House of Valois-Orléans in the context of "Louis XII"

Louis XII (27 June 1462 – 1 January 1515), also known as Louis of Orléans, was King of France from 1498 to 1515 and King of Naples (as Louis III) from 1501 to 1504. The son of Charles, Duke of Orléans, and Marie of Cleves, he succeeded his second cousin once removed and brother-in-law, Charles VIII, who died childless in 1498.

Louis was the second cousin of King Louis XI, who compelled him to marry the latter's disabled and supposedly sterile daughter Joan. By doing so, Louis XI hoped to extinguish the Orléans cadet branch of the House of Valois. When Louis XII became king in 1498, he had his marriage with Joan annulled by Pope Alexander VI and instead married Anne, Duchess of Brittany, the widow of Charles VIII. This marriage allowed Louis to reinforce the personal Union of Brittany and France.