Rendsburg

RENDSBURG, a town in the Prussian province of Schles wig-Holstein, situated on the Eider and on the Kaiser Wilhelm canal, 20 m. W. of Kiel, on the Altona-Flensburg railway. Pop. (1933) 19,521. Rendsburg came into existence under the shelter of a castle founded by the Danes about the year IIoo and was an object of dispute between the Danish kings and the counts of Holstein. In 1252 it was adjudged to the latter and the town was surrounded with ramparts in 1539. The war of 1848-5o be gan with the capture of Rendsburg by the Holsteiners and it formed the centre of the German operations. In Nov. 1863 the town was occupied by the Saxon troops acting as the executive of the German Confederation, and it was the base of the operations of the Austrians and Prussians against Schleswig in the spring of the following year. Rendsburg was jointly occupied by Austrian and Prussian military until 1866, when it fell to Prussia. It con sists of three parts—the crowded Altstadt, on an island in the Eider; and new towns on the north and south banks of the river. Its importance rests on the commercial facilities afforded by its connection with the North sea and the Baltic through the Kaiser Wilhelm canal, by which transit trade is carried on in grain, tim ber, Swedish iron and coals. The principal products are dyes, iron, artificial manures, machines and tobacco.

RENE I.

(1409-148o), duke of Anjou, of Lorraine and Bar, count of Provence and of Piedmont, king of Naples, Sicily and Jerusalem, was born at Angers on Jan. 16, 1409, the second son of Louis II., king of Sicily, duke of Anjou, count of Provence, and of Yolande of Aragon. By his marriage treaty (1419) with Isabel, elder daughter of Charles II., duke of Lorraine, the comte de Guise, as he then was, became heir to the duchy of Bar, which was claimed as the inheritance of his mother Yolande, and, in right of his wife, heir to the duchy of Lorraine. Rene, then only ten, was to be brought up in Lorraine under the guardianship of Charles II. and Louis, cardinal of Bar, both of whom were at tached to the Burgundian party, but he retained the right to bear the arms of Anjou. When Louis of Bar died in 143o Rene came into sole possession of his duchy, and in the next year, on his father-in-law's death, he succeeded to the duchy of Lorraine. But the inheritance was claimed by the heir-male, Antoine de Vaudemont, who with Burgundian help defeated Rene at Bulgne ville in July 1431. The Duchess Isabel effected a truce with Antoine de Vaudemont, but the duke remained a prisoner of the Burgundians until April 1432, when he recovered his liberty on parole on yielding up as hostages his two sons, Jean and Louis of Anjou. His title as duke of Lorraine was confirmed by his suzerain, the Emperor Sigismund, at Basel in 1434. This pro ceeding roused the anger of the Burgundian duke, Philip the Good, who required him early in the next year to return to his prison, from which he was released two years later on payment of a heavy ransom. He had succeeded to the kingdom of Naples through the deaths of his brother Louis III. and of Jeanne II. de Duras, queen of Naples, the last heir of the earlier dynasty. Louis had been adopted by her in 1431, and she now left her inheritance to Rene. The marriage of Marie de Bourbon, niece of Philip of Burgundy, with John, duke of Calabria, Rene's eldest son, cemented peace between the two princes. After ap

pointing a regency in Bar and Lorraine, he visited his provinces of Anjou and Provence, and in 1438 set sail for Naples, which had been held for him by the Duchess Isabel. In 1441 Alphonso of Aragon laid siege to Naples, which he sacked after a six months' siege. Rene returned to France in the same year, and though he retained the title of king of Naples his effective rule was never recovered. Rene took part in the negotiations with the English at Tours in 1444, and peace was consolidated by the marriage of his younger daughter, Margaret, with Henry VI. at Nancy. Rene now made over the government of Lorraine to John, duke of Calabria, who was, however, only formally installed as duke of Lorraine on the death of Queen Isabel in 1453• Rene had the confidence of Charles VII., and is said to have initiated the reduction of the men-at-arms set on foot by the king, with whose military operations against the English he was closely associated. He entered Rouen with him in November 1449, and was also with him at Formigny and Caen. After his second marriage with Jeanne de Laval, daughter of Guy XIV., count of Laval, and Isabel of Brittany, Rene took a less active part in public affairs, and devoted himself more to artistic and literary pursuits. The fortunes of his house declined in his old age. See ANJOU.

The king of Sicily's fame as an amateur of painting has led to the attribution to him of many old paintings in Anjou and Provence, in many cases simply because they bear his arms. These works are generally in the Flemish style, and were prob ably executed under his patronage and direction, so that he may be said to have formed a school of the fine arts in sculpture, painting, gold work and tapestry. Two of the most famous works formerly attributed to Rene are the triptych, the "Burning Bush," in the cathedral of Aix, showing portraits of Rene and his second wife, Jeanne de Laval, and an illuminated Book of Hours in the Bibliotheque nationale, Paris. The "Burning Bush" was in fact the work of Nicolas Froment, a painter of Avignon. Among the men of letters attached to his court was Antoine de la Sale, whom he made tutor to his son, the duke of Calabria. He en couraged the performance of mystery plays; on the performance of a mystery of the Passion at Saumur in 1462 he remitted four years of taxes to the town, and the representations of the Passion at Angers were carried out under his auspices. He exchanged verses with his kinsman, the poet Charles of Orleans. The best of his poems is the idyl of Regnault and Jeanneton, representing his own courtship of Jeanne de Laval. Le Livre des tournois, a book of ceremonial, and the allegorical romance, Conqueste qu'un chevalier nomme le Cuer d'amour espris feist d'une dame appelee Doulce Mercy, with other works ascribed to him, were perhaps dictated to his secretaries, or at least compiled under his direction. His Oeuvres were published by the comte de Quatrebarbes (4 vols., Paris and Angers, 1845-46). He died on July Io, 1480.

See A. Lecoy de la Marche, Le Roi Rene (2 vols., 1875) ; A. Vallet de Viriville, in the Nouvelle Biographie generale, where there is some account of the mss. of his works; and J. Renouvier, Les Peintres et enlumineurs du roi Rene (Montpellier, 1857).