Yolande (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). 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.

In 1473, on the death of her nephew Nicolas, she inherited the Duchy of Lorraine, but passed it immediately to her eldest son René II. In 1480, after the death of her father, she did the same with the Duchy of Bar. She died on 23 March 1483, which was the birthday of her sister Queen Margaret, who had died the previous summer. Yolande was 54 years old.

In 1845 the Danish poet Henrik Hertz wrote the poetic drama Kong Renés Datter (King René’s Daughter), a romanticised account of her life, in which she is depicted as a beautiful sixteen-year-old princess who lives in protected garden paradise. Blinded in a childhood accident, her attendants must keep from her the knowledge that she is blind, while a Moorish physician conducts a long slow medical procedure to restore her sight. Once it is complete, she must be told of her blindness to awaken the desire to see. Count Vaudémont arrives for his arranged marriage, which he resents. He accidentally finds her secret garden, and falls in love with her without knowing who she is. He discovers she is blind, and tells her so, but she cannot understand him. However, the physician is now able to complete the treatment and she is cured.

...
Wikipedia