Anne of Beaujeu, Regent of France

1461-1522, also confusingly just called "Anne of France"

I want to note that the following five women to be featured here, including Anne of Beaujeu, have highly intertwined lives, on political, personal, and intellectual levels.  It will be interesting to see how their intelligence and reforming spirits are passed on to powerful women of each generation.

I'm pleased with Anne because she does not have a complex wartime story like the previous two unfortunate ladies.  She was mostly just a smart, powerful woman who ruled as regent during a turbulent time.

Anne was the oldest surviving child of Louis XI, the king of France who incidentally had the interesting nicknames of "the Prudent," "the Cunning," and "the Universal Spider."  Anyway, she lived a typical princess life of having a broken political engagement before marrying a duke at 12 years old and doing princess-type things.  Her life changed dramatically when she was 22: her father the king died, and her mother died a few months later, leaving her kid brother, Charles VIII who was 13, as king.

Very interestingly, Anne was picked as regent.  I can't recall another case where a young king's sister ended up reigning for him; there must have been a shortage of royal uncles around, and the nobles must have been wary of letting Anne's husband rule.  (One should remember that unlike countries like Great Britain and Russia, France did not let women rule in their own right at any point - if a king died without sons the throne would pass to his brothers or nephews.)  Her husband of course did help her rule, but she was the one who had the most power, and the title.

Anne appears to have drawn extremely little criticism during her regency, which is nothing short of amazing.  It would have been very hard for her to even hold onto power in such a high-pressure, male-dominated environment, let alone do it without them grumbling about it.  By all accounts she was very intelligent: her rather misogynistic father is once recorded to have called her the "least foolish woman in France."  Aw.  Amongst her achievements while ruling included supporting the right man during the end of the Wars of the Roses in England (so no further invasions of France occurred), arranging for her brother to marry the wealthiest heiress in Europe (Anne of Brittany, coming soon in this space) and thereby annexing her land, and quelling a group of powerful and rebellious nobles who had been dispossessed and alienated during her father's reign, and convincing the Estates General (like a Parliament) to support her regency over her male cousin's taking the throne.  Wow.

After her brother finally was old enough to rule on his own Anne settled into her role of ruling her husband's duchy.  I'm not sure whether she was just that formidable that he let her take the power or if for some reason he couldn't.  At the same time she also oversaw the education - manners and academics - of a pack of royal and aristocratic children, including one girl, Louise of Savoy, who would later end up being regent herself.

She also wrote a book, "Lessons for my Daughter," giving advice to girls in powerful positions about how to conduct themselves and how to choose advisers.  Her nickname amongst the royal circles during her lifetime was "la Grande Madame," or "the Great Lady."  I think that title pretty much sums her up; she seems to have been truly a remarkable and great lady.