What do Countess Louise, Astrology, and January 1 have in common? Readers of the Journal de Louise de Savoye, duchesse d’Angoulesme, d’Anjou et de Valois will know the answer. For the rest of you, let me explain. Three crucial events In the 20 years between 1496 to 1515, three crucial events in Countess Louise’s life …
What clothing did French Renaissance Noblewomen wear? As a writer, I ask myself this question each time I need to describe a woman. I focus on noblewomen because courts set the fashion. People of every class copied the one above it as closely as their finances allowed. Styles varied from one country to another and from …
Few settings cast a spell like the French court. The French Renaissance court, even for those who know little about it, exercises a charm that is hard to resist. Writing about how I created it as a setting is the subject of my blog post Getting to Setting in The Importance of Pawns M.K. Tod’s …
As I was researching my new novel I reflected on the importance of male heirs for Brittany and France. I had been reading an article that electrified me in the book Noblesse de Bretagne du Moyen Age à Nos Jours. Failures in the male line One article in particular challenges several standard interpretations of Breton …
In France, Mary Tudor ranks as the French Queen, not the English Princess. She wasn’t queen long. As third wife to the feeble King Louis XII, she reigned as queen consort from 9 October 1514 when they married in Abbeville to 1 January 1515 when the king died. But from then until the end of …
16th Century poison trials were a gruesome business. They were also an early example of the scientific method at work. This is the claim of Alisha Rankin in her recent book, The Poison Trials. She details a dozen of these trials conducted during the 1500s to make her case. In 1524, Pope Clement VII gave …
Born on 25 October 1510 at the Château de Blois, Renée de France’s life did not begin as difficult. She was the second daughter of Louis XII of France and Anne of Brittany. Blessed with a Golden Infancy Unusually for the times, Louis stayed in the queen’s chambers during Renée’s birth. Even though they had …
Why did three royal princesses bear the name Marguerite de Valois between 1495 and 1615? It makes it so complicated to separate them. Their contemporaries must have muttered over the same problem. Each made a name for herself during her lifetime. Since each is an important French Renaissance women, they each merit a separate article. …
It doesn’t take long to tell the story of Queen Claude’s three short-lived daughters, Louise, Charlotte, and Madeleine. It is sadly true, though, that until recently little information is available about the lives of young female children as this brief entry illustrates. Marguerite, the fourth and youngest, was the only one who lived long enough …
Who was Queen Claude de France ? First, she was daughter of Queen Anne and King Louis XII of France. Next, she was Duchess of Brittany in her own right. Third, she married François I, possibly France’s most well-known king. Yet she is practically unknown. And she remains for many either a cypher or an …
As a dominating mother, did Louise de Savoie rule for King François I? She played a powerful political domestic and international political role in his Council. Twice she acted for him as Regent. Many say Louise de Savoie was the ruling force behind King François’s government until her death in 1531. Louise’s Early Life In …
In 1519 Françoise de Foix became the first official mistress to King François 1. Countess Françoise de Chateaubriant, an exceptional beauty, was already married. Her husband, Jean de Laval, Count de Chateaubriant, did not take it well, being a jealous man and head of a leading Breton family. But François was king when royal power …
