In December 1491, a small boat quietly approached the pier in the French town of Langes at dawn, and Anne of Brittany, who was only fourteen years old at the time, disembarked from the ship, and as we have already known, King Charles VIII of France had taken her all the way to the castle of Nantes in Brittany, and forcibly took possession of her while informing her of the nullity of her previous marriage to Maximilian I of the Holy Roman Empire.

She was almost a child at that time, shivering in the cold winter wind, Charles VIII did not even prepare a dress for her, she married Charles VIII in a wedding dress presented by Maximilian I, and the wedding night was also a tragic tragedy - Charles VIII was twenty years old at the time, for a young monarch of the Middle Ages, this age had already been battle-hardened, and Anne had never been able to have sex with Maximilian I at all—in order to prove the validity of the marriage contract, under the watchful eye of three witnesses, It is unknown whether Charles VIII scored an octave, but the memory left to Anne is nothing more than blood and pain.

In 1498 she was faced with the proposal of another French king, but unlike the last time, she had been queen of France for six years, and had been courted in the noble capacity of the king's widow, so after nearly a year of lengthy negotiations, she made three demands on the agreement: first, that the formal wedding must take place at the Château de Nantes in Brittany, and not at the Château de Langes, where she was humiliated, or in any castle in France; 2. To retain her titles and titles of Duchess of Brittany, Countess of Nantes, and Marquises of Limoges; 3. Allow the autonomy of Brittany.

After thinking about it for a long time, Louis XII agreed, such as as as Anne's request for more power, as well as an annuity of 200,000 livres and other small demands, all of which were also met - it can be said that Brittany saw the timing of the blackmail, and at the critical moment when he was about to send troops to Milan and Naples, Louis XII had to ensure the stability and stability of France, and did not have time and energy to worry too much.

After the agreement was finalized (the day before the wedding ceremony), Louis XII returned to Blois, after which he had to go to Lyon to recruit troops, and his letters to Anne were full of sweet words, promises, apologies, and precious gifts. But really, his ex-wife, in order to prove the validity of his marriage to him, had to abandon her dignity and calmness, and went around shouting about her bed affair with the Duke of Orleans (the former title of Louis XII), making herself like a prodigal shrew but in vain Jeanne of France, whose terrible cry as she was dragged to the convent still echoed in people's ears.

These promises can only be seen as a joke.

Louis XII did not even dare to stay. The Château de Nantes was built by François II, Archduke of Brittany, the father of Duchess Anne, to defend against French invasions. Charles VIII once captured this place and plundered their duchess, a humiliation that all Bretons would never erase in their lifetime. For the French, every Breton here is an enemy.

But for the Duchess of Brittany, and Madame Kindness, it was their home, their fortress and their safe haven.

————————

The Duke's Palace of Brittany is located in the depths of the castle, and unlike the granite masonry towers and parapets, this building is exquisitely constructed and richly decorated, with pure white walls and sapphire blue ridges that create a strong color contrast.

Thus the changing light poured into the room of the Duchess of Brittany, illuminating the flats hooked on the toes, the arched instep, the bony ankles, until the wide light silk lingerie slipped down the knees and obscured them—the light continued to move upward, the silky belly rose and fell calmly and regularly under the warm cloth, and a pair of palms that were too wide for a woman covered it, as if feeling the heat of the 98th house of the child (the witch had only applied it with ointment to help the birth of a child before), After a while, they left again, a thin silk cord that was neatly wound around the waist from the chest down, just as the ladies of ancient Greece once did.

Cardinal Lovere's blonde brown hair, once admired by Cardinal Lovere, was twisted and coiled, and each strand was held in place with a small silver comb, a style that only Madame Goodheart could braid with her dexterous hands, and no one but her—she took the duchess's face and made her look into the light, applied her skin oils made of beeswax, olive oil and rose water, and rubbed rouge on her cheeks and the corners of her eyes, making her already fair skin even more beautiful— The light that had been on her arm had somehow moved to the Duchess's lips, which had been thin and cold, but after a gentle bite, they had become plump and moist, and the saliva that remained on them seemed to have been gilded in the sunlight.

