Everything about Claude Of France totally explained
Claude of France (
14 October 1499 –
20 July 1524),
Queen Consort of France and
Duchess of Brittany in her own right, was the eldest daughter of
Louis XII of France and
Anne, Duchess of Brittany.
As the first wife of
Francis I of France, she was the mother of
Henry II, and thus grandmother of the last three kings of the
Valois line and also of
Elisabeth, Queen consort of Spain;
Claude, Duchess consort of Lorraine; and
Marguerite, the Queen consort of
Henry IV of France.
Betrothals and marriage
Because her mother, Anne of Brittany, had no surviving sons, Claude became heiress to the
Duchy of Brittany. The crown of France, however, could pass only to and through male heirs, according to
Salic Law. In 1504, Anne, eager to keep Brittany separate from the French crown, effected the
Treaty of Blois, which promised Claude's hand in marriage to the future
Holy Roman Emperor Charles V with the promise of Brittany and the
Duchy of Burgundy. The prospect of a reduced France surrounded on several sides was unacceptable to the Valois, and so the betrothal was soon canceled.
The French nobles argued against a betrothal to a foreigner, urging Louis XII to marry Anne to her cousin
François, Duke of Angoulême, "who is at least all French," and was also the heir-presumptive to the French crown. In 1506, the child was betrothed to François. In 1514, when her mother died, Claude became Duchess of Brittany; and on
18 May 1514, at
Saint-Germain-en-Laye, she married François.
Court life
Claude, the pawn of so much dynastic maneuvering, was short in stature and afflicted with
scoliosis, which gave her a hunched back. She was eclipsed at court by her mother-in-law,
Louise of Savoy, and her sister-in-law, the literary
Marguerite, Queen Consort of Navarre.
When François became King in 1515, two of Claude's ladies-in-waiting were the English sisters
Mary and
Anne Boleyn. Mary became the king's mistress before returning home in about 1519. Anne served as Claude's official translator whenever there were English visitors, such as in 1520. Anne was also a temporary companion to Claude's younger sister,
Renée. Anne Boleyn returned to England in 1521, where she eventually became the Queen Consort of
Henry VIII.
Claude's life was spent in an endless round of annual pregnancies. Her husband had many mistresses, but was usually relatively discreet. Claude imposed a strict moral code on her own household, which only a few like Mary Boleyn chose to flout.
Death and later events
Claude died in 1524, when she was only twenty-four. She was initially succeeded as ruler of Brittany by her eldest son, the Dauphin
François, who became Duke François III, with Claude's widower King François I as guardian. After the Dauphin's untimely death in 1536, Claude's second son,
Henry, Duke of Orleans, became Dauphin and Duke of Brittany. He later became King of France as Henry II.
Claude's widowed husband himself remarried several years after Claude's death, to
Eleanor of Habsburg, the sister of Emperor Charles V. The atmosphere at court became considerably more debauched, and there were rumours that King François's death in 1547 was due to
syphilis.
Children
Claude and Francis I'd seven children:
- Louise, Princess of France (August 19, 1515 - September 21, 1517) - died young. Had no issue.
- Charlotte, Princess of France (October 23, 1516 - September 8, 1524) - died young. Had no issue.
- Francis, Dauphin of France (February 28, 1518 - August 10, 1536) - died young. Had no issue.
- Henry II, King of France (March 31, 1519 - July 10, 1559) - married Catherine de' Medici. Had issue.
- Madeleine, Princess of France (August 10, 1520 - July 2, 1537) - married James V of Scotland. No issue
- Charles of Valois, Duke of Orleans (January 22, 1522 - September 9, 1545) - Died young. Had no issue.
- Marguerite of France (June 5, 1523 - September 14, 1574) - married Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy in 1559. Had issue.
Ancestors
"Reine Claude" plum
Claude is remembered in a classic small plum, the size of a walnut, pale green with a glaucous bloom. It is still called "Reine Claude" (literally, "Queen Claude,") in France and is known in England as a "
greengage."
Further Information
Get more info on 'Claude Of France'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://claude_of_france.totallyexplained.com">Claude of France Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
