Isabella (Lorraine)

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Isabella of Lorraine

Isabella ( Isabella of Lorraine , French Isabelle de Lorraine ; * around 1400; † February 28, 1453 in Angers ) was Duchess of Lorraine from 1431 to 1453 . As the first wife of René I of Anjou , she was also Queen of Naples from 1435 to 1442 . Her daughter Margarete married the English King Henry VI in 1445 .

Early life

Isabella was the eldest daughter of Duke Charles II of Lorraine and his wife Margaret of the Palatinate . She was born in Lorraine around 1400 and had two brothers who died young and a younger sister Katharina . Her parents took care of her upbringing. She was described as a beautiful, courageous and witty princess who remained level-headed and acted decisively even in difficult situations.

At the beginning of the 1410s it became clear that Isabella would inherit the Duchy of Lorraine according to her father's ideas, provided that his father did not have surviving sons. In 1413 the plan was put forward to marry her to Ludwig , the son of Duke Ludwig VII of Bavaria-Ingolstadt , which was concretized during negotiations in Nancy in October 1413, but was then not pursued any further.

Marriage negotiations

Although Charles II of Lorraine originally did not want his daughters to be the wives of French princes, in 1419 he nevertheless approved an agreement to marry Isabella with René of Anjou . This was the great-nephew of the childless cardinal and bishop of Châlons, Ludwig von Bar , who in 1415 after the death of his brother Duke Eduard III. had inherited the Duchy of Bar at the Battle of Azincourt . At the instigation of his niece Jolanthe von Aragón, Ludwig had made her son René von Anjou his adoptive son. Together with Jolanthe he brokered the aforementioned marriage relationship between René and Isabella, whose father Charles II finally gave his consent on March 20, 1419 in the castle of Foug. The marriage contract signed at the time designated René as heir of the Duchy of Bar and the Margraviate of Pont-à-Mousson and Isabella as heiress of Lorraine and her two children as heir to all three regions mentioned. This would unite Bar and Lorraine and end the centuries-old differences between the duchies. However, if Charles II had legitimate male descendants, Isabella should not succeed him on the throne and receive a trousseau of 40,000 livres and an annual pension of 4,000 livres. Frederick I of Vaudémont , a brother of Charles II, had left a son, Antoine , whose inheritance claims to Lorraine had been passed over in the above marriage contract. Therefore, an inheritance dispute arose later, as Antoine challenged his uncle's succession plan.

wedding

On August 13, 1419, the Cardinal Duke Ludwig von Bar renounced Bar and Mont-à-Pousson in the Treaty of Saint-Mihiel in favor of Renés. The ally of Burgundy, the English King Henry V , had his brother, the Duke of Bedford , as an opposing candidate in March 1420 for Isabella's hand. But Charles II of Lorraine politely declined. The wedding of René, now Duke of Bar, and Isabella, led by the Bishop of Verdun, took place in the Cathedral of Nancy on October 24, 1420 after the estates of the Duchies of Bar and Lorraine had agreed to the succession of the newlyweds. Since René was still too young, his father-in-law Charles II administered the Duchy of Bar for him.

progeny

The following children were born from the marriage of Isabella and René von Anjou:

Duchess of Lorraine and Queen of Naples

With the death of Charles II on January 25, 1431, Isabella became Duchess of Lorraine, René Duke of Lorraine by virtue of his wife's rights. They received their homage on January 29th. Earlier, however, Count Antoine von Vaudémont had not accepted the succession regulation of his uncle Charles II and was warred by him. Vaudémont could not be conquered, however, and Antoine had sought a powerful ally in Philip the Good , Duke of Burgundy . After the succession occurred, Antoine resumed the fight for the duchy and received the military aid requested by the Burgundian duke. He was able to win a victory over René on July 2, 1431 in the Battle of Bulgnéville , who was taken prisoner with many nobles. René then came into the power of Philip the Good and was interned in a tower in Dijon .

Isabella now took over the government of Lorraine, immediately ordered the whole country not to carry out any orders from Antoine and won the mighty nobility for herself. In addition, together with her mother Margarete, she started negotiations with the Count of Vaudémont and initially reached an armistice that was valid until January 25, 1432, then through personal discussions with Antoine zu Vézelise another three-month postponement of acts of war. Meanwhile, she involved the bishops of Toul and Metz in the administration of the duchies. Isabella pointed out to her opponent that the Lorraine inheritance dispute had to be decided by the German king (and soon to be emperor) Sigismund (Lorraine was a fiefdom of the Holy Roman Empire ), but Philip the Good did not release his prisoners. So Isabelle traveled with the bishops of Toul and Metz to the Duke of Burgundy and in April 1432 managed to get her husband back at least temporarily, for which René had to hold his two sons Johann and Ludwig hostage and to ensure that leading Lorraine nobles comply with the agreement guarantee.

Philip the Good was supposed to act as arbitrator between the parties to the dispute, but his mediation only brought about a promise made on February 13, 1433 that Isabella's daughter Jolande would marry Antoine's son Friedrich II . Due to the ongoing disagreement between René and Antoine, Emperor Sigismund took over the decision of the inheritance question and passed his judgment on April 24, 1434 in Basel provisionally in favor of René. Antoine, dissatisfied with this, turned to Philip the Good, and under pressure René had to return to Dijon.

