The young English princes having been murdered by their uncle, Richard III., the Vicomte de Rohan wanted to marry the two princesses to his two sons; other suitors also presented themselves, of whom the one specially detested by Anne was Alain, Comte d’Albret, brother of her governess, the Dame de Laval. He was a widower of forty-five, rough, ugly, disagreeable, ill-tempered, and the father of eight legitimate and four illegitimate children. A more preposterous husband for the young princess could not have been thought of; notwithstanding which, the Dame de Laval used all her influence in his favour. But her persuasions were useless. Anne could not bear the sight of him, and would not listen. Besides her personal dislike to him, she said his position was far beneath her. She wanted to marry a King, or the son of a King, not a mere Breton noble who was her father’s subject and would be her own.
There was, however, a strong party who, desiring that their future duchess should marry a Breton and stay in her own country, supported the pretensions of Albret, and so harassed the Duke, her father, that in order to gain allies and help in his difficulties, he consented to this monstrous sacrifice, and desired her to accept him. Anne resisted, but she was then a child of eleven or twelve years of age, and when her father, whom she loved, used reproaches, commands, entreaties, and assured her that the marriage was necessary to the welfare of the country she adored, he succeeded in wringing a reluctant consent from her.
But shortly afterwards he was beaten by the French at St. Aubin, and after signing a treaty giving up Dol, St. Malo, and other important towns, and promising not to marry either of his daughters without permission of Charles VIII., he fell ill and died in September, 1488.
The Princess Anne, now Duchess de Bretagne, was not quite thirteen years old, but in capacity and character far beyond her age. She was well educated, understood Latin and Greek, and wrote very good letters. One to Maximilian of Austria, with an account of the war, the troubles in Bretagne, and the battle of St. Aubin is quoted as a surprising production for one so young. But Anne was full of talent and high spirit, her faults and good qualities were those of a noble nature. Brave, proud, impetuous, imperious, passionately attached to her own country, loving her friends and hating her enemies with all her heart, always to be relied on, yielding only to the commands of the Church, or the good of her own Bretagne, a woman to be loved, admired, sometimes feared, but never despised or distrusted.