“The duchess of Orleans, upon discovering that her most beloved husband had died so quickly and ignominiously and as a result of a sinister wound, after she tore her clothes and her hair, and had sent for her two [sic] surviving sons by the duke, wailing and making it known to them by her sighs the immensity of their grief-the liquid that streamed from her eyes was not enough to match the violence of her continuous wailing, and her voice- interpreter of her sorrow-was interrupted by sobs, and by her state of pure distress she seemed to prove very great mourning.” – Michael Pintoin
Valentina Visconti was born c. 1371 in Milan, the third of four children of Gian Galeazzo Visconti (Duke of Milan in 1395) and Isabella of Valois, the daughter of King John II of France. Therefore, she was a first cousin of King Charles VI of France and of her future husband Louis, Duke of Orleans. She grew up in the castle of Pavia and received an education worthy of her rank. As her mother died soon after her birth, her paternal grandmother Blanche of Savoy and her father’s sister, Violante Visconti, would manage her upbringing.
Blanche had a reputation for kindness, charity, piety, and for being well read, traits she passed on to her granddaughter. Both Blanche and Violante were familiar with the French court and pursued literary and artistic culture, and her father was an avid collector of illuminated manuscripts which he kept in the family library. Valentina learned to play multiple musical instruments and to speak both German and French. Eustache Deschamps described Valentina as young, fresh, pretty and of high appearance. Most of the medieval chroniclers of the French court considered her beautiful and intelligent.
Valentina had considerable value on the marriage market as her father’s prospects of gaining power in Milan improved and her brothers died young. Discussions of several alliances began in the 1380s. Initially, her father promised her to Carlo Visconti, the son of his great-uncle Bernabo. Despite receiving the requested papal dispensations, Bernabo prevented the marriage by marrying Carlo to Beatrice d’Armagnac, a French noblewoman.
Gian Galeazzo entered discussions with King Wenceslaus of Germany and Bohemia for a marriage with his half-brother, John of Görlitz. Simultaneously, he negotiated a union with Valentina and the son of Louis I of Anjou, the titular King of Naples and uncle of King Charles VI of France. When these talks fell through, Gian Galeazzo began talking to the French about a marriage between Valentina and Louis of Valois, Duke of Touraine, brother of Charles VI after Louis traveled to Lombardy with his uncle of Anjou on an Italian military campaign. Louis of Valois’ lack of a lucrative patrimony forced him to look outside France for money and property.
When Wenceslaus learned of Gian Galeazzo’s double dealing, he broke off the plans for a marriage with his brother John, sending an insulting letter to Milan. Negotiations for the French marriage dragged on from 1382 to 1386, when Gian Galeazzo deposed his uncle Bernabo and became the lord of Milan. The French viewed the marriage as an opportunity to insert itself into Italian politics.
Louis and his uncle Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, were vying for political power and largesse from the French royal treasury. The opportunity to marry Valentina would bring Louis the city of Asti in Lombardy and the prospect of further gains in the Italian peninsula. A clause in the marriage agreement stated in the absence of male successors, the Visconti possessions would pass to Valentina and her heirs, providing the possibility of a French principality in Italy.
The rest of Valentina’s dowry included the county of Vertus in Champagne, formerly her mother’s domain, along with 450,000 florins in cash and a trousseau worth 75,000 florins. Once the papal dispensation arrived from Avignon, they completed the marriage contract in Paris on January 27, 1387, and the proxy wedding took place on April 8 in Pavia.
In early 1389, Valentina moved from Pavia to Milan followed by twelve days of festivities in celebration, She finally began her journey to Paris on June 24, 1389, escorted by 300 knights led by Amadeus VII of Savoy, who accompanied her to the Savoyard border. Her procession passed through many cities until the delegates of Charles VI met her at Mâcon Bridge. On August 17, following a stop in Dijon to meet the duke of Burgundy, Valentina met her husband for the first time in Melun. A ceremony exchanging wedding vows took place in the king’s presence.
The couple made their entry into Paris on August 22. In the Cathedral of Notre-Dame, many important members of the French aristocracy received Valentina, including the duchesses of Berry and Burgundy and, most importantly, the queen, Isabeau of Bavaria, who was Valentina’s cousin from Bernabo’s branch of the family. Two weeks of entertainment followed and then Valentina moved into the Hotel St Pol with the queen. Louis and the king departed for further celebrations in the south of France.
