duke of Bourbon (from 1488) and seigneur de Beaujeu (from 1474).

Louis XI of France espoused his eldest daughter, Anne Of France (q.v.), to Pierre de Beaujeu in 1474 and, on his deathbed, entrusted to Pierre the charge of his 13-year-old son, Charles VIII. Thus, from 1483 to the end of 1491, Beaujeu and Anne were to exercise a virtual regency in France. Faced with the reaction of all who had suffered from Louis XI's callous oppressions, the Beaujeus managed to promote the King's authority by adroit concessions or, when these failed, by military action—for example, at the meeting of the States General at Tours (1484) and in the “Mad War” and subsequent Breton campaigns. Moreover, in 1491, despite Austrian and English opposition, they concluded the marriage of Charles VIII with Anne of Brittany. But when Charles freed himself from tutelage, his former guardians were exposed to the resentment of the new queen, whose duchy's independence had been compromised.