Anne de Bretagne

Queen · 1491-1514 · born on 25 January 1477, died on 9 January 1514

Heiress of the duchy of Brittany, Anne became duchess at the age of twelve, in 1488. Married in 1491 to King Charles VIII, she was Queen of France, then married his successor Louis XII in 1499, becoming queen a second time: a strategy to keep the duchy united to the crown.

Queen twice over, Anne bargained hard to preserve the autonomy of Brittany, over which she retained real power during her reign. She played a leading political and diplomatic role and was regarded as a pious queen and patron of the arts.

Her death in 1514, at thirty-six, marked the beginning of the end of Breton autonomy: her duchy was finally and definitively integrated into the kingdom in 1532. Her memory remains deeply bound up with the identity of Brittany.

In the tree of power

Further reading