"You're so beautiful." Madame Kindness said that she had brought a dark purple velvet tunic embroidered with the coat of arms of the Duchy of Brittany, a golden mink, over her long undergarment, and a cream-white muslin over the duchess's hair, and she had tied her with a golden headband.

Hanging around the neck is a string of gold rosaries, hollow inside, filled with fragrant spices.

The Duchess of Brittany knelt before the icon and prayed, and although the child was not born under due witness, she still hoped that he would come and be healthy.

After praying, she walked to the guest's bedroom, where the remaining light was reluctantly fading, leaving only a faint shadow on the wall, and the moment she stepped into the room, the light was gone.

She reached out and was immediately held by another pair of strong hands.

Anne thought she would be terrified, or at least unwell, by the unbearable memories of the past, but no, the man she had chosen led her to the bedside, sat down with her, and after hesitating—or giving her time to give up or change her mind at last, his hand fell lightly on her coiled hair, a pair of hands that were in no way inferior to the Good Lady in their dexterity, and Anne did not even notice how he moved, the golden headband was removed, and then the spulle slipped down, and it brushed the tip of Anne's nose, And lips—after another brief silence, Anne's lips were slightly hot, and his lips were so soft, Anne thought as she reached out and placed her hand on Julio. On the shoulders of the Medici, then there was a more tender and intimate contact that Anne had never comprehended, and the tips of their tongues looked at each other's homes, deeper and deeper, more and more lingering, like a bird poking its head out, drawing honey from the curled petals, and the stamens oozed so much that it overflowed.

Julio's hand pressed against the silver comb that held his hair in place, and with almost no force, the silver comb was withdrawn, and the hair held by it fell to his arm like milk fat that had lost its container, and fell to his arm with the sweet smell of frankincense—he pulled out all the combs, and was immediately shrouded in darkness by the fine net of warmth.

Anne leaned forward, leaning meekly against the side of his neck, her breath making the little patch of skin hot and moist—her fingers inserting into Giulio's tunic — he had never been wearing a vestment, a coat common to young Florentine men, with many small round buttons, and she grumbled (though she couldn't understand it herself) as she quickly untied them one by one, like peeling a seeded pomegranate.

After unbuttoning all the buttons, her hands were inserted into the inside of her coat, and Giulio's body was so hot compared to her cold fingers that the duchess enjoyed it guiltily for a while before she pushed it outward, backwards, and removed it from her master. Then she temporarily distanced the two of them and pulled her velvet coat up from above.

Then they kissed again, longer than the last, their arms intertwined, and after a while, the last barrier was gone, their chests pressed against their chests, their hearts separated only by their muscles and skin, they beat violently, as if they could collide together, and as their ears grinded, they could hear the blood rushing violently in their veins.

They hugged each other tightly until they felt pain, as if they were saving another person, as if they were asking for help from another person—but at other times, they were like a hot swamp, engulfing each other deeply, leaving nothing behind.

Their fingers plunge deep into each other's skin, leaving marks on it, and for a moment, soothing the burning skin with their lips like the wind blowing through a rose, or imprinting deeper marks on it with their teeth, sometimes both.

Sometimes they could hear the roaring of the Blois, sometimes their ears were filled with the cooing of the night owls, and occasionally they could hear the soft and ethereal music, and they could hardly discern it, and even smile hard, and they spent the day in a deep sleep and the night in revelry.

———— until many days later.

Julio. The Medici spent seven days at the Château de Nantes, from November 14 to November 21, as Anne, Duchess of Brittany expected. By the end of November, the clean cotton cloth that Madame Kindness had prepared for Anne was not used, and they waited patiently until the end of December, when Madame Kindness observed the Duchess's urine, and soaked wheat and barley in the urine—the urine was white and clear, and the first to sprout was barley, indicating that she was not only pregnant, but also a son.

On January 6, 1499, King Louis XII of France and the Duchess of Brittany completed the final marriage ceremony at the Château de Nantes.