Royal Favourites: the secret lives of royals, aristocrats and commoners: Angouleme Dukes--

Tuesday, June 30, 2020

Angouleme Dukes--

Jean d'Orleans
Count of Angouleme
@Wikipedia

Jean d'Orleans

(1399-1467)

Comte d'Angoulême

1407-1467m

Son of Louis I, Duc d'Orleans & Valentina Visconti di Milano

Jean of Angoulême &
Marguerite of Rohan
@Wikipedia

Wife of Marguerite de Rohan (1420/28-1496), mar 1449, daughter of Alain IX de Rohan & Marguerite de Bretagne

His lover was:

Unnamed mistress.

Natural offspring:

Jean de Valois, batard d'Angouleme, legitimized 1458.

Charles d'Orleans
Count of Angoulême

Charles d'Orleans

(1459-1496)

Comte d'Angouleme

1467-1496

Son of: Jean d'Orleans, Comte d'Angouleme (1399-1467) & Marguerite de Rohan.

Husband of: Louise de Savoie, daughter of Philippe de Savoie & Marguerite de Bourbon mar 1488.

"When Louise was not quite eleven and a half, Anne arranged her marriage to the twenty-nine-year-old Charles d'Orleans, comte d'Angouleme and a Prince of the Blood. Louise was somewhat younger than the brides of most family marriages arranged by Anne de Beaujeu, but she never liked Louise and wished to have her out of the house. Time was to prove her instinct right." (The Serpent and the Moon: 17)

A child-wife and two mistresses.

"When Louise arrived at her husband's crumbling castle in Cognac, the child bride found two mistresses already in residence. It seems her husband was an avid reader of Boccaccio and shared the libidinous traits of this author's heroes. Intelligent and resourceful, Louise appointed one of his mistresses as her lady-in-waiting and the other as her maid. . . ." (The Serpent and the Moon: 17)

One big family under one roof for 7 happily bucolic years.

" . . . At fifteen, Louise gave birth to her first child, a daughter, Marguerite, said by poets to have been born of a pearl and known in history as the remarkable 'Marguerite of the Marguerites,' the 'Pearl among Pearls,' and future queen of Navarre. Francois, her 'Caesar,' was born two years later, in September 1494. In that same summer, the mistresses of her energetic husband each presented him with a daughter. For the next seven, happily bucolic years, the family lived together, until the sudden death of Charles. Louise, a beauty of eighteen, comforted the mistresses, and her husband's young chamberlain comforted the widowed chatelaine. As Louise's father had by then become the ruler of Savoy, she became entitled to use his name." (The Serpent and the Moon: 17)

"Though Charles was twenty-eight years old in 1488 and Louise was only twelve, their marriage proved, by all accounts, reasonably happy; no harsh words were ever heard to pass between them. Yet the count did have two two mistresses, Antoinette de Polignac and Jeanne Comte. By the first he had two daughters, Jeanne and Madeleine, and by the second another daughter, Souveraine. In the fifteenth century, however, illegitimacy did not carry the stigma that it has since acquired. Louise apparently accepted her husband's infidelities with perfect equanimity. She brought up his bastards along with her own children, and took Antoinette de Polignac as her companion." (Francis I: 2)

Love Life.
"There are several contradictory accounts of Charles of Angouleme's household and personal relationships. Knecht, for example . . . indicates that Louise's husband had two mistresses in his household, Antoinette de Polignac and Jeanne Comte. Their children were, respectively, Jeanne and Madeleine [de Polignac] and Souveraine [Comte]. By contrast, Hackett, Mayer, and Freeman . . . claim that Jeanne de Polignac was Charles's mistress and that by her the count had one daughter, Jeanne, later countess of Bar. Thus the details are too muddled to be absolutely clear, but the majority opinion seems to be that the name of Charles's mistress was Jeanne de Polignac." (Francis I: 2)

Charles, count of Angoulême, head of the Valois Angoulême branch. - Charles of Orleans-Valois also had some illegitimate connections including: * Jeanne de Polignac, of whom he had 2 daughters: Jeanne, countess of Bar / Seine and wife of Sieur de Givry, legitimized by Louis XII under the name of Jeanne d'Orléans; Madeleine de Polignac, abbess of the abbey of St-Ausone d'Angoulême (1476-1542). Louis Xii, Francois 1, Jeanne, Bar, Mona Lisa, Artwork, Painting, Daisy, Madeleine

Charles, Count of Angouleme
@Pinterest

His lovers were:
1) Antoinette de Polignac.
Comtesse d'Angouleme; Dame de Combronde
Lady-in-waiting to Louise de Savoie

Daughter of: Foucauld de Polignac, Seigneur de Fontaines & Agnes de Chabannais.

Natural offspring:
a. Madeleine d'Orleans (1490-1543), Abbesse de Saint-Ausone.
b. Jeanne d'Orleans, Comtesse de Bar-sur-Seine (1494-1531). Wife of: Jean Aubin, mar 1501 and Jean IV de Longwy (d.1520/21), mar 1509

"For many years Charles d'Angouleme had been living happily with his mistress, Jeanne de Polignac, and their daughter, Jeanne, who eventually became Louise's friend. . . ." (The Lost Tapestries of the City of Ladies: Christine de Pizan's Renaissance Legacy:115)

2) Jeanne Le Conte de Nonant (1465-1488).

Daughter of: Guillaume le Conte de Nonant & Jeanne du Broullat.

Natural offspring: Souveraine d'Orleans (1487-1551) married Michel Gaillard de Longjumeau, Seigneur de Chagny.