It’s easy to get frustrated when you try to learn more about women in power. They are so often only referenced in relation to men. Cleopatra only shows up in the historical record when she’s interacting with Julius Caesar or Marc Antony. My favorite Eleanor of Aquitaine book is just as much about Henry II as it is her because, again, it’s 1,000 years later, but she still only shows up in the record when there’s a man involved.
And these are the royal women.
Louise of Savoy came across my radar in an aside about Francis I needing to be ransomed. She took care of the French side of the negotiations, negotiating with Margaret of Austria, for the Holy Roman Empire. The Treaty of Cambrai, known as “The Ladies’ Peace” was the result.
I had heard about Francis I in many a high school French class. But never about her. So who was she? How did she get into this position?
In short: she was born to it. She was Francis I’s mother and was his regent when he was named the Count of Angoulême when he was only 18 months old and she was 19. Louise’s husband had died of pneumonia.
But she was also positioned for it. The article Louise of Savoy: A Case of Maternal Opportunism describes a woman whose family cared deeply about power and politics. She was no different. Her letters and diary show that she was involved (maybe too involved – there are shades of modern helicopter parenting) in raising both of her children, Margaret of Navarre and Francis I. Her parents worked to maneuver her into a high-status marriage, and she worked to get Francis to be the heir to the childless king of France.
The reason that she was able to negotiate Francis’ release when he was captured in war was because she was raised with Margaret of Austria – they were brought up in the same household. Ergo, they were known to each other and probably had some sort of rapport.
Honestly, if she’d been a man, she’d have worked her butt off to position herself as the next king. Instead, she and her family positioned her well. She was sent to live with Anne de Beaujeu, a former Queen Regent of France, where she was raised alongside many other noble girls. It’s the equivalent of being sent off to a prestigious boarding school. She gets well educated and networks with other high-born young women.
And she kept up that tradition as she raised Francis: position him well, and then exercise the power that comes her way.
But there hasn’t been a book written about her. You’d be hard pressed to find out much about her, unless you know to go looking for her. And even then, she gets written about in the context of her marriages and relationships with her father, her husband, her son. Not her daughter, not her husband’s mistress, not Anne of France or Margaret of Austria.
It’s a shame, honestly. Women exercised power and got things done. But they rarely take the limelight.