ANNE OF FRANCE (1460-1522), dame de Beaujeu, was the eldest daughter of
Louis XI. and Charlotte of Savoy. Louis XI. betrothed her at first to
Nicholas of Anjou, and afterwards offered her hand successively to
Charles the Bold, to the duke of Brittany, and even to his own brother,
Charles of France. Finally she married Pierre de Beaujeu, a younger
brother of the duke of Bourbon. Before his death Louis XI. entrusted to
Pierre de Beaujeu and Anne the entire charge of his son, Charles VIII.,
a lad of thirteen; and from 1483 to 1492 the Beaujeus exercised a
virtual regency. Anne was a true daughter of Louis XI. Energetic,
obstinate, cunning and unscrupulous, she inherited, too, her father's
avarice and rapacity. Although they made some concessions, the Beaujeus
succeeded in maintaining the results of the previous reign, and in
triumphing over the feudal intrigues and coalitions, as was seen from
the meeting of the estates general in 1484, and the results of the "Mad
War" (1485) and the war with Brittany (1488); and in spite of the
efforts of Maximilian of Austria they concluded the marriage of Charles
VIII. and Anne, duchess of Brittany (1491). But a short time afterwards
the king disengaged himself completely from their tutelage, to the great
detriment of the kingdom. In 1488 Pierre de Beaujeu had succeeded to the
Bourbonnais, the last great fief of France. He died in 1503, but Anne
survived him twenty years. From her establishments at Moulins and
Chantelle in the Bourbonnais she continued henceforth vigorously to
defend the Bourbon cause against the royal family. Anne's only daughter,
Suzanne, had married in 1505 her cousin, Charles of Bourbon, count of
Montpensier, the future constable; and the question of the succession of
Suzanne, who died in 1521, was the determining factor of the treason of
the constable de Bourbon (1523). Anne had died some months before, on
the 14th of November 1522.

See P. Pelicier, _Essai sur le gouvernement de la Dame de Beaujeu_
(Chartres, 1882). (J. I.)

ANNEALING, HARDENING AND TEMPERING. Annealing (from the prefix _an_, and
the old English _aelan_, to burn or bake; the meaning has probably also
been modified from the French _nieler_, to enamel black on gold or
silver, from the med. Lat. _nigellare_, to make black; cf. _niello_) is
a process of treating a metal or alloy by heat with the object of
imparting to it a certain condition of ductility, extensibility, or a
cert