Valentina Visconti
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Valentina Visconti (died December 4, 1408) was the wife of Louis de Valois, Duke of Orléans, a younger brother of Charles VI of France.
She was born in Milan and was the daughter of Giangaleazzo Visconti, the first Duke of Milan, and his first wife, Isabelle of Valois (a daughter of John the Good).
She married Louis de Valois in September 1389. Because of intrigues at the court of Charles VI and the enmity of the Queen, Isabeau of Bavaria-Ingolstadt, Valentina was exiled from the court at St Pol and had to leave Paris. There were serious rumours at the time that Isabeau was having an affair with Louis and that Valentina was very close to the King, who was going through a period of madness.
A patroness of Eustache Deschamps, who wrote poetry in her honor, she was also the mother of one of France's most famous poets, Charles of Orleans.
Valentina's husband was murdered by his cousin and political rival John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy in 1407. She outlived him by only a little over a year, dying at Blois at the age of 38.
Her children were:
- Charles, Duke of Orléans (1391-1465), father of King Louis XII of France
- Philip, Count of Vertus (1396-1420)
- John, Count of Angouleme (1400-1467), grandfather of King Francis I of France
- Margaret, Countess of Vertus (1406-1466), married Richard of Brittany, Count of Etampes
- Four boys and two girls who died in childhood
