INTRODUCTORY HISTORY.

PART I.

The Early History of Anjou

PART II.

The Ancestors of Rene of Anjou

John, King of France

Louis I., Duke of Anjou

Louis II., Duke of Anjou

Louis III., Duke of Anjou

CHAPTER I. A.D. 1435.

Rene’s birth—Education—Marriage—Children—His tastes and wars— The Battle of Bulgneville—He becomes Duke of Lorraine and Bar—Rene in prison—Released on his parole—The Emperor Sigismond’s decision—Fetes in Lorraine—Rend returns to his prison— Death of Louis III.—Death of Queen Joanna II.—She appointed Rend her heir—Rend sends his Queen, Isabella, into Provence and to Naples 113

CHAPTER II. A.D. 1444.

Queen Isabella’s reception at Naples—Her talents and influence—Her great successes — Rival claims—Alphonso set free—Rend is liberated—He goes to Tours, Anjou, and Provence—Then to Genoa and Naples—His reception there—Fiend’s poverty—His cause declines— Alphonso besieges Naples — Caldora dies—Rene visits the Pro­vinces—Alphonso goes to Capua—Returns and renews the siege of Naples—He enters the city — Rend’s bravery and defeat—He returns to France — A marriage contract—René’s mother dies— Louis of Anjou dies—The treaty for peace at Tours, and for the marriage of Henry VI to Margaret of Anjou

CHAPTER III. Affairs in England previous to the marriage of Henry VI

CHAPTER IV A.D. 1444 1445.

The marriage of Margaret of Anjou by proxy—Her progress through France —Her arrival in England—Her illness—Her marriage to King Henry VI.—Her progress to London—Her reception by the people—Her coronation

CHAPTER V. A.D. 1446-1448.

The Queen’s great influence—A conspiracy against the Duke of Glou­cester—Ilis death and character—The Cardinal of Winchester dies— Colleges founded—The Duke of Suffolk’s defence—The pretensions of the Duke of York—His variance with the Duke of Somerset

CHAPTER VI. A.D. 1448-1450.

The surrender of Maine and Anjou—The Duke of Suffolk’s impeach­ment—His banishment and death—The loss of Caen—The conduct of Sir David Hall—Somerset returns to England—Cade’s rebellion and death

CHAPTER VII. A.D. 1451-1455.

Clamours against the Duke of Somerset—York takes up arms—He is apprehended, and released—Treaty with Scotland—The Queen visits Norwich—Her correspondence—The loss of Guienne—Lord Talbot’s death—Henry VI. taken ill—The birth of Prince Edward— Tho Duke of York made “Protector”—The King recovers, and resumes his authority—York retires into Wales

 

 

INTRODUCTORY HISTORY.

PART I.

OF THE EARLY HISTORY OF ANJOU.

 

After the conquests of Charlemagne the Emperor, the great kingdom of France was divided into numerous fiefs, or petty sovereignties.

These were again, after the intervention of that long period called the feudal times, reunited under the French crown. Of these provinces, Anjou was one which took a conspicuous part in the politics of Europe. During 600 years the Angevine rulers were of three separate families or “Houses,” originating in, and acknowledging allegiance to, the crown of France.

Some difficulty has been found by writers in marking distinctly the origin and fall of the First House of Anjou; but the dynasty of the “Third House,” from which René of Anjou and his daughter Margaret sprung by direct lineal descent, is traced with sufficient perspicuity in all the annals.

FIRST AND SECOND HOUSES OF ANJOU.

In the year 768, Charlemagne bestowed his sister Bertha in marriage on Milon, Count of Maine, giving, as her dower, the territory of Anjou, and conferred upon Milon the title of Count of Angers. From this marriage proceeded four illustrious warriors, Roland, Thierri, Geoffrey, and Baldwin. After a rule of ten years, Milon was killed in battle against the Saracens in Spain.

His eldest son, Roland, succeeded him in 778. That Roland whose praises have been sung by Ariosto— that famous Roland, who is reported, in one of his hand-to-hand encounters, to have cloven through man, saddle, and horse with one fell blow. But Anjou can hardly be said to have felt his governing hand, since he was killed at Roncevaux, in the very year of his accession.

The title and possessions then devolved upon his brother Thierri, who was destined, during a long reign, to bear the brunt of a cruel warfare, often simultaneously carried on by two fierce enemies, and to witness continual scenes of devastation and carnage over­spreading that fine portion of France entrusted to his charge.

The imperial power of Charlemagne was too mighty for the grasp of his son, and, under the mental and moral incapacity of his grandson, it dwindled and narrowly escaped extinction. Louis “le Debbonaire,” the son and successor of Charlemagne, had not been four years upon the throne of France, 818, ere the Bretons rose in open rebellion against him.

The King repaired to Angers, and, joined by his cousin Thierri and the Angevine nobility, marched into Brittany, and speedily reduced that refractory province.

Five years after, 824, a second rising of the Bretons, under their Duke Nomenoé, is stated to have been suppressed by Louis with equal facility. But, as early as 836, according to some chroniclers, a new enemy appeared upon the soil of France, in the persons of the famous brigand, Hasting, and the Danes, who overran and eventually colonised Normandy; and were, therefore, often called Normans in those times. No one ever did so much injury to the Angevines as this lawless chief with his pirate hordes.

In 838, the Danes made a descent upon France by the Loire, under the conduct of Hasting. It was not, however, until after the commencement of the disastrous reign of Charles “le Chauve,” son of Louis “le Debonnaire,” that the Normans on the one band, and the Bretons on the other, succeeded to any remarkable extent in ravaging Anjou, and dismembering France. In the earliest years of that reign the restless Bretons again took up arms against the new yoke, making their Duke Nomenoé, King of Brittany; and, mindful of the recent loyalty of their neighbours, invaded Anjou, ravaged the banks of the Loire, and destroyed the abbey of St. Florent. They even approached the city of Angers, but, on learning that Thierri was prepared to fight, they hastily withdrew into their own country.

It was about this time, 843—5, that the Danes found their way to Nantes; and, after making a great massacre of the people in one of its churches, established themselves temporarily on a neighbouring island of the Loire. Thence they continued to devastate the province of Brittany, for a length of time, conquering the Bretons in three consecutive battles, till Nomenoé, compelled to sue for peace, loaded them with presents, to induce them to quit his territory.

Thierri, meantime, weakened by his great age and the harass of frequent wars, ceased to be formidable to these enemies. The French king therefore resolved, for the better defence of the whole county of Anjou, to divide it for the present into two parts independent of each other.

He permitted Thierri to remain in possession of the city of Angers, and all the territory between the left bank of the Loire and the Maine, and the right bank of the Layon, and called from that time “Deça-Maine.” All the rest of the country, thenceforth named “Outre-Maine,” he bestowed on a young captain, supposed of Saxon origin, named Rostulf or Robert, who was already distinguished for his bravery and military tactics. This chief with his companions in arms shortly arrived in Anjou, and established himself at Seronne on the Sarthe (now Chateauneuf), which lie made the capital of his territory.

After making peace with Nomenoé, the Normans advanced up the Loire, entered the Maine, and attacked the city of Angers, 845-847. Thierri sustained the first onset of Hasting, and even repulsed the enemy out of the city; but the Normans, after making a feint of retiring, returned in a few days and took the city by assault. They massacred nearly all the inhabitants, pillaged and set lire to the city, and finally burnt alive the unfortunate Count Thierri, a venerable old man of more than eighty years of age.

