Louis of Valois, Duke of Orléans
Encyclopedia
Louis I was Duke of Orléans from 1392 to his death. He was also Count of Valois, Duke of Touraine
(1386–1392), Count of Blois
(1397–1407), Angoulême
(1404–1407), Périgord
, Dreux
, and Soissons
.
Louis was son of King Charles V of France
and Joanna of Bourbon
and younger brother of Charles VI
.
Louis and Catherine were expected to reign either over Hungary or over Poland, as Catherine's father, Louis I of Hungary, had no sons. Catherine's father also planned to leave them his claim to the Crown of Naples and the County of Provence, which were then held by his ailing and childless cousin Joanna I
. However, Catherine died in 1378 and the marriage negotiations were stopped.
In 1384, Elizabeth of Bosnia started negotiating with Louis' father about the possibility of Louis marrying her daughter Mary
, notwithstanding Mary's engagement to Sigismund of Luxembourg
. If Elizabeth had made this proposal in 1378, after Catherine's death, the fact that the French king and the Hungarian king did not recognize the same pope would have represented a problem. However, Elizabeth was desperate in 1384 and was not willing to let the schism stand in the way of the negotiations. Pope Clement VII
issued a dispensation which annulled Mary's betrothal to Sigismund and the proxy marriage
between Louis and Mary was celebrated in April 1385. Nonetheless, the marriage was not recognized by the Hungarian noblemen who adhered to Pope Urban VI
. Four months after the proxy marriage, Sigismund invaded Hungary and married Mary, which ultimately destroyed Louis' chances to reign as King of Hungary.
Louis had an important political role during the Hundred Years' War
. With the increasing insanity of his elder brother Charles the Mad (who suffered from either schizophrenia
, porphyria
or bipolar disorder
), Louis disputed the regency
and guardianship of the royal children with John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy
. The enmity between the two was public and a source of political unrest in the already troubled France. Louis had the initial advantage, being the brother rather than the first cousin of the king, but his character and rumour of an affair with the queen consort Isabeau of Bavaria
made him extremely unpopular. For the following years, the children of Charles VI were successively kidnapped and recovered by both parties, until the Duke of Burgundy managed to be appointed by royal decree guardian of the Dauphin and regent of France.
Louis did not give up and took every effort to sabotage John's rule, including squandering the money raised for the relief of Calais
, then occupied by the English. After this episode, John and Louis broke into open threats and only the intervention of John of Valois
, Duke of Berry and uncle of both men, avoided a civil war.
On Sunday 20 November 1407 a solemn reconciliation was vowed in front of the court of France between the contending Dukes, but only three days later, Louis was brutally assassinated
in the streets of Paris, when armed men under the orders of John the Fearless attacked him while he was mounting his horse. Louis was stabbed by fifteen masked criminals led by Raoulet d'Anquetonville, a servant of the duke of Burgundy. The unarmed servants who were escorting him were powerless to protect him.
The Duke of Burgundy had the support of the population of Paris and the University. He could even publicly admit the killing. Rather than deny it, John the Fearless had the scholar Jean Petit
of the Sorbonne deliver a peroration justifying the killing of tyrants.
Louis' murder would spark a bloody feud and civil war between Burgundy and the French Royal family which would divide France for the next seventy years and only end with the death of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy in 1477.
In 1389, Louis married Valentina Visconti
, daughter of Gian Galeazzo
, Duke of Milan, with whom he had:
His illegitimate son by Mariette d'Enghien
, was "Jean Levieux Valois des Orléans" better known as John of Dunois
(1402–1468), Jean is the ancestor of the Dukes of Longueville.
Duke of Touraine
Duke of Touraine was a title in the Peerage of France, relating to Touraine.It was first created in 1360 for Philip, youngest son of King John II of France. He returned the duchy to the Crown in 1363 on being made Duke of Burgundy and died in 1404....
(1386–1392), Count of Blois
Count of Blois
The County of Blois was originally centred on Blois, south of Paris, France. One of the chief cities, along with Blois itself, was Chartres. Blois was associated with Champagne, Châtillon , and later with the French royal family, to whom the county passed in 1391...
(1397–1407), Angoulême
Counts and dukes of Angoulême
Angoulême in western France was part of the Carolingian Empire as the kingdom of Aquitaine. Under Charlemagne's successors, the local Count of Angoulême was independent and was not united with the French crown until 1307. By the terms of the Treaty of Brétigny the Angoumois, then ruled by the...
(1404–1407), Périgord
Périgord
The Périgord is a former province of France, which corresponds roughly to the current Dordogne département, now forming the northern part of the Aquitaine région. It is divided into four regions, the Périgord Noir , the Périgord Blanc , the Périgord Vert and the Périgord Pourpre...
, Dreux
Dreux
Dreux is a commune in the Eure-et-Loir department in northern France.-History:Dreux was known in ancient times as Durocassium, the capital of the Durocasses Celtic tribe. Despite the legend, its name was not related with Druids. The Romans established here a fortified camp known as Castrum...
