Anne de Bretagne was then the wife of king Charles VIII. Marrying her had been a peaceful way of annexing the Bretagne region (Brittany) to the kingdom of France. From their union, six children were born… but they all died after a few months. After Charles VIII died in 1498 (after stupidly banging his head on the lintel of a door of his cattle of Amboise in the Loire Valley), as there was no male heir, she had (as planned in her prenup) to marry his successor (who ruled as Louis XII) so that Brittany would remain part of France. From that second union, she had two children: Claude and Renée, which were both girls (as "Claude" was then, and still is for us, also without gender distinction).

(1477-1514)

Claude de France

(1499-1524)

Claude got married in 1514 to her cousin François d’Angoulême (who was to become a few months later king Francis I). She was 14, he was 19. Their wedding was another political arrangement and François wasn’t thrilled at the idea of marrying a not very good looking girl who, on top of that, suffered from strabismus and walked with a limp (like her mother)… Nevertheless, he did what was expected of him and she also did what was (sadly) expected of her : she gave birth to seven children (one of them will become king Henri II)… during the first ten years of their marriage. The poor thing died of exhaustion after those ten years. She was 24.

She didn’t leave a big name in history but she is remembered by the French up to this day because of a variety of plums (greengages) which was named after her: the "Reine Claude" (French for "Queen Claude »).

This is what it looks like: