A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Valentine
VALENTINE,
Of Milan, daughter of John Galeas, Duke of Milan, and of Isabelle, the youngest of the ten children of John the Second of France, married, in 1389, Louis, Duke of Orleans, brother of Charles the Sixth of France. She was a beautiful and accomplished woman, and appears, in the midst of that disastrous epoch in French history, like an angel of goodness and beauty. The first few years that "Valentine passed in France, were spent in the midst of festivals, and all kinds of amusements. Although her husband was unfaithful to her, he surrounded her with all splendour and luxury suited to her rank and station. She occupied herself principally in taking care of her children, and in literary pursuits, for which she, as well as her husband, had a decided taste.
The insanity of her brother-in-law, Charles the Sixth, affected Valentine deeply, and she exerted herself to the utmost to calm his paroxysms, and console him for the negligence of his wife. Charles, in his turn, became very much attached to her; he called her his well-beloved sister, went every day to see her, and in the midst of his ravings could always be controlled by her. Her power over the unhappy monarch seemed to the ignorant populace so supernatural, that she was accused of using sorcery, and, to prevent disagreeable consequences, her husband sent her, in 1396, to the duchy of Orleans.
This exile, so painful to Valentine, terminated in 1398, when she was recalled to Paris; after this time she lived principally at Blois, superintending the education of her sons, till the death of Louis d'Orleans, who was assassinated by the Duke of Burgundy, in 1407. Unable to avenge his death, she died of a broken heart, in 1408, aged thirty-eight, recommending to her children, and to John, Count of Dunois, the natural son of her husband, the vindication of their father's reputation and glory.