René was born on 16 January 1409 in the
castle of Angers. He was the second son of
Duke Louis II of
Anjou,
King of Naples, by
Yolanda of
Aragon. René was the brother of
Marie of Anjou, who married the future
Charles VII and became Queen of France. Louis II died in 1417 and his sons, together with their brother-in-law Charles, were brought up under the guardianship of their mother. The elder son,
Louis III, succeeded to the crown of Sicily and the Duchy of Anjou; René then became Count of
Guise. In 1419, when René was only ten, he was legally married to
Isabella, elder daughter of
Charles II, Duke of Lorraine. René was to be brought up in
Lorraine under the guardianship of Charles II and
Louis, cardinal of Bar, both of whom were attached to the
Burgundian party, but he retained the right to bear the arms of Anjou. He was far from sympathizing with the Burgundians. Joining the French army at
Reims in 1429, he was present at the consecration of Charles VII. When
Louis of Bar died in 1430, René inherited the
duchy of Bar. The next year, on his father-in-law's death, he succeeded to the
duchy of Lorraine. The inheritance was contested by the heir-male,
Antoine de Vaudemont, who with Burgundian help defeated René at
Bulgneville in July 1431. The Duchess Isabella effected a truce with Antoine, but the duke remained a prisoner of the Burgundians until April 1432, when he recovered his liberty on parole on yielding up as hostages his two sons,
John and
Louis. René's title as duke of Lorraine was confirmed by his
suzerain,
Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund, at
Basel in 1434. This proceeding roused the anger of the Burgundian duke,
Philip the Good, who required him early in the next year to return to his prison, from which he was released two years later on payment of a heavy ransom. At the death of his brother Louis III in 1435, he succeeded to the Duchy of Anjou and County of Maine. The marriage of
Marie of Bourbon, niece of Philip of Burgundy, with
John, Duke of Calabria, René's eldest son, cemented peace between the two families.
Joanna II, queen of Naples, had chosen Louis III as her presumptive heir and upon Louis' death offered it to René to inherit her kingdom after her death. After appointing a
regency in Bar and Lorraine, he set sail for Naples in 1438. , France. ,
Provence, with vestiges of the busts of René and Jeanne de Laval on the right Naples, however, was also claimed by
Alfonso V of Aragon, who had been first adopted and then repudiated by Joanna II. In 1441 Alfonso laid a six-month siege to Naples. René returned to France in 1442, and though he retained the title of king of Naples his effective rule was never recovered. Later efforts to recover his rights in Italy failed. His mother Yolande, who had governed Anjou in his absence, died in 1442. René took part in the negotiations with the English at
Tours in 1444, and peace was consolidated by the marriage of his younger daughter,
Margaret, with
Henry VI of England at
Nancy. René now made over the government of Lorraine to his son John, who was, however, only formally installed as Duke of Lorraine on the death of René's wife Isabella in 1453. René had the confidence of Charles VII, and is said to have initiated the reduction of the men-at-arms set on foot by the king, with whose military operations against the English he was closely associated. He entered
Rouen with him in November 1449. After his second marriage with
Jeanne de Laval, daughter of
Guy of Laval and
Isabella of Brittany, René took a less active part in public affairs, devoting himself to composing poetry and painting miniatures, gardening and raising animals. The fortunes of his house declined in his old age: in 1466, the rebellious
Catalans offered the crown of Aragon to René. His son John, unsuccessful in Italy, was sent to take up the conquest of that kingdom but died—apparently by poison—at
Barcelona on 16 December 1470. John's eldest son Nicholas perished in 1473, also under suspicion of poisoning. In 1471, René's daughter
Margaret was finally defeated in the
Wars of the Roses. Her
husband and her
son were killed and she herself became a prisoner who had to be ransomed by
Louis XI in 1476. René retired to
Aix-en-Provence and in 1474 made a will by which he left Bar to his grandson René II, Duke of Lorraine; and Anjou and Provence to his nephew
Charles, count of Le Maine. King Louis XI seized Anjou and Bar, and two years later sought to compel René to exchange the two duchies for a pension. The offer was rejected, but further negotiations assured the lapse to the crown of the duchy of Anjou and the annexation of Provence was only postponed until the death of the Count of Le Maine. René died on 10 July 1480 at
Aix, but was buried in the
Angers Cathedral, Angers. In the 19th century, historians bestowed on him the epithet "the good". He founded an order of chivalry, the
Ordre du Croissant, which preceded the royal foundation of St Michael but did not survive René. ==Arts==