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Marie of Blois (1345–1404) was a daughter of Joan of Penthièvre, Duchess of Brittany and Charles of Blois, Duke of Brittany. Through her marriage to Louis I, Duke of Anjou, she became Duchess of Anjou, Countess of Maine, Duchess of Touraine, titular Queen of Naples and Jerusalem and Countess of Provence.
Marie married Louis I, son of John II of France, in 1360. [1] Throughout their marriage his official titles increased, though he would never actually rule the Kingdom of Naples. After his death in 1384, most of the towns in Provence revolted against her son, Louis II. Marie pawned her valuables and raised an army.
She, her young son and the army went from town to town to gain support. In 1387 Louis II was formally recognized as Count in Aix-en-Provence. She then appealed to Charles VI of France to support her son in obtaining Naples. In 1390, Louis, supported by the pope and the French, set sail for Naples. Marie negotiated for a marriage between Louis and Yolande of Aragon, [2] to prevent the Aragonese from obstructing him there.
They finally wed in 1400. [3] Marie was an able administrator and on her deathbed revealed to Louis that she had saved the amount of 200,000 écus. This was to make sure that she could pay his ransom in case he was captured.
With Louis I she had the following children:
René of Anjou was Duke of Anjou and Count of Provence from 1434 to 1480, who also reigned as King of Naples from 1435 to 1442. Having spent his last years in Aix-en-Provence, he is known in France as the Good King René.
Louis I, Duke of Anjou was a French prince, the second son of John II of France and Bonne of Bohemia. His career was markedly unsuccessful. Born at the Château de Vincennes, Louis was the first of the Angevin branch of the Valois royal house. His father appointed him Count of Anjou and Count of Maine in 1356, and then raised him to the title Duke of Anjou in 1360 and Duke of Touraine in 1370.
Joan of Penthièvre reigned as Duchess of Brittany together with her husband, Charles of Blois, between 1341 and 1364. Her ducal claims were contested by the House of Montfort, which prevailed only after an extensive civil war, the War of the Breton Succession. After the war, Joan remained titular Duchess of Brittany to her death. She was Countess of Penthièvre in her own right throughout her life.
Francis I, was Duke of Brittany, Count of Montfort and titular Earl of Richmond, from 29 August 1442 to his death. He was born in Vannes, the son of John V, Duke of Brittany and Joan of France, the daughter of King Charles VI of France.
Isabella 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 France as regent during his imprisonment in Burgundy in 1435–1438.
Louis II was Duke of Anjou and Count of Provence from 1384 to 1417; he claimed the Kingdom of Naples, but only ruled parts of the kingdom from 1390 to 1399. His father, Louis I of Anjou—the founder of the House of Valois-Anjou—was a younger son of King John II of France and the adopted son of Queen Joanna I of Naples. When his father died during a military campaign in Naples in 1384, Louis II was still a child. He inherited Anjou from his father, but his mother, Marie of Blois, could not convince his uncles, John, Duke of Berry and Philip II, Duke of Burgundy, to continue her husband's war for Naples. The Provençal nobles and towns refused to acknowledge Louis II as their lawful ruler, but Marie of Blois persuaded them one after another to swear fealty to him between 1385 and 1387.
Charles of Valois, the fourth son of King Philip III of France and Isabella of Aragon, was a member of the House of Capet and founder of the House of Valois, whose rule over France would start in 1328.
Joanna II was reigning Queen of Naples from 1414 to her death, when the Capetian House of Anjou became extinct. As a mere formality, she used the title of Queen of Jerusalem, Sicily, and Hungary.
Marie of Anjou was Queen of France as the spouse of King Charles VII from 1422 to 1461. She served as regent and presided over the council of state several times during the absence of the king.
Yolande of Aragon was Duchess of Anjou and Countess of Provence by marriage, who acted as regent of Provence during the minority of her son. Yolande played a crucial role in the struggles between France and England, influencing events such as the financing of Joan of Arc's army in 1429 that helped tip the balance in favour of the French. She was also known as Yolanda de Aragón and Violant d'Aragó. Tradition holds that she commissioned the famous Rohan Hours.
Valentina Visconti was a countess of Vertus, and duchess consort of Orléans as the wife of Louis I, Duke of Orléans, the younger brother of King Charles VI of France. As duchess of Orléans she was at court and acquired the enmity of the Queen of France, Isabeau of Bavaria-Ingolstadt, and was subsequently banned from the court and had to leave Paris. Due to political animosity, Valentina's husband was murdered in 1407. She died on 4 December 1408.
Charles du Maine (1414–1472) was a French prince of blood and an advisor to Charles VII of France, his brother-in-law, during the Hundred Years' War. He was the third son of Louis II, Duke of Anjou and King of Naples, and Yolande of Aragon.
In the 11th and 12th centuries the Countship of Penthièvre in Brittany belonged to a branch of the sovereign House of Brittany. It initially belonged to the House of Rennes. Alan III, Duke of Brittany, gave it to his brother Eudes in 1035, and his descendants formed a cadet branch of the ducal house.
The House of Montfort-Brittany was a Breton-French noble family, which reigned in the Duchy of Brittany from 1365 to 1514. It was a cadet branch of the House of Dreux; it was thus ultimately part of the Capetian dynasty. It should not be confused with the older House of Montfort which ruled as Counts of Montfort.
The House of Valois-Anjou was a noble French family and cadet branch of the House of Valois. Members of the house served as monarchs of Naples, as well as several other territories.
Violant of Bar was Queen of Aragon by marriage to John I of Aragon. She was active in matrimonial politics and served as regent of Aragon in the name of her spouse from 1388 until 1395.
Frederick (Ferry) II of Lorraine-Vaudémont was a French nobleman. He was Count of Vaudémont and Lord of Joinville from 1458 to 1470. He is sometimes numbered Frederick V by continuity with the Dukes of Lorraine.
The crown lands, crown estate, royal domain or domaine royal of France were the lands, fiefs and rights directly possessed by the kings of France. While the term eventually came to refer to a territorial unit, the royal domain originally referred to the network of "castles, villages and estates, forests, towns, religious houses and bishoprics, and the rights of justice, tolls and taxes" effectively held by the king or under his domination. In terms of territory, before the reign of Henry IV, the domaine royal did not encompass the entirety of the territory of the kingdom of France and for much of the Middle Ages significant portions of the kingdom were the direct possessions of other feudal lords.
Margaret of Savoy, was a daughter of Amadeus VIII of Savoy and Mary of Burgundy. By her three illustrious marriages, she held a number of titles, including Duchess of Anjou, Duchess of Calabria, Countess of Maine, Countess of the Palatinate, and Countess of Württemberg.
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