Unlike his predecessors, who had rarely stayed long in Anjou, Rene from 1443 onwards paid long visits to it, and his court at Angers became one of the most brilliant in the kingdom of France. But after the sudden death of his son John in December 1470, Rene, for reasons which are not altogether clear, decided to move his residence to Provence and leave Anjou for good. After making an inventory of all his possessions, he left the duchy in October 1471, taking with him the most valuable of his treasures. On the 22nd of July 1474 he drew up a will by which he divided the succession between his grandson Rene II. of Lorraine and his nephew Charles II., count of Maine. On hearing this, King Louis XI., who was the son of one of King Rene's sisters, seeing that his expectations were thus completely frustrated, seized the duchy of Anjou. He did not keep it very long, but became reconciled to Rene in 1476 and restored it to him, on condition, probably, that Rene should bequeath it to him. However that may be, on the death of the latter (10th of July 1480) he again added Anjou to the royal domain.
Later, King Francis I. again gave the duchy as an appanage to his mother, Louise of Savoy, by letters patent of the 4th of February 1515. On her death, in September 1531, the duchy returned into the king's possession. In 1552 it was given as an appanage by Henry II. to his son Henry of Valois, who, on becoming king in 1574, with the title of Henry III., conceded it to his brother Francis, duke of Alençon, at the treaty of Beaulieu near Loches (6th of May 1576). Francis died on the 10th of June 1584, and the vacant appanage definitively became part of the royal domain.
At first Anjou was included in the gouvernement (or military command) of Orleanais, but in the 17th century was made into a separate one. Saumur, however, and the Saumurois, for which King Henry IV. had in 1589 created an independent military governor-generalship in favour of Duplessis-Mornay, continued till the Revolution to form a separate gouvernement, which included, besides Anjou, portions of Poitou and Mirebalais. Attached to the generalite (administrative circumscription) of Tours, Anjou on the eve of the Revolution comprised five elections (judicial districts): - Angers, Beauge, Saumur, ChâteauGontier, Montreuil-Bellay and part of the elections of La Fleche and Richelieu. Financially it formed part of the so-called pays de grande gabelle (see Gabelle), and comprised sixteen special tribunals, or greniers a sel (salt warehouses): - Angers, Beauge, Beaufort, Bourgueil, Cande, Château-Gontier, Cholet, Craon, La Fleche, Saint-Florent-le-Vieil, Ingrandes, Le Lude, Pouance, Saint-Remy-la-Varenne, Richelieu, Saumur. From the point of view of purely judicial administration, Anjou was subject to the parlement of Paris; Angers was the seat of a presidial court, of which the jurisdiction comprised the senechaussees of Angers, Saumur, Beauge, Beaufort and the duchy of Richelieu; there were besides presidial courts at Château-Gontier and La Fleche. When the Constituent Assembly, on the 26th of February 1790, decreed the division of France into departments, Anjou and the Saumurois,with the exception of certain territories, formed the department of Maine-et-Loire, as at present constituted.
Continued on page six.
This article is from the 1911 edition of an encyclopedia, which is out of copyright here in the U.S. See the encyclopedia main page for disclaimer and copyright information.
