THE JOURNEY TO NANCY--THE ITINERARY OF VAUCOULEURS--TO SAINTE-CATHERINE-DE-FIERBOIS By giving his eldest daughter, Isabelle, the heiress of Lorraine, in marriage to Rene, the second son of Madame Yolande, Queen of Sicily and of Jerusalem, and Duchess of Anjou,[423] Duke Charles II of Lorraine, who was in alliance with the English, had recently done his cousin and friend, the Duke of Burgundy, a bad turn.

Rene of Anjou, now in his twentieth year, was a man of culture as much in love with sound learning as with chivalry, and withal kind, affable, and gracious.

When not engaged in some military expedition and in wielding the lance he delighted to illuminate manuscripts.

He had a taste for flower-decked gardens and stories in tapestry; and like his fair cousin the Duke of Orleans he wrote poems in French.[424] Invested with the duchy of Bar by the Cardinal Duke of Bar, his great-uncle, he would inherit the duchy of Lorraine after the death of Duke Charles which could not be far off.

This marriage was rightly regarded as a clever stroke on the part of Madame Yolande.