The sky was gray, the weather was cold. Then everything burst into color… ๐จ๐ต๐ต๐ฌ ๐จ๐ต๐ซ ๐ณ๐ถ๐ผ๐ฐ๐บ ๐ญ๐ถ๐น๐ฌ๐ฝ๐ฌ๐น ๐ฉ๐ถ๐ผ๐ต๐ซ makes the ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ก๐๐ฎ๐๐๐ซ ๐๐จ๐จ๐ค ๐๐ฐ๐๐ซ๐๐ฌ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐.
The Chaucer Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in pre-1750s historical fiction. The Chaucer Book Awards is a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs). See complete 2022 shortlist here.
Anne and Louis: Rulers and Lovers is the tale of the middle years of Anne of Brittany’s marriage to Louis XII of France from 1501-1508. A standalone read for Tudor and Renaissance historical fiction readers.
Michael Dandry features the Anne of Brittany Series on Westchester Yesterday Today and Tomorrow http://lrd.to/anneofbrittanyseries #Renaissance #ruler #womensempowerment #queenofFrance
December 10: Excerpt from Anne and Louis Forever Bound, Book Four of the Anne of Brittany Series
A big thank you to historical novelist Rozsa Gaston for sharing with us this wonderful excerpt from her forthcoming novel, Anne and Louis Forever Bound, Book Four of the Anne of Brittany Series. — Claire Ridgway, Founder UK Tudor Society, author of The Anne Boleyn Files
In the second week of February 1511, sad news arrived. Germaine wrote from Spain that Englandโs queen-consort, King Ferdinandโs daughter, Catherine of Aragon, had given birth to her first child by Henry VIII. A daughter, the babe had been stillborn.
โYour Grace, I hope news from Spain is not bad?โ Madame de Dampierre asked as she took in the stricken look on her sovereignโs face.
โNot bad from Spain, but sad news from England.โ
Madame de Dampierre looked surprised. For the most part, relations between France and England were chilly. โI am all ears, Your Grace, if you care to share with me.โ
Anne sighed and put down the letter. โThe English kingโs wife has just delivered her first child.โ
โIโm sure the new king must be happy.โ
โA stillborn daughter.โ Anne turned her head to the tapestry on the wall where a stagโs face stared back at her reproachfully. Queens everywhere who delivered only daughters were censured. It was a perilous job to be queen, one fraught with fear of failure and too frequent pregnancies that imperiled their health. Well did she know, still weak from Renรฉeโs birth. She was just beginning to get around, but tired easily. At age thirty-four, after fifteen pregnancies, she was not feeling her usual resilience after childbirth.
โAh, Your Grace, that is sad indeed. But Queen Catherine is young and has many years ahead to try again,โ Madame de Dampierre remarked.
โHow old is she?โ
โYour Grace, I am not sure, but a few years older than the king, I believe.โ
โGet Sire Lemaire here to fill us in.โ
โOh, Madame, what a sparkling idea. I will see if I can find him.โ The lady-in-waiting curtsied then bustled to the door.
โHave a pot of mulled wine brought and three goblets,โ Anne called after her. Lemaire was good fun and an incurable gossip. He would have something to tell them, and not from the English perspective, either.
Within moments, Jean Lemaire of Belgium appeared in the doorway. Four years older than the queen, he had served at the court of Margaret of Austria in Flanders for many years. Some said that he had held his patron in such high regard that it had been best for him to find an appointment elsewhere. Anne had offered the cultured humanist a position at her court as her historiographer. His immersion in the new learning was renowned, yet within the bounds of adherence to Church teachings, to her approval. Above all, Lemaire was a boon to her as a conduit to the court of Margaret of Austria, Governor of the Netherlands, and a valuable Habsburg connection.
โCome,โ she greeted him.
โI am at Your Graceโs pleasure,โ Sire Lemaire offered a graceful bow.
โWhat can you tell us of the young Queen and King of England?โ Anne asked.
