Charles, Cardinal de Bourbon
Welcome to the episode about a Cardinal who almost became a king. Charles, Cardinal de Bourbon is the younger brother of our last subject, Antoine de Bourbon. These two brothers were rather different men. He was far less active than his older or younger brother, but his life had an equally big impact. I hope you'll join me for this episode. Podcast download link: here. YouTube podcast link: here
Transcript:
Charles de Bourbon, Cardinal de Bourbon, the sometime Charles X:
Welcome back. This week were going to look at the Cardinal who was almost a king. Those of you who know your French kings will know that the actual Charles X ruled from 1824 to 1830, and like his six times great-uncle, the subject of this episode, the real Charles X was a traditionalist, I think that’s that right thing to call these men. Both of these Charles were unsuccessful, though one did manage to actually rule, the other, well, I should get to his story. Much like many ‘minor’ players in history Cardinal de Bourbon doesn’t have in own biography. Thankfully he is a rather important minor player and in the background of almost everyone else’s story, his name has popped up a lot in my earlier reading. For this subject I’ll be using the biography of Henri II by Fredrick J Baumgartner (yes, he of Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre), the biography of Jean d’Albret, Queen of Navarre, by Nancy Roelker, along with the books used previously in this mini-series. I have a used a few journal articles as well and I’ll link those in the show notes. You’ll find when you search for this week’s subject online there will be tens of posts about artwork. There is a beautifully illuminated book of hours attributed to an artist in his employ showing on Christie’s that sold for $200,000 USD.
Cardinal de Bourbon, which I’ll be calling him to distinguish him from the number of other Charleses who will be a part of his story, was the eighth child and fifth son of Charles of Vendome, who was also the father of Antoine de Bourbon. He was born on the 22nd of September 1523. By the time of his birth he only had four older brothers, Antoine, Francois, and Lois, though Louis would die one year after Cardinal de Bourbon’s birth (yes, I’m picturing a little one year old in a cardinal’s outfit, which based on the Catholic church at the time isn’t much of a stretch). He would be joined by five further siblings, who all survived to adulthood, including two further brothers, Jean and Louis, better known as Prince Conde (mark one). I should also mention another branch of his family, go one generation further back, his aunt was Antoinette de Bourbon, the Duchess de Guise. This means that he was a first cousin of the initial Duke de Guise and Cardinal de Guise.
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Now, Cardinal de Bourbon’s claim to the throne should be discussed before moving on too far with his story, since I think that’s important. He had two surviving older brothers and two surviving younger brothers, so their should have been plenty of other options for the French people, right? Well, we already know that his oldest surviving brother, Antoine, is the father of Henri III of Navarre and the IV of France, and that Antoine was as vacillating Protestant. His next older brother, Francios survived to adulthood, but died unmarried at 26, removing that possibility. There is little information about this brother, but he was active in the reign of Francis I and appears to have been Catholic in nature, so had he not died he likely would have been the favoured choice. Cardinal de Bourbon’s younger brother Jean died at 29 or 31, he was married, in least surprising news to his first cousin, but they had no children. That leaves Cardinal de Bourbon’s youngest surviving brother, Prince Conde, as you all should remember Conde was a radical Protestant, his oldest son, whom I called Prince Conde as well, was also a radical Protestant. The son of the second Prince Conde was raised a Catholic after the accession of his cousin, Henri IV, but he was only a baby when Cardinal de Bourbon died. The eldest Prince Conde had three further sons, Francis, Charles, and Charles, not joking about the names there. Francis appears to have sat out most of the religious troubles until the young Duke de Guise forced his hand and he stood with the future Henri IV. The elder of the Charles was a Cardinal, who would be known as Cardinal de Vendome or Cardinal de Bourbon (though I’ll call him Cardinal Vendome when he comes up later, just to distinguish him from his great uncle) was, obviously, Catholic, and was actually a candidate for the throne, though not a serious one. The younger Charles, who I’ll call Charles Soisson when he comes up, actually joined the Catholic League at least early in their existence, but actually fought on behalf of Henri of Navarre, making him completely unsuitable for the Catholic League in the long run. So, had Cardinal de Bourbon been successful at properly gaining the throne of France his heir would have been his cardinal great-nephew, which honestly isn’t the best line of succession. With that hamstringing let’s look at his life before he became a leading candidate for the French throne.
