18th-Century Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 37

[cahn]

More diaries of our favorite 18th-century Prussian diary-keeper have been unearthed and have been synopsized!

January 18th: Blessed be thou to me! Under your light, my Prince Heinrich was born!

Comments

Re: Louis XI,le pouvoir fracassé

[selenak]

Poor Jeanne, I feel a bit guilty for that running gag, since both in rl and in the movie she's a character with genuine pathos, but I couldn't resist.

Seriously, though. When Jeanne and Anne's brother Charles died without leaving a male heir behind and thus Louis d'Orleans did become King, he immediately sued for annulment of his marriage in order to marry Charles' widow instead. Now, the usual pretense for annulment suits and the easiest to use in this case would have been consanguinity, since Louis and Jeanne were, in fact, cousins. But no. Louis' arguments were two fold - first, being forced into the marriage against his will by Louis XI (but since he couldn't prove he had been younger than 14 at the time (there's dispute about his exact age), that would have been at least questionable by contemporary law), secondly, that he couldn't consumate his marriage because Jeanne was such a cripple that it was anatomically impossible. At which point Jeanne stopped suffering in silence and like Catherine of Aragon years later, said "No way". And provided witnesses towards whom Louis back in the day had bragged about consumating the marriage when it happened, in addition to her own word. Unfortunately, the Pope at the time was Alexander VI, Rodrigo Borgia, who had a vested interest in deciding in Louis' favor, because in return, Louis a) gave a younger relation of his, Charlotte d'Albret, to Cesare Borgia in marriage, meaning the Borgias had just married into the French Royal family, and b) made Cesare the Duc de Valentinois, meaning Cesare now had a dukedom and a title that was independent from his father being Pope and would thus still be his after his father's death. Rodrigo Borgia being a firm believer in "Family first", that was that for poor Jeanne.

Henry VIII: How come I didn't get such a deal?
Pope Clement (aka Giulio de' Medici): Did you offer one of your relations to marry my maybe son but definitely relation Alessandro? No, but Charles V did by offering his daughter Margaret. Also, Charles' troops were in Italy and had just sacked Rome. And Charles was Catherine's nephew. I bet if Jeanne had had Charles as a nephew, Rodrigo wouldn't have granted Louis an annulment, either.

Jeanne got at least the Duchy of Berry after her annulment, founded a new order and became a saint (literally, though her canonization only happened in 1950 (!)). Louis didn't get a son out of his second marriage, either, and when he married a third time (by then old), Mary Tudor the sister of Henry VIII, he didn't survive it long which gave rise to all the obvious jokes about sexing yourself to the grave. Incidentally, if you get around to watching the Maximilian two parter, Louis XI is the main bad guy in it and we see all three of his children - Anne, Jeanne and Charles - as young characters as well (Charles is young and dumb, Anne is the smart one, Jeanne is crippled and abused). Future Louis XII, Louis d'Orleans, otoh, does not show up.

Re: Louis XI,le pouvoir fracassé

[cahn]

Rodrigo Borgia being a firm believer in "Family first", that was that for poor Jeanne.

Oof! Poor Jeanne indeed.

I am planning to watch Maximilian! Eventually! I have to at least finish this TV show first... :D