Yolande of Aragon - Chronology

Chronology

1384 Yolande born at Zaragoza, Aragon, on 11 August.

1400 Yolande married Louis II of Anjou, at Arles, France on 2 December.

1410 Death of King Martin of Aragon.

1412 Yolande's son, Louis, was not recognized as King of Aragon; instead their kinsman, Ferdinand I, was crowned king.

1413 Louis II d'Anjou aligned with the Orleanist faction in opposition to Burgundian faction.

1413 Yolande took Charles, her prospective son-in-law, to her Court in Angers.

1417 Yolande was widowed 29 April.

1419 On 29 June, Yolande gained an audience with Charles VI and prevailed upon him to sign the decree making his son 'Lieutenant-General of the Kingdom' and gave the reason that Charles was the 'son of the king', and the monarch's acknowledgment of him as his son and rightful heir. The act removed Isabeau from any claim to be Regent. Yolande retired to Provence.

1423 Yolande returned from Provence. She initiated the first of a few short-lived treaties with Brittany.

1424-1427 Yolande presided over the Estates-General. Yolande again obtained a treaty with the Duke of Brittany and enlisted the Duke's brother, Arthur de Richemont to support the Valois cause.

1427 The English Regent in France, John, Duke of Bedford, moved to take the Duchy of Anjou for himself. Yolande responded with a series of Valois Court appointments and marriage agreements among various noble houses that frustrated English and Burgundian initiatives, and sustained the threatened Valois crown until more dramatic reversal could be established. Discord between la Trémoille, a key advisor to Charles VII, and the Constable Richemont led to Richemont beng banished from the Valois Court.

1429 Yolande was placed in charge of one of the examinations of Joan of Arc, whom the Duchess strongly supported. Yolande arranged for financing 'Jeanne d'Arc's army' that went to relieve Orléans.

1431 Yolande resided at Saumur, where Charles VII met with his Assembly. Yolande's youngest daughter, Yolande, married the Hereditary Prince of Brittany. Yolande's son René inherited the Duchy of Lorraine, but was made prisoner at the Battle of Bulgnéville on June 30, 1431.

1433 Richemont overthrew La Trémoïlle. Yolande's youngest son, Charles, Comte de Le Maine, assumed the position as chief advisor to Charles VII.

1434 Yolande's son, Louis III d'Anjou, died, and René became Duc d'Anjou, as well as Heir to the titular claim to Sicily.

1437 René was released from a Burgundian prison for a substantial ransom. He went to Italy in 1438 and engaged in a war against Alfonso V of Aragon for the disputed title to the Kingdom of Naples. René was forced to abandon Naples in the summer of 1442. Soon afterward, Yolande died.