Yolande | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Duchess of Lorraine | |||||
An imagined portrait of Yolande, dating from the 17th century
|
|||||
Born |
Nancy |
2 November 1428||||
Died | 23 March 1483 Nancy |
(aged 54)||||
Spouse | Frederick II, Count of Vaudémont | ||||
Issue |
René II, Duke of Lorraine Nicolas, Lord of Joinville Jeanne, Duchess of Anjou Yolande, Landgravine of Hesse Marguerite, Duchess of Alençon |
||||
|
|||||
Father | René I of Lorraine | ||||
Mother | Isabella, Duchess of Lorraine |
Full name | |
---|---|
Yolande de Lorraine |
Yolande, Duchess of Lorraine, also known as Yolande de Bar (2 November 1428, Nancy – 23 March 1483, Nancy), was Duchess of Lorraine (1473) and Bar (1480). She was the daughter of Isabella, Duchess of Lorraine, and René of Anjou (King of Naples, Duke of Anjou, Bar and Lorraine, Count of Provence). Because of her various titles, she is also known as Yolande de Lorraine and Yolande d'Anjou. Her younger sister was Margaret of Anjou, Queen consort of Henry VI of England. Though she was nominally in control of major territories, she ceded her power and titles to her husband and her son.
In the 19th century, a romanticised version of her early life was popularised by the play King René’s Daughter by Henrik Hertz, in which she is portrayed as a beautiful blind princess living in an isolated garden paradise. It was later adapted to Tchaikovsky's opera Iolanta. There is no evidence that she was ever blind.
In 1445, she married her second cousin Frederick II, Count of Vaudémont (1420–1470), at Nancy. The marriage was a dynastic alliance, arranged to end the dispute which existed between René of Anjou and Frederick's father, Antoine of Vaudémont, regarding the succession to the Duchy of Lorraine.