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.

Agnes Randolph, countess of Dunbar: "from the record of Scotland's heroes, none can presume to erase her"

Agnes Randolph, "Black Agnes," countess of Dunbar (siege of Dunbar Castle begins 13 January 1338)

When Agnes Randolph is remembered today, it is often for her soubriquet, "Black Agnes," which adds a bit of mystery or a hint of danger, even though it refers only to her dark coloring. More important than her complexion is her five-months' long defense of Dunbar Castle against besieging English forces under the command of William Montague, first earl of Salisbury. 

The ruins of Dunbar Castle
(from The Castles of Scotland)

Agnes Randolph was the daughter of Thomas Randolph, created first earl of Moray by his uncle, Robert I of Scotland ("Robert the Bruce"). 

Randolph fought in the Scottish wars of independence, attended his uncle's coronation in 1306, was taken captive by the English at the battle of Methven, was recaptured by the Scots in 1307, commanded troops at the battle of Bannockburn in 1314, and was regent of Scotland (1329-1332) for Robert I's son, David, who at the age of five succeeded his father on the throne. Through her father, then, Agnes was a grandniece of Robert the Bruce.

Agnes's mother was Isobel Stewart of Bonkyl, the daughter of Sir John Stewart and Margaret Bonkyl, the daughter of Sir Alexander of Bonkyl. 

Although the exact date is unknown, Agnes Randolph seems to have been born about the year 1312. A papal dispensation for her marriage to Patrick de Dunbar (b. c. 1285), ninth earl of Dunbar and second (or fourth, but who’s counting, huh?) earl of March, was dated 13 August 1320. (The dispensation was needed because Agnes and Dunbar were related "in the fourth degree.") A second dispensation, dated 16 January 1324, was issued, but the two had already married by that time; according to the dispensation, they could remain married, and any children, whether born or yet to be born, were legitimate. 

But there had been no children, nor would there be. If a woman's principal duty was to provide her husband with a son and heir, Agnes failed Dunbar (who, however, had a son by his first wife, though that boy, John, seems to have predeceased his father).

Though she may have had no children, Agnes Randolph served her husband well. Rather than providing him  with a child, she preserved his castle. 

Although Dunbar had given sanctuary to Edward II after the battle of Bannockburn (1314) and helped the defeated English king escape Scotland, he was reconciled with the Scottish king, supporting him, fighting for him, and asserting Scottish independence from the English. After the battle of Halidon Hill (1433), however, he paid fealty to the English king, Edward III. Dunbar's castle was razed, and he was compelled to rebuild it at his own cost and to garrison English soldiers there.  

But Dunbar soon renounced his (coerced?) support of the English, and by the end of 1434, he rejoined Scottish forces. 

And so, in January 1438, when the English laid siege to Dunbar Castle and Dunbar way away fighting, the castle's defense was up to Alice Randolph. I love Sir Walter Scot's account in his Provincial Antiquities of Scotland: 

This stronghold was left by the earl under the command of his heroic countess, Agnes Randolph. . . . This heroine, at a time when almost all the fortresses in the south of Scotland were subdued by the enemy, defended Dunbar with a zeal and magnanimity worthy the illustrious blood which flowed in her veins. . . . Dunbar, being of the utmost consequence to both parties, the English laid close siege to it, under the command of a renowned leader, Montague, Earl of Salisbury. But he met with a more than equal adversary. . . .

Scott's account of the siege of Dunbar castle is filled with delightful anecdotes about Alice Randolph's defense, but these incidents are repeated in more sober accounts as well, such as the entry on her in the Dictionary of National Biography and in Ben Johnson's essay at Historic UK.

Among her other acts of defiance, Agnes ridicules her adversaries by sending out young women with handkerchiefs to dust off the walls of the castle at the end of every day's battering by the English. She crushes a huge siege engine brought to the castle by dropping a giant bolder onto the machinery and smashing it. And when her captive brother, the earl of Moray, is brought before the castle and the besiegers threaten to hang him unless Agnes surrenders the castle, she tells them to go ahead--if they kill her brother, she will then inherit the earldom, becoming countess of Moray. Salisbury tries to bribe the gatekeeper to gain access by trickery, and he attempts to starve out the defenders, without success. 

Fanciful accounts of the siege or not, the English withdrew after the castle was relieved by Sir Alexander Ramsay, who avoided the blockade of the harbor and was able to resupply it. The English siege of Dunbar Castle ended on 10 June, when Salisbury and his army withdrew.

After the siege of Dunbar Castle, we lose sight of Agnes Randolph--or, at least, I haven't been able to locate much information at all about her life after 1338. When her brother--the one who had been threatened with death at the siege of Dunbar Castle--died in 1346, the earldom reverted to the crown, but Agnes and her sister, Isobel, inherited significant properties, including "the Isle of Man, the lordship of Annandale, the baronies of Morton and Tibber in Nithsdale, of Mordington, Longformacus, and Dunse in Berwickshire, of Mochrum in Galloway, Cumnock in Ayrshire, and Blantyre in Clydesdale." 

Interestingly, however, Dunbar seems to have claimed the title of earl of Moray in his wife's right. According to James Balfour's The Scots Peerage, "Some time after 1346 the Earl assumed the title of Moray, in addition to that of March, and he appears as Earl of March and Moray in Parliament, on 31 August 1358." In a 1359 charter, Dunbar is referred to as earl of Moray, and we see the same reference in a charter dated 24 May 1367: "Patricius de Dunbar, Comes Marchie et Morauie." 

