NYT bestselling author Eleanor Brown selects Anne and Louis by Rozsa Gaston for BookLife Prize finals

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Anne and Louis joins Sense of Touch and Anne and Charles in the Anne of Brittany Series.  Learn from early Renaissance ruler Anne of Brittany the power of self-possession and self-confidence.

Anne and Louis at top of 2018 BookLife Prize Semifinalist List

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Oct. 1, 2018

Anne and Louis has been named the top-seeded Semifinalist in General Fiction for the BookLife Prize from Publishers Weekly.

Finalists will be announced November 1, 2018. Thank you to Booklife and Publishers Weekly for bringing my story to today’s readers.—Anne, Duchess of Brittany, twice Queen of France

Anne of Brittany, image by Nurycat

Book Two of the Anne of Brittany Series, Anne and Louis is the story of the first years of Anne of Brittan’s marriage to Louis XII, King of France. Cast of characters include Cesare Borgia, Christine de Pizan, Marie de France, Machiavelli and more. Pre-order Anne and Louis here. Out Nov. 29, 2018.

Statue of Anne of Brittany (1477-1514), Nantes, France

Receiving a 10.00 out of 10 in four categories, the story of Anne of Brittany’s marriage to Louis XII, King of France, is Book Two of the Anne of Brittany Series.

Anne of Brittany reaches across the ages and brings her decision-making skills, and supreme self-possession in the face of enormous loss to modern readers. The Anne of Brittany Series inspires and encourages women of today through the historical example set by 15th century avant la lettre feminist ruler Anne of Brittany (1477-1514).

Start your journey with Anne of Brittany today and read Anne and Charles, Book One of the Anne of Brittany Series, or Sense of Touch: Love and Duty at Anne of Brittany’s Court, prequel to the Anne of Brittany Series.

Send author Rozsa Gaston a personal e-mail if you’d like to receive an advance review copy of Anne and Louis in exchange for your pre-release review (review must be posted on Amazon by Nov. 29, 2018): rgaston@optonline.net.

May Anne of Brittany’s remarkable story inform your own.

 

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Statue of Anne of Brittany outside her birthplace of the Chateau of the Dukes of Brittany, Nantes, France

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Portrait of Anne of Brittany in Chateau Royal Amboise, c. 1495, Amboise, France

Thank you, dear reader, for helping me put the story of the fascinating and little-known Anne of Brittany on the map. Her dates? 1477-1514. Ruler of Brittany at age eleven, she married the King of France at age fourteen. Anne of Brittany was the only woman in history to be twice crowned Queen of France. Discover her story in Sense of Touch.

 

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Who was Anne of Brittany?

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Anne of Brittany, Charles VIII, European culture, European history, French history, French Queens, Louis XII, Medieval history, women of history, women's issues

Who was Anne of Brittany?
Her dates: 1477-1514.

Her personality?

Anne of Brittany by Jean Perreal, c. 1492

• Decidedly feminist.
• Delightfully feminine.
• Intelligent.
• Highly educated.
• Raised to rule over Brittany.
• Generous.
• Lavish in her spending.
• Imperious.
• Unyielding.
• Shrewd.
• Relentless.
• A bookworm.
• Pious.
• Lovingly conscientious to her husbands, both kings of France.
• Faithfully conscientious to her Breton subjects, over which she ruled from the age of eleven.

Anne of Brittany by Jean Perreal, c. 1492

Ever since picking up Mildred Allen Butler’s book on Anne of Brittany a few years ago (Twice Queen of France: Anne of Brittany. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1967), I’ve been fascinated by this French queen who came to power at age eleven as ruler of Brittany, then became queen of France at age fourteen.

Anne of Brittany’s travails trying to bring live children into the world rival any woman’s in history. This girl/woman went through the wringer as a mother. Her fourteen pregnancies resulted in the survival of two children, both daughters.The rest? Three miscarriages, five stillborn infants, one son dead after three hours, one daughter dead after one day, another son lived three weeks, her longest living son survived to age three when he succumbed to measles. As a public figure, this queen’s drama played out on the stage of all of France. If I had made this up, readers wouldn’t believe it. But it’s all true, and carefully historically documented.

I began to wonder why Anne of Brittany’s story is not well known. Many modern women share the same secret heartaches their medieval and ancient sisters suffered: pregnancy loss, inability to bring a live child into the world, inability to keep a child alive once born. Women still struggle with these issues and still suffer in silence when pregnancy and childbirth loss occurs. My heart aches for every one of them.

I wanted to bring alive Anne of Brittany’s tale for modern women, may of whom share her story in suffering and in courage. At the same time this brave woman endured continual personal tragedy she achieved great success as queen of France. She provides the world with an exceptional model of fortitude and resilience in the face of great personal suffering. Brava, Anne of Brittany!

• Anne of Brittany ruled over the most sophisticated court in Europe.

• She helped usher in the glories of the Renaissance from Italy to France. She ran the first finishing school for young women of noble birth, educating them in book learning and estate management and supplying or supplementing their dowries when they married.
• Both of Anne of Brittany’s husbands were madly in love with her. Neither considered putting her aside despite her inability to produce an heir for the throne of France. Her second husband, Louis XII of France, died less than a year after her death at the age of thirty seven. It was said that he never recovered from her death.
• Anne of Brittany was renown all over Europe as a matchmaker. Rulers of other European countries, including King Ferdinand of Spain after his wife Isabella’s death and the king of Hungary sought her advice in choosing a suitable spouse for them.

Cover painting by Anca Visdei, 2013, permission pending

I could say more, but I’ll save it for the sequel. Anne of Brittany: Girl Who Ruled a Country should arrive in early 2017. Meanwhile, please join me in discovering the remarkable historical figure of Anne of Brittany in my new release Sense of Touch.

Warmly,

Author Rozsa Gaston

Sense of Touch back cover