โYour Grace, I have heard news of the new queen and it isโโ
โSad, but not unusual,โ she finished for him. For once, it was another queen who had lost a newborn and not her. She would send a condolence note that day, but she would not allude to the depths of darkness she herself had felt at such losses over the years. No fellow queen would wish to walk the path she had traveled in childbearing.
โQuite right, Your Grace. She has many years before her to try again.โ
โHow old is she?โ
โI have heard that she is six years older than her husband the king,โ Lemaire answered.
โAnd he is โฆ?โ
โTwenty this year, Your Grace.โ
โAnd what do you know of the years she spent as widow of the young kingโs older brother?โ
โYes, Arthur, a noble but doomed name for Brittany,โ Anne filled in, referring to the late 12th century Duke of Brittany from the House of Plantagenet. He had disappeared at the tender age of thirteen, rumored to have been murdered by his uncle, the vicious King John of England.
โYour Grace, I would say that the name Arthur has not flourished in the annals of history after the great King Arthur of the Round Table,โ Lemaire said heavily.
โDid not Catherineโs first husband die of the sweat?โ Anne directed him back to present affairs.
โHe did indeed, Madame; only five months after his marrage to the young Spanish princess,โ Lemaire rerouted to the topic at hand.
โI heard she had it, too,โ Madame de Ddampierre remarked.
โIt has been said that the sweat takes more healthy young males than it does females,โ Lemaire observed.
โMostly from the upper classes, they say,โ Madame de Dampierre tutted.
Anne shuddered. โI hope it does not make its way to the Continent.โ Poor Isabellaโs daughter, sent to England to become a queen only to have her husband die after a few months of marriage.
โIt is dormant now, and let us hope it will remain so forever,โ Lemaire exclaimed.
โWhat is forever in this vale of tears we walk, Sire Lemaire?โ Anne asked, thinking of her ruddy Charles-Orland, who would have been a youth of eighteen had he lived.
โYour Grace, you have just presented France with a bouncing princess so I am surprised you speak of tears,โ Sire Lemaire replied.
โMy tears fall today for the English queen. I wonder that she was stuck in limbo so many years between marriages.โ
โYour Grace, it was six years, I believe, that the former English king and the King of Spain quarreled over her dowry.โ
โLet me guess. Was it her father who refused to complete the payments?โ Anne scoffed. Ferdinand was even more tightfisted than Louis. Much less handsome, too.
โIndeed, it was. But the old king was determined to get the full amount, so he dangled marriage to his son up ahead as a way to make the King of Spain pay up.โ
โI heard there was more to it, too,โ Madame de Dampierre added.
โGo on,โ Anne encouraged. She sipped her mulled wine, enjoying its warmth spreading in her belly. She looked forward to another type of warmth heating her there soon. Once she regained her full strength she would try for a son again with Louis.
โIt was said that the old king needed Spainโs royal stamp upon his line, being unsure of his legitimacy,โ her lady-in-waiting expounded.
โAh, poor Henry Tudor,โ Anne sighed.
โYour Grace, do tell. Did he not spend some years of his youth in Brittany as the guest of your father?โ Madame de Dampierre urged.
โHe was under my fatherโs protection,โ Anne told them. โThe York kings would have killed him had he set foot on English soil before he was fully supported.โ
โDid you meet him, Madame?โ Her lady-in-waitingโs eyes shone.
โI met him just before he returned to England and won the throne.โ She remembered Henry Tudor well. She had been a young girl, the Lancastrian exile a full twenty years older. Tall and lean like Louis, but there the similarities stopped. Not debonair in the least, Henry Tudor had been tentative, with a furtive hungry look that had puzzled her at the time. As a mother, Anneโs instincts told her he had been separated from loving arms at too young an age.
โAnd what was he like?โ Madame de Dampierre pressed.
โTimid and penniless. Unsure of himself.โ Her father had considered him as a match for her, but the idea had come to nothing when Henry had returned to England in 1483 and married Elizabeth of York. It had been the solution that had ended the War of the Roses, Anne thought approvingly. Marriage was life-giving, whereas war was the opposite. She had heard that it had been Henry Tudorโs mother who had brokered the union, the indomitable Lady Margaret Beaufortโeven more ambitious than that redhead in Amboise, if such a thing were possible.
