Isabelle, Duchess of Lorraine and Regent of Anjou

Isabelle, duchess of Lorraine and regent of Anjou (died 28 February 1453)

A seventeenth-century
imagined portrait of Isabella
by Ambito Fiorentino
(Uffizi)

Born about the year 1410,* Isabelle of Lorraine would inherit the duchy of Lorraine after the death of her father, Charles II ("the Bold). From 25 January 1431 until her death more than twenty years later, she was duchess of Lorraine in her own right (suo jure).

Isabelle's mother, Margaret of the Palatinate, was known for her piety, her confessor noting that she lived an "austere life," devoting herself to fasting and "wearing sack cloth." 

But Margaret didn't spend her entire life in prayer--she also appeared at the head of her husband's army, her support of the duke and her unexpected appearance credited with having scared her husband's enemies into running away. As Marion Chaigne-Legouy observes, the young Isabelle received "an extraordinary political education" (La princesse reçut vraisemblablement une éducation politique) from her mother.

In 1418, a marriage was proposed for Isabelle with René of Anjou. Negotiations for the alliance between Charles II of Lorraine and René's father, Louis II of Naples, were begun under the auspices of the cardinal of Bar (René's great uncle, on his mother's side, brother of the formidable Violant of Bar, queen of Aragon). Important, too, in the "matrimonial strategy" behind the alliance was Yolande of Aragon, duchess of Anjou, René's politically adept mother.

A treaty of marriage was signed in 1418 and ratified in 1419 after the cardinal designated René as heir to the duchy of Bar. It was hoped that the alliance would end conflicts between Bar and Lorraine. The young bride and groom were married in 1420 and began living in Lorraine, under the guardianship of Isabelle's father. 

Isabelle gave birth to her first child, a son, in 1424. He was quickly followed by a second son, in 1427, twins (a boy and a girl) in 1428, and a daughter, Margaret (who would marry Henry VI of England) in 1430. After Margaret, Isabelle of Lorraine would have five further children.

But in 1431, Isabelle's life took a slightly different turn. In addition to performing the role which she was expected to fulfill, producing an heir, she also gained a more public role. After the death of her father in 1431, she inherited the duchy of Lorraine. But her cousin, Antoine de Vaudémont (son of Duke Charles II's younger brother), disputed her inheritance and, allied with the duke of Burgundy, went to war. 

Fighting for Lorraine, Isabelle's husband René was captured at the battle of Bulgnéville and imprisoned, eventually transferred into the custody of the duke of Burgundy. Defending her rights and inheritance, Isabelle raised an army to free her husband and negotiated a cease fire. (Not to downplay René's imprisonment, but it doesn't seem to have been too tough--he received visitors, enjoyed "furloughs," and studied, painted, and pursued other activities of interest.)

Various concessions were made to free René, including one that indicated his two sons would be held as hostage for his good behavior. He was released from his imprisonment in 1432, though he had to remain in the Burgundian city of Dijon. 

After Isabelle's rights in Lorraine were recognized by the Holy Roman Emperor, Sigismund I, in 1434, René's parole was revoked, and he returned to his imprisonment. He would be held by the duke of Burgundy for two more years and released only after he paid a "punishing" ransom.

In the mean time, René of Anjou's elder brother died in 1435, and René inherited the duchy of Anjou and the county of Maine. He also inherited what historian Helen Castor has called "grandly empty titles," in particular "his ambitious grandfather's accumulations of paper claims to far-flung crowns," the kingdoms of Sicily, Naples, and Jerusalem. Still imprisoned, the new "king" of Naples sent his wife into Italy, where she was to act as regent on his behalf.

Woodcut illustration of Isabelle of Lorraine,

detail from Philippus Bergomensis, 

De Claris Mulieribus, 1497

(Harvard Art Museum, M5249)

Although Isabelle had supporters for her role in Naples, there were also opponents, including Alphonso of Aragon. Isabelle maintained under "difficult conditions" (condicions difficiles) her husband's claim to the crown of Naples until he was released from his imprisonment in 1437. The marriage of the duke of Burgundy's niece to John, Isabelle and René's eldest son, helped to effect René's release. (Unfortunately, Louis, the younger of the two boys held as hostages, died while being held as a hostage for his father.)

Once her husband was released from captivity and arrived in Naples in 1438, Isabelle of Lorraine left Italy and returned to her duchy of Lorraine. Back in Lorraine, the duchess focused her attention on consolidating her power. To that end, she was finally victorious over Antoine de Vaudémont, who agreed to give up his claim to Lorraine in 1441. Isabelle's eldest daughter, Yolande, became a "pledge of piece"--she was married to Antoine de Vaudémont's son.**

By 1442, having definitively lost Naples to Alphonso of Aragon, René of Anjou returned to France. His mother, Yolande of Aragon, who had governed Anjou in his absence, died in November of that year, after her son's return. While he remained in Anjou, Isabelle stayed in her duchy of Lorraine. 

In 1444, Isabelle's daughter, Margaret of Anjou, was betrothed to Henry VI of England. In 1445, Isabelle appointed her son, John, to act on her behalf in Lorraine. She would travel to Angers, to join her husband, in 1453. She died there, on 28 February, at the age of fifty-three, while René was preparing another expedition into Italy.

Information about Isabelle of Lorraine is found primarily in biographies of her husband, René of Anjou, and of her daughter, Margaret of Anjou. Mary Ann Hookham's The Life and Times of Margaret of Anjou, Queen of England and France, which I have linked to, above, has particularly detailed information about René, but it also has one of the most extended discussions of Isabelle that I have been able to find. 

The political role of Isabelle of Lorraine is the focus of Marion Chaigne-Legouy's "Reine «ordinaire», reine «extraordinaire» : la place de Jeanne de Laval et d’Isabelle de Lorraine dans le gouvernement de René d’Anjou," in Noël-Yves Tonnerre and Jean-Michel Matz's René d’Anjou (1409-1480): Pouvoirs et gouvernement.

*There is some uncertainty about the year of Isabelle's birth. A variety of online sources in Englsh offer the date of 1400 for Isabelle's birth, but standard reference sources like the Encyclopédie Larousse and the Nouvelle Biographie Générale indicate her date of birth as 1410. Scholarly biographies of René of Anjou, like Margaret L. Kekewich's recent The Good King: René of Anjou and Fifteenth-Century Europe, note that when René married Isabelle on 24 October 1420, he was eleven and she was ten. 

**Yolande of Anjou, born in 1428, would eventually inherit the duchy of Lorraine after the death of her nephew, Nicholas I (her elder brother John's son) in 1473. Yolande turned over the rule of Lorraine to her son, René II. When Yolande's father, René of Anjou, died in 1480, she inherited from him the duchy of Bar, and once again ceded power to her son.