Cardinal de Bourbon becoming a priest and eventually a Cardinal is unsurprising. He was the third son, and a quick glance at the French aristocracy show that second or third surviving sons of noble families were basically gifted to the church. This makes a lot of sense, they often wouldn’t be needed to take over the family’s holdings and their only other option was to become a military leader. This also made the upper echelons of the church useful. These men would be educated and practiced in court etiquette and protocol. They were also, as everyone else was, related to the magnates of the kingdom. I can’t find much on his childhood, being a third son means there’s less detail than other magnates. I should note with interest that in 1553 he became one of the god fathers to Henri of Navarre, the future Henri IV of France, his nephew and eventual captor, we’ll get there. Interestingly I have found a note in Jeanne of Navarre’s biography that he once won 4 livres in a game of darts with Antoine, his brother and Jeanne’s husband (plus an earlier subject).
Prior to becoming Cardinal, which happened in 1548 (when he was 25), Cardinal de Bourbon had been the Bishop of Nevers from 1540-1546, and the Bishop of Saintes from 1544-1550, he was only 17 when appointed to Nevers. After becoming a Cardinal he was also the Bishop of Carcassonne from 1550-1553 and again from 1565-1567, and the Bishop of Beauvais from 1569-1575. Oh, and most importantly he was the Archbishop of Rouen from 1550 until 1590. Because this occurred during the time of the Protestant Reformation I should mention that this practice, that of holding multiple eccesiastical offices or benefices, is called pluralism and Martin Luther was not impressed, John Calvin less so. The latter’s organisational planning for what formed the basis of Calvinism in France would prevent this from happening among the Huguenots. As strike against the Church and in favour of the Protestants on this is that this had actually been outlaws by the 1215 Lateran Council, but as with marrying one’s cousin papal dispensation was available. For Cardinal de Bourbon to hold this massive number of benefices the Pope had to approve. While most at the time, and in his class wouldn’t have noticed, or cared, it is worth noting when thinking about this time period. Due to his social standing Cardinal de Bourbon spent very little time at the Bishoprics, most of his time would be spent at court, starting towards the end of Francis I’d reign and into the reign of Henri II. Oh, Cardinal de Bourbon, like others who held multiple benefices, would pay a lower ranking priest a penance, to carry out his ecclesiastical functions.
Cardinal de Bourbon played an important role in Henri II’s court, and Henri’s ongoing issues with Charles V of Spain and the Pope brought him into further promemence. On the 5th August 1551 Cardinal de Bourbon was to be elected patriarch of French church until the Catholic church was ‘defeated’ by the French. The pope and Henri II had been having a bit of an ongoing philosophical disagreement regarding a certain clause in the Concordat of Bologna (in case you’re curious it had to do with France’s sovereignty over Savoy and Piedmont and how bishops were appointed there, by the French king or the Pope). Cardinal de Bourbon actually argued against this, like all traditionalists he wanted to keep the church as united as possible. The king and the pope began to make up by September. (p 120 Henry II)
Henri II signed an alliance with various German princes in January 1552 against Charles V, the HRE. Catherine de Medici was appointed Henri II’s regent in 1552 while he was fighting these Italian Wars. While regent in name she had a council to answer to. Catherine did order Cardinal de Bourbon to arrest various preachers who were preaching against the treaty with the Germanic kingdoms, these priest had an issue being in league with heretics. I can’t find out what the Cardinal thought of this, but based on his later decisions (ie, being a devout Catholic) I think he wouldn’t have enjoyed complying with the Queen.
