Anne, Countess of Auvergne

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Anne, Countess of Auvergne, also known as Anne de la Tour d'Auvergne, was a 16th century ruler of feudal county of Auvergne (1501-24) and duchess-consort of Albany in Scotland.

She was born as the elder daughter and eventually heiress of John III, Count of Auvergne (died 1501), from his marriage with Jeanne de Bourbon-Vendôme. Her maternal grandparents were Jean II, Count of Vendôme and Isabelle, Dame de la Roche-sur-Yon. She was an older sister of Madeleine de la Tour d'Auvergne.

She was married, 1505, to her first cousin John Stewart, 2nd Duke of Albany, the intermittent heir presumptive to the throne of the Kingdom of Scotland, and its sometime Regent, who lived in France as sort of exile. They had one daughter, Anne de LaTour, (1513-????), who married Francis II of la Tour d'Auvergne, Viscount de Turenne, (1497-1532). Their grandson was Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne (1555-1623)

A manuscript detailing her inheritance, with pictures of her castles, and her descent from the legendary Belle Moree survives in the Royal Library of the Hague (see link http://collecties.meermanno.nl/handschriften/showmanu?id=3351 )

Anne died in 1524, leaving her inheritance (Auvergne) to her infant niece, donna Caterina dei Medici of Urbino (born 1519), daughter of her late younger sister Madeleine and Lorenzo II, Duke of Urbino. Catherine, thus countess of Auvergne, afterwards married Henri, Duke of Orleans, and by his accession to the French throne as Henri II, became Queen Catherine of France.