From this period, 849, the frontier provinces were for a long time continually the scene of devastation and carnage. The King of Brittany, Nomenoé, bent on conquest, a second time invaded Anjou, and gained the capital without striking a blow. He ravaged both Anjou and Maine for several years, until a violent malady ended his life.

His son Erispoé, who succeeded him, 851, obtained a signal victory over the French king, Charles “le Chauve,” who was obliged to confirm to him the possessions of Thierri, viz., Angers and Upper Anjou; that portion of Anjou became, in fact, at that period an integral part of the kingdom of Brittany. Indeed, such was the deplorable state of the country, that, in order to obtain peace King Charles conceded all that was required of him, sanctioning the marriage of his son Louis “le Begue” with the daughter of Erispoé, and confirming the latter in the attributes of royalty. Erispoé, however, was slain in 857, upon the very altar in a sanctuary to which he had fled, by his cousin Salomon, who then declared himself King of Brittany in his stead.

Robert, meanwhile, whose strength and valour had won him the surname of “le Fort,” was respected in his territory, and was able successfully to repulse both Bretons and Normans. He remained always faithful to his benefactor Charles, who in return, in 861 entrusted him with the title and authority of Count of Angers and Upper Anjou, to preserve during the minority of his son Louis, the heir naturally of Erispoé. But the French nobility, discontented with the unfortunate government of their monarch, viewed with a jealous eye the favour shown to Robert. They intrigued with Louis, King of Germany, to depose his brother Charles “le Chauve,” and at length took up arms with him at their bead, and made their rendezvous in Brittany. Upon this, Robert collected troops and took defensive measures against the approach of the rebels. Louis invaded Anjou with a large army in 862, and immediately encountered that of Robert, but the latter succeeded, with inferior numbers, in driving back the enemy into Brittany, killing more than 2,000 of them, and recovering the whole of the booty which they had plundered during the incursion.

The fugitives rallied indeed, and afterwards re­entered Anjou, but when Robert marched promptly upon Louis and gave him battle a second time, the result was the complete victory of the Angevines, and total rout of the Breton and other forces. Finally, both Louis and Salomon, the Kings of Germany and Brittany, took the oath of fidelity to Charles “ le Chauve.”

In the same year Salomon enlisted on his side the formidable alliance of the Normans in Brittany; but the prudence of Robert dictated to him to buy off the latter at the cost of 6,000 silver livres. Thus, at length, disembarrassed of the pretensions of Salomon in Anjou, the French king confirmed the rank and government of Angers and Upper Anjou to Robert “le Fort” who in 863 obtained another complete victory over the Normans, entrenched in islands on the Loire, in which he was severely wounded.

Robert attained the climax of his successes in 865, over the Normans, on their return from Poitiers to the Loire after pillaging that city. Taking them by surprise, he killed 500 of them, without losing a single man. In acknowledgment of this especial feat the king created him Marquis of Angers, and gave him the counties of Auxerre and Nivernois. In the following year, 866, he was further promoted to a dukedom of France, with charge of the whole country between the Loire and the Seine. He was not, however, successful against his old foes in this new scene of his operations. The Normans, ascending the Seine as far as Melun, there fell upon a force much superior to their own in strength and commanded by Robert himself, over which they obtained a speedy and decisive victory. A year, or two later Robert returned to Lower Anjou, again to do battle with those insatiable brigands. He encountered, near Chateauneuf, 400 Normans and Bretons, who had despoiled the city of Le Mans. They were led by Hasting himself, who, surprised at this point, retreated within the church of Brissarth with some loss. The church having been speedily fortified, and the night coming on, Robert deferred until the morrow the attack. But, in the night, he was obliged to repel a sally from the besieged, when lie was, after prodigies of valour, cut down on the threshold of the church. Ranulph, Duke of Aquitaine, his ally on that occasion, was at the same time mortally wounded by an arrow from one of the church windows, and died three days after. Their united forces were put to flight, and the whole county fell defenceless under the yoke of the Norman adventurer.

Robert “le Fort” whose just and warlike career thus terminated in battle in defence of his country, was the first ancestor of a long line of French kings, since Hugh Capet, the head of the third dynasty, was his great­grandson, and the little town of Seronne or Chateauneuf was consequently the first possession of that distinguished race in France. The peasantry of the country still cherish his remembrance under the homely title of “General le Fort.”

At the time when Hasting thus re-appeared upon the soil of Anjou, the people of its capital, who had been peaceably employed for several years in rebuilding their city, had at length learnt to banish all fear of the return of that ruthless scourge, who twenty years before had sacked and burnt it so unmercifully. When therefore they were apprized of the stratagem of Hasting, so fatal to the brave Robert and his ally, the consternation was general. The victor returned with his spoil to his vessels on the Loire. He occupied the banks of that river during five years, living on the pillage of the country.

It is certain that from 869 to 873 the Normans were in possession of Anjou, but about the year 871 their chief resolved to seize upon some important town and make it his abode.

He gave the preference to Angers, and, quitting the Loire, approached that city. The two sons of Robert “le Fort,” Eudes and Robert, were too young at his death to succeed to his rule. The title of Count of Tours and Angers was therefore bestowed on the abbot Hugues; but at his death, a few years after, the trust of the county was confided to Eudes, who was made Count of Paris and Duke of France. It is, however, more than probable that neither Hugues nor Eudes possessed any but a titular authority over the province of Anjou during that anarchical period. At any rate, on the approach of Hasting, the inhabitants of Angers, despite the strength of their fortifications, fled in terror. The remembrance of his cruelties had so powerful an effect upon them, that neither assurances nor menaces on the part of the authorities could stay the affrighted citizens. They abandoned their city to the mercy of the Normans, who entering, with their leader, estab­lished themselves there with their families, and became its new inhabitants.

The French king, aroused into activity by the boldness of this enterprise, at length concerted measures, with the aid of Salomon, King of Brittany, to expel the brigand. In the following year Angers was successfully besieged by the French and Bretons in alliance. It was a protracted siege, and only terminated by means of a stratagem of Salomon.

His soldiers dug a wide and deep canal to draw off the waters of the Maine, and thus leave the ships of the Normans on dry ground. The Normans were powerless, or thought themselves so, without their vessels, and, though the canal was never finished, it is confidently asserted that the cause which made the besieged treat urgently for peace was this ingenious undertaking. Hasting found himself compelled to offer a large sum of money for permission to depart the city with his followers. He even promised to quit the French territory for ever, and so completely imposed on the credulity of Charles, that the King raised the siege, and suffered him to transport his vessels into the new bed of the Maine. Thence lie reached the Loire once again, when, with a faithlessness natural to a foe of his stamp, he remained, and soon after recommenced his former system of depredation along its banks with impunity.

The first person into whose hands the real government of Angers and Upper Anjou was confided, after the siege of Angers, was one of the foresters of Anjou, born in the territory of Rennes, in the Armorique, named Torquat. After Robert “le Fort” and the Norman anarchy, Torquat was the first governor of Angers, and was appointed in 873 simply as defender of the Angevine and Breton frontiers.

He had a son of an aspiring mind, named Tertulle, who at first filled the office of ranger, but as that appointment was accompanied by no particular distinction, in order to advance his fortunes he entered the service of the King and distinguished himself in the army.

