THE WESTERN MEDITERRA.NEAN KINGDOMS 1200-l!'iOOThe later career of Rene and Jean reveals a continuing
restlessness. Rene married his daughter Margaret to the Eng-
lish king, Henry VI, amid hopes of sealing a peace between
France and England; he remained loyal to King Louis XI
when the new king faced internal opposition within France.
Attractive, all the same, was the offer that reached Rene in
1466 of the title to Aragon and Catalonia. Louis XI had taken
advantage of the revolt of the Catalans against John II to
seize Roussillon and Cerdagne, though he expressed him-
self ready to accept a ransom for their return to the king of
Aragon. Louis could hardly object if the Catalans also iden-
tified in Rene, as the son of Yolande, a princess of the defunct
house of Barcelona, a possible replacement for the ruler they
now rejected, who was in any case a member of the 'foreign'
house of Trastamara, of Castilian descent. Rene accepted
the Catalan offer with aplomb, adding the gold and scarlet
bands of Catalonia to his already elaborate escutcheon.
Renatus dei gratia Rex Aragonie Hierusalem Sicilia citra et ultra
Farum Valencie i!Iaioricarum Sardinie et Corsice Dux Andegavie
et Barre Comes Barchinone Provincie Forcalquerii ac Pedemontis
etcetera: he laid claim from 1466 to all the Aragonese territ-
ories, including the Italian islands and the Balearics (which
had even earlier been summoned out of thin air to act as
part of a planned, and highly fantastic, dowry for his daughter
Margaret) _Y Jean de Calabre scored impressive successes on
his father's behalf, and was installed in Barcelona itself when,
at the end of 14 70, he suddenly died; short of resources, the
Angevins had been chased out of Spain by the end of^14 71.
Rene offers an instructive contrast to the Aragonese kings
of Naples in the character of his patronage. The Proven\=al
court of Louis I and II had acted as points of contact with
the culture of early Renaissance Italy, though by the time of
Rene, contact with Italian culture was primarily expressed in
the presence at his court of Italian exiles such as Roberto
di Sanseverino.^10 The set of values that predominated were
those of what might be termed 'late Gothic culture': an
- A good number of Rene's kingdoms and duchies are portrayed
heraldically on the coat of arms of the Cambridge college his daugh-
ter helped found, Queens'; on heraldic devices at Rene's court, see
C. de McTindol, l,esfrtes de rhevalnie ri /a mur du roi Rene (Paris, 1993). - A. Coville, La vie inte/{ertue/le dans fes domaines rl:4.njou-Provence de^1380
ri 14 3 5 (Paris, 1941).