Jolande (Lorraine)

Jolande, Duchess of Lorraine

Jolande (French also Yolande d'Anjou ; * November 2, 1428 in Nancy ; † March 23, 1483 there) was (from 1473) Duchess of Lorraine and (from 1480) Bar and (from 1481) Titular Queen of Jerusalem . She was the daughter of René I , Duke of Bar , Count of Provence and Forcalquier , Titular King of Jerusalem etc. and Isabella , Duchess of Lorraine.

She married her cousin Frederick II of Vaudémont (* 1420, † 1470) in Nancy in 1445 , as part of the peace and marriage treaty of 1433 between her and his father, Anton von Vaudémont , with which the succession in Lorraine was regulated. Her children were among others:

• René II , † 1508, 1473 Duke of Lorraine; ∞ I Jeanne d'Harcourt, † 1488, Countess of Tancarville , daughter of Count Guillaume; ∞ II Philippa von Geldern , † 1547, daughter of Adolf von Egmond , Duke of Geldern - descendants were the Dukes of Lorraine from 1473 , from which the House of Habsburg-Lothringen emerged in 1736 , and the House of Guise
• Johanna (Jeanne) † 1480; ∞ Charles IV Duke of Anjou , Duke of Maine, † 1481 ( Younger House of Anjou )
• Margarete (Marguerite) † 1521, ∞ René , † 1492, Duke of Alençon ( House of Valois-Alençon )
• Jolanthe (Yolande) † 1500; ∞ Wilhelm II the Middle , Landgrave of Hesse , † 1509

In 1473, with the death of her nephew Nicholas I , she inherited the Duchy of Lorraine (which was by no means foreseeable at the time of their wedding). She immediately passed the duchy on to her son René II. She did the same in 1480 when she inherited the Duchy of Bar from her father. In 1481 she inherited the claim to the kingdoms of Naples and Jerusalem from her cousin, Count Charles V of Maine, which were also continued by her descendants, including the Habsburg-Lorraine .

Jolande von Anjou outlived her husband by twelve years. She died in Nancy in 1483 at the age of 54. Her brother, Bishop Henry of Metz, left her and Ferry II. After 1495 by Jacques Bachot , one of the most important sculptors of the late Gothic of Champagne and Lorraine, a magnificent tomb for the Collegiate Church of St. Laurent in Joinville (Haute-Marne) make that was destroyed during the revolution.

In poetry, literature, opera and film

The historical figure of Yolande became the model for the fictional play by Henrik Hertz : King René's Daughter , here Yolande is fictitiously portrayed as a kind of Sleeping Beauty until her 16th birthday as the blind educated ignorant of her sight - a metaphorical image for the limited, human , sensual knowledge of the world, which is transcended by Yolande's character and her ability to love and finally also helps her to see the light, i.e. the sense of sight. Henrik Hertz's literarization of the historical material inspired Tchaikovsky to write his opera Jolanthe op. 69 - opera in one act after Hertz, (1891; libretto: M. Tschaikowski), first performance: St. Petersburg 1892. Furthermore, the shape and design was inspired by Hertz a fairy tale film The Light of Love .

literature

• Henry Bogdan: La Lorraine des ducs. Sept siècles d'histoire . Perrin, Paris 2005, ISBN 2-262-02113-9 .
• Detlev Schwennicke : European family tables . New episode, volume 2: The states outside Germany, the governing houses of the other states of Europe. Stargardt, Marburg 1984, plate 26.

predecessor	Office	successor
Nicholas I.	Duchess of Lorraine 1473–1483	René II.
René "the good king"	Duchess of Bar 1480–1483	René II.
Charles V of Maine	Titular Queen of Naples and Jerusalem 1481–1483	René II.