Representations of Anne of Brittany
The royal propaganda of Charles VIII and, later on, of Louis XII idealized her as a symbol of the perfect queen, on the union between the kingdom and the duchy, and of the return to peace.
Throughout the centuries, historians and popular imagery forged a very different Anne of Brittany, attributing her physical or psychological characteristics or actions that are not necessarily verifiable through historical data.
We have a few descriptions of Anne of Brittany's physique provided by chroniclers, a good number of portraits on wood or on illuminated manuscripts, her profile on medals, the statues on her funeral monument in Basilica of Saint Denis and maybe her face sculpted by Michel Colombe as the allegory of Prudence, at a corner of the tomb of Francis II in Nantes.
Zaccaria Contarini, ambassador of Venice, describes her in the following manner in 1492: The Queen is 17, she is of small height, slender, and she walks with a visible limp, even though she wears high heels shoes to hide her deformity.
Her wit is remarkable for her age and once she has set her mind on doing something, she makes sure she succeeds, by all means necessary and at any price.The image that Anne spreads of herself, through commissions (portraits, stories), is one of a queen personifying the union between France and Brittany.
The Marie de la Cordelière[5] episode (10 August 1512), during the war against England, shows that the two peoples were coming closer together, even though some Bretons were reluctant to fight for "an excommunicated monarch".
[6] At the Battle of St. Mathieu a united Franco-Breton fleet fought the English marine, with the warship Marie de la Cordelière, flying the Breton pavilion, in front.
He concludes that the story of Anne of Brittany has been enriched by hagiographical or depreciatory elements, not recounted in the writings contemporary to the duchess, hard to prove or invented.
Four years after her death, Anne is presented as a person loved by her people and while there is no trace of this through her lifetime, this emotional relationship was to be reused in the following centuries.
This position is based upon Anne's second wedding contract and use as a justification the Annales de Bretagne to Bertrand d'Argenté, Breton law scholar and grand-nephew of Le Beaud.
François de Mézeray, royal historian, adds, in 1646, that she leads the campaign by herself, refuses to see others govern in her place (in 1489–91) and rejects an imposed wedding.
[8] Lobineau transforms what were private considerations about the refusal to marry Alain d'Albret into political will; she makes a sacrifice during the 1489–1491 war for the happiness of her people.
[15] Finally, Didier Le Fur systematically finds these characteristics of autonomism in all the descriptions made of duchess Anne in the histories of Brittany after 1945.
The story of the forced wedding is based on an extract by Jean de Molinet, a historian from Burgundy attached to Margaret of Austria, who was abandoned by Charles VIII to the benefit of Anne of Brittany.
[16] Bernard d'Argenté uses the same vision: the histories of Brittany after him transform Maximilian into an accepted husband because he is far (thus preserving the autonomy of the duchy) but condemn him because he does not defend his wife; the wedding with Charles VIII disgusts Anne, for religious (her engagement to Maximilian of Austria is the theme that gave birth to the legend of her piety, and then of her bigotry) and political reasons: she makes a sacrifice.
Her reputation of having a bad temper comes from an extract of the Mémoires of Philippe de Commines, in which she shows rancour towards Louis of Orléans.
From the 18th century on, she is depicted as dominating Louis XII, who is in love with her; her advice is claimed to have provoked the defeats of 1512–1513; she wanted to steal the royal treasury (episode by Gié during her imagined escape) and she is willing to make an alliance with the enemies of France.
For Didier Le Fur, the regionalists use this clothing accessory to attach Anne to their people,[21] and to demonstrate the simplicity of the national (Breton) tastes.
The expression "Anne of Brittany, duchess in clogs" also becomes popular, based on a nursery rhyme Les Sabots d'Anne de Bretagne.
Anne de Bretagne, an opera by Breton composer Pierick Houdy, libretto by Jean-Michel Fournereau, was first performed in Rennes 2001, featuring Agnès Bove in the title role.
If dead died, an anonymous poem going back to her funeral, and now performed by the popular Breton folk musicians Tri Yann.
and in a history of Louis XII by Jean de Saint-Gelais (published in 1511), we can find, after Nantes was taken and during the meeting of Jean IV de Rieux and Alain d'Albret "où estoit pour l'heure la duchesse en croupe derrière Monseigneur Dunois, ores son chancelier" (translation: "where was, for the time being, the duchess, riding pillion behind lord Dunois, her chancellor at the time").
