Radegonde of Valois

Radegonde of Valois (August 1428 – 19 March 1445) was a French princess, eldest daughter of King Charles VII of France and Marie of Anjou.

[1] The young princess, the eldest daughter of the king, was baptized in honour of Saint Radegund, to whom her father devoted a particular cult.

According to Christian de Mérindol, this choice was explained by reasons both political, historical and religious, in this particular context of reconquest of the kingdom of France on the English: "The name of Radegonde had several meanings: symbol of the city of Poitiers, seat of the second Parliament, so place of resistance in Paris, in the hands of the English and Burgundians, symbol of legitimacy, because the saint was the wife of Clotaire, the son of Clovis, finally a saint who could only attract the graces of heaven, so necessary to the young king.

[3] On 22 April 1430 her father promised her in marriage to Sigismund, son of the Archduke Frederick of Austria, Count of Tyrol.

[4] She became ill in Tours in 1445, perhaps suffering from pleurisy contracted after returning on foot from a pilgrimage to the Basilica of Notre-Dame de l'Épine.