Coat-of-arms of the Duke of Bar (1429)

Coat-of-arms of the Duke of Anjou
and King of Naples (1434)

(Principal informations : seals of 431 et 1433, armorial Gelre Gelre, armorial Lalaing, etc.
See : Christian de Mérindol , "Le roi René et la seconde maison d’Anjou, art, emblématique, histoire", Éditions du Léopard d’Or, 1987)


René d'Anjou, Duke of Bar.

 

Full name : René d'ANJOU
 

Nickname : "the Good King René".

 

Birth : January 16, 1409, in Angers.


Death : July 10, 1480, in Aix-en-Provence.
 

Titles of nobility : King of Naples, Sicily and Jerusalem (en 1434), Majorca and Aragon (1446), Duke of Bar (1423), Lorraine (1431) and Anjou (1434), Marquis of Pont (Pont-à-Mousson, Meurthe-et-Moselle), Count of Guise (Aisne), Barcelona, Provence and Forcalquier (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence), Lord of Loudun (Vienne), Saumur and Angers (Maine-et-Loire), Tarascon (Bouches-du-Rhône) and other  places.
 

Official and military functions : King's Councillor (1429).

 

Father : Louis II d'Anjou (1377-1417).
 

Mother : Yolanda d'Aragon (1380-1442).


Paternal grandfathers : Louis Ier d'Anjou (1339-1384) and Marie de Châtillon.

Maternal grandfathers : Jean Ier King of Aragon and Yolanda de Bar.

Wife : 1° October 24, 1420, Isabelle (1410-1453), daughter of Charles Ier, Duke of Lorraine, and Marguerite de Bavière-Palatine ; 2° September 10, 1454, Jeanne de Laval († 1498), daughter of Guy XIV de Laval and Isabelle de Bretagne.

Descendants : 1. Jean II, Duke of Lorraine (1426-1471). 2. Louis, Marquis of Pont-à-Mousson (1427-1443). 3. Yolanda (1428-1484). 4. Marguerite (1430-1482) married Henri VI King of England. Heir : his nevew Charles IV d'Anjou).

Coat-of-arms : see below for more information.

In 1429 : quarterly, 1st and 4th Azure fleurdelised Or a bordure Gules (Anjou), 2nd and 3rd Azure crusily and two barbels Or (Bar), overall an escutcheon Or a bend Gules with three allerions Argent (Lorraine). Crest of the Bar's Family in 1429.

Presence at the side of Joan of Arc in  :  Reims (?), Montépilloy, Paris.

Comments : René d'Anjou was nominative King of Naples, Sicily, Jerusalem, Majorca and Aragon, Duke of Anjou, Lorraine and Bar, Marquis of Pont-à-Mousson, Count of Guise, Barcelone, Provence and Forcalquier, Lord of Loudun, Saumur, Angers, Tarascon. He was called "The good king René". Second son of Louis II of Anjou and Yolande of Aragon, he married in 1420 Isabelle of Lorraine, and in 1454 Jeanne of Laval.

Duke of Bar since 1423, he was the suzerain of the lords of Domrémy. He joined the Charles VII's party for the coronation in Reims. He fought with Jeanne d'Arc at Montépilloy and Paris.

   The Coat of Arms of René d'Anjou
Born in 1409 in Angers, René d'Anjou, Count de Guise, second son of the duke Louis II of Anjou was adopted by his maternal uncle, Louis, cardinal and duke of Bar. He wear a quartered coat of arms, with the arms of Anjou (Azure fleurdelised Or a bordure Gules) and of Bar (Azure crusily and two barbels Or).
After his marriage (October 24, 1420) with Isabelle, daughter of the duke Charles of Lorraine, he put overall an escutcheon Or a bend Gules with three allerions Argent. These are the coat-of-arms he wears as a duke of Bar (1423) and Lorraine (1431).
In 1434, after the death of his elder brother Louis III d'Anjou (dead in Calabria at the time of its ceaseless fights to recover the succession of the Angevin kings of Naples, Sicily and Hungary descendants of Charles d'Anjou, brother of Saint Louis), he received the duchy of Anjou, the county of Provence and the rights chimerical on Hungary, Naples, Sicily, and on the kingdom of Jerusalem "bought" in 1277 by Charles d'Anjou.
After the death of his wife, Isabelle of Lorraine, in 1453, he gives up the arms of the duchy of Lorraine which he had lost after his defeat and his capture at Bulgnéville (July 2, 1431) in front of the troops of his rival, the count of Vaudémont, Isabelle's cousin, supported by the duke of Burgundy.

 		 Lastly, in 1466, he can cap a royal crown, as king of Aragon and Majorque which is given to him, as son of Yolande d'Aragon, daughter of king Jean Ier († 1395), by a part of the Aragonese nobility revolted against the nominal king, Jean II († 1479). He places overalls the arms of Aragon: Or 4 pals Gules.