A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Amboise
AMBOISE,
Frances d', daughter of Louis d'Amboise, is celebrated for the Improvement she introduced in the manners and sentiments of the Bretons. She was wife of Peter the Second, duke of Brittany, whose great inhumanity to her she bore with Christian resignation, and which she opposed with a gentleness and moderation that gradually gained his affection and confidence.
She rendered moderation and temperance fashionable, not only at court, but throughout the city of Rennes, where she resided; and when the duke, desirous of profiting by this economy, proposed laying impost upon the people, the duchess persuaded him against it. She used all her influence over her husband for the good of the public, and the advancement of religion.
When Peter was seized with his last illness, his disorder, not being understood by the physicians, was ascribed to magic, and it was proposed to seek a necromancer to counteract the spell under which he suffered but the good sense of the duchess led her to reject this expedient. Her husband died October, 1467. His successor treated her with indignity, and her father wished her to marry the prince of Savoy, in order to obtain a protector. But the duchess determined to devote herself to the memory of her husband, and when M. d'Amboise attempted to force her to yield to his wishes, she took refuge in the convent des Trots Maries, near Vannes, where she assumed the Carmelite habit. She died October 4th., 1485.