A True Queen
Anne of Brittany should be just as infamous as King Henry VIII or any of his wives. After all, this French Queen also navigated dangerous men, a scandalous breakup trial, and multiple marriages—not to mention brutal bouts of vengeance in between—all the way up to her sudden and startling end.
1. She Was A Born Rebel
Anne was a rebel down to her roots. Born in 1477 to Duke Francis II of Brittany and his wife Margaret of Foix, her family’s ducal lands were fiercely independent of nearby France—and wanted to stay that way. They had their own interpretation of laws, and Brittany had even once been a kingdom in its own right.
Anne would soon put that independent spirit to scandalous use, but with her power came a bitter tradeoff.
Jan Mostaert, Wikimedia Commons
2. Her Lands Were In Chaos
By the time Anne was born, her lands were in trouble. There was a serious dearth of male heirs in the line, and although Brittany, contrary to French law, allowed women to rule the duchy, this was still a shaky proposition. When nine-year-old Anne’s mother passed in 1487—ensuring no more sons from her—this chaos deepened.
Hoping to bolster his realm, Anne’s father quickly had her declared Heiress of Brittany…but then he went even further.
Jean Bourdichon, Wikimedia Commons
3. Her Father Used Her As A Pawn
Duke Francis intended to turn his daughter—and the prospect of marrying her dowry and lands—into a bargaining chip to forge alliances with powerful families. It didn’t much matter yet if the marriage went through, however, and Anne was soon officially engaged to or dangled in front of an eye-popping amount of men, including both the future Edward V and the future Henry VII of England.
But if Francis thought Anne was going to take all of this lying down—well, she wasn’t.
Unknown authorUnknown author, Wikimedia Commons
4. She Had A Mind Of Her Own
Anne had been raised Heiress of Brittany, and she knew how to put her foot down. When her father suggested Alain of Albret, a powerful French noble and his personal ally, as her new husband-to-be, Anne’s response was vicious. She found Alain repellant, and in front of an official papal court convened for his suit, told him she’d only gone along with it so far for the sake of appearances and for the sake of her father.
She then publicly and resoundingly rejected him. But when it came to drama, Anne hadn’t seen anything yet.
5. France Tried To Control Her
In 1588, a catastrophic development hit Anne’s kingdom. King Charles VIII of France defeated her father in the so-called “Mad War,” and the treaty that came out of it spelled extinction for Brittany’s independence. According to the peace terms, Anne was now forbidden to marry without the permission of the King of France.
Then it got ten times worse.
anonymous / After Jean Perreal, Wikimedia Commons
6. She Suffered A Brutal Loss
Less than a month after these destructive terms came out, tragedy walloped Anne. After a fall from a horse, her father Francis fell fatally ill. Just before he perished, Francis brought Anne to his deathbed and insisted she promise to keep Brittany independent of France so long as she lived—not any easy promise, considering Anne was now an orphan and her duchy was in shambles.
This is when chaos truly took over.
TUBS, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, Wikimedia Commons
7. She Had To Flee
Anne was just 11 years old when her father died, and, as pert and sharp as she might be for a pre-teen, was in no way prepared to deal with resurrecting an entire failing duchy. Her advisors—and Anne herself—quickly began squabbling over who she should marry, for real this time.
Tensions grew so high that Anne eventually fled her hometown of Nantes to get away. She hadn’t learned yet that wherever she went, trouble followed.
Detroit Publishing Co., under license from Photoglob Zürich, Wikimedia Commons
8. She Made A Snap Decision
In 1490, at the age of 13, Anne made a very dangerous decision. She entered into a hasty marriage with Maximilian I of Austria, current King of the Romans and the future Holy Roman Emperor. Her reasons were pure vengeance. Maximilian hated the French as much as she did, and through their marriage—which happened very much without the King of France’s consent—she intended to use his power to shelter Brittany.
It turned out to be a very bad idea.
Antoni Boys, Wikimedia Commons
9. She Bit Off More Than She Could Chew
Although Anne got points for gumption, she couldn’t possibly have thought her new marriage through. For one, because the pair had to be quick about it, they married by proxy—that is, long-distance—and for months, Maximilian was too busy to get over to Brittany to go through the very important step of consummating their union.
