| René | |
|---|---|
 1474 portrait byNicolas Froment | |
| King of Naples | |
| Reign | 2 February 1435 – 2 June 1442 |
| Predecessor | Joanna II |
| Successor | Alfonso I |
| Duke of Anjou Count of Provence | |
| Reign | 12 November 1434 – 10 July 1480 |
| Predecessor | Louis III |
| Successor | Charles IV |
| Duke of Lorraine | |
| Reign | 25 January 1431 – 28 February 1453 |
| Predecessor | Charles II |
| Successor | John II |
| Co-ruler | Isabella |
| Born | René of Anjou 16 January 1409[1] Château d'Angers,Angers,Anjou,France |
| Died | 10 July 1480(1480-07-10) (aged 71) Aix-en-Provence,Provence, France |
| Burial | Angers Cathedral, Angers |
| Spouses | |
| Issue more... | |
| House | Valois-Anjou |
| Father | Louis II of Naples |
| Mother | Yolande of Aragon |
| Signature |  |
René of Anjou (Italian:Renato;Occitan:Rainièr; 16 January 1409 – 10 July 1480) wasDuke of Anjou andCount of Provence from 1434 to 1480, who also reigned asKing of Naples from 1435 to 1442 (thendeposed). Having spent his last years inAix-en-Provence, he is known in France as theGood King René (Occitan:Rei Rainièr lo Bòn;French:Le bon roi René).
René was a member of theHouse of Valois-Anjou, a cadet branch of the French royal house, and the great-grandson ofJohn II of France. He was aprince of the blood, and for most of his adult life also the brother-in-law of the reigning kingCharles VII of France. Other than the aforementioned titles, he was alsoDuke of Bar from the 1420s onwards andDuke of Lorraine from 1431 to 1453.
René was born on 16 January 1409 in thecastle of Angers.[2] He was the second son ofDukeLouis II ofAnjou,King of Naples, byYolanda ofAragon.[2] René was the brother ofMarie of Anjou, who married the futureCharles VII and became Queen of France.[3]
Louis II died in 1417 and his sons, together with their brother-in-law Charles, were brought up under the guardianship of their mother. The elder son,Louis III, succeeded to the crown of Sicily and the Duchy of Anjou; René then became Count ofGuise. In 1419, when René was only ten, he was legally married toIsabella, elder daughter ofCharles II, Duke of Lorraine.[4][5]
René was to be brought up inLorraine under the guardianship of Charles II andLouis, cardinal of Bar,[6] both of whom were attached to theBurgundian party, but he retained the right to bear the arms of Anjou. He was far from sympathizing with the Burgundians. Joining the French army atReims in 1429, he was present at the consecration of Charles VII. WhenLouis of Bar died in 1430, René inherited theduchy of Bar. The next year, on his father-in-law's death, he succeeded to theduchy of Lorraine. The inheritance was contested by the heir-male,Antoine de Vaudemont, who with Burgundian help defeated René atBulgneville in July 1431.[7] The Duchess Isabella effected a truce with Antoine, but the duke remained a prisoner of the Burgundians until April 1432, when he recovered his liberty on parole on yielding up as hostages his two sons,John andLouis.[4][8]
René's title as duke of Lorraine was confirmed by hissuzerain,Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund, atBasel in 1434. This proceeding roused the anger of the Burgundian duke,Philip the Good, who required him early in the next year to return to his prison, from which he was released two years later on payment of a heavy ransom. At the death of his brother Louis III in 1435, he succeeded to the Duchy of Anjou and County of Maine. The marriage ofMarie of Bourbon, niece of Philip of Burgundy, withJohn, Duke of Calabria, René's eldest son, cemented peace between the two families.[4]
Joanna II, queen of Naples, had chosen Louis III as her presumptive heir and upon Louis' death offered it to René to inherit her kingdom after her death.[9] After appointing aregency in Bar and Lorraine, he set sail for Naples in 1438.[10]
Naples, however, was also claimed byAlfonso V of Aragon, who had been first adopted and then repudiated by Joanna II. In 1441 Alfonso laid a six-month siege to Naples. René returned to France in 1442, and though he retained the title of king of Naples his effective rule was never recovered.[6] Later efforts to recover his rights in Italy failed. His mother Yolande, who had governed Anjou in his absence, died in 1442.[4][11]
René took part in the negotiations with the English atTours in 1444, and peace was consolidated by the marriage of his younger daughter,Margaret, withHenry VI of England atNancy.[4][12]
