Death
Anne died at the Chateau of Blois in the winter of 1513–1514 of a kidney-stone attack. She was buried in the necropolis of Saint Denis. Her funeral was exceptionally long, lasting 40 days, and inspiring all future French royal funerals until the 18th century. The courtier Pierre Choque records that two masses were read, the first by the cordeliers (i.e., Franciscans) and second by the Jacobins (i.e., Dominicans), and also two requiems were sung—possibly those that survive by Johannes Prioris. and by Antoine de Févin, Separate mourning motets survive by other members of the two royal choirs: Quis dabit oculis by Costanzo Festa, and Fiere attropos by Pierre Moulu.
According to her will, her heart was placed in a raised enamel gold reliquary, then transported to Nantes to be deposited in the vault of the Carmelite friars, in the tomb made for her parents. This was done on 19 March 1514, but it was later transferred to the Saint-Pierre cathedral. The reliquary of the heart of the Anne, Duchess of Brittany is a box oval, bivalvular, made of a sheet of gold pushed back and guillochéd, articulated by a hinge, broadside of a gold cordelière and topped by a crown of lily and clover. It is inscribed as follows:
- En ce petit vaisseau
- De fin or pur et munde
- Repose ung plus grand cueur
- Que oncque dame eut au munde
- Anne fut le nom delle
- En France deux fois royne
- Duchesse des Bretons
- Royale et Souveraine.
It was made by an anonymous goldsmith of the court of Blois, perhaps drawn by Jean Perréal. In 1792, by order of the National Convention, the reliquary was seized—exhumed, and emptied—as part of a collection of precious metals pertaining to churches. It was sent to Nantes to be melted down, but was instead kept in the National Library. It was returned to Nantes in 1819 and kept in various museums, now in the Dobrée Museum since 1896.
Anne's will also conferred the succession of Brittany upon her second daughter, Renee. Her husband ignored this, and confirmed Claude as Duchess and married her to Francis.
Read more about this topic: Anne Of Brittany
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