Upon Louis’ return, the couple settled into a lavish lifestyle in castles linked to the counties of Valois, Angoulême and Dreux, as well as the duchy of Touraine. In 1392, Louis purchased the country of Blois for cash and then convinced the king to exchange Touraine for the duchy of Orleans, the title he would have until his death. They would live in several residences, but Valentina always favored Blois.
Valentina would have at least ten pregnancies. Six of the children died young. The surviving children included her eldest son Charles, born in 1394, who would succeed his father as duke of Orleans and become the father of the future King Louis XII. Her son Philip, Count of Vertus, was born in 1396 and son Jean, Count of Angoulême, was born in 1399. Her daughter Marguerite, born c. 1406, would marry Richard of Montfort, son of John IV, Duke of Brittany and Joan of Navarre (the future Queen of England as the wife of King Henry IV). Marguerite and Richard’s granddaughter, Anne of Brittany, would become the twice crowned Queen of France as the wife of Charles VIII and Louis XII.
Valentina gained a reputation as a connoisseur of the arts and filled her homes with paintings and precious objects. She donated generously to churches and monasteries and patronized musicians and literary figures, such as Eustache Dechamps, who immortalized Valentina in a poem. Valentina cultivated contacts with Italian intelligentsia such as Christine de Pizan, and collected manuscripts in various languages on female education, accounts of exotic travels and books of hours. She would pass on her love of literature to her son Charles, who would become a celebrated poet in his own right.
In the summer of 1392, King Charles VI suffered his first violent attack of mental illness. Never the same after this, he would slip in and out of lucidity, creating a political crisis for the French throne. During these attacks, Charles could not stand the sight of his wife, Queen Isabeau. However, he welcomed his sister-in-law, Valentina, who visited him regularly. He called her is ‘very dear sister.’
This led to a strained relationship between Valentina and Isabeau. Conflict also arose over who would govern when the king could not fulfill his duties as king. Louis of Orleans and the duke of Burgundy led two different factions at court. Philip the Bold of Burgundy accused Louis of causing the king’s misfortunes. These tense circumstances led to accusations of witchcraft and of causing the king’s illnesses against Valentina. In truth, these criticisms of her character were actually aimed at her husband. In reality, Philip the Bold used sorcery in an attempt to cure the king. Anti-Italianism was another cause of the accusations against Valentina.
At one point, the duke of Burgundy had the upper hand at the French court and Margaret of Male, the duchess of Burgundy, took over the management of Queen Isabeau’s household incurring the wrath of Valentina. Margaret assumed the place in line just after the queen, forcing Valentina to cede her position to the Burgundian duchess. Valentina argued she should be second in line as her husband was second in line as brother to the king and had priority over the duke of Burgundy, the uncle of the king.
With Valentina supporting her father’s faction in Milan and Isabeau supporting her own family’s ambitions in Milan, this created further friction. Valentina also backed her husband in the court drama over who should rule while the king was ill with Isabeau backing the Burgundian group. The anti-Italianism and accusations of witchcraft along with ferocious opposition to Valentina in Paris convinced her husband and his advisors to force Valentina to leave court and retire to the Orleans estate of Blois before April 1396. Following her banishment from court, her father sent ambassadors to the French court to intervene on her behalf.
The exile was voluntary and never officially sanctioned by the court. Queen Isabeau continued to write to Valentina and to send her gifts. Valentina concentrated on raising her children and patronizing the arts. She was intelligent enough to realize the hostility at the toxic French court was too great to overcome and stayed away until circumstances changed drastically. In 1404, Philip the Bold died, and his son John the Fearless became the new Duke of Burgundy.
Valentina, her husband and her sons were receiving sizeable sums of money from Charles VI to the detriment of John the Fearless, who felt he deserved more. The infighting at court led to the assassination of Louis of Orleans in the streets of Paris on the orders of the Burgundian duke on November 23, 1407. News of the terrible crime and the duke of Burgundy’s participation spread quickly and soon reached Valentina at Blois.
