RENE OF ANJOU

yES A DAY OF REFLECTION.


Iam trying to find any books written about Rene d' Anjou,
Father of Margaret of Anjou wife of Henry VI.

If you know of any will you kindly imform me.

Many thanks for your help,
Best Regards,
Dave.

Dave

I'm not aware of any books directly about him, but when I was chasing
up some material a Google search came up with quite a bit. There is
also a new biography of his daughter which may help (can't remember
the author offhand, unfortunately).

Ann
>
> Iam trying to find any books written about Rene d' Anjou,
> Father of Margaret of Anjou wife of Henry VI.
>
> If you know of any will you kindly imform me.
>
> Many thanks for your help,
> Best Regards,
> Dave.

Dave asked: Iam trying to find any books written about
Rene d' Anjou, Father of Margaret of Anjou wife of
Henry VI. If you know of any will you kindly imform
me.

***

Here's part of a post I sent a couple of months ago:

"Rene of Anjou sponsored many tournaments, and he
wrote
a book, ýThe Manual of the Perfect Organization of
Tourneys.ý When criticized for descending ýto such
scribblerýs work,ý Rene answered: ýSuch words might
come more fittingly from a bellowing bull than a noble
prince.ý

Rene went on to write at least three more books.

I have an English translation of:

ýLe Cueur dýAmours Espris,ý with full-color
reproductions (King Reneýs Book of Love, from a MS in
the National Library of Vienna. NY: George Braziller,
1975).

The introduction gives information about Reneýs
family, military and political experience, tournaments
and writing."

***

This is the only book I have personal experience with.

I've just searched the Library of Congress online
catalog. http://www.loc.gov

There is a newer English translation of King Rene's
Book of Love:

"Book of the Love-smitten Heart," ed. and trans. by
Stephanie Viereck Gibbs and Kathryn Karczewska. NY :
Garland, 2000.

There are several books in French, and one in English.

"Life and times of Margaret of Anjou, ... and of her
father Rene "the Good," king of Sicily, Naples, and
Jerusalem." London, Tinsley Brothers, 1872. 2 v.

Even if you can't get to the Library of Congress, you
might be able to borrow what you need from another
library.

Hope this helps,

Marion



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> From: "Dave" <DAVEGAMESITE@...>
> Reply-To:
> Date: Fri, 22 Aug 2003 11:07:47 -0000
> To:
> Subject: RENE OF ANJOU
>
> Iam trying to find any books written about Rene d' Anjou,
> Father of Margaret of Anjou wife of Henry VI.
>
> If you know of any will you kindly imform me.

I¹ve checked out the bibliography in the new bio of Margaret by Helen
Maurer.
in 1875 Lecoy de La Marche published a 2 volume book on René in French!
And that¹s the only one listed, so it looks like you have your work cut out
finding one.
Good hunting.
Paul

Rene gets some mention in various books about our period; he gets a nice bit of attention in some Joan of Arc bios. Also, in the Rozmital chronicle of the European Tour, he gets another nice load of print space -- the travelers liked him and his hospitality.

And, oddly enough, if you can delete the nonsense as you read, there's a short, appreciative summary of his life in a very strange and not very credible book called "Holy Blood, Holy Grail". I managed to finish it, but spent a lot of time grunting and sighing, and sometimes laughing, but if you're careful, there is some data that can be winnowed out. They liked Rene too -- he seems to have been generally a creative, rather fun and affable gentleman, and it's strange to think that Margaret of Anjou was his daughter.

Both memorials are safely in the NY Times, by the way.

Maria
elena@...

--- In , "Dave"
<DAVEGAMESITE@A...> wrote:
> yES A DAY OF REFLECTION.
>
>
> Iam trying to find any books written about Rene d' Anjou,
> Father of Margaret of Anjou wife of Henry VI.
>
> If you know of any will you kindly imform me.
>
> Many thanks for your help,
> Best Regards,
> Dave.

I'm SURE Ive recently come across a reference to a (new?) biography
of Rene, but I can't recall where. If I find it I'll let you know.

I've also got "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail". Certainly I think
the claim that Rene or anybody else could (or even believed they
could) trace descent from Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene is
laughable. But I think there may just be something behind it all. A
family tradition of a different form of Christianity, for instance,
linked with gnostic and alchemical traditions. The authors make the
mistake of literal interpretation.
Hughes, for instance, in his "Arthurian Myths and Alchemy" mentions
the relevance of the Swan-knight legend. He links this only with the
de Bohuns, and suggests Prince Edward's use of the symbol derived
only from his Bohun ancestry. But the Swan Knight belonged to
Lorraine, and was I think Rene's badge as Duke of Lorraine. Also, his
arms as King of Jerusalem consisted of a pattern made of tau crosses.
As for the 'grail' he had, the grail legends are full of strange
imagery and are I think definitely a form of myth of the soul's
journey to gnosis (and it's worth bearing in mind that in Le Morte
D'Arthur, which is largely a translation of earlier legends, Galahad
is described as ninth in line of descent from Jesus Christ or
something like that). Alchemy was closely associated with this
alternative tradition, viz Simon Magus.
As regards Le Coeur d'Epris, I haven't read it, but the typical
gnostic myth represents the soul as a lady seeking the true
bridegroom. Eros and Psyche is a good example of a pagan gnostic
myth. You wouldn't really expect to notice anything untoward in these
tales if you weren't first aware of the symbolic system in use - that
was the whole idea, to keep out the uninitiated (and protect against
charges of heresy).
That's why I think it interesting that the alchemists seem to have
appeared round Henry VI (a member of the hitherto rigidly orthodox
House of Lancaster) after his marriage to Margaret of Anjou.

Marie