Agnes Randolph's seal,

from Rachel Meredith Davis,

"Material evidence? Re-Approaching

Elite Women’s Seals and Charters

in Late Medieval Scotland"

(Proceedings of the Society

of Antiquaries of Scotland)

To this same document is appended the seal of Agnes Randolph, described in detail by Rachel Meredith Davis:

The slightly damaged seal features four shields arranged crosswise, coming to a point at the centre of the seal. The seal bears the arms of [Agnes's] natal and marital lineages. Reading the seal from the top, clockwise, it features the arms of Scotland, a lion rampant within a double tressure; the arms of Randolph (Moray), three cushions within a double tressure; and the arms of March and Dunbar, which were the same, a lion rampant in a border charged with eight roses, represented on two distinct shieldsh. The legend is damaged, but reads "…GNETIS CO[M]ITISSE MAR…ET MOR…" which suggests that the legend corresponded to the way in which she was named in the charter as "Agnes Countess of March and Moray [Agnes comitissa Marchie et Moravie]."

As Davis also notes, "The claims to Moray were perhaps exaggerated, as she was the daughter of the Earl of Moray but she did not have possession of the earldom."

This seal is the last documented reference to Agnes Randolph. Fiona Watson's entry for Patrick Dunbar in the online Dictionary of National Biography indicates that Agnes Dunbar died in 1369, at about the time her husband died.

During her life, she spent some time at Mordington House, owned by her father, and it is claimed that she is buried in a vault there. 

The description of Agnes Randolph in the title of this post ("from the record of Scotland's heroes, none can presume to erase her") comes from Sir Walter Scott.

There is an extended account of the siege of Dunbar Castle in John Parker Lawson's 1839 Historical Tales of the Wars of Scotland And of the Border Raids, Forays and Conflicts. Click here (this link takes you to the 1849 edition, available to read at Google Books).

There seems to be no book about Agnes Randolph, not even a work of fiction--if anyone deserves a historical novel, she does . . . 

Anne of Burgundy, Duchess of Bedford, and Joan of Arc

Anne of Burgundy, duchess of Bedford (born 30 September 1404) 

Anne of Burgundy, kneeling
praying to St. Anne,
from the Bedford Hours
(British Library MS Add 18850,
fol. 257v)

Born in Arras on 30 September 1404, Anne of Burgundy was the daughter of John II, duke of Burgundy, and Margaret of Bavaria--to be more specific, Anne was the sixth of seven daughters born to the couple. 

Although she died when she was still quite young--she was just twenty-eight at the time of her death--Anne of Burgundy was nevertheless one of several notable women in her family who played key roles during the Hundred Years' War. 

Anne's mother was regent of Burgundy twice, first on behalf of her husband and then on behalf of her son, Philip III, duke of Burgundy. 

Anne's elder sister, Margaret, was betrothed to Charles, the dauphin of France (son of Charles VI), in 1394, when she was three years old, but Charles died in 1401. Two years later, in 1403, she married, Louis, who had become dauphin after the death of his brother. (Louis died in 1415, leaving her, at age sixteen, a widow for the second time.)

Anne's sister-in-law was the politically adept infanta Isabel of Portugal, who married Anne's brother, Philip III (Isabel was his third wife) in 1430. (Isabel's son, Charles the Bold, was the father of Mary of Burgundy, the mother of Margaret of Austria; he married--as his third wife--Margaret of York.) 

And here's a connection to recent posts on this blog about the Breton War of Succession: Anne's younger sister, Isabelle, married Olivier, count of Penthièvre, the grandson of Jeanne de Penthièvre, duchess of Brittany. She was only six when she married in 1406, and she died in 1412. 

(There are probably many other connections I'm missing, but these are the ones that spring immediately to mind.)

So, back to Anne of Burgundy herself. Details about her childhood are scanty. After her birth in Arras, Anne spent much of her childhood in the ducal palace in Dijon. In 1412, when she was about seven years old, Anne traveled with her mother and two sisters to Paris. In 1418, when she was about thirteen, she left her mother and Dijon and lived with her younger sister, Agnes, the two spending at least some time at the château Montbard, another ducal residence. Anne and Agnes were at Montbard when they learned of their father's assassination on 10 September 1419. She attended a ceremony in his honor in October, though with an empty coffin--his body was not returned to Dijon until 1420.

The finances of Burgundy were under severe stress at this point--Anne's brother, the new duke, finding that money was scarce and the expenses of his mother and sisters were great. And thus, by 1420, he was eager to arrange a marriage for Anne.  

As early as 1412, Anne's father had sought to marry Anne to Henry IV's eldest son, Henry, but after the prince succeeded his father in 1413, becoming Henry V, that alliance no longer made sense for the new English king. After the signing of the 1420 treaty of Troyes, in which Charles VI of France disinherited his son in favor of Henry V, Henry V married Katherine of Valois, the daughter of Charles VI and his queen, Isabeau of Bavaria.

Still, Burgundy sought to position itself advantageously during the contest between England and France, so an English alliance remained desireable. Philip III, duke of Burgundy, arranged a marriage to strengthen the ties between Burgundy and England. His sister, Anne of Burgundy, was married to the English king's younger brother, John of Lancaster, duke of Bedford. At the same time, Anne's twice-widowed sister, Margaret, was married to Arthur, count of Richmond.)

John of Lancaster was the third son of Henry IV of England. John was born on 20 June 1389, just two days after the signing of a truce between the English and the French, though disputes between the two countries continued. In 1399, after Richard II was deposed, John of Lancaster's father had become the king of England. As Henry IV consolidated power in England, France was involved in civil wars, but after Henry IV's death in 1413, his successor, Henry V, turned once more to war in France. 

