heterogeneous publics, expands and enhances the study of both the French and Italian
national traditions.
Nancy Bradley-Cromey
[See also: BRUNETTO LATINI; CHANSON DE GESTE; FRENCH LANGUAGE;
MARCO POLO]
Baldelli, Ignazio, ed. Glossarietto francese-veneto. Paris: Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, 1961.
Folena, Gianfranco, ed. Storia della cultura veneta. 5 vols. Vicenza: Neri Pozzi, 1976, Vol. 2: Il
Trecento.
Limentani, Alberto, et al., eds. Essor et fortune de la chanson de geste dans l’Europe et l’Orient
latin. Actes du IXe Congrès International de la Société Rencesvals pour l’Étude des Épopées
Romanes, Padoue-Venise 29 août-4 septembre 1982. Modena: Mucchi, 1982, vol. 2, part 4:
“Littérature franco-italienne et italienne. Littérature française en Orient Latin, 585–807.” [Series
of articles on aspects of Franco-Italian.]
Viscardi, Antonio. Letteratura franco-italiana: testi e manuali. Modena: n.p., 1941.
FRANÇOIS II
(1435–1488). François II, son of Jean IV’s fourth son, succeeded his uncle, Arthur III, as
duke of Brittany in 1458. Largely brought up at the court of King Charles VII, he played
a modest role in the expulsion of the English from France but was not by choice a soldier,
nor did he exhibit outstanding gifts in any other direction.
The poet Jean Meschinot (d. 1491), who served in his household, described the ducal
court as a “storm-tossed sea where shipwreck frequently occurred.” From the beginning
of his reign, although he adopted the independent stance characteristic of the house of
Montfort in its relations with France, policy seems to have been made by stronger figures
who often manipulated the duke.
Among his advisers, there were always discontented refugees from the wrath of Louis
XI. These men exercised great influence. Some, like Tanguy du Chastel (d. 1477), were
Bretons who had also made careers in royal service. Others, like Jean, count of Dunois,
and his son François, Odet d’Aydie, or Jean de Chalon, were strangers. Two major
Breton figures provided continuity: Guillaume Chauvin, chancellor 1459–81, who tried to
avoid direct confrontation with the French, and Pierre Landois, treasurer 1460–85, who
advocated a more aggressive policy and, on occasion, alliance with England.
Increasingly, it was Landois, through his control of the purse strings and ruthless
promotion of his family and clients, who came to exercise the most influence. In 1481,
his feud with Chauvin came to a head with the arrest of the chancellor, who died in jail in
- However, in July 1485 a baronial clique, in league with the French, seized Landois
in the duke’s presence and hurriedly arranged his execution, for which François later
pardoned them.
These faction-ridden last years of his reign were increasingly dominated by the
question of his succession and fear of France. The duke’s first wife and their young son
had died by 1469, and in 1471 François took a second wife, Marguerite, daughter of the
count of Foix. She bore him two daughters, Anne and Isabelle, in 1477 and 1478. But by
the first Treaty of Guérande (1365), in the absence of a legitimate male heir, succession
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