke of Calabria, Lord of Genoa, Count of Guise, Maine, Chailly, and Longjumeau, and Marquis of Pont-à-Mousson!