René now made over the government of Lorraine to his son John, who was, however, only formally installed as Duke of Lorraine on the death of Queen Isabella in 1453. René had the confidence of Charles VII, and is said to have initiated the reduction of the men-at-arms set on foot by the king, with whose military operations against the English he was closely associated. He enteredRouen with him in November 1449.[13]
After his second marriage withJeanne de Laval, daughter ofGuy of Laval andIsabella of Brittany,[14] René took a less active part in public affairs, devoting himself to composing poetry and painting miniatures, gardening and raising animals.[6] The fortunes of his house declined in his old age: in 1466, the rebelliousCatalans offered the crown of Aragon to René. His son John, unsuccessful in Italy, was sent to take up the conquest of that kingdom but died —apparently by poison— atBarcelona on 16 December 1470.[15] John's eldest son Nicholas perished in 1473, also under suspicion of poisoning.[16] In 1471, René's daughterMargaret was finally defeated in theWars of the Roses. Herhusband and herson were killed and she herself became a prisoner who had to be ransomed byLouis XI in 1476.[17]
René retired toAix-en-Provence[6] and in 1474 made a will by which he left Bar to his grandson René II, Duke of Lorraine; and Anjou and Provence to his nephewCharles, count of Le Maine. King Louis XI seized Anjou and Bar, and two years later sought to compel René to exchange the two duchies for a pension. The offer was rejected, but further negotiations assured the lapse to the crown of the duchy of Anjou and the annexation of Provence was only postponed until the death of the Count of Le Maine. René died on 10 July 1480 atAix, but was buried in theAngers Cathedral, Angers.[18] In the 19th century, historians bestowed on him the epithet "the good".[19]
He founded an order of chivalry, theOrdre du Croissant, which preceded the royal foundation of St Michael but did not survive René.[20]
The King of Sicily's fame as an amateur painter[a] formerly led to the optimistic attribution to him of many paintings in Anjou and Provence, in many cases simply because they bore his arms. These works are generally in theEarly Netherlandish style, and were probably executed under his patronage and direction, so that he may be said to have formed a school of the fine arts in sculpture, painting, goldsmith's work and tapestry.[23] He employedBarthélemy d'Eyck as both painter andvarlet de chambre for most of his career.[citation needed]
Two of the most famous works formerly attributed to René are thetriptych of theBurning Bush ofNicolas Froment ofAvignon inAix Cathedral, showing portraits of René and his second wife,Jeanne de Laval, and two illuminatedBook of Hours in theBibliothèque nationale de France and theBritish Library. Among the men of letters attached to his court wasAntoine de la Sale, whom he made tutor to his son John. He encouraged the performance ofmystery plays; on the performance of a mystery of thePassion atSaumur in 1462 he remitted four years of taxes to the town, and the representations of the Passion atAngers were carried out under his auspices.[23]
He exchanged verses with his kinsman, the poetCharles of Orléans.[23] René was also the author of two allegorical works: a devotional dialogue,Le Mortifiement de vaine plaisance (The Mortification of Vain Pleasure, 1455), and a love quest,Le Livre du Cuer d'amours espris (The Book of the Love-Smitten Heart, 1457). The latter fuses the conventions of Arthurian romance with an allegory of love based on theRomance of the Rose. Both works were exquisitely illustrated by his court painter, Barthélémy d'Eyck.Le Mortifiement survives in eight illuminated manuscripts. Although Barthélémy's original is lost, the extant manuscripts include copies of his miniatures by Jean le Tavernier, Jean Colombe, and others. René is sometimes credited with the pastoral poem "Regnault and Jeanneton",[b] but this was more likely a gift to the king honoring his marriage to Jeanne de Laval.[citation needed]
