Yolande, Duchess of Lorraine
Duchess of Lorraine
Yolande (2 November 1428 in Nancy – 23 March 1483 in Nancy) was Duchess of Lorraine (1473) and Bar (1480). She was the daughter of Isabella, Duchess of Lorraine, and René of Anjou (King of Naples, Duke of Anjou, Bar and Lorraine, Count of Provence). Though she was nominally in control of major territories, she ceded her power and titles to her husband and her son. In addition, her younger sister was Margaret of Anjou, Queen of England.
In the 19th century, a romanticised version of her early life was popularised by the play King René's Daughter by Henrik Hertz, in which she is portrayed as a beautiful blind princess living in an isolated garden paradise. It was later adapted to Tchaikovsky's opera Iolanta. There is no evidence that she was ever blind.
Marriage and children
In 1445, she married her second cousin Frederick II, Count of Vaudémont (1420–1470), at Nancy. The marriage was a dynastic alliance, arranged to end the dispute which existed between René of Anjou and Frederick's father, Antoine of Vaudémont, regarding the succession to the Duchy of Lorraine.
Children
René (future Duke of Lorraine) (1451–1508), Duke of Lorraine.
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This entry incorporates text from “Yolande, Duchess of Lorraine” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.