โThat is it, Your Grace. He proved a good king, but he was uneasy on the throne,โ Lemaire agreed. โMarrying his heir apparent to a Spanish princess legitimized his claim to the crown.โ
โAnd now Catherine needs a son to anchor her marriage to the new English king,โ Anne observed.
โIndeed, Your Grace. It would be most provident.โ Lemaireโs tone was judicious.
โAnd how was her situation in those years between marriages to the two brothers?โ she asked.
โI heard that before her marriage to the new king the young princess was living most precariously at the pleasure of the old king, but without means to support her household,โ Lemaire described.
โDisgraceful,โ Anne exclaimed. โBut Henry Tudor was always cheap. It was not his fault, as heโd lived in hiding for so many years, but he should have supported his sonโs widow in style until he decided what to do with her.โ What misery it must have been for Isabella of Spainโs royal daughter to rot on the vine for six years of her first bloom, far from her family in a rainy, cold, foreign land.
โIt was said at one time that he thought to marry her himself,โ Madame de Dampierre put in.
โIt would seem he thought to marry several great ladies,โ Lemaire added. โI heard a proposal was made to the Countess dโAngoulรชmeโโ
โIt would have been a disaster,โ Anne snapped. โHenry Tudor was as contracted as the countess is grasping. Frankly, I donโt think he had it in him to take on a new wife after Elizabeth of York died.โ
โYour Grace, it was said that the light went out in his eyes the day his York wife died,โ Lemaire concurred.
โSad for Henry Tudor that he achieved the throne he aimed for, yet could not sit on it with ease,โ Anne mused.
โFor fear of a pretender pushing him off,โ Madame de Dampierre put in.
โLet u return to Catherine,โ Anne directed them.
โShe is finally the queen she was meant to be, as the young Henryโs wife,โ Lemaire exclaimed.
โWhat have you heard heโs like?โ Anne asked. Henry VIII was a wild card thus far. Only in power since 1509, he was an emerging player on Europeโs stage.
โYour Grace, it is said that the young King of England has inherited his motherโs York confidence and his Beaufort grandmotherโs ambition,โ Lemaire described.
โI hope he will be good to his queen,โ Anne said. She was no friend of England, but for the sake of Isabella of Spain she prayed that the young Henry treated his bride as befit the daughter of one of Europeโs greatest monarchs.
โThey say he is eager to prove himself.โ
โAs I am sure Catherine is eager to prove herself capable of providing him with an heir,โ Anne replied, weighing an entirely different thought that she would share later with Louis. May the young English king not prove himself by entering into an alliance with his wifeโs father.
โMadame, I am sure it will come to pass,โ Lemaire said, avoiding her gaze.
โNo one is sure of anything in such matters, but bring me my writing tools so I may send Catherine a note,โ she told him, guessing his thoughts. All of France waited for her to provide Louis with an heir. Let them wait. She had produced two princesses, and if French Salic Law forbade putting a woman on the throne to rule, it was Franceโs loss.
โRight away, Your Grace.โ
As Anne awaited his return, she met Madame de Dampierreโs questioning gaze.
โWhat is it?โ
โYour Grace, I am surprised you are reaching out to the English queen.โ
โTo me she is not just the English queen. She is the daughter of Isabella, who I have ever held in high regard. Unlike her husband.โ Ferdinand had never appealed to her although God knew he was a strong ruler. He lacked both gentility of spirit and the debonair courtliness that Louis possessed and that her father had had. How Isabella of Spain had put up with him she could scarcely imagine.
Madame de Dampierre let out a titter. โMadame, she will be grateful for your show of support.โ
โI do not know her at all, but I know what it is to be queen and to fail at attempting an heir.โ
โYour Grace, it is not an easy road to walk, is it?โ
โYou would not know, as you do not walk it,โ Anne dispatched her. โBut Catherine of England does, so I will offer her comfort as a peer.โ
โYour Grace, she will be greatly consoled by a note from you.โ
โPerhaps not, but it may help.โ Anne waved her away as she contemplated other objectives in opening a line of communication to Catherine. It would be useful to have a conduit to the English court, should Henry VIII think to ally with one of Louisโ enemies.
