Page "Margaret of Anjou" Paragraph 3

Margaret was born on 23 March 1430 at Pont-à-Mousson in the Duchy of Lorraine, an imperial fief east of France that was ruled by the cadet branch of the French kings, the House of Valois-Anjou.

Margaret was the second eldest daughter of René of Anjou and Isabella, Duchess of Lorraine.

She had five brothers and four sisters, as well as three half-siblings from her father's relationships with mistresses.

Her father, popularly known as " Good King René " was Duke of Anjou and titular King of Naples, Sicily and Jerusalem ; he has been described as " a man of many crowns but no kingdoms ".

Margaret was baptised at Toul in Lorraine and, in the care of her father's old nurse Theophanie la Magine, she spent her early years at the castle of Tarascon on the River Rhône in southern France and the old royal palace at Capua in Naples.

Her mother took care of her education and may have arranged for her to have lessons with the scholar Antoine de la Sale, who taught her brothers.

In childhood Margaret was known as la petite creature.