DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.63221#0055
WOMEN OF THE FRENCH RENAISSANCE 29
tion, he would never have set forth on his fantastic cam-
paign in Italy, and things would have been better for him-
self and for France. She was a strong masculine woman
of the same kind as her contemporary, Margaret of Austria,
but a less important personality; the latter, as Charles V’s
aunt and Regent of the Netherlands, had a wider field for
her energies. Anne de Beaujeu was never tired of scheming.
When she was no longer her brother’s guardian, she held
a court of her own where she plotted and intrigued to her
brain’s content; and perhaps her greatest triumph was the
marriage of her only daughter to the Constable Montpensier,
the greatest nobleman in France.
Anne de Bretagne, the wife successively of Charles VIII
and Louis XII, was of a different type. She was essentially
the provincial Frenchwoman, and might, for all the differ-
ence of century, have stepped straight out of one of Bal-
zac’s novels. She was also a schemer and a woman of affairs,
but both affairs and schemes were confined in a narrow
circle. Plain of countenance, sincerely pious, bigoted, char-
itable, prudish and rather pedantic, with a mild taste for
learning, she liked luxury in her dress and surroundings and
spent largely on works of art: more from a middle-class
belief in a palatial establishment than from any real love
of beauty. She was full of a fussy kindliness, readiest to
show itself to the people of Brittany; indeed, she was always
a Bretonne first and a Frenchwoman afterwards. Had she
lived to-day, she would have belonged to countless commit-
tees, and Associations for befriending young girls. As it was,
she must have had enough to do with the philanthropy then
in favour: endowing schools and convents, providing poor
tion, he would never have set forth on his fantastic cam-
paign in Italy, and things would have been better for him-
self and for France. She was a strong masculine woman
of the same kind as her contemporary, Margaret of Austria,
but a less important personality; the latter, as Charles V’s
aunt and Regent of the Netherlands, had a wider field for
her energies. Anne de Beaujeu was never tired of scheming.
When she was no longer her brother’s guardian, she held
a court of her own where she plotted and intrigued to her
brain’s content; and perhaps her greatest triumph was the
marriage of her only daughter to the Constable Montpensier,
the greatest nobleman in France.
Anne de Bretagne, the wife successively of Charles VIII
and Louis XII, was of a different type. She was essentially
the provincial Frenchwoman, and might, for all the differ-
ence of century, have stepped straight out of one of Bal-
zac’s novels. She was also a schemer and a woman of affairs,
but both affairs and schemes were confined in a narrow
circle. Plain of countenance, sincerely pious, bigoted, char-
itable, prudish and rather pedantic, with a mild taste for
learning, she liked luxury in her dress and surroundings and
spent largely on works of art: more from a middle-class
belief in a palatial establishment than from any real love
of beauty. She was full of a fussy kindliness, readiest to
show itself to the people of Brittany; indeed, she was always
a Bretonne first and a Frenchwoman afterwards. Had she
lived to-day, she would have belonged to countless commit-
tees, and Associations for befriending young girls. As it was,
she must have had enough to do with the philanthropy then
in favour: endowing schools and convents, providing poor