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- BIOGRAPHY
Antoine was born about 1401, the eldest son of Frédéric V de Lorraine, comte de Vaudémont and Marguerite de Joinville, heiress of Vaudémont and Joinville. On 12 August 1416 he married Marie d'Harcourt, comtesse d'Aumale, daughter of Jean VII, comte d'Harcourt and Marie d'Alençon. Antoine and Marguerite had five children, of whom the eldest Frédéric became his heir. He and two sisters would have progeny. Antoine also had an illegitimate son and daughter both would have progeny.
Antoine was the nephew of Charles I, duc de Lorraine; on the death of Charles, as the heir-male he claimed the inheritance to the duchy. However, René, duc d'Anjou, in a marriage treaty with Isabelle, elder daughter of Charles, was to be heir to the duchy of Lorraine at the death of Charles, which occurred in 1431. A battle ensued and, with Burgundian help, Antoine de Vaudémont defeated René at Bulgneville. The Duchess Isabelle reached a truce with Antoine, but René was held by the Burgundians until 1432, when he recovered his liberty on parole by agreeing to yield up as hostages his two sons Jean and Louis of Anjou. René became René I, duc de Lorraine in 1434. Antoine died on 22 March 1458.
In 1473, the duchy of Lorraine was retroceded to the House of Vaudémont, which was related to the ancient dukes. The grandson of Antoine de Vaudémont, Duke René II, defeated and killed the duke of Burgundy Charles 'the Bold' at the battle of Nancy on 5 January 1477. Charles had attempted to restore the ancient Lotharingia by linking his Burgundian and Flemish possessions.
His country, Grafschaft Wotanberg/Vaudemont, is a fief (originally sub-fief) of the Holy Roman Empire, in midst of the historical Upper Lorraine. In the 1430s count Antoine wins full release of mediate obligations and the country took more of immediate imperial status.
Owner also of Joinville in Champagne (medieval France) south of Bar and near the country's medieval border against the Empire. (Joinville got, little by little, build as stronghold and centre of his direct descendants, the Guise princely dynasty).
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