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The last male line descendant of le Bon Roi René, died in Nancy in 1473, of suspected poisoning by his cousin, the king of France. With Nicolas I, duke of Lorraine dead, the house of Valois-Anjou was effectively extinct, since the primary heir of the Angevin 'empire' was the childless, Charles, Comte du Maine. Nicolas' aunt, Yolande (René's eldest daughter) inherited the duchies of Lorraine and Bar, as well as his claims to the Neapolitan/Jerusalemnite/Cypriot throne. Du Maine, as Charles IV, duc d'Anjou, inherited the dukedom of Anjou, the Countship of Provence and Forcalquier and the other French fiefs of the Angevins, but died childless in 1481, with the entirety of the Angevin dominions (Anjou, Provence, Maine etc) in France passing back to the French crown.

But what if Nicolas had lived? There had been marital plans for him with either Anne de Beaujeu, elder daughter of Louis XI, or with Marie, heiress to the vast collection of duchies/countships known as Burgundy. He himself was an heir in his own right, since he already possessed the duchy of Lorraine through his paternal grandmother, the heirdom to the kingdom of Aragon (both through René's mother and his father's election as king) and if he had lived a bit longer, he would've inherited his grandfather's domains of Anjou and his claim to the Neapolitan/Jerusalemnite/Cypriot throne.

So, say he recovers from the illness that killed him, marries and has a few kids of his own to see the house of Valois-Anjou outlast the century, how does this change the future?
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