Chronicles of the House of Valois

Chronicles of the House of Valois follows Anne of Brittany and the royal women whose marriages, inheritances and children shaped the French crown at the turn of the sixteenth century. Beginning with Anne’s inheritance of Brittany in 1488, the sequence moves through war with France, her marriage to Charles VIII and the continuing struggle to preserve Breton rights within the Valois monarchy.

Later novels shift to succession and guardianship as Louise of Savoy, Claude of France, Renée of France and Michelle de Saubonne compete to protect children, property and political influence. Across the sequence, Morgan treats marriage and motherhood as matters of state, showing how women worked within—and sometimes against—the dynastic systems that restricted their formal power.