In 1414, the new king had awarded his brother, John, the title duke of Bedford. By 1415, when Henry V left England for France, Bedford was experienced not only in military campaigns but in government. During his brother's absence, Bedford governed on his behalf, serving three separate times as lieutenant of the kingdom. After Henry V's death in 1422, Bedford had become regent of France for the new king, Henry VI, then just a few months old. He was also made Lord Protector of England, although he would continue to manage affairs in France. 

In the castle of Montbard, Anne was married by proxy to Bedford in April 1423. The formal marriage ceremony of the eighteen-year-old Anne of Burgundy to the thirty-three-year-old John, duke of Bedford took place in Troyes on 13 May 1423 as a result of the negotiations of the treaty of Amiens, the so-called Triple Alliance. (The treaty negotiated an alliance between England, Burgundy, and Brittany.) 

While the military, diplomatic, and political activities of John, duke of Bedford, figure in a great number of historical sources, much less is available for Anne of Burgundy. Interestingly, one of the most detailed sources of information about Anne's life is an article on the duke of Bedford's will. Another focuses not so much on Anne's life but on her death--or, rather, on the tomb effigy commissioned by her brother, Philip III. 

For many of the brief glimpses of her life, we need to look at histories of the Hundred Years War or at the biographies of her brother and her husband (although, to be fair, while there are many articles about her husband, there seems to be only one full-length biography of John, duke of Bedford). One of the most accessible of these sources is William Hunt's entry for Bedford, in the old (nineteenth-century) edition of the Dictionary of National Biography.

Hunt notes that by 1419, several marriage alliances had been proposed for John: to Jacqueline of Bavaria, the widow of Jean, the fourth son of Charles VI and Isabeau of Bavaria (he was also the fourth dauphin of France); to the daughter  of Frederic IV, burgrave of Nuremberg; to Isabella, the daughter of Charles II, duke of Lorraine (she later married René of Anjou); and, in Hunt's words, "to some kinswoman of Sigismund," the Holy Roman Emperor.

For various reasons, none of these marriages had worked out for him, so John was available when the alliance with Burgundy offered itself. In his biography of Anne's brother, Philip III ("the Good"), Richard Vaughan notes that the "bait" for Bedford was "financial and territorial" rather than personal, for Anne and her sisters were described by a contemporary as being "plain as owls." Despite Burgundy's financial problems, the agreed-upon dowry was generous: "it was agreed that the girl's dowry should be 150,000 gold crowns, and that, in case Philip [of Rurgundy] died without a male heir, [Anne] should succeed to the county of Artois, or, if Philip left an heir, she should receive 100,000 gold crowns." The very beautiful book of hours, now known as the Bedford Hours, was given to Anne as a wedding gift. 

A sixteenth-century drawing of the

Hôtel des Tournelles

After they were married "with great magnificence" at Troyes, the couple lived in Paris at the palace of Tournelles. There, the duchess became her husband's "zealous collaborator." Just a year after their marriage, in August 1424, she interceded for a group of soldiers who  had been sent to Paris for execution--in response to Anne's intercession, Bedford freed the men. 

In January 1425, Anne was with her husband when he returned to England. A year later, they were back in Paris in April and then, in 1427, they were on to Flanders. In 1428, Bedford reluctantly agreed to the English siege of Orléans--a siege that failed with the arrival of Joan of Arc. 

In 1429, Anne's brother, Philip of Burgundy, was in Paris and, in Hunt's words, "renewed his alliance, being influenced, it is said, by his sister, the Duchess of Bedford." Historian B.-A. Pocquet du Haut-Jussé also stresses Anne's role in maintaining the alliance between England and Burgundy: "It is indisputable [il est incontestabile] that the duchess Anne intervened with all her power [toutes ses forces] to maintain an alliance between her husband and her brother"--an alliance that she saw as necessary for both of them. 

In June of this year, 1429, while marching to Orléans, Bedford made his will, designating his wife as his principal executor and describing her as his "very dear and beloved" wife--she was not only the primary executor, she was also his primary beneficiary.

While her husband continued his military campaign, Anne traveled to Flanders with her brother, but she returned to Paris. Later, Bedford established himself in Rouen, and Anne joined him there. It was in Rouen, in 1431, that Joan of Arc was brought after her capture by Burgundian troops in 1430. 

At this point, Anne steps briefly out of the background, although she makes her appearance only in the words of others, not in words she spoke herself. After Joan had been brought to Rouen, she seems to have undergone a test of her virginity, an examination that Anne, the duchess of Bedford, may have overseen. (I say "seems" and "may have" because no mention of this examination is found in the ample trial records that survive--the testimony to this examination is from the 1455-56 Trial of Rehabilitation.)

According to one of the men who had been at Joan's Trial of Condemnation, Joan herself wished to prove her virginity by means of such an examination, "provided it be done by decent women, as is the custom." Another witness contributed a bit of hearsay: "I heard it said by one, whom I no longer remember, that Joan was examined by some matrons and that she was found to be a virgin and that this examination had been made by order of the Duchess of Bedford." (This same witness adds a bit of creepiness to his testimony, saying that he'd also heard the duke of Bedford hid himself so he could watch Joan being examined . . . ) 

A third claimed firsthand knowledge. According to this witness, "I know well that she was examined to discover if she was a virgin or not by some matrons and midwives, and that on the orders of the Duchess of Bedford and notably by Anna Bavon and another matron whose name I do not remember." He went on to say that he had heard directly from Bavon that Joan "was a virgin intact" and, for this reason, the duchess of Bedford, "had the warders and others forbidden to offer her [Joan] any violence."

