The Queen had so dangerous an illness in March, 1511, that her life was despaired of; but after receiving the Communion she revived and by the middle of April was tolerably well. In the following January she had another son, who died like all his brothers, and the doctors managed the Queen so badly that her health was permanently injured. Late in March the Austrian ambassador, who went to take leave of her, found her still in bed but brave, cheerful, and taking her usual interest in public affairs. She did not get up until May, when she appeared much better, but never really regained her strength, and just then many circumstances combined to depress and trouble her.
A great battle was fought August 10, 1512, between the French and English fleets. The Regent with the English Admiral on board attacked the famous Cordelière, commanded by the Breton Hervé Portzmoguet. The two ships were grappled together, the battle raged fiercely and the dead lay in heaps on the decks. Then Portzmoguet, seeing that all hope was lost, set fire to both vessels, and, clad in complete armour, threw himself from the mast into the sea. The ships went down together with more than two thousand men, the French fleet drew off to Brest, the English to the high seas.[346]
{1514}
There was strife between the King and Pope, and the Queen’s views were strongly opposed to those of Louis. The Pope laid France under an interdict from which he excepted Bretagne. In vain the King assured her that women had no voice in Church matters; she had but to point to Bretagne as her answer, and to remind him that at fourteen years old she had successfully opposed Innocent III. when he illegally appointed two of his nephews to benefices in her duchy. Also that her influence had prevented Louis from occupying Rome, when, after the battle of Ravenna, the road to the Eternal City lay open to his victorious troops. She ultimately induced him to subscribe to the Lateran Council, whereby the Roman gained the victory over the Gallican party in the Church.[347]
Anne was not yet thirty-eight, but her brilliant, eventful life was drawing to a close. For a year or two her health had been failing and on the 2nd of January, 1514, she was taken ill at Blois and died a week afterwards. Knowing that she would not recover, one of her last orders was that her heart should be sent to Nantes and laid in the tomb of her father and mother in the land and among the people she had so faithfully loved.
The King shut himself up alone for days wearing the black mourning he had chosen, contrary to the custom for Kings of France. From the shock of the Queen’s death he never recovered. He only survived for two months the preposterous marriage he was induced to make in the following year with the young sister of Henry VIII. for the purpose of stopping the English war. Claude, wife of François I., died ten years after her mother leaving several children, one of whom was Henri II., whose three sons were the last kings of the house of Valois.
The funeral of the Queen at St. Denis was of more than usual magnificence, and when her coffin was lowered into the tomb there stepped forward Champagne King-at-arms who, after calling three times for silence, said, “King-at-arms of the Bretons, do your duty.” Then Bretagne King-at-arms in his coat of mail stepped forward and proclaimed, “The most Christian Queen and Duchess, our sovereign Lady and Mistress, is dead? The Queen is dead! The Queen is dead!” The Chevalier d’honneur with the hand of justice, the Grand Maître de Bretagne (brother of the Queen) with the sceptre, and the grand écuyer with the crown advanced, kissed them, and gave them to the Bretagne King-at-arms, who laid them on the coffin.[348]
In France, to which she had given a great province, Anne de Bretagne was soon forgotten; but, in the land she loved and ruled so well four hundred years ago, her name and her memory are still honoured and cherished by her own people.