Wishing the Queen of England a speedy recovery, Anne sent her prayers for blooming health and a blooming prince to grace her family soon in the future.
As she blotted and sealed the note, she prayed the same for herself.
From Anne and Louis Forever Bound, Book Four of the Anne of Brittany Series, the gripping tale of a larger than life queen. http://lrd.to/anneofbrittanyseries
Anne and Louis Passion and Politics in Early Renaissance France: The First Years of Anne of Brittany’s Marriage to Louis XII (Book Two of the Anne of Brittany Series)
Rozsa Gaston
Renaissance Editions: 2018
978-0-9847906-8-5 (pbk) ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย $14.95ย Available on Amazon and Ingram
978-0-9847906-9-2 (ebook) ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย $2.99ย ย ย ย Available on Amazon
Anne and Louis: Passion and Politics in Early Renaissance France: The First Years of Anne of Brittany’s Marriage to Louis XIIย will delight readers of historical fiction who want their dramas firmly rooted in facts. This audienceโespecially those who enjoyed the first
book in the Anne of Brittany seriesโwill find a compelling continuation of the saga in this story of Anne, the Duchess of Brittany, who has a country to run even as her lover Louis has a controversial annulment to pursue in order to fulfill his romance with Anne.
Even more complicated are the politics which dictate their romance and relationship. This is an overlay which creates seemingly insurmountable controversies between the couple and their individual political circles, and is deftly explained by Rozsa Gaston, whose saga assumes no previous knowledge of Anne of Brittany, Louis XII, or French history and politics. This makes the tale accessible to both history buffs and those with a milder familiarity with the era.
At age 21, Anne was both a widow and the ruler of a kingdom, as committed to maintaining Brittany’s independence from France as she was in seeing her relationship with Louis become a bond between their countries.
Their struggles in 16th-century Europe on the cusp of the Renaissance era come to life as Anne finds herself caught between love and country.
Chapters don’t just build the characters and explore the issues between Anne and Louis, but also probe their world. Thus, the romances and relationships between others are also presented within the context of the social mores of their times (“When he looked up, Charlotte of Naples and Aragon was floating toward him in the full glory of her youth and serene beauty. He felt himself in the presence of a goddess. One day such a glorious creature would grow into a woman like his mother or the duchess Anne. For such a woman, an offer of marriage must follow a kiss. But first, a kiss. Her father would kill her; her mother would roll over in her grave. She had allowed him to take her hand.”).
Rozsa Gaston presents a rich, multifaceted universe through the eyes of a number of characters who interact with their world, which she spices with vivid descriptions to bring the setting to life through the eyes, experiences, and thoughts of many: “Anne of Brittany turned her back on her high-spirited charges to climb the final steps to the summit. At the top the flat marshy countryside spread out before her. In the late morning sunlight the bay of Mont-St.-Michel shimmered in the distance like a beckoning jewel. Beyond the bay was the Mor Breizh, also known as the Channel, the body of water over which Brittanyโs settlers had traveled from the British Isles. She drank in the view as her lungs filled with fresh sea air.”
Adding to the feel of the story are lovely color artworks and images of the times, which pepper a saga that brings to life Anne’s concerns, her people, her romance, and her conundrums. From her distrust of Italian politics and her appetite for luxury to the impact of her relationship with Louis, yet another powerful strength to this story is its astute assessment of how the personalities of each affected their choices and political perceptions: “Her Louis was too nice a man to be entering into agreements with wily Italians seeking to take advantage of his innate decency. She would protect her husbandโs interests while this sharp second secretary remained among them. Louisโ step sounded on the stairs above and all eyes turned. As Anne gazed at her husbandโs beneficent expression and handsome yet careworn face, her heart hurt. She knew behind her, the shrewd young Florentine would be sizing him up and determining sooner rather than later that Franceโs king could be easily manipulated on the Italian peninsula.”