René's older brother Ludwig III died on November 12, 1434 . without descendants and left René the Duchy of Anjou and the counties of Provence and Maine . After the death of Joan II of Naples (February 2, 1435), René, who was still imprisoned, also inherited their kingdom . A Neapolitan delegation went to Isabella in Nancy and offered her that she could rule this southern Italian state until her husband was released. However, she would first have to assert herself against Alfonso V of Aragón , who also raised claims to the crown of Naples due to an earlier adoption (which Johanna dissolved again). Isabella has now been appointed governor-general of Naples, Anjou, Provence and Maine by her husband. She handed over the administration of Lorraine and Bar to the bishops of Toul and Metz and then regulated the affairs of the country in Provence, Anjou and Maine.

Alfons V was defeated by the Genoese and Filippo Maria Visconti , Duke of Milan on August 5, 1435 in the naval battle near the island of Ponza . Alfons then became a prisoner of the Duke of Milan. Isabella, who had been informed of this, began negotiations with Filippo Maria Visconti, set out from Marseilles with her son Ludwig on a small fleet in September for Naples and was able to move into Naples on October 18, 1435. In the meantime, Alfonso V was able to obtain his release and win the support of the Duke of Milan. As a result, he made Gaeta his base in 1436 . At her request, Pope Eugene IV sent auxiliary troops to Isabella under the command of the Patriarch of Alexandria, Giovanni Vitelleschi , who was militarily successful but soon came into conflict with Isabella and her general, the Italian condottiere Jacopo Caldora .

René of Anjou achieved his final release after signing very harsh conditions on January 28, 1437. Among other things, he had to raise a large ransom for this. In addition, a later marriage between Isabella's eldest son Johann and Marie de Bourbon , daughter of Duke Charles I and niece of Philip the Good, was agreed. René only arrived in Naples on May 19, 1438. Isabella now stood by her husband in an advisory capacity during the difficult war. However, René fell behind in the fight against the Aragonese, especially after the death of Caldora (October or November 1439).

Later years and death

In August 1440, at the request of her husband, Isabella sailed back to her homeland from Naples together with her son Ludwig, the Count of Pont-à-Mousson. At this point Lorraine was at war with Antoine von Vaudémont and Robert I von Sarrebruck-Commercy . But Isabella received successful military aid from her brother-in-law, King Charles VII of France; the Lorraine nobility also came together to maintain law and order. On March 27, 1441, the Count of Vaudémont finally renounced Lorraine by contract; in return, the independence of his county was recognized and his son Frederick II was betrothed to Isabella's daughter Jolande. After René had to cede the Kingdom of Naples to his opponent Alfonso V in June 1442, he also returned to Lorraine. The French king took Isabella's lady-in-waiting, Agnès Sorel , as his mistress.

The inhabitants of Metz , which had gradually separated from the rule of its bishops and had become a free city , demanded from René of Anjou the repayment of a considerable sum of money which they had lent him to raise his ransom. When Isabella went on a pilgrimage to Pont-à-Mousson in the spring of 1444, the butchers, lurking in an ambush, seized the luggage and valuable jewelry from the Duchess of Lorraine. She complained in vain to the Metz government and went to her husband, who was then in Anjou, from whom she asked for satisfaction. René began a war against Metz in September 1444 and managed to get the French king to take part on his side. Metz had to surrender and Isabella got her luggage back with her jewelry. In 1444, however, the Duchess also lost her son Ludwig.

In April 1445, Isabella's daughter Margaret was with the English King Henry VI. married. In July 1445, Isabella's eldest son Johann took over the government of the Duchies of Lorraine and Bar as governor-general, while René retired to Anjou. Isabella spent her last years on her country estate Launay near Saumur , which René had built. She died after a long illness on February 28, 1453 in Angers and was buried there in the Saint-Maurice cathedral. Her son Johann became the new Duke of Lorraine.

literature

Web links

See also

Remarks

  1. ↑ According to other information, Isabella's date of birth should be around 1410: For example A. Vallet de Viriville, Nouvelle Biographie Générale , vol. 26 (1858), col. 20.
  2. ^ B. Röse, General Encyclopedia of Sciences and Arts , 2nd Section, Vol. 24 (1845), pp. 233f .; A. Vallet de Viriville, Nouvelle Biographie Générale , Vol. 26 (1858), Col. 20.
  3. ^ B. Röse, General Encyclopedia of Sciences and Arts , 2nd Section, Vol. 24 (1845), pp. 234f .; A. Vallet de Viriville, Nouvelle Biographie Générale , Vol. 26 (1858), Col. 20.
  4. ^ B. Röse, General Encyclopedia of Sciences and Arts , 2nd Section, Vol. 24 (1845), pp. 235f .; A. Vallet de Viriville, Nouvelle Biographie Générale , Vol. 26 (1858), Col. 20-22.
predecessor Office successor
Charles II Duchess of Lorraine
1431–1453
with René I. 		Johann II.
personal data
SURNAME Isabella
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lorraine, Isabella von (full name); Lorraine, Isabelle de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Duchess of Lorraine (1431–1453)
DATE OF BIRTH around 1400
DATE OF DEATH February 28, 1453
Place of death Angers