Anne of Cyprus

Anne of Cyprus (or Anne de Lusignan) (September 24 1418 – November 11 1462) was the daughter of Janus of Cyprus and his wife, Charlotte of Bourbon. In 1433 or 1434, she married Louis, Duke of Savoy. She bore her husband nineteen children, of whom fourteen survived infancy. Anne died in 1462 in Geneva.

Louis of Savoy, more interested by poetry than his duchy, but very much in love with his wife, gradually left the affairs of state to Anne, who, nostalgic of her own country, organized many receptions with the most powerful Cypriot lords. To reconcile the entourage, she decorated the castles, organized festivals, and offered gifts to the guests, the expense of which caused a vigorous protest at the peasants and nobles of the county of Vaud.

To suppress a part of her debts, Anne organized a match for one of her daughters, and an advantageous union for the house of Savoy. At the age of only ten years, her daughter, Charlotte, marries in 1451 the dauphin of France, the future Louis XI, who later would claim in default of the promised dowry new strongholds and seize several castles in Bresse and several chief towns of Vaud.

In 1452, Anne bought the Shroud of Turin from Jeanne de Charny in exchange of the castle of Varambon. Later, about 1502, the pope Paul II authorized Yolande of France to deposit the relic of Holy Shroud in the vault of the castle of Chambéry from which she raised a tower above the sacristy, as a religious symbol.

Children

# Amadeus (1435-1472)
# Maria (1436-1437)
# Louis of Savoy, Count of Geneva (1436-1482), married Annabella of Scotland, married Queen Charlotte of Cyprus.
# Philip (1438-1497)
# Margaret (1439-1483), married in December 1458 Giovanni IV Paleologo (1413–1464), Marquis of Montferrat. [citation|ref=DBdI
url=http://www.marchesimonferrato.com/web2007/_pages/gen_summary.php?DR=all&URL=marchesidelmonferrato.com&LNG=IT&L=3&C=4&T=news&D=IT{150EBED9-5448-9D19-10EF-4CF2FF13F989}&A=0
contribution=Giovanni IV
title=Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani
volume=LVI
place=Roma
year=2000pages=131–135.]
# Giano, Count of Geneva (1440-1491)
# Pietro, Bishop of Geneva (1440-1458)
# Janus, Count of Faucigny, Governor of Nice. (1440-1491)
# Charlotte (1441-1483), married Louis XI of France
# Aimone (1442-1443)
# Giacomo d. 1445
# Agnese (1445-1508)
# Giovanni Ludovico, Bishop of Geneva (1447-1482)
# Maria (1448-1475)
# Bona (1449-1503), married Galeazzo Maria Sforza, duke of Milan
# Giacomo, Count of Romont, lord of Vaud (1450-1486)
# Anne (1452-1452)
# Francesco, Archbishop of Auch and Bishop of Geneva (1454-1490)
# Giovanna d. young.

Notes