Perhaps even more importantly, he was also too busy to actually help Anne properly defend against the French, thus negating the whole reason she chose him. But there were even bigger concerns.
Albrecht Durer, Wikimedia Commons
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10. She Made A Mess Across Europe
Simply put, Anne’s new marriage was one of the 15th century's biggest royal messes. As if it wasn’t insulting enough that she had married without French consent, Maximilian’s daughter Margaret had been betrothed to the King of France, Charles VIII—past tense, because her father’s matrimonial fiasco now ensured that agreement was finished.
It all resulted in utter disaster.
Jan Mostaert, Wikimedia Commons
11. The King Of France Attacked Her
Maximilian’s own allies called the marriage “disgraceful,” but Anne’s royal enemies in the French court were beyond livid. That’s when King Charles VIII of France pulled off a breathless coup. He quite literally laid siege on Anne and her realm in order to force her to break off her alliance with Maximilian.
Even with the strength of all her allies, it was too much for Anne, and Brittany, to take.
12. She Fought A Losing Battle
Anne held out as long as she could—two months—before her men fell into the clutches of the French, and Charles triumphantly entered her city. It was now the fourth campaign of the French against Brittany, and King Charles would accept nothing less this time than total subjugation from Anne’s realm. He thought he knew exactly how to ensure that.
Detroit Publishing Co., under license from Photoglob Zürich, Wikimedia Commons
13. She Got An Indecent Proposal
In the days following the siege, Charles made a stunning proposition. He insisted that Anne marry him, and her soon-to-be-ex husband’s kingdom would just have to take their lumps. After all, Anne and Maximilian had never consummated the marriage, and thus it wasn’t official official in the eyes of the Church.
It was an audacious move—but Anne’s reaction wasn’t what you might expect.
14. She Said Yes
Anne of Brittany was certainly a spitfire, but she wasn’t stupid, and she may have learned from her earlier mistakes. She said yes to Charles—though reportedly only after turning down an alternative proposition to marry a French prince and not a king—and they were officially engaged on November 17, 1491.
Even more incredibly, Maximilian and his allies made a few noises about the switcheroo, but, too preoccupied by other territories, they ultimately let Anne go. That didn’t mean it was easy.
UniversalImagesGroup, Getty Images
15. She Had A Secret Wedding
Anne’s marriage to King Charles VIII was even more scandalous and tense than her first failed attempt. Taking place at the Chateau de Langeais at dawn—not usually a respectable time to have a wedding—the marriage was quick and top secret, since Anne was essentially committing illegal bigotry until the Pope, Innocent VIII, annulled the union with Maximilian and sorted out other necessary details.
Once this settled down, though, the real problems started.
16. She Insulted Her Husband
14-year-old Anne may have agreed to her second marriage out of necessity, but that didn’t mean she had to like it. In fact, she quickly made her disgust obvious. When she arrived at Charles’s court, she very pointedly brought two beds with her, making it clear she did not intend to be sharing his with any regularity.
Unfortunately, Charles could hit back, too.
Morphart Creation, Shutterstock
17. He Tried To Control Her
Under the terms of their marriage, Anne could still retain possession of Brittany (and keep it out of France’s clutches) provided she outlived Charles. Despite this, Charles demanded she never use her title “Duchess of Brittany”—a demand that Anne took huge offense to and which shadowed their entire marriage.
Plus, there was one more bizarre stipulation in their contract.
Jean Bourdichon, Wikimedia Commons
18. She Was Trapped
Anne may have been able to keep Brittany if she survived Charles, but the marriage terms also said that if she and Charles had no male heirs together, Anne would need to marry his successor, the next King of France…who she would also have to outlive. Essentially, the French Crown was doubling its odds to beat Anne and Brittany down.
They had no idea what they were in for.