In April of 1557 Cardinal de Bourbon, along with Cardinal de Chatillon and Cardinal de Lorraine, were appointed grand inquisitors by Pope Paul IV at the request of Henri II…no one expects the…French Inquisition…? Funny story, Chatillon had shown Protestant sympathies and would eventually convert, so no one really expects an inquisitor to be a secret Protestant. From a political prospective forcing a suspected heretic to become a public heretic or risk torturing those he agrees with is brilliant. It’s more likely that these were the three Cardinals who were in court and therefor the ones the Pope would expect could get support from Henri II. In actuallity Cardinal de Lorraine was the primary leader of the Inquisition. I’ll remind you all quickly that Cardinal de Lorraine was the brother of the first Duke de Guise, and an uncle to Mary Queen of Scots, he’s also Cardinal de Guise’s first cousin, which makes sense since Antoine de Bourbon and Cardinal de Bourbon are brothers. This Inquisition was nothing when compared to the earlier Spanish or even the earlier French Inquisition. Because this later inquisition was worried about the spread of the Huguenot heresy it actually focused on priests and the clergy over the general public, or you know, women accused of witchcraft or Jews and Muslims in Spain. There were smaller inquisitions in the Parlament that examined the laity, which if you remember makes sense, due to Paris’ extreme Catholic leaning. Due to Henri II’s preferences the religious inquisition was hardly used, he preferred secular prosecution of Huguenots.
In April 1559 Henri II of France signed the Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis, which was really two treaties, one signed between Elizabeth I of England and Henri II and the second signed between Philip II of Spain and Henri II. Cardinal de Bourbon wasn’t involved with this treat in any big way, the Cardinal de Lorraine was though. Henri returned to France in a great mood, and wanted to celebrate. Like many men in this age he liked to celebrate with a tournament. On the 30th of June 1559 Henri II was hit while jousting, through the eye. He lived until the 10th of July, in what I can only imagine was a great deal of pain. Henri’s death would cause an adjustment to Cardinal Beaufort’s position within the kingdom. while he would remain an important member of the royal and religious apparatus he was no longer the first holy man called. And you may remember why. The new king was Francis II, and he looked to his wife, Mary, Queen of Scot’s, uncles, the Guise family for advice and support.
I’ve discussed these uncles before, but quickly they were Charles, Cardinal de Lorraine and Francois, Duke de Guise. In addition to being the uncles-in-law of the king they were also cousins of Cardinal de Bourbon, his father was the older brother of their mother. I don’t want to go through the whole family tree, but the Duke de Guise was married to Anne d’Este, a granddaughter of Louis XII. This marriage will give Francois’ son, Henri, Duke de Guise upon his father’s death in 1563, a rather minor claim to the throne of France. I will discuss this claim in a few minutes, but just remember it for now. While the Guise were in control Cardinal de Bourbon was still important and helpful, especially to Catherine de Medici, the dowager queen.
You’ll hopefully remember from Antoine de Bourbon’s episode the Amboise Conspiracy, in March of 1560. Prince Conde, Antoine and Cardinal de Guise’s younger brother had acted as a figure head of a kidnapping plot against Francis II with the aim of removing the young king from his evil counsellors, you know, his uncles-in-law. And it was Cardinal de Bourbon who was asked by Francis II (or better said his mother, Catherine de’Medici) to bring Antoine and Prince Conde back to court following Conspiracy of Amboise. He was able to convince his brothers to return to court. As you’ll remember, Conde was arrested, but the timing of his trial was in his favour, Francis II died not long after his trial. Catherine de’Medici was able to arrange his release. Francis II was succeeded by his younger brother, Charles IX, I know I’ve mentioned this in the last episode, but it’s important enough to repeat.
The Massacre of Vassey, which occurred in March 1562, is usually seen as the start of the Wars of Religion. For this era of the war, and almost until the very end Cardinal de Bourbon should be classified as a Politique, not a Leaguer. Remember, the League wasn’t even first formed until 1576 and that iteration only lasted a year. After that it wasn’t until 1584 that there wasn’t really a national Catholic body, just the local Catholic confraternities and then of course the Paris Parlement and the University of Paris, which, as I think I’ve shown, were traditionalist Catholic to the point of being hardline. Between the first and second iteration of the Catholic League Cardinal de Bourbon was seemingly a very minor part of the political apparatus. Remember, his brothers, Antione de Bourbon and Prince Conde died in 1562 and 1569, and his nephews, Henri of Navarre, and Henri, Prince Conde, were rather young and under the protection of Admiral Coligny when in France (you should remember him from the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre). With his brothers gone Cardinal de Bourbon could focus on his wine cellar, as Baumgartner says, he had a ‘reputation of being more interested in wine cellars than politics. Baumgartner further states that he was not outstanding as a churchman or a politician. Cardinal de Bourbon did act as the guardian for his youngest nephew, Charles Count of Soissons, the elder Prince Conde’s youngest son.