In the same year, we catch another glimpse of Anne of Burgundy in Rouen, when the duchess presented the Bedford Hours as a Christmas present to the nine-year-old Henry VI, just before his coronation, a gift recorded by the king's tutor in a note in the manuscript (fol. 256r) just preceding the two portrait miniatures of the duke and the duchess (see the first image in this post, above right).

Anne of Burgundy, duchess of Bedford,
marble effigy,
formerly in the Church of the Celestines
(now in the Louvre Museum, Paris)

But just two years later, on 13 November 1432, Anne, duchess of Bedford, died in Paris. As a contemporary, known as the "bourgeois of Paris," noted in his journal, she died in a time of "great death" in the city. He gives fulsome praise to the woman he describes as the duchess of Bedford, wife of the regent of France, and sister of the duke of Burgundy:

the most pleasant of all women who were then in France, because she was good and beautiful, and of good age, for she was only twenty-eight years old when she died; and certainly, she was well loved by the people of Paris. And it is true that she died in the Hôtel de Bourgon, near the Louvre, on the twelfth day of November, two hours after midnight between Thursday and Friday, about which those [men and women] of Paris spoke a great deal of their hope, but also of their pain.

Anne of Burgundy, duchess of Bedford, was buried in Paris in the convent church of the Celestines in the Marais. Because many members of royal families were buried in the church, it was desecrated during the French Revolution and eventually the remains were demolished in the nineteenth century.

In his 1934 analysis of the duke of Bedford's will, B.-A. Pocquet du Haut-Jussé claims that the duke's decision to designate his wife as his primary executor and beneficiary represents a testament that Anne was a a "tenderly loved wife." In his biography of Anne's brother, Richard Vaughan notes that Anne and her husband "apparently became fond of each other."

These assertions about the state pf the couple's relationship persist. In his 1984 article on Anne of Burgundy's tomb, Jeffrey Chipps Smith wrote that, although the couple had been "childless," they had been "happily married." This view is repeated elsewhere--it appears in Janet Backhouse's 1985 Books of Hours ("one of the happiest love matches of the period") and in online blog posts and the Wikipedia entry for Anne of Burgundy. 

I wish I knew the source of the claim. None of the sources I've mentioned here supports this conclusion with a reference to documentary evidence. Still, I'd like to think it was so . . . 

Anne of Burgundy, duchess of Bedford
(Louvre Museum);
Jeffrey Chipps Smith writes that her hair is
"tightly trussed in a pearl ornamented hairnet" that
culminates in a bicorne, or two horned, headdress 
around which a richly jewelled crown is placed"

The most complete biographical information about Anne of Burgundy is B.-A. Pocquet du Haut-Jussé, “Anne de Bourgogne et le Testament de Bedford (1429)” Bibliothèque de l’École Des Chartes 95 (1934): 284–326. Also extremely useful is Jeffrey Chipps Smith, "The Tomb of Anne of Burgundy, Duchess of Bedford, in the Musée du Louvre" Gesta 23, no. 1 (1984): 39-50. 

Jeanne de Penthièvre: "the Courage of a Man and of a Lion"

Jeanne de Penthièvre, duchess of Brittany (died 10 September 1384)

A year ago, I wrote about Joanna of Flanders, countess of Montfort, and her involvement in the War of the Breton Succession, and just last month, I posted an essay about another Jeanne, Jeanne de Belleville, who was also caught up in the conflict over the duchy of Brittany, an independent state. Both of these women gained a reputation for their activities during the war, Joanna of Flanders as "la flamme" (or, "fiery Joanna") and Jeanne de Belleville as an avenger of her husband's death. 

But there is a third woman caught up in this conflict over Brittany, Jeanne de Penthièvre. She did not have quite as colorful a life as her two contemporaries, though the trauma and tragedy she faced were much like the traumas and tragedies the other women suffered.

An imagined portrait of 

Jeanne de Penthièvre

from Jacques de Boucq's 

Receuil de portraits historiques

(image 107, fol. 045r)

Born about the year 1325,* Jeanne de Penthièvre was the daughter of Guy II de Bretagne and Jeanne d'Avaugour, the daughter of Henri d'Avaugour, count of Penthièvre. 

Guy de Bretagne was the younger son of Arthur II, duke of Brittany, and his wife, Marie of Limoges. Guy's elder brother, John (or Jean) III, became duke of Brittany after the death of Arthur II. 

But Arthur of Brittany had remarried after the death of his wife, and his second wife bore him another son, John de Montfort. Notably, John III detested his father's second wife and after his father's death, John III attempted to have the marriage annulled posthumously and to have his half siblings declared illegitimate. Remember John de Montfort . . . 

Meanwhile, following his wife's death in 1327, Guy de Bretagne married another Jeanne, Jeanne de Belleville--but, as you may already know if you've read the earlier post for Jeanne de Belleville, this marriage was annulled by the pope in 1330 after complaints by Guy's family about its legitimacy--and there was also some involvement by Charles of Blois, nephew of the king of France, Philip VI, in the annulment of this marriage. (Even though Jeanne de Belleville's marriage to Guy was annulled, she was still pulled into the Breton war of succession by her marriage to Olivier de Clisson.)

After the failure of his marriage to Jeanne de Belleville, Guy tried again, this time allying himself with Marie of Blois--who just so happened to be Philip VI's niece and Charles of Blois' sister. A dispensation for the two to marry during Lent was issued on 12 February 1331. But on 26 March, just a few weeks later, Guy de Bretagne died before the marriage occurred His only child, his daughter Jeanne de Penthièvre, was his heir. 