All this means that the story about a changing society as the Renaissance gets started is given a personal touch that brings the entire era to life through Anne’s eyes and the experiences of those who interact with her.
The result is a powerfully-written saga that requires only an interest in a compelling love story and its historical background to prove satisfying, revealing, educational, and hard to put down, all in one. Quite simply, Anne and Louis is a masterpiece that paints an extraordinary emotional and political vision of its times, capturing the facets of a social and political milieu that all too often is regulated to dry facts devoid of emotion.
โD. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review
Anne and Louis, Book Two of the Anne of Brittany Series, comes out Nov. 29, 2018. Pre-order here.
To begin your discovery of Renaissance ruler Anne of Brittany, read Anne and Charles, Book One of the Anne of Brittany Series.
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.
Sense of Touch is burning up the Hot & Trending list of Kindle Scout nominations for the second week of its one month campaign to receive a publishing contract. Why?
Readers want to know more about Anne of Brittany.
Anne of Brittany is a fascinating historical figure about whom almost nothing has been written in English. Her dates? 1477-1514. She reigned as Queen of France after Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122-1204) and before Catherine de Medici (1519-1589).
Douleur du Roi sans Fils by Jean Pichore, c. 1503
This week I uncovered a poignant painting of her with husband Louis VII by court painter Jean Pichore. The name of the painting says it all: Douleur du Roi sans Fils. Translation: Sorrow of the King without Sons.
Before you feel sorry for Anne of Brittany, don’t.
Claude of France, eldest daughter of Anne of Brittany and Louis XII
She may not have brought a son to adulthood, but she succeeded with two daughters, Claude of France, and Renรฉe of France. Claude of France married Francis I, known as the Renaissance King, and produced Henry II, another important Renaissance king and husband of Catherine de Medici.
Anne’s Breton blood found its way into the French royal bloodline through her daughter, not her sons. Her leadership skills, authority and self-confidence have informed French women ever since. Long live Anne of Brittany, vive Anne de Bretagne!
Speaking of sons, she had many. All of them either stillborn, dead hours after birth, weeks after birth, or by age three.
Let’s take a look at the full Jean Pichore painting of Anne of Brittany with second husband Louis XII.
We see Louis XII, King of France, looking sad. The man behind him looks at the queen with a recriminating expression, as if to say, “Why can’t you produce a son for France?”
We see Anne of Brittany, Queen of France looking regal, confident, not sad at all. Defiant, in fact. Why?
She’s gesturing to their daughter, Claude of France. “What’s wrong with the daughter I gave you?” she appears to be saying.
Sadness of the King without Sons, Jean Pichore, c. 1503
Who’s in the hot seat here? Anne.
Who’s the power on the throne? Anne.
Who’s appealing to whom? Louis and his court are appealing to Anne.
Who’s the boss? Anne.ย She was also a loving and deeply beloved wife to both of her husbands, Charles VIII of France before Louis, and Louis XII of France.
The more I learn about this French Renaissance queen, the more I fall in love with her.
Anne of Brittany is an amazing historical role model for girls. She invited young girls to her court where she educated them, taught them household and estate management skills, arranged marriages for them and paid for their dowries. More about this in my next blog post.ย Please nominate my book about her here.
Rozsa Gaston presents a rich, multifaceted universe through the eyes of a number of characters who interact with their world, which she spices with vivid descriptions to bring the setting to life through the eyes, experiences, and thoughts of many: “Anne of Brittany turned her back on her high-spirited charges to climb the final steps to the summit. At the top the flat marshy countryside spread out before her. In the late morning sunlight the bay of Mont-St.-Michel shimmered in the distance like a beckoning jewel. Beyond the bay was the Mor Breizh, also known as the Channel, the body of water over which Brittanyโs settlers had traveled from the British Isles. She drank in the view as her lungs filled with fresh sea air.”
To begin your discovery of Renaissance ruler Anne of Brittany, read 
Rozsa Gaston - Author 