Marie of Cleves, Duchess of Orléans

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Marie of Cleves (19 September 1426 – 23 August 1487) was the third wife of Charles, Duke of Orléans. She was born a German princess, the last child of Adolph I, Duke of Cleves and his second wife, Mary of Burgundy.

Marie of Cleves
Duchess of Orléans
Marie of Cleves (or Anne of Cyprus)
Born19 September 1426
Died23 August 1487(1487-08-23) (aged 60)
Chaunay
Burial
Spouse
(m. 1440; died 1465)
IssueMarie, Viscountess of Narbonne
Louis XII of France
Anne, Abbess of Fontevraud
HouseLa Marck
FatherAdolph I, Duke of Cleves
MotherMary of Burgundy

Marie was a patron of letters and commissioned many works; she was also an active poet herself, producing ballads and other verses.[1] After the Duke's death she was secretly remarried in 1480 to one of her gentlemen of the chamber, the Artesian "Sieur de Rabodanges", who was some years her junior.[1][2] She died in Chaunay.

Marriage and issue

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At the age of fourteen, Marie was married to 46-year-old Charles of Valois, Duke of Orléans, a man 32 years her senior,[1] on 27 November 1440, in Saint-Omer.[3] She became his third and last wife. Their eldest child was born fully 17 years after the wedding. They had three children together, being:

In literature

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Marie is a character in Hella Haasse's historical novel about Charles, Duke of Orléans In a Dark Wood Wandering (original Dutch title Het Woud der Verwachting).

Ancestry

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Notes

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  1. ^ a b c Wilson p. 258
  2. ^ Holt, p. 231
  3. ^ Arn p. 41

References

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  • Arn, Mary-Jo. Charles d'Orléans in England, 1415-1440. Cambridge; Rochester, NY, USA : D.S. Brewer, 2000. googlebooks Retrieved August 17, 2009
  • Wilson, Katharina M. An Encyclopedia of Continental Women Writers. Vol. 2 New York: Garland Pub, 1991. googlebooks
  • Holt, Emily Sarah. Memoirs of Royal Ladies. London : Hurst and Blackett, 1861. googlebooks