, and Soissons
Soissons
Soissons is a commune in the Aisne department in Picardy in northern France, located on the Aisne River, about northeast of Paris. It is one of the most ancient towns of France, and is probably the ancient capital of the Suessiones...
.
Louis was son of King Charles V of France
Charles V of France
Charles V , called the Wise, was King of France from 1364 to his death in 1380 and a member of the House of Valois...
and Joanna of Bourbon
Joanna of Bourbon
Joanna of Bourbon was consort to Charles V of France.Born in Vincennes, Joanna was a daughter of Peter I, Duke of Bourbon and Isabella of Valois, a half-sister of Philip VI of France as the daughter of Charles of Valois and his third wife Mahaut of Châtillon.-Family:Joanna gave birth to nine...
and younger brother of Charles VI
Charles VI of France
Charles VI , called the Beloved and the Mad , was the King of France from 1380 to 1422, as a member of the House of Valois. His bouts with madness, which seem to have begun in 1392, led to quarrels among the French royal family, which were exploited by the neighbouring powers of England and Burgundy...
.
Succession in Hungary, Poland and Naples
In 1374, Louis was betrothed to Catherine, heiress presumptive to the throne of Hungary.Louis and Catherine were expected to reign either over Hungary or over Poland, as Catherine's father, Louis I of Hungary, had no sons. Catherine's father also planned to leave them his claim to the Crown of Naples and the County of Provence, which were then held by his ailing and childless cousin Joanna I
Joan I of Naples
Joan I , born Joanna of Anjou, was Queen of Naples from 1343 until her death. She was also Countess of Provence and Forcalquier, Queen consort of Majorca and titular Queen of Jerusalem and Sicily 1343–82, and Princess of Achaea 1373/5–81....
. However, Catherine died in 1378 and the marriage negotiations were stopped.
In 1384, Elizabeth of Bosnia started negotiating with Louis' father about the possibility of Louis marrying her daughter Mary
Mary of Hungary
Mary of Anjou was queen regnant of Hungary from 1382 until her death in 1395.-Childhood:...
, notwithstanding Mary's engagement to Sigismund of Luxembourg
Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor
Sigismund of Luxemburg KG was King of Hungary, of Croatia from 1387 to 1437, of Bohemia from 1419, and Holy Roman Emperor for four years from 1433 until 1437, the last Emperor of the House of Luxemburg. He was also King of Italy from 1431, and of Germany from 1411...
. If Elizabeth had made this proposal in 1378, after Catherine's death, the fact that the French king and the Hungarian king did not recognize the same pope would have represented a problem. However, Elizabeth was desperate in 1384 and was not willing to let the schism stand in the way of the negotiations. Pope Clement VII
Pope Clement VII
Clement VII , born Giulio di Giuliano de' Medici, was a cardinal from 1513 to 1523 and was Pope from 1523 to 1534.-Early life:...
issued a dispensation which annulled Mary's betrothal to Sigismund and the proxy marriage
Proxy marriage
A proxy wedding or is a wedding in which the bride or groom is not physically present, usually being represented instead by another person...
between Louis and Mary was celebrated in April 1385. Nonetheless, the marriage was not recognized by the Hungarian noblemen who adhered to Pope Urban VI
Pope Urban VI
Pope Urban VI , born Bartolomeo Prignano, was Pope from 1378 to 1389.-Biography:Born in Itri, he was a devout monk and learned casuist, trained at Avignon. On March 21, 1364, he was consecrated Archbishop of Acerenza in the Kingdom of Naples...
. Four months after the proxy marriage, Sigismund invaded Hungary and married Mary, which ultimately destroyed Louis' chances to reign as King of Hungary.
Hundred Years' War
Hundred Years' War
The Hundred Years' War was a series of separate wars waged from 1337 to 1453 by the House of Valois and the House of Plantagenet, also known as the House of Anjou, for the French throne, which had become vacant upon the extinction of the senior Capetian line of French kings...
. With the increasing insanity of his elder brother Charles the Mad (who suffered from either schizophrenia
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by a disintegration of thought processes and of emotional responsiveness. It most commonly manifests itself as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking, and it is accompanied by significant social...
, porphyria
Porphyria
Porphyrias are a group of inherited or acquired disorders of certain enzymes in the heme bio-synthetic pathway . They are broadly classified as acute porphyrias and cutaneous porphyrias, based on the site of the overproduction and accumulation of the porphyrins...
or bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder or bipolar affective disorder, historically known as manic–depressive disorder, is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a category of mood disorders defined by the presence of one or more episodes of abnormally elevated energy levels, cognition, and mood with or without one or...
), Louis disputed the regency
Regent
A regent, from the Latin regens "one who reigns", is a person selected to act as head of state because the ruler is a minor, not present, or debilitated. Currently there are only two ruling Regencies in the world, sovereign Liechtenstein and the Malaysian constitutive state of Terengganu...
and guardianship of the royal children with John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy
Duke of Burgundy
Duke of Burgundy was a title borne by the rulers of the Duchy of Burgundy, a small portion of traditional lands of Burgundians west of river Saône which in 843 was allotted to Charles the Bald's kingdom of West Franks...