Jean Bourdichon, Wikimedia Commons
19. She Was Constantly Pregnant
Although Anne and Charles’s marriage started (and mostly continued) icily, the new Queen of France was as good as her word, and fell pregnant soon after. In fact, she was pregnant for most of the union, averaging the birth of a child every 14 months even as she spent the majority of her time living away from Charles.
This must have been exhausting, but it was also tragic.
20. She Suffered A Mother’s Worst Nightmare
Anne’s first child, a son named Charles, was born in October 1492 when Anne was just 15 years old. But her joy soon turned to grief. Charles was a healthy baby until the age of three, when a brutal bout of measles took him from her arms.
Still, it was the 15th century, infant mortality was common, and Anne knew she had to try again…and again.
21. She Wouldn’t Give Up
From 1493 to 1496, Anne gave birth to three more children, two boys and one girl—and lost them all. The first two were stillborn, but the third child, another son she named Charles again, survived for a handful of weeks before perishing like all the others.
Anne’s response to this was heartbreaking.
22. She Had A Breakdown
The passing of her second baby Charles, after getting her hopes up when he survived his first 24 hours, nearly broke the queen. She was so filled with grief that she had to withdraw to the remote Moulin to recover from the loss.
Tragically, there was very little in Anne’s near future to give her any kind of comfort.
23. She Ran Herself Into The Ground
Bereft as she was, Anne of Brittany still kept trying to make heirs with her kidnapper-husband, and gave birth to two more children, a son named Francis and a daughter named Anne, who came out breathing but who didn’t make it past those dangerous first hours after their birth.
By the spring of 1498, Anne was in her early 20s and utterly spent. Except she’d need every ounce of energy she had for what was coming next.
24. Her Husband Fell Into A Coma
Bare weeks after giving birth to her last stillborn daughter, Anne got disturbing news. Her husband Charles had been on his way to watch a game of court tennis when he hit his head on the top of a door frame. Hours later, he suddenly fell into a coma.
Courtiers rushed to his bedside, but it was already too late. Nine hours after his collapse, King Charles VIII of France was dead. Though, some say there’s more to the story than this.
Bildagentur-online, Getty Images
25. The Truth Was Scandalous
Modern historians are suspicious that a bump on a door frame could cause such a fatal injury to the King of France, and instead place the blame on a much more sinister culprit: Syphilis. They believe that neurosyphilis triggered epileptic fits in the king, causing massive brain trauma and spelling Charles’s doom.
Either way, the end result was the same for Anne of Brittany: Her life was about to change again, and not necessarily for the better.
26. She Had An Instant New Suitor
As it happened, the successor to the French throne was Charles’s cousin, the new King Louis XII of France—and, thanks to the terms of Anne’s marriage contract with Charles, Louis was set up to be her third husband. Except there was an enormous problem. Louis was already married to Charles’s sister, Joan of France.
It quickly went very “House of Tudor”.
Workshop of Jean Perreal, Wikimedia Commons
27. She Was A Prize To be Won
King Louis very much wanted Anne of Brittany as his wife, and not only because of the power the Duchy of Brittany would bring him. Joan of France may have had a humpback or some other spinal deformity, and these birth defects made many assume she was sterile. Meanwhile, the more attractive Anne had very much proven she could have children.
Before long, King Louis was obsessed with having Anne, and he’d stop at nothing to get her.
28. She Turned Into France’s Anne Boleyn
King Louis' breakup with Joan of France was brutal, and the Church annulment he sought out was called “one of the seamiest lawsuits of the age”. Lacking any other reliable arguments to split from his wife, he described to the Papacy, in merciless detail, just how deformed Joan was and claiming these defects had made it impossible for him to consummate the union.
Meanwhile, Anne stood on the sidelines, hoping Louis would lose his suit. He should have—but there was a twist.
Jean Perreal, Wikimedia Commons
29. She “Won” The King
Like Catherine of Aragon after her, Joan was indignant at these claims, and even produced witnesses who relayed Louis’ boasts of having Joan “three or four times during the night,” indicating he’d had no problem consummating anything. It did her absolutely no good: The Pope, Alexander VI, bent to political pressure and ruled in King Louis’ favor all the same.
