17 two-year old Duke of Orléan. She married him in 1476, at the castle of Montrichard, thus receiving the title of the Duchess of Orléan. After the death of Joan’s brother, Charles VIII, in April of 1498, her husband succeeded to the French throne as Louis XII and Joan became the Queen. Shortly afterwards, her husband asked the Apostolic See for an annulment of their marriage for political reasons, which was granted. After the annulment of their marriage and Joan’s loss of queenship in 1498, her former husband granted her the title of the Duchess of Berry. She never held any grudge against him: Instead, she prayed for him until the end of her life. Free from her spousal duties, she gave herself to prayer and works of mercy. In her childhood Joan had a vision, in which the Blessed Mother allegedly announced to her that she would found a religious community in her honor. With the help from her spiritual director, Blessed Gabriel Maria, the Duchess of Berry and eleven other women started a contemplative order of the Virgin Mary. It was also known as the Order of the Ten Virtues or Ten Pleasures of the Mother of God, the Order of Annunciation of the B.V.M. or the Annunciade. The Blessed Virgin Mary was to be the model for the nuns, while the virtues that she practiced — which are mentioned in the Gospels — became their rule of life. Thus The Rule of the
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