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- BIOGRAPHY
François II was the son of Richard de Bretagne, comte d'Etampes et de Vertus, and Marguerite d'Orléans, a daughter of Louis, duc d'Orléans, and Valentina Visconti. Under his rule Brittany enjoyed a period of peace and great prosperity.
In 1458 François succeeded his uncle Arthur III as duke of Brittany. François was a sovereign in advance of his times; he loved literature, painting, and sculpture, founded schools and universities, encouraged commerce, and caused artists and tapestry-workers from Flanders to settle in his capital Nantes, where their tapestries soon became famous.
He was married twice. On 15 November 1455 in Vannes he married his cousin Marguerite de Bretagne and they had a son who died soon after his birth. He neglected his wife for his mistress Antoinette de Maignelais, who previously had been the mistress of King Charles VII of France, and by her he fathered two illegitimate sons, François and Antoine, both of whom would have progeny. In 1469 his wife Marguerite died of consumption.
On 27 June 1471 in Clisson, François married Marguerite de Foix, daughter of Gaston IV, comte de Foix, and Leonor, queen of Navarre, infanta of Aragón. They had two daughters of whom Anne would have progeny. His mistress Antoinette died in 1475, and although there is no record of another taking her place, he surrounded himself with unworthy favourites. One of them was Pierre Landais, a man of bourgeois birth, the son of a merchant in cloth and silk. He attracted the attention of François who took him into service as valet. Pierre Landais studied his master's tastes, pandered to his inclinations and missed no opportunity of gratifying them.
To the amazement and disgust of the nobles, Pierre was appointed treasurer-general. The pride and arrogance he displayed made him universally hated. In the end he completely ruled his master. At last, exasperated by his cruelties and crimes, the Bretons took the law into their own hands, surrounded the palace, and with threats and cries demanded that Landais should be given up to them. The duke, finding himself powerless, gave up his favourite, who was at once tried, condemned, and executed.
Marguerite de Foix, the second wife of François, died on 15 May 1486. Deprived as she had been of her husband's love, she had given all her affection to her young daughters. With all his faults François was not a bad father, and gave his daughters as much affection as he could. They accompanied him in his journeys to his various castles and fortresses. In the last years of his life he had to move secretly from place to place for safety, and at one time he was besieged in Nantes by the French army and had to leave his apartments in the castle for a more secure dwelling.
François died on 9 September 1488 in the château de Coueron on the Loire; with his two daughters and his court he had been obliged to retire there because of the plague raging in Nantes.
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