Jean de Valois, Duke de Berry (known as Jean the Magnificent) was born on the 30th of November 1340 (died on the 15th of June 1416). Jean had many titles: he was Duke de Berry and d’Auvergne, as well as Count de Poitiers and de Montpensier. He was the 3rd...
Charlotte de Savoy: a virtuous and traditional Queen of France
Charlotte de Savoy, a daughter of Duke Louis de Savoy and his wife, Anne of Cyprus, was born on the 11th of November 1441 or 1443. She was one of her parents’ 19 children; 14 of them survived into adulthood. Although the House of Savoy often intermarried with their French...
Marie d’Anjou: a model queen as wife of King Charles VII of France
Marie d’Anjou, who was a daughter of Louis II d’Anjou and his wife, Yolande of Aragon, was born on the 14th of October 1404. Marie was betrothed to Charles de Valois for years: their betrothal agreement had first been signed when he had been the youngest son of Charles VI...
Pierre II, Duke de Bourbon: a husband of the formidable Anne de Beaujeu
Pierre II, Duke de Bourbon, breathed his last on the 10th of October 1503 in Moulins, France, at the age of 64 (he was born on the 1st of December 1438). He was the son of Charles I, Duke de Bourbon, and Agnes de Bourgogne. Although he was originally betrothed...
Unfit to rule: the merry captivity of King Jean II of France after the 1356 Poitiers catastrophe
King Jean II of France, called the Good (le Bon), was the second Valois monarch, and, as some historians say, ‘The shame of France’. How could the ruler who also has the nickname ‘the Good’ deserve such an epithet? The clue to the understanding of this reasoning is in the...
Charles V of France: kingship based on clever governance and education
Born on the 21st of January 1338, King Charles V of France, known as the Wise (le Sage), died on the 16th of September 1380 at the age of 42 at Beauté-sur-Marne, France. He was the eldest son of King Jean II of France, called the Good (le Bon), and...
The religious catastrophe in France preceding the marriage of Henri III of Navarre and Marguerite de Valois
On the 18th of August 1572, a fateful wedding took place in Paris, France. King Henri III of Navarre, a Huguenot monarch and the future Henri IV of France, married Princess Marguerite de Valois. Henri was the only surviving son of Jeanne d’Albret, or Queen Jeanne III of Navarre, and...
The Château de Saumur: ‘Château d’Amour’ of the Loire Valley
Château de Saumur, one of the French royal châteaux in the Loire Valley, is located in the town of Saumur, overlooking the confluence of the Loire River and the Thouet River. Standing at the edge of an abrupt cliff, the castle boasts gorgeous views of the town and the Loire...
Louis XII of France: a king by accident with dreams of Italian conquests
King Louis XII of France was born on the 27th of June 1462 at Château de Blois. The son of Duke Charles d'Orléans, and Mary of Cleves, Louis XII succeeded his father only at the age of 3. King Louis XI appointed the chief councilors and servitors of the young...
Marguerite de Valois, Duchess de Berry: birth and late marriage
Marguerite de Valois, Duchess de Berry, was born on the 5th of June 1523 at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye. She was the youngest daughter and child of King François I of France and his first wife – Queen Claude of France, Duchess de Bretagne. In a year after her birth,...
End of the Capets: the beginning of the Valois royal dynasty
On the 29 May 1328, King Philippe VI of France, once simply Count de Valois, was crowned at Reims Cathedral. The nearest male relative to the last Capetian monarch, Charles IV of France known as the Fair (le Bel), Philippe inherited the throne because of the direct male line of...
The St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre
On the 24th of August 1572, the sanguineous St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre was carried out. Under the influence of his homicidal mother, Catherine de’ Medici, King Charles IX of France ordered the murder of the Huguenot Protestant leaders in Paris, which triggered a wave of the shocking violence towards the Huguenots in...
King François I’s worst defeat: the Battle of Pavia and captivity
Today is another anniversary of the Battle of Pavia. It was fought on the morning of the 24th of February 1525 near the Imperial-controlled city of Pavia in Lombardy, Italy. The French kingdom of King François I of France was unfortunately vanquished by the Habsburg empire of Emperor Charles V,...
Anne Boleyn and King François I of France
My dear friends and readers! I’m pleased to inform you that I’m currently having a book tour, in which I’m visiting various blogs and discussing Anne Boleyn for my new book Between Two Kings. Today, my new article was published on Queenanneboleyn.com (you can find it here). Anne Boleyn and King...