Joan of Valois (1464–1505)

Biography

That is why they considered Juana's birth as a setback, and when it was seen that the girl was deformed - hunchbacked and somewhat lame -, the monarch preferred to forget about her existence and at the age of five she was sent away from the court. Her father wanted to use her as an instrument of marital policy by making her marry the Duke of Orleans, much to the dismay of her boyfriend who always showed an unalterable disdain for such a physically unattractive woman. This duke later participated in a rebellion against the king. The new King Charles VIII, Catherine's brother, activated procedures to annul that marriage, which seems to have never been consummated, so Joan became simply the Duchess of Berry. He retired to Bourges where he founded the order of the Annunciation, whose purpose is a life of piety in imitation of the Virgin and helping the needy. This saint went from humiliation to humiliation and learned to only look at herself in the mirror of the Virgin's beauty, in which she must shine without anyone around her noticing.