1477-1514. She was double queen of France, Duchess (and independent ruler) of Brittany, Countess of Nantes, Richmont, and Montfort, and Viscountess of Limoges. She's possibly the most titled lady in this series.
Her life was a pretty complex series of political moves, but her real importance was that she was the last independent ruler of Brittany, fought her whole life to keep it independent, and has been a symbol of its resistance and spirit ever since.
I talked a bit about the region of Brittany here, but I'll go into some more detail about its position in the world now. Brittany is a large-ish peninsula on the western edge of France, jutting out south of the English Channel, just 30-40 miles from the British islands Guernsey and Jersey, and 60-70 miles from southwestern England. Its native people were historically France's version of the Celts, and they are indeed related to the Irish, Welsh, and Scottish Celtic tribes. Their language, Breton, is much more closely related to these languages than French, and culturally they had an affinity with the UK in general.
Since the formation of France and England as functional countries Brittany struggled between them, but often ended up more closely allied with England. France was kind of the bigger bully in this scenario, although Brittany was connected to it by land. Anyway, the Bretons fought to maintain their independence as a region for centuries, preserving their culture, language, and traditions. But it was a very desirable area as it was good farming land an had many important ports. By the 15th century France had become the main power in Western Europe, however, and it seemed inevitable that Brittany would be absorbed into France, as in the early 1400's England had renounced all claim to it.
Anne was the only surviving child of her parents, and therefore the heiress of all the land, and some other areas - making her, on her father's death, the richest woman in Europe. Anne's family had always felt very strongly that Brittany must maintain its political independence, and intended to marry her to a strong ally who was an enemy of France. When she was a child her father got involved with a rather foolish war against France and part of the resulting peace treaty was the the king of France had to approve of her marriage.
Anne's father died in 1488, and, knowing the French king would arrange a French political marriage for her, the nobles of Brittany soon had her married to the king of Austria. This marriage, because it was by proxy (meaning someone stood in for the king during the actual ceremony; the bride and groom had never met), would not be truly official until the two actually met and lived together.
Predictably, France took offense to this and soon laid siege to the capital of Brittany, which forced Anne to agree to marry Charles VIII, the king (and brother of Anne of Beaujeu). It was a poor marriage from the beginning: Anne was hostile to it because she understood the its political significance, that Brittany would now be absorbed into France, and because Charles gave her little power over the region and did not allow her to call herself the Duchess of Brittany.
Charles was often off fighting wars, but in spite of this Anne had her first child at fifteen and spent the seven years of their marriage being pregnant seven times. Six were stillborn or died soon after birth, and the only healthy child died aged three. By the time Charles died there were no heirs; a stipulation in their marriage contract stated that in this case Anne would be obligated to marry the heir to the throne.
So she married the next king, Louis XII, and had nine pregnancies, of which only two resulted in healthy children, daughters. The deaths of her children and numerous miscarriages took a huge toll on Anne, and by the death of her second husband she was physically weakened and in despair. She withdrew from society multiple times, and although this marriage was happier than her first - she regained her title and was allowed power in Brittany - many people observed that she had lost her spirit. From a political perspective she had gone from the most powerful and desirable woman in the world to a rather useless queen who had failed to give heirs to two successive kings.
However, from the Breton perspective, she had never stopped fighting tooth and nail for their independence and right to self-rule. She butted heads with Charles very often over the issue, and when she regained her powers under Louis she spent much of their marriage in the business of running Brittany. She restored native Bretons to powerful positions in government, frequently toured the area herself, where she was always met with massive displays of affection. In an attempt to preserve Brittany's independence Anne tried to marry her eldest daughter to the king of Luxembourg, rather than a French prince (although Louis eventually vetoed this when he realized he would have no male heir). On her deathbed she tried again, leaving Brittany to her unmarried younger daughter instead of her eldest, who was by then married to the heir to the French throne (Louise of Savoy's son). Shortly after her death Louis also nixed that plan.
Unfortunately, Anne's tireless efforts for Brittany's independence came to nothing, politically. However she is still a hugely popular figure in Brittany (it seems like every other thing in St Malo is named for her), and to this day Bretons remember her as a sort of freedom fighter against France's oppression of the region. Moreover, Breton history is not included much in French schools today, and Anne is often the only Breton children will learn about. Just the fact of her presence in the history books is a strong symbol for all Bretons.
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