- Alain I of Albret
Alain I of Albret (
1440 -1522 ), called "The Great", was a powerful French aristocrat. He was 16th Lord ofAlbret , Viscount ofTartas , the 2nd Count ofGraves , and the Count ofCastres . He was the son of Catherine de Rohan andJean I of Albret . He was the grandson and heir ofCharles II of Albret , and became head of the House of Albret in 1471.He was skillful, but also very fickle, greedy, and unscrupulous. During his half century of rule, he took a political course which was more agitated than effective, following his father's example, making him one of the most visible actors on the stage of Europe.
Alain I initially benefited from his fidelity to King
Louis XI of France , and thereby enlarged his principality. He married Françoise de Châtillon, and this marriage brought him the inheritance of the county ofPérigord as well as the viscountcy ofLimoges .He then seized
Armagnac , and married his son John toCatherine of Navarre , heiress of the counties ofFoix andBigorre and of theKingdom of Navarre .The "Mad War"
At this time, Alain I hoped to consolidate his power by taking control of the
Duchy of Brittany by marriage toAnne of Brittany , the daughter and heir of DukeFrancis II . He entered into rebellion against the royal authority in support of the Duchy, during the so-calledMad War . His intrigues were unsuccessful, and he was defeated, having been unable to provide support to the Duke in1487 . The following year, he brought reinforcements by sea, but was defeated byLouis II de la Trémoille at the Battle of Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier. He continued, however, to claim the legacy of Francis II, occupying Nantes with his Gascon troops. He still hoped to marry Anne and inherit the Duchy but found it expedient to deliverNantes to the royal army in exchange for an agreement that the French would support his claim to Anne's hand. Anne had no intention of marrying Alain, who she considered crude and brutal. [De La Warr, Constance, "A Twice Crowned Queen: Anne of Brittany", pp12-14] Instead she married the French king, putting an end of Alain's dynastic ambition in Brittany. However, Alain established other dynastic links through his daughter, Charlotte of Albret, who marriedCaesar Borgia in1500 . His great-granddaughter, who marriedAntoine de Bourbon , was the mother ofKing Henri IV of France.Alain d'Albret died in 1522.
References
*"This article was initially translated from the Wikipedia article [http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alain_d%27Albret Alain d'Albret] , mostly from [http://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alain_d%27Albret&oldid=27302062 this version] , but with the final paragraph from [http://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alain_d%27Albret&oldid=25270116 this version] ."
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