It was far the best way out of this disastrous state of things. Charles was politically her enemy, but she had no personal dislike to him, he was a suitable age and a splendid match, besides which it was evident that she must either accept him or lose Bretagne altogether. And whether it would be better for her or Bretagne that she should be a landless fugitive or Queen of France was a question about which there was no doubt whatever in the minds of any of the sensible people who surrounded her. Her cousin, the Prince of Orange, her guardian, the Maréchal de Rieux, her Chancellor, Montauban, and her governess, Madame de Laval, all told her the same thing, and tried to persuade her to consent to this marriage. The Duc d’Orléans, who had been released by the intercession of his wife; and the Comte de Dunois, added their entreaties, and Anne at last began to hesitate. Then Madame de Laval told her confessor and begged him to speak to her. He accordingly assured her that it was required of her by God and the Church to make this sacrifice for the good of her country and the restoration of peace. Anne yielded to the only authority she recognised and consented to an interview with the King.
Charles therefore went, on pretence of a pilgrimage to the chapel of Notre Dame which was at the gate of Rennes. After his devotions were finished, he suddenly entered the town accompanied by the Princess Anne de Beaujeu, and an armed escort. The next day he presented himself at the palace of the Duchess. They had a long private audience in which Charles seems to have succeeded in overcoming any dislike Anne may have had for him, as they were betrothed to each other three days afterwards in the chapel of Notre Dame.
Two solemn contracts had to be broken for the sake of this marriage, so important both to Bretagne and France. Besides the ceremonial marriage of Anne and Maximilian, his daughter Marguérite had not only been for the last eight years the legal wife of Charles VIII., but had been brought up in France and treated as Dauphine and then as Queen. The marriage, which was of course only a form, had been celebrated at Amboise just before the death of Louis XI., with pomp and ceremony in the presence of the court, the Dauphin being then twelve and the Princess Marguérite three years old.[286]