1464 - 1505
Joan
of Valois, 1464 - 1505, was the second daughter of Louis X1, King of
France, and Charlotte of Savoy, She was born on April 23, 1464. At the
ge of two months she was betrothed to Louis, Duke of Orleans, and the
marriage took place in 1476. There is no doubt that it was invalid, for
Louis of Orleans married her in fear of his life if he did not comply
with the king's orders to do so. Joan was by no means a prepossessing
figure: she was hunch-backed, lame and pock-marked. On her husband's
succession to the throne
he obtained a declaration that the marriage was invalid. Joan,
therefore, was not to be queen of France; she was given instread the
title of Duchess of Berry. If so it is to be, praised be the Lord, was
her remark on this occasion. And there, really is the basis of her holiness and the spiritual testament that she left in the Order of the Annunciation that she founded; by her choice of name for her nuns she emphasised the parallel between our Lady's *Be it done to me and her own If so it is to be. All her life
she met with oppostion and countrered it with such gentle words these.
There were difficulties without number. The pope seemed unwilling to
give his approval, though Louis X11 approved readily enough, thinking
perhaps that Joan, bound by vows, would be less likely to upset the
verdict given in the suit of nullity; his fears were groundless, and in
any case directly
after the verdict he had married Anne of Brittany.
There were difficulties arising from Joan's character; she was inclined
to be autocratic with her nuns, impatient at their slow progress. The foundation
was made at Bouges, and the remains of the house may still be seen
there Joan died at the age of 41 on February 4, 1505. St. Joan was
canonised in 1950. Her feast day is February 4 the day on which she died. from Wikipedia
Joan of France (French: Jeanne de France, Jeanne de Valois; (23 April 1464 – 4 February 1505), was briefly Queen of France as wife of King Louis XII, in between the death of her brother, King Charles VIII, and the annulment of her marriage.After that, Joan retired to her domain, where she soon founded the monastic Order of the Sisters of the Annunciation of Mary. From this Order later sprang the religious congregation of the Apostolic Sisters of the Annunciation, founded in 1787 to teach the children of the poor. She was canonized on 28 May 1950 and is known in the Roman Catholic Church as Saint Joan of Valois, O.Ann.M..[1]
Contents
- 1 Family
- 2 Marriage
- 3 Religious life and sainthood
- 4 Legacy
- 5 Ancestry
- 6 Notelist
- 7 References
- 8 Bibliography
Family[edit]
Joan was born on 23 April 1464 in the castle of Pierre II de Brézé, a trusted supporter of her grandfather, King Charles VII of France, at Nogent-le-Roi in the County of Dreux. She was the second daughter of King Louis XI of France and of his second wife Charlotte of Savoy; her surviving siblings were King Charles VIII of France and Anne of France. Shortly after her birth, the king signed an agreement to marry her to his second cousin Louis, the Duke of Orléans, later King Louis XII of France, who was aged two at the time.[2]Often away on royal duties, King Louis entrusted his daughters, Joan and Anne, to the Baron François de Linières and his wife, Anne de Culan. The couple, who were childless, lavished affection on Joan. Taking charge of her education, they had her taught both poetry and mathematics, painting, embroidery and how to play the lute. She was also taught the history of her ancestors.
The couple were also faithful Catholics and instilled in the members of their household a solid grounding in the faith. At a young age, her father asked her to name the confessor she wanted. She gave him the only name she knew, that of Friar Jean de La Fontaine, Guardian of the Franciscan friary in Amboise. The king approved her choice and appointed the friar to this post. Despite the distance between them, he would travel regularly to hear the princess' confession. Joan began to develop a strong pleasure in prayer, and would pass long periods in the castle chapel. The baron supported her in this and had a paved path built between the castle and the chapel built for easier walking in poor weather. Under the friar's guidance she was admitted into the Third Order of St. Francis.[1]
In 1471 King Louis XI ordered the practice of praying the Hail Mary throughout the kingdom for peace. Joan had a strong attachment to this particular prayer, with its honoring Mary, mother of Jesus. She would later write that it was in that same year that she had received a prophecy from the Virgin Mary that before your death, you will found a religious Order in my honor. In doing this you will give me great joy and you will serve me.
Marriage[edit]
A contemporary portrait of Joan of France.