After her father's death, which occurred when she was about eleven years old, Jeanne became countess of Penthièvre in her own right. From her father, she also inherited a claim to the duchy of Brittany. But in 1331, her uncle, John III, was still alive, and although his first two marriages had been childless, he had married for a third time in 1330. 

In the meantime, arrangements were being made for Jeanne de Penthièvre's marriage. In 1335, negotiations for her match to John, earl of Cornwall, King Edward III's younger brother, were begun, but the projected alliance with England did not materialize. (In any case, John of Cornwall died in September of 1336--maybe his death is the reason the negotiations were abandoned.) Instead, on 4 June 1337, Jeanne was married to Charles of Blois, the French king's nephew. (Remember him? He was involved in having Guy of Penthièvre's marriage to Jeanne of Belleville annulled, and his sister, Marie of Blois, would have been married to Guy of Penthièvre if he had not died . . . hmm.) With her marriage to Charles of Blois, Jeanne, countess of Penthièvre, became countess of Blois. 

I've spent a lot of time here noting all of these relationships and interrelationships because after John III, duke of Brittany, died on 30 April 1341, still childless, all hell broke loose about who would succeed him--the result was the so-called War of the Breton Succession. 

Without a direct male heir to succeed John III as duke of Brittany, who was to inherit the duchy? The two claimants were Jeanne de Penthièvre, only heir of John III's younger brother Guy, and John de Montfort, John III's half brother. 

The critical question was to be which of these claims took precedence. When Arthur II, duke of Brittany, died, he had been succeeded by John III, his eldest son by his first wife. When John III died, himself childless, his younger brother Guy was also dead, and Guy's daughter, Jeanne de Penthièvre, was her father's heir. But Arthur II of Brittany had a third son, still living, John de Montfort, the child of Arthur and his second wife. 

So, did John III's younger brother, Guy, have a right of succession to the duchy of Brittany? And, if so, could a daughter--in this case, Guy's daughter--inherit her father's rights of succession? Or did the succession belong to the next eldest male heir in the line? That is, did John de Montfort, as the only surviving son of Arthur II, have a right of succession? In sum: since John III had no direct male heir, who had the better claim: his half brother or his niece?

Here is an analysis of the problem from historian Dan Moorhouse: since John III died childless, the question of inheritance "reverted back to his father [Arthur II], with claims being made against lineage from him." Arthur had been married twice--John III and Guy were the sons of his first wife, Marie, countess of Limoges. Although Guy had died before his elder brother, he had an heir, Jeanne; if her right to inherit was recognized, she would become duchess of Brittany, and her husband, Charles of Blois, would become duke of Brittany "by right of her claim." Moorhouse continues: Arthur II of Brittany had been married a second time, to Yolande de Dreux, and with her he had another son, John de Montfort. If the right of inheritance was "to the male with the closest lineage, then he would inherit." 

It was not as if John III were unaware of the explosive situation. According to the contemporary chronicler Jean Froissart, the duke's intentions were for his niece to succeed him: "It seemed to the duke, that the daughter of his brother-german ought, by reason of her proximity, to have the duchy after his death, in preference to the earl of Montfort, his [half] brother. And as he had long had his suspicions that the earl of Montfort would, after his decease, enforce his claim, to the prejudice of his young niece, with all his [Montfort's] power, he had married her to the lord Charles of Blois, with the intent that the king of France, his [Charles of Blois'] uncle, might more powerfully assist him in preserving his rights, should the earl of Montfort attempt to encroach on them." 

So that was the state of affairs after the death of John III, duke of Brittany. The succession of Jeanne de Penthièvre was recognized by the parlement of Paris and by the king of France--Philip VI accepted the homage of her husband, his nephew Charles of Blois, on 7 September 1341. Although Jeanne's right to inherit Brittany would trigger decades of war, she would assert her right to be recognized as duchess of Brittany for twenty-three years, from this date until she was forced to relinquish the title in 1364. 

Despite the French king's recognizion of Jeanne's claims to Brittany, John de Montfort had arrived in Nantes after John III's death and seems to have been recognized there as duke in May of 1341. According to Froissart, he "held a solemn court, and a great feast at Nantes. Summons were ordered to be sent to all the barons and nobles of Brittany, and to the councils of the great towns. Inviting them to attend this court, to do their fealty and homage as to their true lord, which was done."

But by October 1341, Charles of Blois and his forces reached Nantes, and the city surrendered to him. John de Montfort was captured and imprisoned in the Louvre, his wife, Joanna of Flanders, carrying on the fight without him. Although John de Montfort was eventually released, he died in 1345, leaving his wife to continue the struggle, claiming the inheritance of Brittany for her son.

Jeanne de Penthièvre's seal
1369

As for Jeanne de Penthièvre. Her husband, Charles of Blois, was initially successful in pursuing her claims to Brittany, and after John de Montfort's capture and imprisonment, it seemed as if the pair had been victorious. Joanna of Flanders, however, continued to pursue war, in her son's name, and Charles of Blois was taken captive by the English in 1347. He was taken to England, where he was imprisoned in the Tower of London.

Although there are records documenting Jeanne's role in the administration of Brittany from the time she claimed the title of duchess, it was after her husband's capture that she played a more active role. She took command of Charles of Blois' troops, leading them into battle. In Froissart's words, she "takes the war with a great will." In a later version of his chronicle, he adds that she "held the bridle to the teeth and showed the courage of a man and of a lion," reminding her husband's forces that they fought for her two sons. 

At this point, the war for Brittany had become a fight between two women, two Jeannes, as the chronicler noted: "[Jeanne de Penthièvre] waged as good and strong a war against [Joanna, or Jeanne,] the Countess of Montfort and her people as had my lord Charles, her husband, and his people before."