The royal council refused to let the Burgundian duke enter their meetings, and he fled to Flanders and began his propaganda campaign to discredit the duke of Orleans and to restore his own his reputation as the savior of France by getting rid of this dangerous criminal. Valentina wasted no time and broke her twelve year exile to come to Paris where she arrived on December 10. She entered the capital, riding in a black-draped litter drawn by black horses, dressed in mourning and escorted by a large retinue, including her youngest son. She had left her two eldest sons at Blois for safety.
They went directly to the Hotel St Pol where Valentina prostrated herself before King Charles VI, begging for vengeance, calling for the prosecution of the murderers. Although the princes greeted her with great sympathy, it soon became clear they lacked the authority to offer her any respite. Because of the power vacuum at the top, any punitive military expedition against the duke of Burgundy was out of the question and they wanted to avoid further civil war.
As a concession, they agreed to send messengers to John the Fearless, calling for a conference to reach accommodation. This conference took place at Amiens in January, a town that was amenable to the Burgundian duke. John argued for ten days that Louis intended to destroy the king, the royal family and the French realm and take the royal throne for himself. Valentina refused to confront John the Fearless and fled to her heavily defended estate at Blois. Therefore, no one reached a resolution.
Valentina’s overt expressions of grief were used to politically pressure the duke of Burgundy and others who could give her retribution. For John the Fearless’ part, he continued to insist the assassination was a lawful tyrannicide and refused to recognize Louis’ right to be mourned. Valentina reinforced her show of grief during a second appearance in Paris on August 28, 1408.
She entered once again in a black-draped litter with her eldest son Charles and his wife, Isabella of Valois, dowager Queen of England, and daughter of Queen Isabeau. The Duke of Burgundy would present his justification for the murder of Louis of Orleans. Valentina appeared at the Louvre on September 5. Jean Jouvenel, a royal lawyer, told her in front of a large assembly that Queen Isabeau and her son Louis, Duke of Guyenne, had received delegated powers during the king’s absences.
On September 11, a speaker justified the murder of Orleans in a speech before the queen, Guyenne, and an assembly of nobles. Following this speech, Valentina’s lawyer presented her petition for justice. Guyenne then declared the acceptance of Louis of Orleans’ vindication and promised justice. On December 4, 1408, Valentina died at Blois, most likely from typhoid fever. This left her fourteen-year-old son Charles with the burden of seeking justice against the duke of Burgundy.
Valentina’s wish to be buried next to her husband in the Celestine chapel in Paris did not come to fruition until 1498, when her grandson Louis XII ascended to the throne of France. He commissioned a sumptuous monument to house the remains of his grandparents in 1508. During the French Revolution, a mob destroyed the chapel and dispersed her remains. They transported and installed the tomb in the royal acropolis of Saint-Denis.
Valentina’s son Charles regained control of Asti and asserted his claim to the duchy of Milan, invoking the will of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, who bequeathed the duchy to Charles and his heirs should his sons predecease him, which they did. In 1494, the ruler of Milan called upon the French king, Charles VIII, in his fight against Venice, thus inaugurating the protracted Italian Wars. Valentina’s grandson Louis XII would continue to press his claim to Milan through his grandmother.
Further reading: “Royal Intrigue: Crisis at the Court of Charles VI 1392-1420” by RC Famiglietti, “A History of Milan Under the Sforzas” by Cecilia M. Ady, “The Valois: Kings of France 1328-1589” by Robert Knecht, “John the Fearless: The Growth of Burgundian Power” by Richard Vaughan, “The Hundred Years War: Volume IV Cursed Kings” by Jonathan Sumption, “The Life and Afterlife of Isabeau of Bavaria” by Tracy Adams, “Anti-Italianism in Sixteenth Century France” by Henry Heller, entry in Treccani Biographical Dictionary on Valentina Visconti by Luca Zenobi, article in Italian Encyclopedia (1937) by Luigi Simeoni, Hutchison, Emily J. “The Politics of Grief in the Outbreak of Civil War in France, 1407-1413.” Speculum 91, no. 2 (2016): 422–52. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43883962, “Valentina Visconti, Charles VI, and the Politics of Witchcraft” by Tracy Adams from Parergon 30.2 (2013), pgs. 11-32
