Duke of Orleans
Charles II of Orleans
(22 January 1522 ? 9 September 1545) was the third son of
Francis I
and
Claude of France
.
Duke of Orleans
[
edit
]
From his birth until the death of his oldest brother
Francis, Dauphin of France
(Francis I's eldest son), in 1536, Charles was known as the
Duke of Angouleme
.
[1]
After his brother's death, he became Duke of Orleans,
[1]
a title previously held by his surviving brother Henry, who had succeeded Francis as Dauphin and would later become King of France as
Henry II
.
By all accounts, he was the most handsome of Francis I's sons.
Smallpox
made him blind in one eye, but it seems that it was not noticeable. He was known for his wild antics, his
practical jokes
and his extravagance and frivolousness, which his father approved of wholeheartedly.
[3]
[4]
He was, by far, his father's favorite son.
[5]
In addition, he was popular with everyone at his father's court, and it was widely believed that the French nobility of the time would have much preferred to have him as the Dauphin as opposed to his downcast brother, Henry, who never seemed to recover from his years of captivity in Spain.
[3]
In 1540 he was granted the title of
Count of Clermont
.
[6]
In 1542, Francis I and
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
, again went to war against each other. Charles fought and captured
Luxembourg
, but then fearful that he would miss the glory of
Perpignan
, which was under siege by the Dauphin Henry, he headed south. Luxembourg was lost and retaken several times during the war.
[7]
[8]
Marriage arrangements
[
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]
In January 1535,
Henry VIII
offered a betrothal between the 1-year-old
Princess Elizabeth
and the 12-year-old Charles on the condition that Francis I would persuade Pope Paul to reverse Pope Clement's ruling on his marriage to
Anne Boleyn
as illegitimate.
[9]
However, Francis was reluctant to recognize Henry's marriage to Anne because that would force him to question the Pope's ruling. More importantly, Francis was worried about Elizabeth's legitimacy despite Henry's assurance that she was his heiress presumptive. Francis stated that he would agree to the match only if Henry would agree to discontinue the annual pensions that Francis paid to England under the Terms of the Treaty of Amiens as part of Elizabeth's dowry.
[10]
Henry was offended, and he stated that he had been generous in offering an heiress "of most certain title, without remainder of querel to the contrary"
[11]
to a younger son. English and French commissioners met at Calais to discuss the terms of the marriage treaty, but they failed to reach a consensus because Henry insisted that Charles come to England until his marriage. Francis refused to send his son to be a hostage to England. By July, the marriage negotiations came to a halt. In May 1536, Anne Boleyn was executed and Elizabeth was declared illegitimate, permanently ending any prospects of a marriage to Charles.
On 19 September 1544, the
Treaty of Crepy
was signed. Charles had a choice to marry one either Charles V's daughter or paternal niece. Infanta
Maria of Spain
was the daughter of
Emperor Charles V
and
Isabella of Portugal
, and she would bring the Netherlands or the Low Countries of
Franche-Comte
as her dowry.
Archduchess Anna of Austria
was the daughter of
Ferdinand I, King of Hungary and Bohemia
and
Anna of Bohemia and Hungary
, and she would bring
Milan
as her dowry. As the groom's father,
Francis I
agreed to endow Charles with
Angouleme
,
Chatellerault
,
Bourbon
and
Orleans
.
The Peace of Crepy deeply offended Charles' elder brother, the
Dauphin
Henry
, and his wife,
Catherine de' Medici
. As the heir of
Valentina Visconti
, Henry considered
Milan
to be his birthright. More importantly, this settlement would make his brother Charles as powerful as a monarch and link him by marriage to Emperor Charles V, which would divide French interests and create a strategic nightmare. Many historians believe that Charles V hoped to use Charles as an adversary against Henry. Henry wrote a secret denunciation of the pact because it gave away three inalienable Crown properties.
[12]
Death
[
edit
]
The rivalry between Charles and his brother, the Dauphin Henry, was potentially dangerous. However, it resolved itself with the death of Charles. In the autumn of 1545, Charles was on his way (with his brother, the Dauphin) to
Boulogne
, which was under siege. On 6 September, they came across a cluster of houses that had been emptied and sealed off "from the plague"?probably a form of
influenza
. Stating that "no son of a King of France ever died of plague", Charles entered some of the infected houses with his brother.
[13]
[14]
Laughing, he slashed at bedding with his sword and started a pillow fight with some of his traveling companions. Stories have also been told of him (on a dare) lying down on one of the infected beds and rolling around on the bedding. Later that evening, after dining with his father and brother, he took suddenly ill, suffering from pain, a high fever, vomiting and shaking limbs. Dauphin Henry rushed to his sickroom immediately, but was barred from entering, being physically restrained on several occasions.
[13]
Charles died on 9 September 1545. Some thought that he had been poisoned, but most agreed that it was the "plague" that killed him. He is buried next to his father, Francis I and his brother, the Dauphin Francis at the
Abbey of Saint-Denis
. During his funeral, the future King Henry II wept for Charles even though his friend,
Francois de Scepeaux
, argued that Charles "never loved or esteemed you."
[15]
At the time of his death, he possessed the Duchies of Angouleme, Bourbon, and Chatellerault.
[
citation needed
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
Seward 1973
, p. 192
- ^
a
b
Seward 1973
, p. 228
- ^
Williams 1910
, p. 62
- ^
Baumgartner 1988
, p. 34
- ^
Prime, Temple
(1903).
"Note on the County of Clermont"
.
Notes Relative to Certain Matters Connected with French History
. Vol. 1. De Vinne Press. p. 103
. Retrieved
11 August
2016
– via Google Books.
Charles, Duke of Orleans, was Count of Clermont from 1540 to 1545, when he died leaving no issue.
- ^
Baumgartner 1988
, p. 36
- ^
Seward 1973
, p. 234
- ^
Plowden 2011
, p. 23
- ^
Plowden 2011
, p. 24
- ^
Plowden 2011
, p. 25
- ^
Frieda 2003
, p. 280
- ^
a
b
Baumgartner 1988
, p. 38
- ^
Seward 1973
, p. 241
- ^
Frieda 2003
, p. 334
Sources
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