During her husband's captivity, Jeanne de Penthièvre also sought assistance from the pope, attempted to engage Edward III in negotiations to settle the Breton conflict, and even suggested a marriage between one of the English king's daughters and one of her sons. She attended peace talks in Calais in 1351, one of the results of which was the marriage of her daughter, Marguerite, to Charles de la Cerda ("Charles of Spain"), who was appointed constable of France by his cousin, John II, who had succeeded Philip VI in 1350. Jeanne also involved Breton religious leaders, barons, and citizens of the towns as she negotiated for her husband's release--for one thing, she would have to pay a huge ransom, and she would need support in Brittany from all these groups. 

In 1353, three of Jeanne de Penthièvre's children were sent to England as part of the negotiations for her husband's release--her daughter Marie, and her two sons, Jean and Guy. Charles of Blois was finally relieased from captivity--after nine years, he was ransomed in 1356. When he returned to Brittany, he was accompanied only by his daughter. His sons would remain in England for decades.

Back in Brittany, Charles of Blois resumed the title of duke, and the war for control of Brittany recommenced. But within three years he was dead; Charles of Blois was killed on 29 September 1364 at the battle of Auray, after which Jeanne de Penthièvre was forced to relinquish her claims to the duchy, ceding them to the son of Joanna of Flanders and John de Montfort (he was also named John, becoming John IV of Brittany). 

Jeanne de Penthièvre did not lose everything, however. She may have lost the title of duchess of Brittany, but by the terms of the first treaty of Guérande, she retained her rights to Penthièvre and Avaugour, she was exempt from paying homage to the new duke, and she received a pension. She also retain some claim to Brittany--if the Montfort dukes failed to produce an heir, her descendants would inherit.** 

In the years following the loss of her title, Jeanne de Penthièvre endeavored to have her husband, Charles of Blois, canonized. Charles had always been a pious man (despite all the fighting!), and as early as 1366, groups had begun traveling to the monastery of the Cordeliers in Guincamp to pray at his tomb. A few cures were attributed to him, as were a miracle or two. An investigation into his case began in 1368 and continued until 1371, after which the report was sent to Avignon. The case was under review throughout the papacies of Gregory XI, Clement VII, and Urban VI, but Charles was never canonized. His case was reopened in 1894, and Charles of Blois was beatified in 1904.

During this same period, Jeanne struggled to repay debts that she and her husband had incurred in their long struggle for Brittany. After the Montfort duke of Brittany, John IV, was forced into exile in 1373--he had tried to strike a balance between his English allies and the Breton lords, and he had failed--she also attempted to reclaim her rights in the duchy, actions which brought her into increasing conflict with Charles V, now king of France (he was Philip VI's grandson). 

When the king attempted to bring the independent duchy of Brittany under French control in 1379, Jeanne de Penthièvre briefly united with her old enemies. The combined efforts of the barons of Brittany brought the Montfort duke back to the duchy and preserved its independence.

Cenotaph of
Jeanne de Penthièvre

After Charles V's death in 1380, a second treaty of Guérande was negotiated with his son and successor, Charles VI. Jeanne signed the second treaty on 2 May 1381. It confirmed the terms which the earlier treaty had laid out. 

Although no longer duchess of Brittany, Jeanne de Penthièvre lived in a peaceful Brittany for the rest of her life. Jeanne spent the last years of her life in La Roche-Darrien, where her husband had been fighting when he was taken captive by the English in 1347. 

She died on 10 September 1384. Notice of her death is preserved in a contemporary chronicle of Brittany: "Lady Jeanne, daughter of Guy of Brittany, count of Penthièvre, and Jeanne of Avaugour, duchess of Brittany, wife of Charles of Blois of good memory (Pendomina Johanna filia D. Guidonis de Britannia Penthevriæ comitiis, Johannæque de Avalgorio...ducissa Britanniæ uxor bonæ memoriæ Caroli de Blesis). The necrology of Notre Dame de Beauport (Brittany) also records the death of Jeanne, duchess of Brittany, in 1384. 

She is buried at the Franciscan monastery, the Cordeliers à Guingamp, where her father, mother, and husband are also buried.

Jeanne de Penthièvre had six children: Marguerite de Blois-Châtillon (1339-c. 1354), Marie de Blois-Châtillon (1343-1404), Jean I de Blois-Châtillon, comte de Penthièvre (1345-1404), Guy de Blois-Châtillon (b. before 1347-d. 1385), Henri de Blois-Châtillon (c. 1356-c. 1400), and Charles de Blois-Châtillon (b. and d. before 1364).

• In 1352, Marguerite de Blois-Châtillon married Charles de la Cerda, who was given the title count of Angoulême. Charles "the Spaniard" was a descendant of both Alfonso X of Spain and of Louis IX of France. 
• Marie de Blois-Châtillon married Louis I, duke of Anjou, son of John II of France, in 1360. Historian Erika Graham-Goering notes that Marie was sent to England, along with her brothers Jean and Guy, as a hostage. She was the only one of the three to return to Brittany when her father was ransomed in 1356.
• Jean de Blois-Châtillon became count of Penthièvre and continued to claim the duchy of Brittany. He remained as a hostage in England until 1387--Graham-Goering notes that he was finally released with the assistance of Olivier de Clisson, and the following year he married Olivier's daughter, Marguerite de Clisson (Jeanne de Belleville's granddaughter!).
• A reference in his father's canonization file indicates that Guy de Blois-Châtillon was still a hostage in England. Graham-Goering indicates that he died there in 1385, a year after his mother's death.
• Henri de Blois-Châtillon was likely born after his father was released from captivity in 1356. Graham-Goering notes a reference, dated 1365, that says he is in the care of nourrices, suggesting that he was still a small child. Graham-Goering also writes that along with his mother, Henri swore on 2 May 1381 to uphold the terms of the seconed treaty of Guérande. In 1382, when his brother-in-law Louis, duke of Anjou, went to Italy to claim the crown of Naples, Henri went with him. There, at some point after 1385 (when her first husband died), he married Giacobella Caetani. Henri is named in a legal document dated 31 July 1400, the last surviving reference to him.
• Charles de Blois-Châtillon (d. before 1364). According to Graham-Goering, this child "probably died in infancy."