Defeated, Joan stormed off to a convent…and Anne of Brittany had to step in. But she had learned a thing or two since her last marriage.
30. She Used Her Charms To Get What She Wanted
If there was one thing that rankled Anne about her previous marriage to Charles, it was his forbidding her the title Duchess of Brittany. She refused to let this happen again: Knowing how enamored Louis XII already was of her, she put her persuasive powers to good use and he soon officially recognized her with the title.
That wasn’t the only way she had Louis wrapped around her finger.
31. She Tried To Gain Control
Not only did Louis bow down to her as the Duchess of Brittany, Anne also added a powerful clause to her marriage contract. She insisted that any second child she had with Louis, be it a boy or girl, would be her own heir, meaning they would exclusively get Brittany and keep it from France.
It was a way to undo the power France had been exerting over her since her annulled marriage to Maximilian. Now, she just needed to have children.
32. She Finally Had Healthy Children
In 1499, Anne gave birth at long last to a child who would survive to adulthood: Princess Claude of France. Then, a long decade later in 1510, she gave birth to the child designated as her own personal heir, Princess Renee of France, who also made it to adulthood. Yet the story between these two triumphs was riddled with tragedy, and would end in betrayal.
Corneille de Lyon, Wikimedia Commons
33. She Still Suffered
Although Anne managed to have two healthy daughters with King Louis XII, she continued to suffer through doomed pregnancies. More tragically, at least for France’s need for a male heir, these lost children were all sons—an infant boy who died around 1501, and a stillborn son born before Renee.
Some people in court, however, delighted in these losses.
34. She Made A Powerful Enemy
One of Anne’s biggest rivals during this time was the courtier Louise of Savoy, whose son Francis was next in line for the throne provided Anne and Louis never had a son together. According to reports, each time Anne suffered a miscarriage or a stillbirth, Louise rejoiced.
All this made Louis’ betrayal of Anne that much more bitter.
Didier Descouens, Wikimedia Commons
35. She Arranged A Marriage
Almost immediately after Claude’s birth, Anne began to think about who would be politically advantageous to marry her daughter off to. In 1501, she settled on Charles of Austria for the toddler, and drew up a marriage contract for the pair. Yet the moment Louis heard of this, he was terrified—and for good reason.
François Clouet, Wikimedia Commons
36. Her Husband Worked Against Her
At the time, only-child Claude was the official heiress to Brittany, so Louis very much wanted her to marry a French royal, not a foreign one, so that Brittany would be intertwined with France once and for all. In fact, he had the perfect candidate: Louise of Savoy’s son Francis, the current heir to the French throne. His methods to get his way were diabolical.
Jean Clouet, Wikimedia Commons
37. Her King Was Two-Faced
Louis knew his wife would never support the idea of marrying Claude to the next King of France for the sake of Brittany’s subjugation. So, he stalled. In public, he did everything he could to appear open to the idea of Claude marrying Charles of Austria, but in private he worked continually for his daughter to marry Francis.
Anne was nowhere near fooled, however, and she let her husband know it.
38. She Abandoned Her Post
Despite all Louis’ wheedling and backdoor dealing, Anne refused to budge when it came to marrying off Claude to her rival’s son. Then she went one step further. Fed up with Louis, she up and left him to go tour Brittany, particularly focusing on places she hadn’t seen when she was a girl.
It was a deliberate message to Louis that she was her own woman, and the Duchess of Brittany at that. It worked almost too well.
39. She Made Him Miss Her
With Anne gone from Louis’ side, even her enemy Louise de Savoy had to admit that the king “could not be more anxious” for Anne to come back, and that he was “as wretched as can be without her”. Soon enough, the king was asking about his wife’s return up to six times a day until she finally came home.
Yet even then, his devotion to Anne never would translate into loyalty.
40. She Was Behind A Famous Tapestry
As an adult, Anne of Brittany’s royal court was a marvel. Courtiers reported her as whip-smart, if occasionally haughty, and she fostered a creative and cultivated atmosphere devoted to the arts. Most historians believe she was the one who commissioned the famous unicorn tapestries that hang in New York’s The Cloisters museum.
