Editing Louis XII (section)

==Family==

===Marriages===
{{no sources|section|date=January 2024}}
<gallery>
File:Joan of Valois Queen of France.jpg|[[Joan of France, Duchess of Berry|Queen Joan of France]]
File:BNF - Latin 9474 - Jean Bourdichon - Grandes Heures d'Anne de Bretagne - f. 3r - Anne de Bretagne entre trois saintes (détail).jpg|[[Anne of Brittany|Queen Anne of Brittany]]
File:MaryTudorQueenFrance.jpg|[[Mary Tudor, Queen of France|Mary Tudor]] during her brief period as Queen of France
</gallery>

In 1476 he was forced by King [[Louis XI of France|Louis XI]] (his second cousin) to marry his daughter Joan of France. Charles VIII (son of Louis XI) succeeded to the throne of France in 1483, but died childless in 1498, when the throne passed to Louis XII. Charles had been married to [[Anne, Duchess of Brittany]], in order to unite the quasi-sovereign [[Duke of Brittany|Duchy of Brittany]] with the Kingdom of France. To sustain this union, Louis XII had his marriage to Joan annulled (December 1498) after he became king so that he could marry Charles VIII's widow, Anne of Brittany.

The annulment, described as "one of the seamiest lawsuits of the age", was not simple. Louis did not, as one might have expected, argue the marriage to be void due to consanguinity (the general allowance for the dissolution of a marriage at that time). Though he could produce witnesses to claim that the two were closely related due to various linking marriages, there was no documentary proof, merely the opinions of courtiers. Likewise, Louis could not argue that he had been below the legal [[age of consent]] (fourteen) to marry: no one was certain when he had been born, with Louis claiming to have been twelve at the time, and others ranging in their estimates between eleven and thirteen. As there was no real proof, he had perforce to bring forward other arguments.

Accordingly, Louis (much to the dismay of his wife) claimed that Joan was physically malformed (providing a rich variety of detail precisely how) and that he had therefore been unable to consummate the marriage. Joan, unsurprisingly, fought this uncertain charge fiercely, producing witnesses to Louis's boast of having "mounted my wife three or four times during the night". Louis also claimed that his sexual performance had been inhibited by [[witchcraft]]. Joan responded by asking how he was able to know what it was like to try to make love to her. Had the [[Papacy]] been a neutral party, Joan would likely have won, for Louis's case was exceedingly weak. Pope Alexander VI, however, had political reasons to grant the annulment, and ruled against Joan accordingly. He granted the annulment on the grounds that Louis did not freely marry, but was forced to marry by Joan's father Louis XI. Outraged, Joan reluctantly submitted, saying that she would pray for her former husband. She became a nun; she was [[canonized]] in 1950.

Louis married the reluctant queen dowager, Anne, in 1499. Still only 22, Anne, who had borne as many as seven stillborn or short-lived children during her previous marriage to King Charles, now bore a further four stillborn sons to the new king, but also two surviving daughters. The elder daughter, [[Claude of France|Claude]] (1499–1524), was betrothed by her mother's arrangement to the future [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Emperor Charles V]] in 1501. But after Anne failed to produce a living son, Louis dissolved the betrothal and betrothed Claude to his [[heir presumptive]], [[Francis I of France|Francis of Angoulême]], thereby insuring that Brittany would remain united with France. Anne opposed this marriage, which took place only after her death in 1514. Claude succeeded her mother in [[Brittany]] and became queen consort to Francis. The younger daughter, [[Renée of France|Renée]] (1510–1575), married [[Ercole II d'Este|Duke Ercole II of Ferrara]].

After Anne's death, Louis married [[Mary Tudor, Queen of France|Mary Tudor]], the sister of [[Henry VIII of England]], in [[Abbeville]], France, on 9 October 1514. This represented a final attempt to produce an heir to his throne, for despite two previous marriages the king had no living sons. Louis died on 1 January 1515, less than three months after he married Mary, reputedly worn out by his exertions in the bedchamber, but more likely from the effects of [[gout]]. Their union produced no children, and the throne passed to Francis I of France, who was Louis's first cousin once removed, and also his son-in-law.

===Issue===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
|colspan=16 align="center"|'''''By [[Anne of Brittany]]'''''
|-
!Name!!Birth!!Death!!Notes
|-
|[[Claude of France]]||14 October 1499||20 July 1524||Married [[Francis I of France]] on 18 May 1514; had issue.
|-
|Unnamed son||late 1500/early 1501||died young||Père Anselme records that in 1501 King Louis XII sent "''le cardinal d'Amboise''" to Trentino to negotiate a marriage between his son and one of the daughters of [[Philip I of Castile]];<ref name="Anselme">Anselme de Sainte-Marie, Père (1726). ''Histoire généalogique et chronologique de la maison royale de France [Genealogical and chronological history of the royal house of France]'' (in French). 1 (3rd ed.). Paris: La compagnie des libraires.</ref>{{rp|128}} however, he cites no primary source for this statement. If it is correct, the son in question must have been different from the one who was born 21 January [1503/07] who is shown below.
|-
|Unnamed son||21 January [1503/07]||21 January [1503/07]||The Journal de Louise de Savoie records that "''Anne reine de France''" gave birth at Blois 21 January to "''un fils...il avoit faute de vie''".<ref>Michaud & Poujoulat (1838), Tome V, ''Journal de Louise de Savoye'', p. 87.</ref> The entry does not specify the year but follows an entry for 1502 and precedes one for 1507. Kerrebrouck dates the event to 1503 "''à l'issue d'un voyage à Lyon''" but does not specify the primary source on which he bases this information.<ref name="auto">Kerrebrouck, P. van (1990). ''Les Valois (Nouvelle histoire généalogique de l'auguste Maison de France)'' {{ISBN|978-2950150929}}, pp. 167, 175 footnote 44.</ref>
|-
|[[Renée of France]]||25 October 1510||12 June 1574||Married [[Ercole II d'Este]] in April 1528;<ref>C. W. Previté-Orton, ''Cambridge Medieval History, Shorter: Volume 2, The Twelfth Century to the Renaissance'', (Cambridge University Press, 1978), 776.</ref> had issue.
|-
|Unnamed son||January [1513]||January [1513]||Père Anselme records a second son "''mort en bas âge''", without dates or primary source citations.<ref name="Anselme" />{{rp|128}} Kerrebrouck records a son "''mort-né au château de Blois janvier 1512''", commenting that "''[la] grossesse [de la reine] tourne mal''" after [[Pope Julius II]] excommunicated Louis XII for refusing to negotiate the liberation of the papal legate whom the French had captured after the [[Battle of Ravenna (1512)|Battle of Ravenna]].<ref name="auto"/> As the battle happened took place on 11 April 1512, Kerrebrouck's date is presumably [[Old Style and New Style dates|Old Style]]. This birth is not mentioned in the Journal de Louise de Savoie.<ref>Michaud & Poujoulat (1838), Tome V, ''Journal de Louise de Savoye'', p. 89.</ref>
|}

Louis XII had an illegitimate son, [[Michel Bucy]], [[Archbishop of Bourges]], from 1505, who died in 1511 and was buried in [[Bourges]].{{sfn|Baumgartner|1996|p=175}}<ref>('''FR''') [[Gabriel Peignot]], ''De la maison royale de France'', (Renouard, Libraire, rue-Saint-Andre-Des-arcs, 1815), 151.</ref>