When Louis acceded to the throne in April 1498 after the accidental death of Joan's brother, King Charles VIII, he appealed to the pope to have the marriage annulled, in order to marry the late king's widow, Anne of Brittany, in the hope of annexing the Duchy of Brittany to the French Crown.
In what has been described as "one of the seamiest lawsuits of the age",[3] Louis did not, as might be expected, argue the marriage to be void due to consanguinity (the general excuse for the dissolution of a marriage at that time): though he could produce witnesses to claim that the two were closely related due to various linking marriages, there was no documentary proof, merely the opinions of courtiers. Likewise, Louis could not argue that he had been below the legal age of consent (fourteen) to marry: nobody was certain when he had been born, with Louis claiming to have been 12 at the time, and others ranging in estimates between eleven and thirteen. Since there was no proof, however, he was forced to make other excuses.
Accordingly, much to the horror of the queen, Louis claimed that she was physically malformed, providing a rich variety of detail as to how she was malformed, and that he had therefore been unable to consummate the marriage. Joan, unsurprisingly, fought this uncertain charge fiercely, producing witnesses to Louis boasting of having "mounted my wife three or four times during the night."[3] Louis also claimed that his sexual performance had been inhibited by witchcraft; Joan responded by asking how, in that case, he was able to know what it was like to try to make love to her.[4] Had the Pope been a neutral party, Joan would likely have won, for Louis' case was exceedingly weak. Unfortunately for the queen, Pope Alexander VI was committed for political reasons to grant the annulment, and accordingly he ruled against the Queen.[5]
The annulment was granted on the grounds that Louis did not freely marry but was forced to marry at the insistence of Joan's father. The annulment was declared on 15 December 1498. Joan stepped aside, saying that she would pray for her former husband. She was made Duchess of Berry and retired to Bourges, capital of the duchy.
Religious life and sainthood[edit]
Once settled in her new domain, Joan confided to her spiritual director, the Blessed Gabriel Mary, O.F.M., [a] her call to monastic life. Supporting her in this venture, she began to make plans for the Order of the Virgin Mary, a new enclosed religious order dedicated to the Immaculate Conception of Mary. It was established as an independent branch of the Poor Clares. By May 1500 she had received 11 postulants, the nucleus of the new Order. The Rule of Life she had written for the Order was approved on 12 February 1502 by Pope Alexander. Construction of the first monastery was begun the following year. On Pentecost Sunday 1504, Joan and Friar Gabriel Mary made private commitments to follow the Rule, and thereby established themselves as co-founders of the Order. On 21 November of that same year, Feast of the Presentation of Mary, Joan and the other women publicly and legally commit themselves to the Order.[2]Joan died on 4 February 1505 and was buried in the chapel of the Annonciade monastery. Her grave, however, was desecrated and her body, found to be incorrupt at that time, was burned by the Huguenots during their sack of Bourges on 27 May 1562.[6]
Soon after Joan's death, miracles and healings attributed to her were said to have occurred. The cause for her canonization was begun in 1631 and Pope Benedict XIV beatified her on 21 April 1742. She was canonized on 28 May 1950 [7] by Pope Pius XII.[8]
Legacy[edit]
The nuns of the Order of the Virgin Mary still maintain their way of life in monasteries in France, Belgium, Costa Rica and Poland. The Religious Sisters serve in Belgium, Burundi, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, France and Guatemala.[2]Ancestry[edit]
Notelist[edit]
- ^ Blessed Gabriel Mary (c. 1460 - 27 August 1532) was born Gilbert Nicholas in Riom, Auvergne. The cause for his formal beatification by the Holy See was officially opened in February 2013
References[edit]
- ^ a b "St. Joan of Valois". AmericanCatholic.org.
- ^ a b c d "Vie de sainte Jeanne de France". L'Ordre de la Vièrge Marie.(French)
- ^ a b Hale, p.15
- ^ Hale, p.16
- ^ Hale, p.16 "The King's case was so weak that if the Pope, Alexander VI, had not been committed to granting the annulment for political purposes, he would have lost it."
- ^ St. Ambroise church site at Bourges (French)
- ^ "Pope Pius XII". Catholic Forum website
- ^ "St. Jeanne de Valois". Catholic Forum website
Bibliography[edit]
- Hale, J. R., Renaissance Europe: Individual and Society, 1480-1520, New York: Harper & Row, 1972.
- Jones, Terry. "Patron Saint Index". Catholic Forum website.Retrieved 27 June 2008
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