The daughter of Louis XI, Anne of France (1461-1522) was one of the most powerful women of the fifteenth century. Referred to by her contemporaries as 'Madame la Grande', she controlled the government of France for eight years after the death of her father, guiding the kingdom through a series of crises. While ceding formal power to her brother Charles VIII in 1491, she remained an active and influential figure in France throughout her life.
As the fifteenth century drew to a close, Anne composed a series of 'enseignements', or "lessons", for her daughter Suzanne of Bourbon. These instructions represent a distillation of her lifetime of reading and her own first-hand knowledge of the world; having managed to steer her own course successfully, she offered her daughter advice intended to help her negotiate the difficult passage of a woman in the world of politics Her lessons carefully prepare Suzanne to act both circumspectly and politically; in drawing her portrait of an ideal princess, Anne presents a guidebook on governance for Suzanne, one not altogether unlike Machiavelli's more famous book of advice for a would-be prince, written some fifteen years later.
The lessons are here translated into English for the first time and accompanied by full introduction, commentary and notes.