But the beauty Anne surrounded herself with couldn’t keep the ugliness of her life at bay.
Unknown authorUnknown author, Wikimedia Commons
41. The Royal Life Destroyed Her
By 1514, Anne had undergone a disturbing transformation. Where she had come to King Charles as a cherubic girl, she was now in her mid 30s and run down from near endless pregnancies and almost as many miscarriages or stillbirths. Reports of the time describe her as pale and frail-looking. Indeed, she was about to break.
42. She Met A Painful End
In January of 1514, a bare year after giving birth to a final still born son in 1513, the 36-year-old Anne of Brittany suffered a fatal kidney stone attack in the early hours of the morning while staying at the Chateau de Blois.
Nobody’s fool, Anne had left very specific instructions in her will…and very controversial ones.
43. She Insisted On A Burial For Her Heart
Anne’s first wishes were traditional, but we’d also consider them ghastly today. She insisted on dilaceratio corporis or the “division of the body,” which meant attendants would separate out her heart, innards, and bones and give them separate burials.
Her husband, being a Renaissance man, could handle this. He couldn’t handle her next request.
Maldoror des Esseintes, Wikimedia Commons
44. She Was A Rebel To The End
Because Anne’s eldest daughter Claude and her second daughter Renee were so far apart in age—more than 10 years—King Louis and his court had gotten used to considering Claude the heiress to Brittany, even though Anne’s marriage terms had explicitly stated this would go to the second child. Besides, having Claude as heiress was a necessary part of King Louis’ plan to marry her to Francis.
Well, Anne didn’t forget: In her will she officially named Renee as the heiress to Brittany, putting the kibosh on her husband’s machinations. Or so she thought.
anonymous / Unidentified painter, Wikimedia Commons
45. Her Husband Dismissed Her Last Wishes
King Louis may have loved Anne, but he couldn’t treat her right, not even in death. He now put forward his worst betrayal yet. Before Anne was even cold in the ground, he had totally ignored her wishes surrounding Renee and had officially made Claude the Duchess of Brittany. Then he twisted the knife in further.
Unknown authorUnknown author, Wikimedia Commons
46. Her Daughter Went To Her Rival
It wasn’t enough for King Louis to ignore his dearly departed wife’s last wishes; he also had to throw a bone to her political rival. Louis also immediately put Claude under the tutelage of Louise of Savoy—and then married the 14-year-old girl off to Francis four months after Anne’s passing.
It was a flagrant disregard for Anne, and for Francis it was also not a moment too soon.
47. He Barely Outlived Her
Although Anne had predeceased him, Louis had been struggling with health issues for years, and he deteriorated rapidly after her passing. In January 1515, almost a year to the day that Anne had died and just months after Claude’s marriage, King Louis perished from a severe case of gout.
Still, it took 17 more years for Anne’s dream of an independent Brittany to truly disappear.
Pierre-Emmanuel Malissin et Frederic Valdes, Wikimedia Commons
48. Her Life’s Work Fell Apart
Claude was now Queen Consort of France and the Duchess of Brittany, but she was nowhere near as staunch in her desires for Breton independence as her mother. Though she did resist the new King Francis’s needling to immediately collapse Brittany into the Crown, the fire within Anne’s beloved homeland was smothered a little bit more year after year.
Claude passed in 1524, and less than a decade later, in 1532, it was folded further into France as a separate province.
Louis-Marie Lante, Georges-Jacques Gatine, Wikimedia Commons
49. She Had A Secret
Anne had been trained in all the courtly arts from a young age, and she used them to hide a deformity. Thanks to a congenital displacement of her hips, she had a difference in the length of her legs and walked with a limp, as did her daughter Claude. Nonetheless, Anne used custom heeled shoes to help smooth out her walk.
Musee Dobree, Wikimedia Commons
50. She Never Gave Up
Anne was a true lioness of Brittany, and she fought the battle for its independence as long as she was drawing breath, even as those closest to her tried to tear her realm away. Her personal motto mirrored this perseverance and grit: She took the phrase Non mudera, or “I will not change”.
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