Queen Marie bore her consort twelve children; six died in infancy. Her two sons were Louis and Charles; her daughters, who survived, Catherine, Jeanne, Yolande, and Madeleine. She survived Charles but two short years. Enguerrand de Monstrelet speaks thus of her death, which occurred near Poitiers, November 23, 1463: “There passed away from this world Marie of Anjou and France.… She bore all through her life the character of a good and devout woman, ever generous and patient.” Her death was not unexpected, for through trouble, sorrow, and fasting, her frame had become emaciated and her pulse beat slow; she died actually from prostration. Her end was very peaceful in the silent cloisters of the Abbey of Chastilliers in Poitou. She had but just returned from a pilgrimage to the Gallician shrine of Santiago da Compostella. Her body was embalmed and translated in solemn guise to St. Denis, and laid beside that of her husband. Her devotion to him had not ceased at his death, for she had endowed twelve altars in the chief cities of France proper for the offering of Masses for the repose of his soul. Every month she made the practice of visiting the royal tomb at St. Denis to hear Mass and pray for him. At Bourges, of sad and chastened memory, the widowed Queen founded in honour of her consort three considerable benevolent institutions—a hospital for the sick poor, a refuge for poor pilgrims, and an orphanage for illegitimate children.
Queen Marie’s transparent faithfulness and absolute unselfishness is outlined in a famous saying of hers with respect to her relations with King Charles: “He is my lord and master; he has entire power over all my actions, and I have none over his.” Her whole-hearted devotion and her heroic courage have raised Marie d’Anjou far above the ordinary level of her sex, and have elevated her to the very highest throne among the Queens of France.
CHAPTER VII
GIOVANNA II. DA NAPOLI—“SI COMME A REGINA GIOVANNA!”
I.
“Like Queen Giovanna” was, alas! a common saying in the Two Sicilies what time Giovanna II. was Queen of Naples. A term of immeasurable reprobation, it implied the stripping of the woman of every shred of moral character, the baring of the Queen of every claim to honour. If Isabeau of Bavaria was the worst Queen-consort, then Giovanna II. was the worst Queen-regnant, perhaps, the world has ever seen. Her story needs telling truthfully with care.
Giovanna II., Queen of Naples, was the only surviving daughter of Charles III., “Carlo della Pace,” King of Naples and Count of Provence. Her mother was Margaret, daughter of her great-uncle Charles, Duke of Durazzo; hence her parents were cousins, and were both in the direct line of succession from Charles I., Count of Anjou, the fourth son of King Louis IX.,—St. Louis of France,—who had married Beatrix, Countess of Provence in her own right. Giovanna had seven brothers and sisters, all of whom died in infancy except Ladislaus, born in 1376; she was his senior by five years, having first seen the light of day on April 27, 1371.
