Renée
“Had she been born a man she would have been a better King than me.”
(Francis on René)
“Despite my best efforts, I loved him.”
(Rene on Francis)
Upon returning to France Francis recognized he needed a new wife. He had no intention of honoring the alliance he had made to Charles V. Instead he had an eye on a bride much closer to home.
Though he had two sons, Henri was a captive and Charles lacked the all-important claim to Brittany. Francis recognized he had but one option in his search for a new bride.
In 1526 Claude’s younger sister Renee was sixteen years old. Though she lacked her sister’s most crippling aliments, she was no great beauty. She was however highly educated, headstrong, and wise beyond her years. Though he needed to wed her for her claim to Brittany, the King found himself genuinely desiring his former sister-in-law.
Renee for her part was conflicted. Already a budding believer in religious reform, and keenly conscious of her own dignity as a daughter of France. Becoming Queen would allow her to advance the cause of reform and would be the highest station she could possibly aspire to as a woman.
Yet there were also major reasons to be wary of the crown. All of Francis’s wives, apart from Eleanor of Austria who according to the King was not a real wife, had met tragic ends. Renee had seen firsthand the horrible way the King and his mother and sister had treated her sister Claude. She would not allow them to act that way towards her.
Ever the gallant the King attempted to woo Renee with gifts and tokens of affection. He even did the honor of asking for her hand in person. So one can only imagine his surprise when she came back to him with conditions.
First, he was to keep an open mind and refrain from persecuting religious reformers and dissenters.
Second, should little Henri and Charlotte die without issue Brittany would go to Renee’s line.
Finally, he was to honor her as a Queen should be honored. “I remember all too well how kind my sister Claude was to your mother and sister, and how that kindness was repaid.”
Surprisingly the King agreed to all of those conditions and even expressed genuine remorse for the way he had treated Claude. Renee was deeply touched.
The King promised to rapidly gain papal permission for the marriage but Renee was unbothered. Why should the King of France bow to some corrupt Italian?
“The King of England can set his own policy in regard to marriage, why should the most magnificent prince in Christendom have any fewer rights than that corpulent ogre.”
Francis laughed. “If you flatter me like that this will be a most happy marriage indeed.”
The King and the Princess were wed in regal splendor at the beginning of 1527. Like her predecessors, Renee fell pregnant within just a few months of her wedding. Despite her condition, the young Queen will not allow herself to be usurped in court functions. She quarrels with Louise of Savoy over precedence and power. Louise wonders aloud why Renee cannot be like her sister, focus on the children, and leave the affairs of state to those who know better.
Renee in turn accuses Louise of bullying her poor older sister into an early grave. The two quarrel extensively, worse even than Louise’s clashes with Beatriz. “It took all my strength not to slap the King’s mother”, Renee would confide to a friend.
The Queen’s first child, a girl, was delivered near Christmas. “A present for the King”, Francis’s young wife declared. The King was content with this gift but made it clear he needed a son from Renee.
In 1529 French forces reached Rome and liberated the Pope, who promptly legitimized Francis's new marriage. All of France breathed a sigh of relief, but the Queen herself reiterated the belief that the Pope's opinion did not matter. It was an early glimpse of her reformist tendencies. A conviction that bordered on the heretical. Renee was expecting again and shortly after receiving news of the legitimacy of her marriage, she gave birth to her second daughter, whom she was permitted to name Anne, after her mother. Louise of Savoy chastised her for her failure to produce a son. Renee responded that she was high enough in the King’s affections to be sure that another child would soon follow.
Though the young Queen feuded incessantly with her mother-in-law, she established friendly relations with her sister-in-law Marguerite. The two women bonded over their love of scholarship and religious reform. More conservative courtiers accused both women of heresy but the King would hear none of it. The combined influence of his sister and his wife persuaded the King to tolerate reformers and dissidents. However, the King himself remains a strict Catholic, in terms of confessional allegiance if not personal conduct.
Despite being less naturally maternal than her sister Claude or less friendly than her predecessor Queen Beatriz, Renee is close to her stepchildren. She is especially close with her niece Charlotte. The budding young beauty leans on Renee as not just a mother but a philosophical mentor.
As part of an alliance with King Francis against his former benefactor Charles V, Duke Francesco betrothed himself to young Charlotte. This caused a quarrel between husband and wife, as Charlotte was reluctant to have her favorite stepdaughter married to a man so much older than her, and in such a perilous political position. Francis curtly reminded her that he was the King. His job was to conduct policy, hers was to give birth. Renee responded by kicking him from her bed, something Claude never would have done. To his credit, the King consented to his wife’s wishes.
It was around this time that Francis began flaunting relations with his mistress, Anne de Pisselou de Hielly, cousin of the infamous Francois de Foix who had been the King’s mistress during Claude’s time. Francis had never been faithful over the course of his marriage to Renee and Renee had never seemed to be overly concerned. The King had seen that his young Queen’s position was respected, despite the efforts of his mother to drive a wedge between them. Now in her stubbornness and pride, Renee had been the author of her own estrangement.
When young Henri returned to France, at the conclusion of the war of the war, Francis made a point to appear in public with his mistress, fondling and kissing her for all of Paris, and Renee to see. This was enough for the Queen. She confronted Anne and a physical altercation ensued. Francis had to personally break up the fight between the two women.
Thereafter the King confronted his Queen on her behavior. The two rowed furiously but in an odd twist, the quarrel seemed to draw them closer. The King ordered his courtiers to leave them alone. The next day he emerged from his chambers, satisfied, and declared his rift with Renee was over.
Thereafter no mistress would upstage the Queen of France. With Prince Henri returned Renee tried her best to heal his damaged psyche. But the introverted, emotionally stunted boy, refused to bond with her as a mother. “She’s too young to be our mother and is our aunt in any case”, Henri complained to his sister, and close confidant Charlotte. Despite this distance, Renee defended the young prince from his father’s criticism and unfavorable comparisons to his favorite son Charles.
In September of 1531, Louise of Savoy passed away. A heavily pregnant Renee was able to skip the funeral. Despite her rivalry with the Queen dowager she did in the end admit that she had been a very intelligent and accomplished woman. If nothing else Renee genuinely mourned for the grief the passing of his mother caused the King and did her best to comfort him. Thus she did not object when her newest daughter was named Louise.
Renee kept up an active correspondence with the French Protestants, urging them towards moderation and away from confrontation with the King. In secret, she also began to direct the education of the King’s children in the reformist direction. Louise of Savoy’s death also removed the last obstacle between Renee and Marguerite, and a beautiful friendship soon blossomed. They wrote many letters discussing art, politics, and theology, and Renee would even make an appearance in Marguerite’s works of fiction.
In spring 1532 it came time for Francis to dispatch Charlotte to wed the Duke of Milan. A newly pregnant Renee was present at the departure of her niece and stepdaughter. The two embraced and vowed to keep in touch, with Charllote promising to visit her father and stepmother whenever she had a chance. Among her things was a book of hours Anne of Brittany had commissioned for her son Charles Orlando, it had been passed from Anne to her daughter Claude and was now being passed by Renee to Claude’s daughter Charlotte. It was a touching farewell. Little did anyone know it was the last time the two young women would see one another.
That December it came time for Renee to deliver her child. The birth proved difficult and the doctors claimed they could only save one or the other. Francis, despite wanting a son, asked that they save the Queen, but Renee herself furiously insisted that her child be rescued. Francis reluctantly bowed to her wishes. Renee lived long enough to name the boy Louis, after her father, and say her farewell to her husband and children. Then she passed. “What a loss for France, and for me”, was all the King could say, between barely muffled sobs.
