Oddly enough, a few months after I had read Quentin Durward, I came across some of its characters in a very different sort of book, The Good Duchess by Ann Forster. This was a biography of the daughter of Louis XI whom he had betrothed to the Duke of Orleans, his kinsman who he feared would inherit his throne.
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The Duke of Orleans, who in time became Louis XII, did in fact marry Joan, but the moment he became king he sought an annulment. He got his way and married then the wife of Joan’s brother who had reigned before him as Charles VII.
Joan was then created Duchess of Berry, and settled in the town of Bourges, where she founded an order of nuns. The rest of the book is about her efforts in this regard, based on a vision she had seen in her youth in which the Virgin Mary had asked her to found an order dedicated to reproducing the commitment of the Virgin. This required permission from the Pope and the adherence of young ladies of good birth, but with the help of her spiritual adviser all this was achieved, the order was founded, and a convent built. Shortly after all this happened, Joan died.
She was much loved in Bourges, and soon there were stories of miracles. But her beatification was delayed because of the religious controversies that occurred soon after with the rise of protestant churches. And then what with the further setbacks to Catholicism because of the French Revolution, she was only made a saint in 1950. Similarly, though several convents sprang up soon after the founding of the order, there were setbacks, because of religious conflicts and then the atheism of the French Revolution, but at the time the biography was written there were once again several convents in place, including one in England.
The fervour with which Ann Forster addressed this aspect of her story was interesting, but of course what I found more interesting was the story of her marriage and its subsequent annulment. Louis put forward four reasons for seeking this, most importantly that he had been practically forced into the marriage by Joan’s father when he was king. It was also claimed that Joan was incapable of normal sexual relations.
Joan refused to be examined, so on this last point a decision had to be made on the basis of the testimony of the parties to the marriage. Delicate though the issue was, there were obviously contradictions, but with Louis insistent that the marriage had not been consummated, Joan accepted the king’s declaration. With regard to the charge of intimidation, a note written by Louis XI seemed to confirm this and, though it could have been argued that after his death the pressure was off, Louis claimed that he was also under pressure from Joan’s brother and sister and King and Regent respectively.
So the annulment was granted. Given that I had read earlier of how Louis XI had planned the marriage, it was fascinating to read now the account of how Louis had used his daughter, and of how the Duke of Orleans, who was a mere child when the betrothal had happened, had been forced as it were to succumb. But it was also shown how he had depended on Joan to plead for him when subsequently he had been involved in rebellion against the crown.
Reading the two books in succession was most instructive, to see how the minor characters in the novel had been involved in a great historical drama for reasons touched upon in the novel.
After Joan and the book, the pictures are of her husband and her father and her sister.