. The enmity between the two was public and a source of political unrest in the already troubled France. Louis had the initial advantage, being the brother rather than the first cousin of the king, but his character and rumour of an affair with the queen consort Isabeau of Bavaria
Isabeau of Bavaria
Isabeau of Bavaria was Queen consort of France as spouse of King Charles VI of France, a member of the Valois Dynasty...
made him extremely unpopular. For the following years, the children of Charles VI were successively kidnapped and recovered by both parties, until the Duke of Burgundy managed to be appointed by royal decree guardian of the Dauphin and regent of France.
Louis did not give up and took every effort to sabotage John's rule, including squandering the money raised for the relief of Calais
Calais
Calais is a town in Northern France in the department of Pas-de-Calais, of which it is a sub-prefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's capital is its third-largest city of Arras....
, then occupied by the English. After this episode, John and Louis broke into open threats and only the intervention of John of Valois
John, Duke of Berry
John of Valois or John the Magnificent was Duke of Berry and Auvergne and Count of Poitiers and Montpensier. He was the third son of King John II of France and Bonne of Luxemburg; his brothers were King Charles V of France, Duke Louis I of Anjou and Duke Philip the Bold of Burgundy...
, Duke of Berry and uncle of both men, avoided a civil war.
Murder
Assassination of Louis I, Duke of Orléans
The assassination of Louis I, Duke of Orléans took place on November 23, 1407 in Paris.-Background:Under the reign of Charles V, French generals like Bertrand du Guesclin had steadily regained ground previously lost to the English in the Hundred Years' War. At the same time England was suffering...
in the streets of Paris, when armed men under the orders of John the Fearless attacked him while he was mounting his horse. Louis was stabbed by fifteen masked criminals led by Raoulet d'Anquetonville, a servant of the duke of Burgundy. The unarmed servants who were escorting him were powerless to protect him.
The Duke of Burgundy had the support of the population of Paris and the University. He could even publicly admit the killing. Rather than deny it, John the Fearless had the scholar Jean Petit
Jean Petit (theologian)
Jean Petit was a French theologian and professor in the University of Paris...
of the Sorbonne deliver a peroration justifying the killing of tyrants.
Louis' murder would spark a bloody feud and civil war between Burgundy and the French Royal family which would divide France for the next seventy years and only end with the death of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy in 1477.
Family
Valentina Visconti
Not to be confused with Valentina Visconti, Queen of CyprusValentina Visconti was the wife of Louis de Valois, Duke of Orléans, a younger brother of Charles VI of France....
, daughter of Gian Galeazzo
Gian Galeazzo Visconti
Gian Galeazzo Visconti , son of Galeazzo II Visconti and Bianca of Savoy, was the first Duke of Milan and ruled the late-medieval city just before the dawn of the Renaissance...
, Duke of Milan, with whom he had:
- a daughter (1390)
- Louis (1391–1395)
- a son (1392)
- John Philip (1393)
- Charles, Duke of Orléans (1394–1465), father of King Louis XII of FranceLouis XII of FranceLouis proved to be a popular king. At the end of his reign the crown deficit was no greater than it had been when he succeeded Charles VIII in 1498, despite several expensive military campaigns in Italy. His fiscal reforms of 1504 and 1508 tightened and improved procedures for the collection of taxes...
- Philip (1396–1420), Count of Vertus
- John, Count of AngoulêmeJohn, Count of AngoulêmeJohn of Orléans, Count of Angoulême and of Périgord , 26 June 1399 – 30 April 1467, younger son of Louis I, Duke of Orléans, and Valentina Visconti, and a grandson of Charles V of France. He was the younger brother of the noted poet, Charles, Duke of Orléans, and grandfather of Francis I of...
(1404–1467), grandfather of King Francis I of FranceFrancis I of FranceFrancis I was King of France from 1515 until his death. During his reign, huge cultural changes took place in France and he has been called France's original Renaissance monarch... - Marie (1401)
- MargaretMarguerite d'Orléans, Countess of VertusMarguerite, Countess of Vertus , was born on 4 December 1406. She was the daughter of Louis I, Duke of Orléans, and Valentina Visconti, and the granddaughter and niece of King Charles V of France and King Charles VI of France, respectively...
(1406–1466), Countess of Vertus, married in 1423 Richard of Brittany, Count of Étampes. Their son was Francis II, Duke of Brittany.
His illegitimate son by Mariette d'Enghien
Mariette d'Enghien
-Background:Mariette d'Enghien was the daughter of Jacques d'Enghien, Castellan of Mons, by either his first or his second wife. She was known as the Lady of Wiège and Fagnoles, lands she inherited from her uncle and grandfather....
, was "Jean Levieux Valois des Orléans" better known as John of Dunois
Jean de Dunois
John of Orléans, Count of Dunois was the illegitimate son of Louis d'Orléans by Mariette d'Enghien.The term "Bastard of Orléans" John of Orléans, Count of Dunois (French born "Jean Levieux Valois des Orléans" better known as Jean d'Orléans, comte de Dunois, also known as John of Orléans and...
(1402–1468), Jean is the ancestor of the Dukes of Longueville.