Renée of France
| Renée of France | |
|---|---|
| Duchess of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio | |
Portrait by Jean Clouet, ca. 1520.
|
|
| Born |
25 October 1510 Château de Blois |
| Died | 12 June 1574 (aged 63) Château de Montargis |
| Burial | Château de Montargis |
| Spouse | Ercole II d'Este |
| Issue |
Anna d'Este Alfonso II of Ferrara Lucrezia Maria d'Este Eleonora d'Este Luigi d'Este |
| House | Valois-Orléans |
| Father | Louis XII of France |
| Mother | Anne of Brittany |
| Religion |
Calvinism prev. Catholicism |
Renée of France (25 October 1510 – 12 June 1574), was the younger surviving child of Louis XII of France and Anne of Brittany. She was the Duchess of Ferrara due to her marriage to Ercole II d'Este, grandson of Pope Alexander VI. In her later life she became an important supporter of the Protestant reformation and ally of John Calvin.
Renée was born on 25 October 1510 at the Château de Blois, Blois, Touraine and was the second daughter of Louis XII of France and Anne of Brittany. Anne, who had always fought fiercely to keep Brittany independent of the French crown, tried to will the duchy to Renée, but Louis disagreed, so the Duchy passed to her elder sister, Claude.
Her early education was undertaken by her governess, Michelle de Saubonne, Madame de Soubise. Saubonne was a partisan of Anne of Brittany and opposed to Anne's enemy, Louise of Savoy; so, after the death of Renée's parents, Louise and her son, Francis I of France, had Saubonne sacked. Renée never forgot this, and when she married, she took Saubonne with her.
In return for renouncing her claims to the duchy of Brittany, Renée was granted the duchy of Chartres by Francis. As a child, one of her companions was the young Anne Boleyn, whom Renée always remembered with kindness and affection.
She was married in April 1528 to Ercole II, Duke of Ferrara, eldest son of Alfonso I d'Este and Lucrezia Borgia. By this marriage, she became known as Renatia di Francia. Renée received from Francis I an ample dowry and annuity. Thus the court that she assembled about her in Ferrara, in the 1530 and 1540s, corresponded to the tradition which the cultivation of science and art implicitly required, including scholars like Bernardo Tasso and Fulvio Pellegrini. Her first child, Anna, born in 1531, was followed by Alfonso, in 1533; Lucrezia, 1535; after these, Eleonora and Luigi; whose education she carefully directed.
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