Biography of Claude of France

Claude of France was born on October 13, 1499, in Romorantin as the eldest daughter of King Louis XII of France and Duchess Anne of Brittany. Claude was heiress presumptive to her mother’s Duchy of Brittany, due to her mother having no male offspring. However, according to Salic Law, the crown of France could only pass to male heirs. Queen Anne had struggled for years to keep the Duchy of Brittany separate from the Crown of France, the heir of which was Louis, Duke of Valois. To do this, a marriage contract between Claude and the future Holy Roman Emperor Charles V was considered. However, at the last moment, King Louis XII cancelled the contract and betrothed Claude to Louis of Valois. Queen Anne was furious, and she then tried, without luck, to make her younger daughter Renée her heir.

In January 1514, on her mother’s death, Claude became Duchess of Brittany, and a few months later she married her cousin Francis. This union would keep the Duchy of Brittany united with the French Crown, unless the third marriage of Louis XII to Mary Tudor produced a male heir. Louis XII died on January 1, 1515, less than three months after the wedding, reputedly worn out by his exertions in the bedchamber. Francis took his father-in-law’s throne with Claude as his wife, like her mother, though Claude resisted attempts to incorporate Brittany into the French Crown.

Claude was eclipsed at her own court by her mother-in-law, Louise of Savoy, who bullied her constantly, and her sister-in-law, the literary Navarrese queen, Margaret of Angoulême. She also never ruled over Brittany; in 1515, she was coerced to give the government of her domains to her husband. She had no aptitude for politics or other court intrigue; instead, she devoted herself to religion.

Among Claude’s ladies were Anne Boleyn, who later became Queen of England as the second wife of Henry VIII, and Diane de Poitiers, who would go on to become the lifelong mistress of Claude’s son, Henry II.

Claude spent most of her married life in an endless cycle of annual pregnancies while her husband had many mistresses, albeit discreetly.

Claude was short and afflicted with scoliosis, which gave her a hunched back; her successive pregnancies made her appear continuously plump, for which she was mocked at court. She was described as corpulent, small, and ugly. She limped and had strabismus in her left eye, but even those who denigrated her appearance acknowledged her good qualities.

Claude died on July 20, 1524, aged just twenty-four. The exact cause of her death is still disputed to this day: death during childbirth or miscarriage, exhaustion after her many pregnancies, bone tuberculosis (like her mother) or syphilis caught from her husband are all thought to be possible causes. She was buried at St. Denis Basilica.

Claude gave birth to seven living children, only two of whom lived past the age of thirty:

Louise (died aged three)
Charlotte (died, aged seven)
Francis (died aged eighteen)
Henry II (died aged forty)
Madeleine (died, aged sixteen)
Charles (died aged twenty-three)
Margaret (died aged fifty-one).

Undated, unattributed portrait thought by some to be of Claude of France.

Sources:
Lines of Succession: Heraldry of the Royal Families of Europe, Jirí Louda and Michael MacLagan
Anne de Bretagne, Philippe Tourault, p. 255
Francois Ier, Francis Hackett, p. 510