In her assessment Jeanne de Penthièvre, Graham-Goering concludes that she "was an active and determined ruler who maintained her claim to the duchy throughout a war of succession and even after her eventual defeat." 

*The years given for Jeanne de Penthièvre's birth vary widely--here, I have used the date provided by Erika Graham-Goering in her full-length study, Princely Power in Late Medieval France: Jeanne de Penthièvre and the War for Brittany. She notes that a 1337 betrothal contract indicates that Jeanne will be "of an age to bear children in a year or two" and that her "intelligence" could "make up for age," suggesting she is "about 10 or 12 years old" at the time. Twelve was the canonical age for marriage for girls: "The marriageable age is fourteen full years in males and twelve full years in females, under penalty of nullity (unless natural puberty supplies the want of years)."

**Although the treaty of Guérande was intended to settle the War of the Breton Succession, it was not quite successful. In 1420, another John de Montfort, duke of Brittany (this one is John V, John IV's son) was abducted by Olivier, the count of Penthièvre, and his brother, Charles de Avaugour (the grandsons of Jeanne). They held John for five months before his release was negotiated. As a result of his abduction and captivity, John V declared that the treaty settling the Breton War of Succession had been abrogated, thus ending any future Penthièvre claims. So, when Francis II, duke of Brittany (John IV's grandson), died in 1488 without a male heir, the rights of inheritance to the duchy of Brittany did not revert to the Penthièvres--Francis II was succeeded by his daughter, Anne of Brittany.

Jeanne de Belleville, "Breathing with Vengeance"

Jeanne Louise de Belleville (sentenced to banishment on 26 August 1343)

Born in the year 1300, Jeanne de Belleville was the daughter of Maurice IV Montaigu, seigneur of Belleville and Palluau, and Létice de Parthenay. To save you from a quick Google check, I will note that Belleville and Palluau are both in the Loire valley (Pays de la Loire), in the province of Poitou, just south of Brittany, while Parthenay was then in the Aquitaine, also on the border between France and Brittany. Remember the Brittany part . . . 

Jeanne's Belleville coat-of-arms

Most of the accessible information about Jeanne de Belleville focuses on her "career" as a pirate, and we'll get to that. But her life is more than a rollicking narrative of a swashbuckling female pirate.

A bit more about her family history first. Jeanne's mother, Létice de Parthenay, was Maurice Montaigu's second wife--he was first married to Sybille de Chateaubriant. Some sources claim that Sybille gave birth to a daughter, named Olive, while others indicate that Olive was Létice's daughter. And according to various sources, Maurice's second wife, Létice, gave birth to birth to a son, Maurice V, as well as to Jeanne (saying nothing about Olive). 

The most complete and seemingly reliable genealogical information that I've found, one documenting its claims with references to contemporary records, indicates that Maurice V was born during Maurice IV's first marriage, to Sybille, and thus he was Jeanne's half-brother. And this source does not refer to any daughter named Olive. (For another reliable source, the Dictionnaire historique et généalogique des familles du Poitou. click here.)

Sorry, but I love these complicated bits of genealogical information and the research involved. In any case, brother or half-brother, Maurice V succeeded his father when Maurice IV died between 1304 and 1308--dates vary, depending on the source. 

In 1312, when she was twelve years old,* Jeanne was married to Geoffrey de Châteaubriant VIII. She quickly gave birth to two children: a son, Geoffrey, in 1314, and a daughter, Louise, in 1316. Just four years later, in 1320, Jeanne's brother, Maurice V, died--although he had married twice, he had no children to succeed him, leaving Jeanne to inherit both Montaigu and Belleville. As a result, she gained control of "a great domain": "La Garnache, Beauvoir-sur-Mer, Palluau, Belleville, Les Deffens, Montaigu, Châteaumur et les îles de Bouin, Noirmoutier et Yeu. . . ." 

But by 1326, Jeanne's husband was dead and Jeanne was a widow. Two years later, in 1328, Jeanne married for a second time. Her new husband was Guy de Bretagne, count of Penthièvre, the second son of Arthur II, duke of Brittany. At the time of the marriage, Guy's older brother, John, had succeeded his father as duke of Brittany. The two brothers had long-standing conflicts, and there were objections to the match, instigated by the Charles of Blois (who would later go to war over the ducal title). 

After an investigation carried out by the bishops of Vannes and Rennes, the marriage was annulled in 1330 by Pope John XXII, who immediately made up the loss of a wife to Guy by authorizing his marriage to Marie of Blois, niece of the French king. Unfortunately, poor Guy died before he could remarry--his claims to Brittany--whatever they might be--were passed to his daughter, Jeanne de Penthièvre. (Still reminding you to keep Brittany in mind.) 

And so, by age thirty, Jeanne de Belleville was the mother of two children, and she had been widowed and had a marriage annulled. In 1330, she married for a third time. Olivier IV de Clisson was a Breton lord who was a vassal of the duke of Brittany. The marriage was advantageous for both--their combined territories (Olivier's were in southwest Brittany, Jeanne's in Poitou and Châteaubriant) made them a power in the region.

