Francis II (Brittany)

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Franz's coat of arms as Count of Étampes
Franz's coat of arms as the Duke of Brittany
Tomb in Nantes

Franz von Étampes (born June 23, 1435 in Étampes , † September 9, 1488 in Couëron near Nantes ) was Count of Étampes and as Francis II Duke of Brittany from December 26, 1458 to September 9, 1488. He was the son of Richard d'Étampes and Marguerite d'Orléans .

Life

When his father died in 1438 he was his successor as Count of Étampes. When in 1458 his uncle Arthur III. died and left no son, Franz became as his heir also Duke of Brittany . Since King Louis XI. Wanted to reduce his independence, he closed the Ligue du Bien public with several French greats . Ludwig lost the battle at Montlhéry and had to understand the peace of Saint-Maur on October 29, 1465, in which he granted Duke Franz all the rights claimed by him. Soon afterwards Franz got into a new feud with the king over Normandy , which Ludwig had taken from the Duke of Berry , which was only temporarily settled by the peace of September 10, 1472; for Ludwig invaded Brittany in 1473 at the head of 50,000 men and took Ancenis and a few other permanent places.

It was not until 1475, when Charles the Bold of Burgundy, the ally of Duke Franz, and Louis XI. agreed to get a free hand against Lorraine and the Swiss, a permanent peace was concluded in which Franz promised the king obedience and feudal duty . His fiefdom over the county of Étampes had been withdrawn in 1477 at the latest, this was given in 1478 to Franz's brother-in-law Johann de Foix . After Ludwig's death in 1483, the Duke's court again became the rendezvous for the discontented French greats, the Duke of Orléans , Count Dunois and others who tried to save feudalism from oppression by royal power. The war alone had an unfavorable outcome for the conspirators (see Guerre folle ).

In the Burgundian War of Succession (1477–1493) , Franz II entered into an alliance with Maximilian von Habsburg on March 15, 1486 and attacked the French in the rear. With his defeat in the Battle of St. Aubin (July 27, 1488), however, the alliance ended and Brittany lost its independence forever. In the Treaty of Sablé (August 20, 1488) the Breton duke had to renounce all connections with the enemies of the French king and promise not to marry his daughters entitled to inherit without his consent. When Francis II died a few weeks later on September 9, 1488, the French King Charles VIII had his back free again and conquered almost all of Flanders together with Philipp von Kleve-Ravenstein in a short time .

Francis II was buried in the Carmelite Church of Nantes. His tomb was later moved to Nantes Cathedral .

Marriages and offspring

His first marriage was in November 1455 in Vannes, where he married his cousin Margaret of Bretagne († September 25, 1469), daughter of Duke Francis I and his second wife Isabella of Scotland. With her he had a son:

His second marriage was on June 27, 1471 in Clisson Margarete von Foix (* after 1458; † May 15, 1486), daughter of Count Gaston IV of Foix and Bigorre and the Infanta Eleanor of Navarre (see also → Book of Hours of Margaret de Foix, Duchess of Brittany ). With her he had two daughters:

On December 6th, 1491, the marriage of the heiress of Francis II Anne de Bretagne to the French King Charles VIII was "not only concluded, but also consummated" in Langeais Castle on the Loire . A marriage that had already been concluded the year before by proxy with Maximilian von Habsburg could not be consummated and was canceled by a dispensation from the French court clergy before Charles and Anne were married . Anne de Bretagne was crowned Queen of France on February 27, 1492 in Saint-Denis . The “Franco-Breton marriage”, however, secured France's rule over Brittany for ever.

After the death of Charles VIII (1498), Anne married his successor on the French throne Louis XII. (1499), later their daughter Claudia passed the French King Franz I.

Illegitimate children

From the connection with Antoinette de Maignelais he had four children:

  • François dʼ Avaugour called of Bretagne (* probably around 1463), Count of Vertus and Goello, ⚭ 1492 Madeleine de Brosse, daughter of Jean de Brosse, Count of Penthievre
  • Antoine (* probably after 1465; † probably 1483)
  • Françoise (* probably after 1465)
  • a daughter

He had another illegitimate child from another mistress:

  • one son (* 1466; † young)

Web links

Commons : Francis II of Brittany  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Footnotes

  1. ↑ a b c Manfred Hollegger : Assertion of the Burgundian heritage. In: Manfred Hollegger: Maximilian I. (1459–1519). Ruler and man at a turning point (= Kohlhammer-Urban pocket books. 442). Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-17-015557-1 , p. 57 ff.
  2. ↑ Manfred Hollegger: Hope for Reich reform. In: Manfred Hollegger: Maximilian I. (1459–1519). Ruler and man at a turning point (= Kohlhammer-Urban pocket books. 442). Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-17-015557-1 , p. 65.
  3. ↑ Hermann Schreiber : Ritter, Tod und Teufel. Emperor Maximilian I and his time. License issue. Weltbild, Augsburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-8289-0894-9 , p. 78.
  4. ↑ a b c Manfred Hollegger: The Breton War 1492/93. In: Manfred Hollegger: Maximilian I. (1459–1519). Ruler and man at a turning point (= Kohlhammer-Urban pocket books. 442). Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-17-015557-1 , p. 75 ff.
  5. ↑ Information, unless otherwise stated, from Christine Juliane Henzler: Die Frauen Karls VII. Und Ludwigs XI. Role and position of queens and mistresses at the French court (1422–1483) (= supplements to the archive for cultural history . H. 71). Böhlau, Cologne et al. 2012, ISBN 978-3-412-20879-0 , p. 68, (also: Marburg, Universität, dissertation, 2010).
  6. ↑ Georges Durville: Une demi-sœur inconnue dʼAnne de Bretagne. In: Bulletin de la Société archéologique de Nantes et du département de la Loire-Inférieure. Vol. 57, No. 1, 1917, ISSN  2420-1626 , pp. 30-31, ( digitized version ).
  7. ↑ This daughter is not documented.
  8. ↑ Information on illegitimate children of Francis II of Brittany on the Foundation for Medieval Genealogy website , accessed on February 21, 2016.
predecessor Office successor
Richard Count of Étampes
1438–1477 		Johann de Foix
Arthur III Duke of Brittany
1458–1488 		Anne
personal data
SURNAME Francis II
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Francis of Étampes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Duke of Brittany, Count of Étampes
DATE OF BIRTH June 23, 1435
PLACE OF BIRTH Etampes
DATE OF DEATH September 9, 1488
Place of death Couëron near Nantes