In fact, had Charles IX, who ruled from 1560 to 1574, managed to produce legitimate male issue Cardinal de Bourbon may have just become an obscure Cardinal. Instead Charles only had a daughter and was succeeded by his younger brother, Henri as Henri III. Henri’s heir was his younger brother, Hercule-Francis. Like his older brother Henri didn’t have a son, or any legitimate children. At the time of his brother’s accession, in 1574, Hercule-Francis was only 19, Henri III himself was only 23. They both had plenty of time to produce sons, but, just like the sons of Philip IV they never did. As long as both brothers were alive the Catholic leaders of France were okay following to royal family. But, on the 10th of June 1584 that changed. That’s the day Hercule-Francis died, likely of malaria. At this point Henri III of France had been married to his wife for almost nine years without any children between them. Hercule-Francis’ death meant that the new heir, according to Salic Law, was Henri of Navarre, I have mentioned this so many times.
Now, as far as I can tell Henri of Navarre was actually at the time a great guy. He was well-educated, the king to Navarre, a small kingdom in the Pyrenees between France and Spain that I’ve spoken of many times, the brother-in-law of Henri of France through his marriage to Marguerite of France, and seemingly well liked, at least by Protestants. Yes, due to his religion he was completely unacceptable to the Catholic majority of most of France and especially that Catholic traditionalists of Paris. So, who could they pick instead of the heretic? This, is where Cardinal de Bourbon becomes truly important. Some gossip for you quickly, apparently Cardinal de Bourbon had been talking about being the heir before Hercule-Francis’ death, which I think is a little scandalous.
I’ll be relying on Baumgartner a bit for this next bit. His essay, The Case for Charles X, is a great resource in addition to his book Radical Reactionaries. The essay is used within the book, but I know some of you will have an easier time accessing journal article than a book or vice versa so I want to make sure to mention both one more time. According to his research it appears that the Catholic League, who reformed in 1584, wanted Cardinal de Bourbon to be king because he was older, 61 at this point, which in this time period wasn’t as young as it is today, easily manageable, and ‘could be easily persuaded to name Guise or the daughter of Philip II of Spain as his heir.’ Baumgartner lists Myriam Yardini as his source, but the work he looked at is only available in French, so I haven’t been able to examine it. Now, the name Guise should be familiar, since I’ve mentioned at least two thus far in this episode and I’ve discussed at least four in previous episodes. This Guise is Henri Duke de Guise, the son of the duke de Guise mentioned earlier in this episode. Henri de Guise’s mother was a French princess, and through her he was descended from Louis XI. It appears that the Catholic League wanted Henri de Guise to be king and the easiest way to make that happen was to make a churchman king. Those who have listened to ‘The Capetian Miracle Ends’ may see how this could happen as a thought experiment. Hugh Capet’s claim to the throne was, well, he was the most powerful noble in the French kingdom and was able to manoeuvre himself into being elected into the role. This might be what the Catholic League was trying to do. At the end of the day it doesn’t matter who should be king, it matters who is respected as king. Philip V did this when he usurped his niece, Joan II of Navarre. Henri de Guise had a royal ancestor, he was a powerful military and political leader, and he was 33 at this point, Catholic, and had three sons! Cardinal de Bourbon was a great person to just pass things on to him.
So, what happened to Cardinal de Bourbon after he was put forward as an heir to the French throne? Well, for the first time in his life it seems that he was rather active politically (I’m sure his wine collection suffered). There were a lot of pamphlets written by Catholics declaring him their choice as heir for Henri of France. There were pamphlets written by the Politiques declaring that Henri of Navarre just needed to renounce his religion and then he should be the heir to Henri of France, and there were pamphlets released by the Huguenots to try to spread their religious message. Really, maybe we should get rid of Twitter, and bring back pamphlets. Due to his custody of his nephew, Charles de Bourbon, Count of Soissons, the younger Charles, whom I’ll call Soissons, was also active with his uncle. I bring up Soisson because he would have appeared to be a great heir for Cardinal de Bourbon, but he ended up defecting to Henri of Navarre’s side and actually served in his cousin’s eventual government. Some more scandal, Soissons may have had an affair with Henri of Navarre’s sister, Catherine, and was secretly engaged to her at one point, Henri even banned them from seeing each other. Catherine did assure her brother that she had no plans to run away with their cousin, he threatened to jail her. Both Catherine and Soissons married other people. Okay, back to Cardinal de Bourbon.