Tertulle became one of the Leudes, or faithful, of Charles, in the year 875, but at what date he succeeded his father as governor of Angers and Upper Anjou, and guardian of the frontiers on that side, is unknown; it is only certain that between them Torquat and Tertulle administered that part of the country from 873 to 892. In the year 875, when he had distinguished himself and became a Leude of Charles, Tertulle won the hand of Petronilla, daughter of the Duke of Burgundy, which King Charles bestowed on him, together with a benefice in the Castle of Laudon, and some lands in Gastinois. Tertulle became Seneschal of Gastinois. The offspring of his union with Petronilla was a son, born in 876, named Ingelger, who at an early age attained an historical reputation, and became the first hereditary sovereign in Anjou, as well as the founder of a long and powerful dynastic sway.

On the death of his father, Ingelger was only in his sixteenth year, too young to be invested with the important command which Tertulle had exercised, and yet full of promise of a brilliant career. He had been educated under the eye of his father; and endowed with natural genius, a noble physiognomy, and a handsome figure, he had already become remarkable for a skill in horsemanship and in the military exercises, which even compensated for the deficiency of physical strength that years alone could contribute.

It seemed as if already the French King Eudes designed for him the same appointment which his father had held, for though some years elapsed before Ingelger became Governor of Angers, yet history mentions no intermediate possessor of that title, and next after the vacancy created by the death of Tertulle records the name of Ingelger.

Meanwhile a romantic occurrence gave rise to his début, about a year after his father’s death, and contributed in no small degree to his advancement, in that early age of chivalry.

Adèle, Countess of Gastinois, the godmother of Ingelger, had found her husband one morning, dead in his bed by her side. Though respected no less for her modesty than her beauty, the Countess was many years younger than the deceased, and that circumstance, coupled with a greedy ambition on the part of the Count’s nearest relative, except herself, named Gontran, made her the subject of an unworthy suspicion. Gontran, in order that she might be disinherited and himself put in possession of the title and estates, published an accusation against her of homicide and adultery. The decision in this matter rested with the crown, but the trial upon which that decision depended was, in those days, one of courage and strength totally irrespective of justice. The French king accordingly came to Chateau Laudon on a day specified, with his princes and barons, to judge the affair. The Countess was present in deep mourning. Gontran reminded them simply, that some years before, when the King had wished to marry the late Count, the Seneschal of his palace, to the Countess, she had long rejected the offer with hauteur, asserting that the Seneschal was born her vassal, and that she had only yielded on the reiterated instances of the King and of all his court; in short, that she had been inspired with sentiments of hatred and contempt only towards this her second husband, and that those feelings had doubtless caused her to commit the double crime laid to her charge. To prove his assertions, he immediately cast his gage into the midst of the assembly! The Countess replied only by sobs and tears, for no one dared to take up the gage of combat, and in that age the innocence of the accused was decided by combat alone. At length she sank fainting on the ground, and seemed ready to expire. Unable any longer to endure the sight of the agony of one who had taken so much care of his infancy after he had lost his mother, and had subsequently inspired him with all the generous sentiments which form the hero, Ingelger threw himself at the feet of the King, and besought his permission to fight for the honour of his benefactress. Surprised, yet pleased, the King at length consented, though with regret. On the morrow the same assemblage re-appeared upon the field of battle; the Countess with her ladies was present in a carriage hung with mourning, and, from the raised corner of the sable drapery, her eyes met those of her champion as the signal was given and he loosed the rein to his horse.

The age, strength, and military reputation of his adversary were all superior. At the first shock the lance of Gontran pierced the buckler of the youth, but there rested entangled, and whilst he vainly endeavoured to withdraw it, Ingelger passed his through the body of his opponent, and threw him from his horse; then alighting, he despatched him with his dagger. Amidst the acclamations which followed, his godmother, having alighted from her carriage and embraced Ingelger, petitioned the King to allow her to dispose of all her fortune to him to whom she owed her honour. The royal approval was given, and Ingelger rendered homage for all the lands which the Countess of Gastinois thus bestowed upon him. They were the town of Chateau Laudon and the Gastinois territory.

The King of France, an eye-witness of this brilliant commencement of his noble career, did not lose sight of Ingelger, and some years after gave him the temporary government of the town of Angers, and of that part of the county which has been called Upper Anjou. This, however, was but the first grade in the ladder of Ingelger’s ambition. Before the ninth century, the military benefices granted by the King to his Leudes, or faithful, had been transferable; but during that epoch they existed for life, and before its close became hereditary. Thus, about this date, the French King, for the better defence of his territories against the Normans and others, divided them as heirlooms amongst his generals, with the titles of dukes and counts.

The feudal government, which has been aptly termed a system of organised anarchy, was then established in Anjou; and that province was elevated, in the person of Ingelger, apparently before the year 000, into one of those particular sovereignties which all depended on the principal monarchy, by virtue of faith and homage alone.

Ingelger was created hereditary Count of Anjou “Deça Maine,” and as his zeal and talents displayed themselves, he soon after became Viscount of Orleans and Prefect of Tours. He then took the command from Orleans to Andecavi, whilst the Counts of Brittany, Judicael and Alain, completed the chain of defence against the inveterate Normans by undertaking to protect the passage and mouth of the Loire through Brittany. Ingelger’s repeated victories over these enemies acquired for him the reputation of one of the first generals of the age, while the wisdom and firmness he exhibited in his administration gained him general esteem. Thus he obtained the notice of two powerful prelates, the Bishops of Tours and Orleans, who gave him their niece, the beautiful Adèle or Aliude, the richest heiress in those countries, in marriage. The Count of Anjou became by this marriage one of the most wealthy and powerful of the nobles of France. The country of Gastinois had for its chief town Chateau Laudon, and its boundaries were the county of Sens, the territories of Melon and Etampes, the county of Orleans and the Nivernois, including in its compass Courtenai, St. Fargeau, Moret, Puiseaux, and Gien, as well as the territories where the towns of Fontainebleau, Nemours, and Montargis now stand. With all these possessions, Ingelger became the object of jealousy to most of the barons of Gastinois, who had beheld him from being an equal suddenly raised to be their sovereign. At first, indeed, they refused to recognise him; but, either through fear, or out of respect to the King’s authority, they all, at length, rendered him their homage.

The last enterprise in the life of Ingelger forms an illustration, almost as happy as his first, of the energy and intrepidity, no less than the love of justice, inherent in his noble character.

It appears that fifteen or twenty years previously, the inhabitants of Tours, in expectation of an incursion of Blasting, removed the body of St. Martin, as their most precious treasure, to Auxerre. The security of their province having been in the meantime established, the people of Tours now desired the restitution of the body of their saint; but all to no purpose. In vain they petitioned the King on the subject I ho replied, that, so long as it remained in France, he cared not what town possessed it.

In this extremity they appealed to their Prefect, Ingelger. He collected six thousand Angevine horse­men, placed himself at their head, and marched straightway upon the town of Auxerre; which, no longer able to resist a demand supported in so substantial a manner, restored the venerable deposit without further parley. This incident is referred to the year 912, the same in which Rollo, having married Gisella, daughter of Charles “le Simple,” and embraced Christianity, made peace at last between the Normans and French. In the following year occurred the death of Ingelger, whose body was conveyed to Tours, followed by all the barons and nobles of Anjou, and buried according to his desire in the church of St. Martin.

With this commencement of the feudal system, the people of Anjou, who had hitherto always enjoyed certain rights from the time of the Romans, fell into total slavery, and were parcelled out with the lands on which they dwelt. In that state of political annihilation they remained, with little exception, until the thirteenth century.

Ingelger left one son, named Foulques, and surnamed “ e Roux” from the colour of his hair. He succeeded his hither in the counties of Anjou and Charolais. Foulques inherited almost all the good qualities of his father ; but some historians assert that he tarnished their lustre by his dissolute manners. He was certainly brave and enterprising, and always returned victorious from his wars with the Normans and Bretons. Foulques became the first hereditary Count of the entire territory of Anjou. In 914 Charles “le Simple” ceded to him Lower, or Outre-Maine Anjou, and from that time the two counties united continued under one head. Foulques “le Roux” married Roscilla, daughter of Garnier, Count of Tours, by whom he had three sons : the eldest Ingelger was killed in battle previous to the year 929, and the second, named Guy, surrendered himself as hostage to the Normans to obtain the liberty of Louis d’Outre-Mer, King of France.

On the death of Foulques “le Roux,” his third son Foulques succeeded him, and the first reign in Anjou commenced in which the material prosperity of the Angevine people had obtained any consideration.

This Count was entitled “le Bon,” for the worthy actions of his public life. He was well educated for his time, cultivated music and the belles-lettres, and associated with learned men of all ranks, eager to profit by their talents. His kindness and condescension towards the poor never varied, and his administration was remarkable for mildness and justice. In short, he was a pattern of rulers in his era. He had, besides, the wisdom and good fortune to live on amicable terms with his neighbours. The age of Norman and Breton invasion of Anjou was past. Twenty years of profound peace intervened before the age of Angevine conquests in Brittany and the territory of the Count of Blois.

These twenty years constituted the happy reign of Foulques “the Good,” a golden age for Anjou, a period when that province, already the most enlightened in France, attracted strangers from far and near to come and share the benefits of its learning and its prosperity. In that age of feudalism, how much of all this depended upon the individual character of the Count who presided over the destinies of that portion of France. On his accession, that province presented the spectacle of towns and bourgs abandoned and in ruins, of fields left uncultivated, and of a people of wandering serfs without sustenance and without a home. Touched by so much misery, Foulques bestowed his earliest attention upon agriculture. He granted permission to the labourers to hew in his forests all the wood they required for rebuilding their houses and making their implements of husbandry, and then made them advances of money to procure cattle and seeds. In short, in the course of a few years, through the wisdom, goodness, and energy of their ruler, the inhabitants themselves, as well as their neighbours, were astonished to find the country abounding with flocks and herds, rich crops, orchards, and vines laden with fruit. Foulques “le Bon” married Gerberge, sister of Thibault I, Count of Blois, cementing by that union the peace and happiness of the two provinces, Anjou and Blois, during his time. Foulques II, who was, besides, extremely pious, was carried, according to his desire during his last illness, within the church of St. Martin at Tours, and actually died there, A.D. 958, surrounded by the bishop and monks. He left seven children by Gerberge, the eldest of whom, Geoffrey, succeeded him.

The character of Geoffrey was much contrasted with that of his pious, gentle, and humane father. Geoffrey was surnamed “Grise Gonelle,”from commonly wearing a tunic of coarse grey stuff. He was warlike and enterprising. He rendered some signal services to Lothaire, King of France, against Otho II, Emperor of Germany, and assisted in the defeat of the Normans, Danes, and Saxons whom Otho had led upon Paris. The King of France, to testify his satisfaction, made him Grand Seneschal of France, which office he created expressly for him and his descendants. The life of Geoffrey “Grise Gonelle” was spent mostly in the battle-field. He had incessant contests with William IV, Count of Poitiers; he fought David, Count of Le Mans, and, in compensation for his victory over him, received his estates; he triumphed over the Bretons who had come to pillage Anjou once more; and was besieging one of his vassals in the castle of Marson, near Saumur, when he died of a sudden attack in the year 987.

Geoffrey “Grise Gonelle” had several children by his wife Adèle, of whom two alone survived him, and in turn succeeded to his title and possessions. Of the elder, Maurice, no trace has been left beyond the statement that he ruled one year only in Anjou.

The name of his brother, Foulques “Nerra,” who then took the reins, is well known. His good government during a very long reign was of great importance to the province of Anjou, and much resembled that of Foulques “le Bon,” despite its warlike character at an early period, despite the stains with which tradition accuses his private life. But soon after its commencement he experienced a bitter and ambitious enemy in the person of Conan I, King of Brittany, who had married his sister. He had occasion to do battle in person more than once during the year 992 against his brother-in-law, who was as treacherous as Foulques was brave and honest. The last sanguinary battle in that year terminated in the death of Conan, together with a thousand of his Breton followers.

In 994, Foulques laid siege to Tours, then held by Eudes, Count of Blois, and his arms having been there also victorious, a peace of some years ensued, during which he was enabled to give his undivided attention to the administration of Anjou. In his desire to ameliorate the condition of his subjects, and to augment legitimately the population of the country, he not only built a great number of towns, castles, churches, and monasteries, but placed inhabitants in them, and sought to render them happy by every means in his power. In fact, as the terrible year 1000 passed harmlessly by (when it had been believed that the end of the world was approaching), a surprising change began to operate upon all classes, and in Anjou it especially manifested itself by an era of celebrated architecture, and Foulques became distinguished in history as the edificateur. But he was yet more worthy of public renown, for having constantly made concessions to his unhappy people.

About 1012, he granted lands to the poorest amongst them, and established public markets for the sale of their produce, in order that they might maintain themselves. “Nerra” first brought largely into use the slate with which Anjou abounds. We find him again, however, in 1016 fighting against Eudes of Blois, and so late as the year 1025, he conquered and annexed the town of Saumur, which has been called the garden of Anjou. The limits of the province of Anjou were, indeed, considerably extended on each side under his rule, until it comprised about the same area as the department of Maine et Loire in the present day. In 1029, however, Foulques “Nerra” was unsuccessful in a contest against the Count of Maine and Alain III of Brittany; and about the year 1036, his son Geoffrey rose in open rebellion against him. He defeated, imprisoned, and finally pardoned his son.

“Nerra” is reported to have burnt alive his first wife on a charge of adultery. It is stated that her shade appeared to him in after years, and that it was in remorse for this and other similar savage acts of his early martial career, that he made three separate pilgrimages for the Pope’s benediction and to the Holy Land. By his second wife, Hildegarde, he had the son Geoffrey who succeeded him. During Foulques “Nerra’s” time, Ethelred II of England, and many banished Saxons, took up their abode in Normandy.

His son and successor, Geoffrey “Martel,” became one of the greatest generals of his age, but inherited none of the qualities which had earned the public gratitude for his father. He was engaged in warfare nearly the whole of his life. After serving in several campaigns under Henry I of France, Geoffrey “Martel” laid siege to Tours, which was then held by Thibault III, Count of Blois. Thibault, having refused to do homage to the King for his possessions, this monarch had confiscated them, and invested Geoffrey “Martel” with them. In this enterprise, which took place on the 21st of August, 1044, Geoffrey was completely successful, against very superior numbers. The Count of Blois was himself taken captive, and as many as 1800 prisoners, and a considerable booty fell into the hands of the besiegers. From his personal prowess in this victory the name of “Martel,” or hammer, was given to him, in allusion to the fatal blows by which he prostrated his opponents. The French King, however, became the mediator for Thibault, who obtained his liberation by ceding as his ransom the towns and castles of Tours, Chinon, and Langeais. From that date, Tourraine was dismembered from the counties of Blois and Chartres. Before he had attained his twenty-second year, Geoffrey “Martel” had twice conquered in battle William V, Duke of Aquitaine.

They contested La Saintonge; and, for four years, there was constant bloodshed between Saumur and Poitiers. On the occasion of his second defeat the Duke was made captiv ; and, after a confinement of three years, died in his prison. Geoffrey then married his widow, Agnes of Burgundy, who brought him, as her dowry, the county of Poitou and many lesser fiefs. The valiant Geoffrey next attacked Normandy, but could make no permanent acquisition within the territory of William the Conqueror. Though always faithful to his sovereign, Henry I, his great ambition led him to invade frequently the states of his neighbours, and, in one important matter, he did not hesitate to employ fraud as well as force to gratify this culpable ambition. He took advantage of the infancy of Herbert II, Count of Maine, to procure his own nomination as administrator of that province during his minority, but never relinquished the sovereign authority over Maine during his life-time. He had, besides, been unscrupulous enough to seize by force from his nephew Foulques “l’Oison,” the county of Vendome, which he restored only on the King’s intercession, after he had enjoyed its revenue for twenty years. He made great acquisitions to his dominions, but his subjects could have experienced little happiness under his restless rule. Although twice married, Geoffrey “Martel” had no children, either by Agnes or Grecia, to whom to bequeath his great possessions; and with him ended the first branch of the Second House of Anjou, as it is called, or of the direct line from Ingelger. This last of the Ingelgerian Counts in direct descent, resigned his states in the year 1060, in favour of his two nephews, Geoffrey “le Barba” and Foulques “Rechin,” and entering the monastery of St. Nicholas, at Angers,  lied there on the following morning, in his fifty-fourth year.

Geoffrey and Foulques, the nephews and successors of Geoffrey “Martel,” were sons of Alberic, of Gastinois, and a sister of Geoffrey “Martel.” The former received from his uncle, Tourraine and the town of Chateau Laudon, and the latter, Anjou and Saintonge. The inequality of this division was the cause of a bloody feud between the two brothers during eight years, as well as of the most unnatural cruelty protracted over a period of thirty years more by the one brother upon the other.

The surname of “Rechin,” or quarrelsome, given to Foulques IV has, by some, been understood as referring the whole culpability of these disasters to him principally, if not solely. It appears certain, however, that Geoffrey “le Barba” began the feud by claiming a right over his brother’s inheritance of Anjou. He was actually master of the whole county of Anjou in 1066. Foulques “Rechin’’ succeeded in making him his prisoner in the same year, but released him on the command of Pope Alexander II. In the following year, however, Geoffrey “le Barba” renewed the war by besieging the fortress of Brissac. Foulques “Rechin” advanced against him, and took him prisoner for the second time, together with a thousand of his partizans, and confined him in the Castle of Chinon. This incarceration was continued for thirty years, and so terrible was its results, that the unhappy Geoffrey “le Barba” lost his reason. Meanwhile, the whole Angevine nobility had been divided into two hostile camps; and very many had fallen in the civil war. The recent acquisition of Saintonge was, besides, lost to Anjou during these troubles; and to appease Philip I of France, Foulques “Rechin” was compelled to surrender Chateau Landon to the crown.

In 1073, Pope Gregory VII.excommunicated Foulques “Rechin” for having married Ermengarde of Bourbon within the prohibited degrees. But although proved to have been a zealous Roman Catholic by his defence of the faith against heretics, and by his gifts to the Church, Foulques “Rechin” seems generally, throughout his life, to have made very light of papal anathemas. He was a second time excommunicated by the same pontiff in 1086 for his lengthy and cruel detention of his brother in prison. But in proof of the utter futility of these anathemas, Pope Urban II, ten years after, favoured Angers, amongst many other French cities, with a visit, to preach a crusade to the Holy Land; and having been magnificently received there by this same Foulques “Rechin,” presented him with a golden rose, which had received bis blessing.

Geoffrey “le Barba” was as close a prisoner as ever at that very date, though it is true that he was released shortly after, by command of this same Pope Urban II.

Foulques “Rechin” was a very abandoned character in private life. He married three wives, and repudiated them all; but the fourth repudiated him. This last, named Bertrade, was the sister of Amaury of Montfort, and was reputed the most handsome woman in the kingdom; but, such was her frailty, that after living with Foulques “Rechin” four years, she deserted him, and fled to Philip I, King of France.

By his second wife, Ermengarde, Foulques had a son named Geoffrey “Martel,” who would have succeeded him in Anjou, but Bertrade was jealous of the interest of her son by “Rechin,” named Foulques; and in 1106, Geoffrey “Martel” was found murdered. It would hardly be expected that Foulques “Rechin ” was learned for his time, but so he is reputed. He wrote in Latin a history of the Counts of Anjou, in which, after briefly speaking of his ancestors, lie informs us, that the twenty-seventh year of his reign was marked by a great prodigy. He affirms that the stars then fell like hail upon the earth, causing a great panic and mortality in France, 100 persons of rank, and 2,000 of the people having died at Angers alone. Foulques “Rechin” died in 1101, at the age of sixty-six.

His son by Bertrade, Foulques V, succeeded him. He had been invested with the county of Anjou, by Phillip I during the lifetime of his father in 1106, after the assassination of Geoffrey “Martel.” This Count was destined, in a much shorter reign than that of his father, to attain higher alliances, and to secure wider possessions for his descendants. It was during his reign, that Anjou first became connected with the reigning family of England.

He began by annexing the county of Maine to that of Anjou, by his marriage with Eremburga, daughter of Helie, Count of Maine, who, at his death in 1110, made him his heir. Soon after, the King of France needed his assistance against the English: Foulques V had maintained that the rank and title of Grand Seneschal of France, borne by Geoffrey “Grise Gonelle,” was a family inheritance in the house of Anjou, and taking advantage of the King’s present necessity to plead for a confirmation of that title to him, he gained his object. He next distinguished himself by several victories over Henry I of England when that king invaded Normandy. His humanity to the prisoners in his triumphs quite won the heart of the English monarch, who finally sought his alliance, and a marriage was celebrated between his son William, and Matilda, the daughter of Foulques. The bridegroom at these nuptials was fourteen and the bride eleven years of age. After William’s shipwreck on his return to England, Matilda retired to the abbey of Fontevrault, in Anjou, of which thirty years after she became the Abbess, and died there in 1155.

In 1120, leaving his wife Eremburga with his young children, Geoffrey and Helie, in charge of the county, Foulques made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and on his return, as Grand Seneschal, he bore the banner of France, and commanded the avant garde of the army of Louis “le Gros.” Eremburga was an amiable and high-minded lady. She bore him two sons and two daughters, who were all married to the sons and daughters of kings. She died in 1125. In the same year Foulques revisited the East; and four years after finally returned and settled there, as heir to Baldwin, King of Jerusalem, having accepted the proffered hand of his daughter Melisende.

In 1131 Foulques succeeded that prince on his throne. He died a violent death in 1144, and was buried at Jerusalem, while his son, Baldwin, by his second marriage, then mounted the throne. Foulques V, who was of a noble and enterprising spirit, was very remarkable for his bad memory; he was known to pass by without recognition persons to whom he had shortly before testified the most sincere marks of his friendship.

When Foulques departed finally for the East, he resigned his rights over Anjou, Maine, and Tourraine to his son Geoffrey “Plantagenet.” This name, which served to distinguish a long line of his descendants, was derived from the badge assumed by Foulques, his father, on his way to the Holy Land. The plantagenista, or broom pod, when in season, was used to strew the chamber floors, and thence became an emblem of humility, and as such was borne by Foulques in his pilgrimage. Henry II, King of England, afterwards used this badge to show his descent from the House of Anjou, and it was engraved upon his robe in his monumental effigy.

In the same year that Geoffrey acceded, he espoused Matilda, daughter of Henry I of England, and widow of Henry V, Emperor of Germany. Thus he found himself on the death of Henry I heir to the crown of England, but not only was that throne usurped by Stephen, in 1135, but the Normans also preferred Stephen, who was therefore, in 1137, installed in that fiefdom by Louis “le Gros.” For four consecutive years Geoffrey made unsuccessful campaigns into Normandy. Stephen died in 1141, but the Normans did not generally succumb to Geoffrey until the year 1144. Meantime some of his barons of Anjou had revolted against him, and even withstood his authority until 1147. In punishing one of them he sustained the first attacks of the French King Louis VII, in open war, and braved the thunders of Pope Eugene III to the last. He died in 1151, at the early age of thirty-eight. He was learned; and beloved by the people at large, and bore altogether a good character. But twenty years of feudal warfare ruined and depopulated his three counties of Anjou, Maine, and Normandy, and the repeated neglect of a due cultivation of the soil brought on a terrible famine in 1146.

Geoffrey rebuilt the Castle of Seronne, which, as well as the town, was from that time named Chateauneuf. His wife Matilda, lived till 1167, and his son Henry, eventually became King of England in right of his mother. Normandy was ceded to him during the life of his father, at whose death, he likewise took possession of Anjou, and his other territories in France.

Anjou, thus united to the crown of England, was so held for upwards of half-a-century. Henry II was born at Le Mans, in 1133, and was only eighteen when he succeeded his father in Anjou. Geoffrey had never intended to unite the possessions of Anjou, Maine, and Tourrainc under the same rule as the kingdom of England. On the contrary, he had by his will left those counties temporarily to Henry, upon his oath that, from the time when he acceded to the English throne, he should surrender them to his third son, Geoffrey. An attempt however was made by Geoffrey to possess himself of them immediately after his father’s death, but having been worsted in battle by Henry, in 1152, was forced to succumb to him.

At length, when Henry ascended the throne of England, in 1154, Geoffrey was a captive in the hands of the Count of Blois, Henry’s ally, and instead of endeavouring to effect his liberty, and restore to him his rightful inheritance, Henry listened only to the dictates of his grasping ambition, and retained possession of the whole of his ill-gotten power.

In 1156 Geoffrey having paid his ransom established himself in Tourraine, but his unnatural brother besieged and speedily vanquished him, and the unfortunate young Count died not long after at the early age of twenty-four.

Henry II bears a good character in Anjou. It is stated that in 1176, during a long drought, he had transported from England nourishment for 10,000 men daily for some months; and a clause in his will provided a hundred silver marks for the marriage of the Angevine young ladies. He favoured the works of the Levee, to enclose the Loire within bounds, and they made groat progress in his reign. He founded the hospital called “Hotel Dieu,” at Angers, besides other worthy establishments. Henry’s administrative talents are recognised in a hundred ways by the people of Angers and Saumur; the communes and other first germs of the liberty of the bourgeois, date from him. He had also a great taste for learning, his court was the asylum of the learned men of Europe. In the necrology of Fontevrault, he is called the Solomon of his age. He was eloquent, loved poetry, and wrote verses himself in the Provencal tongue. Above all, having shown himself the sub­stantial friend of the people, he was very popular. His consort, the beautiful Eleanor, the divorced of Louis VII of France, and daughter of William X, Count of Poitiers, brought him at her marriage in 1152, the extensive and important province of Aquitaine; she died at Fontevrault in 1204. Henry II died at Chinon, in July 1189, aged fifty-six.

Henry II had four sons, named Henry, Richard, Geoffrey, and John. Henry and Geoffrey died in the life-time of their father, and Geoffrey left a son named Arthur.

Richard next inherited the county of Anjou, together with the other French possessions appertaining to the English monarchy. The short reign of Richard “Coeur de Lion” was entirely occupied in his combats with Saladin in the East, and with Philip Augustus in Normandy. Anjou had little enough of association with its Count during the ten years, 1189—99. Richard married in 1191, Berengaria, daughter of Sancho VI King of Navarre: but left no children. He had designed in 1190, as his heir, Arthur, the son of his brother Geoffrey, and grandson of Henry II; but finally bequeathed his territories to his brother John. He left, by his will, his body to Fontevrault, his heart to Rouen, and his entrails, in token of his contempt of that people, to the Poitevins.

On the death of Richard “Coeur de Lion,” the inhabitants of Anjou, Tourraine, and Maine, declared in favour of Arthur, whilst England and Normandy seconded the claims of John, as successor. John, thereupon, accompanied by his mother Eleanor, led an English army to the disputed territory, and laid siege to Angers. Prince Arthur was at this time no more than twelve years old. Philip Augustus, who aspired to concentrate in his own person an absolute authority over the whole kingdom of France, at the same time decided on supporting the cause of Arthur against John, by the arms of France. But a matrimonial expedient saved much bloodshed at that time, although it was fatal to the just cause of the young Arthur.

It suited the policy of Philip Augustus to establish peace between himself and John, by effecting a marriage between his son Louis and Blanche of Castillo, the niece of John.

In 1202 Philip further developed beyond a doubt his ambitious projects, by marrying his daughter Mary to Prince Arthur; but in the same year Arthur was taken prisoner by John, and after a detention of nine months was strangled by his unnatural uncle, at Rouen.

After Arthur’s assassination, 1203, John was cited before the peers of France, to answer for that crime, and failing to appear, his provinces in France were confiscated

With his crime the fiefs of Anjou and Maine were severed from the English crown, and reverted as by right to that of France, 1205. It is true John did not voluntarily submit to the sentence, since he invaded and had possession of Angers again in 1206, when Goth-like, he demolished its ancient walls.

He lost it in the following year, and seemingly brooding over his retributory misfortunes, made no further attempt upon it until 1213. In that year, having collected a powerful army, he landed at Rochelle, and actually occupied Angers, without striking a blow. But he never really recovered the provinces forfeited by his crimes, for the year 1214 beheld him once more in retreat from Anjou, never to re-appear there, since he died on the 19th of October, 1216. In the person of King John ended what is called the “Second House of Anjou.”

In 1204, after the confiscations of John’s French possessions, Philip Augustus established hereditary seneschals in that part of France, the first of whom was the tutor of the unfortunate young Arthur, named William des Roches, who was in fact Count in all except the name, over Anjou, Maine, and Tourraine, owing allegiance only to the crown of France. The Seneschal, William des Roches, died in 1222. His son-in-law, Amaury de Craon, succeeded him. Philip Augustus, whose ambitious mind, aided by fortunate circumstances, had effected such great changes, died the year after. Meantime, Henry III of England continued to wear the titles of the French possessions of his ancestors, amongst them that of Count of Anjou, but made no attempt for the present to regain them.

Pierre Mauclerc, Duke of Brittany, however, aspired to regal power, and the Seneshal Amaury having marched a large force into Brittany was, after some successes, taken prisoner by Mauclerc, on the 3rd of March, 1223, and incarcerated at Touffeau, near Nantes. But afterwards, unequal single handed to the task of combating the French Regency of Blanche of Castile, during the minority of Louis IX, Mauclerc did homage to Henry III of England.

On the 3rd of May, 1230, Henry disembarked a considerable army at St. Malo, in the view of re-conquering Anjou, and the other forfeited possessions of his crown.

Louis IX. then only fifteen yeaes old, consequently came to Anjou, and having fortified its chief places, advanced to the attack of the allies; but in the following year a peace was concluded, the province of Guienne having been ceded to the English crown. In 1241, Louis gave the counties of Poitou and Auvergne to his brother Alphonso ; and in the year 1246, he invested his brother Charles, Count of Provence, with the counties of Anjou and Maine, thereby annulling the rank and title of Seneschal, and instituting the

 

THIRD HOUSE OF ANJOU.

 

Charles I, the founder of the proud fortunes of this Third House, was ambitious in character, and events long favoured his ambition. Count of Provence, through the inheritance of his consort, he had not long been invested with Anjou and Maine, orc he was invited to the conquest of Sicily. The monarchy of Sicily then comprised the same territory as the kingdom of Naples in the present day; but Palermo 1251 was its metropolis. In 1251, Pope Innocent IV declared a crusade against Mainfroy, the natural son of Frederick II Emperor of Germany, to whom the kingdom of Sicily then belonged, and attempted in vain to annex the Sicilian dominion to the Papal throne. Having taken a survey, therefore, of the ambitious heads of his time, he first invited England to its conquest; but failing in that quarter, he next fixed on Charles of Anjou as his fitting instrument, and offered to him the crown of Sicily. So tempting a proposition made a powerful impression upon the mind of Charles, and is said to have operated still more remarkably upon that of his wife, who longed to be a queen; but it was not at that time responded to. It was not until the reign of that Pope’s successor, Urban IV, that Charles accepted the offer, and undertook the conquest. In 1264, he concluded a treaty with that pontiff, by virtue of which, amongst other engagements, it was provided, that the kingdom of Sicily should be hereditary in the family of Charles, that it should be held, however, in liege homage to the Papal throne, that an annual tribute should be paid to the Pope, by the Angevine prince, and that during a minority, the Pope should exercise the administration of the kingdom. A crusade was then preached; Charles was crowned in Rome, with his Countess, on the 6th of January, 1266. He then encountered Mainfroy, and in one great battle, that of Benevento, gained a complete victory, and Mainfroy was slain, Naples surrendered to the victor, who speedily obtained possession of La Pouille, Calabria, Terre de Labour, and the greater part of Sicily.

Charles handsomely recompensed those who had served him, knighting some, and giving lands to others. It was also on this occasion that he instituted the order of knighthood called the Spur. The fame of the great successes of Charles of Anjou, now caused his alliance to be esteemed a desideratum amongst the highest European princes. His eldest son Charles married Mary, the only daughter of Stephen, King of Hungary. His daughter Blanche was united to the Count of Flanders, and his daughter Beatrix espoused Philip, King of Thessaly, the son of Baldwin II., Emperor of Constantinople. By this marriage contract it was provided, that the Empire of the East should devolve on the posterity of the Count of Anjou.

The despotic character of Charles, however, was ill adapted to govern the aspirations after constitutional freedom in which the warm-hearted Italians have indulged in all ages. The Gibelins fomented a rising against him, and induced Conradin, the son of the Emperor Frederic II, and last male heir of that house, to take the lead of the insurgents.

Conradin, a youth of only sixteen, was defeated by Charles, and lost his life on the scaffold at Naples, in 1269. To the last, Conradin evinced a high spirit; his conduct on the scaffold formed an important link in the chain of events. Before his death he addressed the people, saying, “I make Peter, King of Arragon, heir of all my rights,” and having thrown down his glove in token of the investiture, the pledge was scrupulously conveyed to him for whom it was intended.

Beatrix of Savoy, the first wife of Charles of Anjou, died at Nocera, in the Terre de Labour. As heiress of Raimond Beranger, Count of Provence, her husband had assumed that title in her right, and at her death she left the counties of Provence and Foucalquier to the House of Anjou.

Charles married secondly, with great pomp at Naples, Margaret of Burgundy. He built the Chateau-Neuf at Naples, some churches, and other beautiful edifices. He also favoured the university of Naples, and did not meanwhile neglect that of Angers. He made a principality of the county of Salerno, and bestowed it upon his son Charles; the eldest son of the king of Naples has from that time always borne the title of Prince of Salerno. The great influence of Charles of Anjou obtained for him the cession of the rights of Mary of Antioch to the kingdom of Jerusalem, that lady receiving in exchange from the county of Anjou a pension of 4,000 livres.

The treaty was ratified at Rome with the Pope’s consent, and the coronation of Charles as King of Jerusalem was there celebrated. In virtue of that cession the kings of Sicily of both houses of Anjou, and some of the French kings as heirs of their rights, have taken the title and arms of king of Jerusalem, and the House of Lorraine assumes them even at the present day. But at the time of Charles, the kingdom of Jerusalem consisted only of the town of Acre and some other petty places, and not long after it became purely titular.

At last we arrive at the reverse of this picture ; the fortunes of Charles had passed their zenith and were in the decline. The immediate cause of his fall can only be ascribed to his inordinate thirst after personal aggrandizement, though his tyranny over his subjects, and his cruelty towards his vanquished enemies, contributed their full share to his ruin. He prepared at once for a double enterprise, to restore Baldwin to the throne of Constantinople, which had been usurped by Michael Paleologus, and to reconquer a part of the Holy Land. The designs of Charles were, however, frustrated by the stratagems of John of Procida.

The massacre of the Sicilian Vespers succeeded, in 1282, in which the flower of the soldiery of Anjou, Maine, and Provence fell victims to the vengeance of the oppressed. On receiving this intelligence Charles of Anjou formed a resolution to exterminate the islanders, and commanded the siege of Messina. It was at this critical juncture, after a lapse of fourteen years, that Peter, King of Arragon, who had accepted his gage from the scaffold, appeared, to avenge the death of the brave and youthful Conradin. Peter came to the relief of Messina, and turned the fortunes of the contest against the besiegers. As the climax of retribution, Charles beheld his son, the Prince of Salerno, taken prisoner on the seas by Roger Loria. Thus, in the midst of his fast declining fortunes, deprived of his natural successor, the bitterness of his last days may be better imagined than described. He died at Foggia, on the 7th of January, 1285, aged fifty-eight.

From the date of this conquest by Peter of Arragon there have been two kingdoms of Sicily so called, viz., on this side, and on that side, of the Faro of Messina.

It has been stated that Charles II, Count of Anjou, called “the Lame,” was in prison when his father died. He remained so for three years. In the interval, Robert of Artois took the reins of government, and the war continued between the Houses of Anjou and Arragon. For the purpose of making a diversion in favour of the former, the Popes Martin IV and his successor Honorius IV offered the crown of Arragon to Charles, Count of Valois, grandson of St. Louis. Charles of Anjou obtained his freedom in 1288, but it was conditionally; that Sicily should belong to his adversary, and that he should prevail on the Count of Valois within three years to renounce his claim to the crown of Arragon. To these conditions, however, the Pope Nicholas IV refused his assent, and not only released him from his oath, but crowned him King of the Two Sicilies on the 29th of May, 1289. The King of Arragon then earned the war into Calabria, and after some advantages and some reverses, concluded a truce for two years. During that period Ladislaus IV, King of Hungary, died without issue, leaving that kingdom to his sister Mary, the wife of Charles of Anjou. But Charles II presented it to his son, Charles “Martel,” who was accordingly crowned King of Hungary on the 8th of September, 1290. This branch of the family of Anjou gave three kings and one queen to Hungary. Louis, the third of these kings, was also King of Poland, and had three daughters, with whom the race became extinct.

The oath taken by Charles of Anjou on his release from prison still remained valid in the eyes of some diplomatists, notwithstanding the authority of the Pope. In order, therefore, to terminate the discord which prevailed, a council was held, and a treaty signed at Montpelier, in 1290. It was thereat decided, that Sicily should be restored to Charles of Anjou, despite his oath, and that Charles of Valois should renounce his claim to Arragon, receiving in consideration thereof the hand of Margaret, the eldest daughter of Charles “le Boiteux,” whose dower was to consist of the counties of Anjou and Maine.

This treaty was only executed in part; for the King of Arragon and his successors constantly refused to surrender Sicily. The marriage, however, of Charles of Anjou’s daughter, Margaret, with the Count of Valois was duly celebrated on the 16th of August, 1290; and thus the county of Anjou passed away from the first family of Anjou-Sicily, in which it had remained forty-four years, and entered into that of Valois. It is not our province to follow the fortunes of Charles II of Anjou from the date of his cession of that province.

His immediate government of Anjou was chiefly remarkable for a bitter and implacable persecution in 1289 of the Hebrew race, which was, indeed, at that time expelled from the whole of France. His death did not occur until many years after, in 1309, at Casenova, near Naples. He was as celebrated for his large progeny as his sire had been for his ambition. He had by his wife, Mary of Hungary, ten sons and five daughters, eleven of whom, as having become distinguished, it will be as well to enumerate here.

CHARLES “Martel,’’ King of Hungary.

ROBERT, King of Naples.

PHILIP, Prince of Tarentum, and titular Emperor of Constantinople.

TRISTAN, Prince of Salerno. both Dukes of Duras.

MARGARET, wife of Charles of Valois, Count of Anjou.

BLANCHE, wife of James II, King of Arragon.

ELEANORA, wife of Frederick, King of Sicily.

MARY, wife of Sancho, King of Majorca.

BEATRIX, wife of Azzon VIII, Marquis of Este and Farrara.

As most of these children of Charles II became heads of families, thence arose the double titles for the sake of distinction of Anjou-Sicily, Anjou-Hungary, Anjou-Poland, Anjou-Tarentum, Anjou-Imperial, Anjou-Duras, &c. And yet, a hundred years later, there remained not a single prince of the blood of Charles II of Anjou.

In the year 1290, Charles of Valois became by his marriage Count of Anjou, as Charles III. He was the younger son of Philip “le Hardi,” and was remarkable for his skill and bravery in all the great events of his time. The war having been renewed between France and England, on occasion of Edward I refusing to do homage to Philip for Guienne, Charles of Anjou was successful in his engagements both with the English and the Flemish. Thus his brother, Philip “le Bel,” in order to recompense his bravery, and at the same time to replace one of the twelve ancient counties or duchies, of which the neighbouring kings had obtained possession, elevated Anjou, in 1297, into a peerage county. Two years later, Charles of Anjou again commanded the forces of France against those of England and Flanders, with so complete a success, that the Count of Flanders was obliged to surrender at discretion; and the King of France detained him as his prisoner, and took possession of Flanders. The King of England thereupon abandoned the side of the Flemish, and having been re-established in Guienne, peace was restored. The Count of Anjou assisted at the coronation of Pope Clement V at Lyons, in 1305.

That pontiff was the first to choose Avignon as his abode. Louis X, son of Philip “le Bel,” on ascending the throne of France, in 1314, complained to Enguerraud de Marigny, the treasurer of the kingdom, of the disordered state of the finances. Doubtless these disorders were attributable to the repeated wars of Philip’s reign, in which Charles III of Anjou had taken a principal part. The treasurer boldly ascribed the circumstance to Charles of Anjou, a great imprudence against a man of such princely power. Charles retorted by accusing Marigny of peculation, and succeeded in his design of crushing him; and Enguerraud was accordingly hanged at Montfaucon, in 1315, to the subsequent remorse and lasting disgrace of this Count of Anjou. In 1317 Charles bestowed the county of Maine on his son Philip. This separation of the rule of the two counties, which had been so long historically connected, lasted very few years.

Charles III died at Nogent-le-Roi on the 16th of November, 1325, and at his death the administration of Anjon also passed into the hands of his son Philip.

Charles IV of France, surnamed “le Bel,” leaving no direct heir at his death, Edward III of England disputed the succession with Philip of Anjou and Valois. The former, as nephew of Charles IV, urged the right of his mother, Isabella, and in that way he was one degree nearer than his rival; but Philip’s claim being from the male line was preferred. In the year 1328, therefore, Philip of Valois, Count of Anjou, ascended the throne of France as Philip VI, and re-united Anjou to the French crown.

Subsequently, in 1332, Philip invested his son John with the territories of Anjou and Maine. They so remained until the accession of John to the throne of France, in 1350, as John II “the Good,” when they were once again united with the sovereign rule in his person. In the meanwhile, the battle of Cressy had intervened in 1346, and a period of humility and misfortune had set in for France, in which, however, Anjou did not play a very prominent part. John gave Anjou and Maine to his second son, Louis I, in 1356, the very year in which he was himself taken prisoner by the English, in their renowned victory at Poitiers. Finally, Charles, the eldest son of John, afterwards Charles V of France, as Lieutenant­General of the kingdom during the captivity of John, erected Anjou into a peerage duchy, in 1360, in the person of his brother, Louis I. who then became first Duke of Anjou.

With this detail the reader has now been transported over a period of almost six centuries, to the epoch of the accession of the paternal grandfather of King René.

 

GENEALOGY OF THE HOUSES OF ANJOU.

FIRST HOUSE OF ANJOU.

IXth Century

ROBERT “Le Fort,” Count of Anjou “Outre Maine.”

EUDES, his son ; obtains more than half France, and gives up his part of Anjou to Foulques “Le Roux.”

SECOND HOUSE OF ANJOU.

INGELGER, Count of Anjou “ Deça Maine.”

FOULQUES “Le Roux,” Count of all Anjou.

FOULQUES “Le Bon.”

GEOFFREY I, “Grise Gonelle.”

FOULQUES “ Nerra.”

GEOFFREY “Martel”, no heir. (Here ends the First branch of the Second House of Anjou ; or the direct line from INGELGER.) Anjou divided between two nephews of Geoffrey “ Martel.

GEOFFREY III., “Le Barbu”

FOULQUES IV, “Le Rechin”; defeats Geoffrey, and becomes sole Count of Anjou.

FOULQUES V

GEOFFREY “Le Bel”, or PLANTAGENET

KINGS OF ENGKAND: HENRY II, RICHARD I, JOHN, Excommunicated for the murder of Prince Arthur.

(Here ends the Second House of Anjou”.

After the excommunication of King John, Philippe Auguste, King of France, regained possession of Anjou and Maine.

These counties were governed by a Seneschal, until the time of Louis IX, or St. Louis, who invested his brother Charles with them, in 1290.

 

THIRD HOUSE OF ANJOU; OR FIRST HOUSE (or line of Robert “Le Fort”) restored, called “VALOIS.”

CHARLES, First Count of Anjou.

CHARLES, Second Count of Anjou.

CHARLES, Third Count of Anjou; Charles I bestowed, in 1317, the county of Maine on his son Philippe.

PHILIPPE DE VALOIS, Count of Anjou, and afterwards King of France. Philippe, in 1332, invested his son John with Anjou and Maine.

JOHN, Count of Anjou, and afterwards King of France. John, in 1356, invested his son Louis with Anjou and Maine.