Territories of Jeanne de Belleville and 
Olivier de Clisson
(map by Carical Rooikat)

In the years immediately following their marriage, all was well. Jeanne gave birth to four children: Maurice (b. 1333-d. 1334), Olivier, who would succeed his father as Olivier V de Clisson (b. 1336), Guillaume (b. 1338), and Jeanne (b. 1340). 

At this point, Jeanne lived a life that was completely expected for a woman of her social class: described as having a "sweet" and "timid" character, she cared for her family, rode and hunted, and managed not only her own estate but her husband's, during his frequent absences. She did sue him once, though--evidently to enforce some element of her marriage contract--but even that seems to have been normal.

As for Olivier, he followed Philip de Valois, later King Philip VI of France, in a number of actions against the English before and during the Hundred Years' War (he was on military campaigns with Philip at various times between 1324 and 1338). During these years he also maintained ties with John III, duke of Brittany, even named as a beneficiary in the codicil to the duke's will (1341). 

Now here is the Brittany part of Jeanne de Belleville’s story: 

The death of the duke of Brittany triggered what has become known as "The War of the Breton Succession," which played out against the Hundred Years' War, pitting John de Montfort, John III's half brother (backed by Edward III of England) against Charles of Blois, married to John III's niece (backed by Philip VI of France). Interestingly, two women figured prominently in this war over the succession: John de Montfort's wife, Joanna of Flanders, and Charles of Blois' wife, Jeanne de Penthièvre, through whom he made his claim to Brittany.

During the conflict over the succession, Olivier de Clisson supported Charles of Blois (though some members of the family supported the Montfort claim, and early in 1342 his brother, Amaury, changed sides and declared his support for John de Monfort as well). 

After an extended siege at the English-controlled city of Vannes in 1342--it was captured by Charles of Blois, retaken by the forces of Montfort, returned to the control of the Blois army, then once again under siege by the English--Olivier de Clisson was captured by the victorious English forces. He was taken to England, but ultimately redeemed for what seemed to Philip VI and his counselors as a suspiciously small ransom. (For an extended account of all this by the contemporary chronicler, Jean Froissart, click here, pp. 119-24)

A detail from the Belleville Breviary,

produced for Jeanne de Belleville

(Bibliothèque nationale de France.

Département des Manuscrits. Latin 10483)

On his release and return to France in July 1343, Olivier was lured to his death by a ruse--invited to participate in a tournament, he was instead arrested by order of the French king "in front of the entire court" and taken as a prisoner. Without a trial, Olivier de Clisson was executed on 2 August 1343--he was beheaded, his body left hanging on a gibbet and his head sent to the Breton city of Nantes, where it was displayed on a pike. This brutal action was shocking, according to Froissart: it "occasioned great grief, for no one could find a sufficient reason for it."

In the meantime, Jeanne de Belleville had attempted to intercede for her husband. She was accused of having tried to bribe a captor to set Olivier free. Summoned to answer the charges laid against her, she managed to evade arrest--on 26 August, she was condemned in absentia and the couple's property was confiscated by the crown and redistributed.

These events transformed Jeanne de Belleville. In the words of the nineteenth-century historian Auguste Lefranc, ''she was suddencly transformed by grief and hatried into a kind of Fury, breathing only with vengeance" (elle fut tout-à-coup transformée par la douleur et la haine en une sorte de furie ne respirant plus que la vengeance).

Jeanne de Belleville, now a widow, regarded the French king as an enemy. In Biographie bretonne Prosper Levot writes that "Jeanne was no longer a woman" (Jeanne n'est plus une femme); she had become, he says, "a wild beast" (une bète fauve). With a small force of loyal men, she successfully attacked a series of castles in Brittany, killing their garrisons when she was victorious. 

Banished by the French king, Jeanne fled the country with her two surviving sons and her daughter, hoping to find asylum in England. She took to the sea, and in order to avoid capture by the French, she engaged with a number of vessels as she fled. Her own ship was sunk, and she and her children were adrift for several days. The younger boy, Guillaume, died, but eventually Jeanne and her eldest, Olivier V de Clisson, were rescued.** 

The two were at first taken to Brittany by supporters of John de Montfort. She then went to Hennebont, where she was under the protection of Joanna, countess of Montfort, but she eventually made her way to England, where she found refuge with Edward III. She also found a fourth husband, marrying Walter Bentley, who had campaigned with the English king in Brittany. To celebrate the marriage, Edward III awarded Jeanne with some territories in France, but control of these was disputed, and when the English king changed his mind and decided to negotiate with Charles of Blois, he ordered the return of some of the properties.

After years of dispute over lands she had been given and had then seen taken away, Jeanne de Belleville and her fourth husband finally accepted a settlement in 1357. They settled at Hennebont, the castle still held by allies of the Montforts. Jeanne de Belleville's fourth husband died at Hennebont in December 1359, and she seems to have died a short while later. 

A full page from the Belleville Breviary

(Bibliothèque nationale de France. 

Département des Manuscrits. Latin 10484)

*Twelve was the canonical age for marriage for girls: "The marriageable age is fourteen full years in males and twelve full years in females, under penalty of nullity (unless natural puberty supplies the want of years)."

**This period is what has given rise to the legend of Jeanne de Belleville as a pirate. The Wikipedia entry for "Jeanne de Clisson" summarizes the legend of her "Black Fleet" and offers sources for her "career" as a pirate, if you would like to pursue more. For a succinct overview of the fiction and the facts, you might start with "Jeanne de Belleville, Pirate or Politician," available at James Adams, Historic Enterprises (click here).