King René's Tournament Book (Le Livre des tournois orTraicte de la Forme de Devis d'un Tournoi;c. 1460) describes rules of atournament. The most famous and earliest of the many manuscript copies[25] is kept in theFrench National Library. This is—unusually for a deluxe manuscript—on paper and painted inwatercolor. It may representdrawings byBarthélemy d'Eyck, intended as preparatory only, which were later illuminated by him or another artist. There are twenty-six full and double page miniatures. The description given in the book is different from that of thepas d'armes held atRazilly andSaumur; conspicuously absent are theallegorical and chivalresque ornamentations that were in vogue at the time. René instead emphasizes he is reporting on ancient tournament customs of France, Germany and the Low Countries, combining them in a new suggestion on how to hold a tournament. The tournament described is amelee fought by two sides. Individualjousts are only briefly mentioned.[citation needed]
As a patron, René commissioned translations and retranslations of classical works into French prose. These includeStrabo, whichGuarino da Verona completed in 1458;[26] andOvid'sMetamorphoses by an unknown translator, completed in 1467.[27]
Rene also kept a theater troupe at his court, led by a jester and playwrightTriboulet. The duke rewarded Triboulet generously for his talents.[28]
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René married:
His legitimate children by Isabelle were:
He also had three illegitimate children:
He appears as "Reignier" inWilliam Shakespeare's playHenry VI, part 1. His alleged poverty for a king is satirised. He pretends to be the Dauphin to deceive Joan of Arc, but she sees through him. She later claims to be pregnant with his child.
René's honeymoon, devoted with his bride to the arts, is imagined inWalter Scott's novelAnne of Geierstein (1829). The imaginary scene of his honeymoon was later depicted by the Pre-Raphaelite paintersFord Madox Brown,Edward Burne-Jones andDante Gabriel Rossetti.[31]
In 1845 the Danish poetHenrik Hertz wrote the playKing René's Daughter about René and his daughterYolande de Bar; this was later adapted into the operaIolanta by Tchaikovsky.
René and his Order of the Crescent were adopted as "historical founders" by theLambda Chi Alpha fraternity in 1912, as exemplars of Christianchivalry and charity. Ceremonies of the Order of the Crescent were referenced in formulating ceremonies for the fraternity.
Inconspiracy theories, such as the one promoted inThe Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, René has been alleged to be the ninthGrand Master of the Priory of Sion.
La Cheminée du roi René (The Fireplace of King René), op. 205, is asuite forwind quintet, composed in 1941 byDarius Milhaud.
Chant du Roi René (Song of King René) is a piece fororgan (orharmonium) byAlexandre Guilmant (1837–1911) from his collection ofNoels (Op.60). The theme used throughout this piece was alleged to have been written by René (Guilmant's source was Alphonse Pellet, organist atNîmes Cathedral).
René frequently changed his coat of arms, which represented his numerous and fluctuating claims to titles, both actual and nominal.The Coat of arms of René in 1420; Composing the arms of theHouse of Valois-Anjou (top left and bottom right),Duchy of Bar (top right and bottom left), and of theDuchy of Lorraine (superimposed shield). In 1434 were addedHungary,Kingdom of Naples andJerusalem. The arms of theCrown of Aragon were shown from 1443 to 1470. In 1453 the arms of Lorraine were removed and in 1470 Valois-Anjou were substituted for the modern arms of the duchy (superimposed shield).
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Attribution:
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911), "René I.",Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 23 (11th ed.), Cambridge University Press, pp. 97–98
René of Anjou Cadet branch of theCapetian dynasty Born: 19 January 1409 Died: 10 July 1480 | ||
| Regnal titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Duke of Bar 1420s–1480 withLouis I (1420s – 1430) | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Duke of Lorraine 1431–1453 withIsabella | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Duke of Anjou Count of Provence 1434–1480 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | King of Naples 1435–1442 | Succeeded by |
| Hereditary dukes |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Appanage of Anjou | ||
| Courtesy title | ||
| Current claimants | ||
