ALFONSO THE MAGNANIMOCS AND THE FALL OF ANJOUclaimants to a crown whose grand titles were no more than
an empty fac;ade.
RENE OF ANJOURene of Anjou is one of those figures whose political import-
ance lies not so much in what he achieved as in what he
failed to achieve. His significance lies too in a formidably
positive reputation going back at least to the sixteenth cen-
tury, and still perpetuated by those seeking to promote inter-
est in the chateaux of the Loire or of the lower Rhone, where
le bon roi Rene has become the symbol of chivalry, bonhomie,
splendid display and moral rectitude.^3 His impact in the
cultural sphere, both as a capable author and as a patron of
the arts, has to be set against a political career which brought
him the promise of the crown first of Naples and later of
Aragon, as well as strategic territorie) delicately situated on
the eastern edge of France. His pohtical sensibilities were
built on a code of honour which had little appeal to those
Italians he sought to bring under his control or influence;
arguably he was no match for the brilliant scheming of the
Sforzas or the Aragonese kings of Naples. His fundamental
political principle was the vindication of the ancient rights
of the house of Anjou in the Mediterranean; but the frame-
work within which he worked was that of an Arthurian hero.
His rivals, Alfonso of Aragon and his heir Ferrante, had a
keener understanding of how to create successful and lasting
political relationships within the Italian peninsula.
Rene had no great reason to expect a throne. He was
born in 1409, but an elder brother, the future Louis III of
Anjou, stood to inherit the duchy of Anjou and county of
Provence as well as the claim to southern Italy that Louis I
and II had already, after endless labour, failed to make real.
Rene's mother, Yolande of Aragon, was in the long term to
supply him with a claim to succeed to the Spanish lands
'usurped' by the house of Trastamara after the Compromise
- Typical examples of the romantic genre of biography are J. Levron, Le
bon roi Rene (Paris, 1972), and M. Miquel, Quand le bon roi Rene etait en
Provence (1447-1480) (Paris, 1979). The authoritative history of the
reign remains that of A. Lecoy de Ia Marche, Le roi Rene, 2 vols (Paris,
1875), but it is thin on his Italian campaigns.