It appears that even though he was active within the League he wasn’t writing or reading pamphlets. He was attending meetings but not taking notes so to speak. In December 1588 things went pear shaped for the Catholic League and the Guise faction, which I’ve learned should be called Guisard. At the end of that month Henri of France decided to take care of his Guisard problem and assassinate the Duke de Guise and his brother, the Cardinal de Guise, for which Henri would be posthumously excommunicated. At the same time he was executing this assassination Henri of France put Cardinal de Bourbon into jail. And Cardinal de Bourbon sat in jail. He sat in jail while Henri of France was assassinated on the 1st of August 1589. When this happened the League declared him the king of France. They couldn’t crown him though, which was a bit of a spanner in the works of their plans to maintain a Catholic king. Despite this it appears that coins were minted with his likeness on them. Henri of Navarre took over the imprisonment of his uncle not long after Henri of France’s assassination. Just days after Henri of France’s assassination Charles, the Duke of Mayenne, the brother of the assassinated Duke de Guise and Cardinal de Guise, took over the military leadership of the League. He declared himself the lieutenant general of France, as Cardinal de Bourbon’s representative.
At this point there were two courts in France. The League court, based in Paris, and the Royalist court, based in Tours. The Paris Parlement, with Leaguer backing told the people of France they should recognise Cardinal de Bourbon as their king in November of 1589. They also called for the estates to assemble. I haven’t discussed this in detail, but only the king can call the estates, so they were calling it in Cardinal de Bourbon’s name. Other League controlled Parlements announced Cardinal de Bourbon as their king.
While Paris, League held Parlements, the University of Paris, and many Catholics were in favour of Cardinal de Bourbon, Henri of Navarre was doing a great job on the military front. His progress was slow, but he was hampered due to having been excommunicated. So, he’ll have a bit of an uphill struggle. And then, in May 1590 Cardinal de Bourbon died, which knocked the wind out of the League. The University of Paris had been discussing Cardinal de Bourbon’s health just days before he died. It’s likely he was in ill health and that this was known by most of the leadership of France, on both sides. Apparently Cardinal de Bourbon’s last words spoke of his nephew, Henri of Navarre, as the king of France. He claimed that he had been trying to protect the Bourbon family’s rights to the throne. I don’t know if this is true or not, but it’s a lovely thought. This uncle, who had rather different views from his powerful and memorable brothers was just looking out for his nephew’s claims.
Analysis:
So, would Cardinal de Bourbon have been a better king that the king who ruled instead? I think we all know the answer to that. Henri of Navarre, as Henri IV of France would become one of the great kings of French history and would earn that soubriquet. If you remember from last week he would calm the French religious issues, convert to Catholicism to stop the religious wars, but also protect the right of his Protestant subjects to practice their faith.
I think Cardinal de Bourbon was a best bad choice for the League. They seemed to truly want one from the House of Guise to rule, but in the end Henri of Navarre lived the longest. I may actually do an episode about Henri of Navarre if anyone is interested please let me know, he is actually one of my long-time favourite historical people. I don’t think he’s perfect by any measure, but I think his personal sacrifice to protect his country from ongoing war is impressive.
With that I’ll be back next week to cover Isabella Clara Eugenia. I want to have a look at the Spanish role in the Wars of Religion with this and to discuss how Isabella’s rule might have gone. Just a reminder to check out the YouTube channel and if you are looking for books to spend your Christmas money on please consider using my bookshop.org link, it helps fund this channel and my work to cover the people that most of us don’t know about. I will see you then.
Come visit my YouTube channel to discuss some of the scandal in this episode. Was it scandalous that Cardinal de Bourbon thought of himself as the heir before Hercule-Francis’ death? What about Soissons and Catherine? Do you think Cardinal de Bourbon was really trying to protect his nephew’s rights to France?
Additional Sources: