Charles Count of Angouleme
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Welcome to another Charles' episode. This Charles was the father of Francis I, and more importantly Marguerite of Navarre. While this Charles didn't live a life of excitement he did collect a lot of books and marry an amazing woman. I always use this episode to discuss that amazing woman he married, Louise of Savoy and his son, Francis I.
Transcript:
Charles Count of Angouleme:
Welcome back. Unlike our previous subject this Charles will not be getting six episodes. I’m sure he did plenty, but his wife, daughter, and son get all the attention, rightly so. Okay, he probably didn’t do that much, but I’ll get to that. Before I do I need to kind of frame things by letting you know who was in charge in various parts of Europe. In France, at the time of his birth Charles VII was still king. He and his son, Louis, the future Louis XI were, as expected, having issues with each other and Louis was living in Burgundy. The Duke of Burgundy at the time was Philip the Good, and he was having issues with his son, Charles, the future Charles the bold. In England Henry VI was enjoying his first reign, but would be overthrown in March of 1461. And Spain was still divided, mainly between the kingdoms of Aragon and Castile, with the emirate of Granada still controlling the southern portion of the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal was ruled by the House of Aviz, as it had been since John of Gaunt’s time. So, now we know how is in control of various areas, let’s look at Charles.
Charles Count of Angouleme was, of course, the son of John of Angouleme, Charles of Orleans’ younger brother. The one who was imprisoned in England for almost half his life. Charles of Angouleme was born in 1459, no further details recorded, this makes him three years older than his cousin, Louis of Orleans, the future Louis XII, and 26 years younger than their shared cousin, Francis of Brittany. I just want to make sure to place him within the Valois family. He was the nephew of Charles of Orleans and the grandson of Louis of Orleans and Valentina Visconti. This Charles was born during the reign of Charles VII, but most of his life would be spent in the reign of Louis XI. His mother was Margaret or Marguerite de Rohan. I can also find next to nothing about his mother by the way. The one thing I have found is that she didn’t really focus on her children’s education, at least not in the literary sense. Which is a bit off because John of Angouleme was known for his vast library. At the time of his birth Charles’ parents had lost their first son, but he would be followed by a sister, Joan or Jeanne. His father, John, did have one illegitimate child, John, who could have been named for himself or his brother, the original Orleans Bastard.
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Charles’ father, John, had spent his time, upon his return to France, buying books and helping his brother, the Bastard, fight against English forces. Books really were the thing for Orleans men. You should remember John from Charles of Orleans’ episodes, John was the younger brother who had been sent to France as a hostage. John died on the 20th of April 1467, leaving Charles and his sister, Joan, in their mother’s custody. Charles was only eight and now the Count of Angouleme. While his mother would ignore his education in part it appears that like his father, uncle, and cousin, books were his thing. He expanded his father’s collection, his book of hours is currently held in the Bibliotheque National in France.
Due to being raised by his mother from such a young age Charles was rather close to his mother, as would be expected. I’ll get more into their relationship in a few minutes. At some point in his mid-to-late teens Charles began, well, keeping mistresses. This would be a large part of his life. And like his mother, I’ll cover this more in a few minutes.
I know I joke about Wikipedia and there’s something I want you to do when you have a chance, find Charles’ page of there, just a quick glance, it’s short, and then check his wife’s, not as short. But now have a read through hers, yeah, that’s a lot about her husband in there. I feel like a lot that could have been said on Charles’ page was said on his wife’s page. And a lot of that is about Charles’ mistresses. I feel that his wife (who I promise I will cover a lot) should be insulted by this. If any of my listeners have Wikipedia editing privileges you should look into fixing this. In general finding sources on Charles in English and French is difficult! It’s easier to research his wife, son, or daughter and find details about him in there. Which is what I have done, Francis I and 16th Century France by RJ Knecht, and Marguerite de Navarre: mother of the Renaissance by Patricia Francis Cholakain have been my go-to sources along with some journal articles. For Charles’ daughter, Marguerite, who will be coming up soon as a special episode for Patron in the heir apparent and usurped tiers, I’ll be using these same sources and a bit of her own writing.
Charles had attempted to marry Mary the Rich, or Mary of Burgundy, who as her names might suggest was the heiress of Burgundian holdings and very rich. She was the hottest item on the marriage market in 1477. She turned Charles down and eventually married Maximilian of Austria and their son would found the Hapsburg dynasty of Spain. Charles wasn’t the only man saddened by Mary’s choice in husband, Louis XI was, um, enraged that she hadn’t agreed to marry his son, Charles, the future Charles VIII. Oh, and Louis brother had also tried to marry her years earlier. And patrons will also know that Anne of France’s daughter, Suzanne was spurned by Nicholas of Lorraine, who also wanted to marry Mary. I actually do plan on covering Mary and her family next year, there are plans forming.
Once Charles reached his majority he was expected to attend court, as you know, a prince du sange, since at this point, around 1478, he was third in line to the crown after his cousins Charles, the future Charles VIII, and Louis, the future Louis XII. His mother joined him and Louis XI, the king, decided he wanted to keep the next generation related, so he had Charles betrothed to Louise of Savoy, who was also Louis’ wife’s niece. Louise was only two at this point, so no actual marriage yet. She would move to France in 1483, when she was seven after her mother’s death. Louis would be raised in Anne of France’s household. Charles, and his mother, didn’t consider Louise to be a prestigious enough bride for him. They actually quarrelled with the king about it. Now, you may remember that Louis XI had married Louis of Orleans, Charles of Orleans’ son and this Charles’ cousin to his own daughter, Joan of France, in an attempt to end the Orleans’ line. His decision to marry Charles of Angouleme off to his poor niece it to prevent Charles of Angouleme from marry a wealthy heiress. Louis did earn the nickname the universal spider because of the webs he spun, and he really didn’t consider anyone’s feelings other than his own, and possibly his oldest daughter’s, since as patrons will know, she was the least foolish of women. In fairness to Charles and his mother, Louise was just the daughter of a foreign duke, these rules on prestige are just horribly dehumanising. No one could have known how fierce of a mother she would become or how much good she would do for her children. Instead of putting up with this treatment Charles returned to his Angouleme territories and stayed there, for the next few years. Louis XI died in 1483, and with this Charles hopped he could convince the new king, Charles VIII, to end his engagement.
My patrons who have listened to Anne of France’s episode are giggling at this point. Charles VIII was only 13 and his unofficial regent was his sister Anne. And Anne had been raising Louise for the last year and adored the girl. Charles was not allowed to break his betrothal. Anne even told Charles off for his, licentious lifestyle, he was a bit open about his liaisons with multiple mistresses. With this rejection Charles needed another way to get out of his future marriage, he decided to join his cousin, Louis of Orleans, when Louis began to plan a dissolution to his own marriage.
Louis of Orleans, the son of last week’s subject, Charles of Orleans, was, of course, this week’s subject’s first cousin. Louis had been married to Charles VIII and Anne of France’s sister Joan in 1476. Joan had some physical deformities, based on descriptions some type of spinal curvature and a hip or femur issue. Due to these Louis rejected her despite being her husband. To try to get out this marriage Louis conspired with his and Charles’ cousin, Francis of Brittany. Louis requested a papal annulment, agreed to assist Francis in keeping Brittany free from France, and then Louis would get to marry Francis’ daughter, Anne of Brittany. Charles joined this conspiracy in hopes of getting out of his betrothal. I don’t know if he had a specific future bride picked out. To make a long story short this conspiracy led to the Mad War, which in the end would see Brittany become part of France and after Francis’ death would see Anne marry Charles VIII of France. Louis of Orleans would eventually get his annulment, and get to marry Anne, but it would take him a few extra years. Despite his rebellion Charles was forgiven by Charles VIII, but he was forced to marry Louise. on the 16th of February 1488 12 year old Louise and 28 or 29 year old Charles were married. Thankfully Anne of France protected her ward, and the marriage wasn’t consummated until 1491, when Louise was 15, which while young, is still better than 12. In fact, Louise returned to Anne’s care to continue her education. Oh, and Louis of Orleans would also be forgiven by Charles VIII once he became king, they actually got along pretty well.
Now, I’ve mentioned Charles’ predilection for women who aren’t his wife, and this continued after his marriage. When his wife finally moved to their home she would have been met with Jeanne de Polignac, Dame Combronde, who was a lady in his mother’s household and Jeanne Le Conte. Dame Combronde, was actually managing Charles’ household. Dame Combronde was Charles’ primary mistress. Quickly, different sources list her name as Antoinette or Jeanne, I’ll just refer to her as Dame Combronde. Apparently she and Louise got along well, and she would stay on as Louise’s friend and confidante after Charles’ death. Through is mistresses Charles had three daughters, one, Jeanne d’Angouleme, Dame Combronde’s oldest daughter, is actually an ancestor to Charles III of England, the head of state to my country and just a few others. In case you’re curious it’s through George I’s great-grandmother, Countess Louise Juliana of Nassau.
While by all accounts Charles and Louise’s marriage was harmonious it wasn’t what we would consider a normal marriage. First, Charles had his mistresses and he didn’t plan to get rid of them. Second, Louise had been raised by the most powerful woman in France and was now living with a man who was a bit less powerful. Poor Louise also seemed worried that she wouldn’t be able to, um, well, please her husband in the marital way. There is a letter, from her father to a friend, referencing a letter his daughter had sent him. In her letter to her father Louise, then only 12, asked how to arouse her husband, yes, this is what her father is sharing with someone else. I just cringed so much reading this. First, she was 12 and that breaks my heart, second, maybe she should have asked Anne of France, not her father, and third, how dare her father share this with anyone else. When Louise was only 14 she made a pilgrimage to ask for fertility assistance. My heart just breaks for the life she must have lived. I will be sharing a bit more about Louise in her daughter’s special episode. It was this pilgrimage that would give her some amazing news, which I’ll get to in just a moment.
Charles and Louise had two children, Marguerite of Angouleme who will in turn become the Duchess of Alencon and then the Queen of Navarre, and Francis of Angouleme who will become the king of France in 1515 as Francis I. Through his children Charles is the ancestor of all kings of France until France finally got rid of their monarchy, other than the house of Bonaparte. He’s also the ancestor of all kings of Spain from 1700. Just a fun thought, that makes Louis I of Orleans, Charles of Angouleme’s grandfather a bit of the John of Gaunt of France. Plus, one of his descendant’s illegitimate lines lead to the English royal family. Marguerite was born in 1492 and Francis was born in 1494.
Francis, in French Francois, was rumoured to be named after an Italian hermit, Francis of Paola, who had prophesied that Louise would give birth to a king, during that pilgrimage I mentioned earlier. Francis of Paola is actually a saint and had been sent to France to try to save Louis XI’s life. The poor holy man was then forced to stay in France by each subsequent king. The prophesy through, occurred prior to the birth of Marguerite, which means her being a daughter was a bit of a disappointment, there wasn’t a party after she was born, but there was one for Francis’ birth. The likelihood of Francis becoming king was so small. At the time of his birth his father, Charles, was alive, the king, Charles VIII, was young, and the king’s son, Charles Orlando was almost two and seemingly healthy, plus, Louis of Orleans was alive, and three years younger than Francis’ own father.
Unlike Louis of Orleans, Charles didn’t partake in Charles VIII’s Italian campaigns. He was really focused far more on his own holdings and his book collection. His collection is recorded as having a thousand volumes. He would even purchase books that had originally been prepared for the king. In theory while Charles VIII and Louis of Orleans were gone Charles was the leading man of the kingdom. But, king Charles had left his sister, Anne of France, in charge as his regent. In addition to not being interested in was Charles really didn’t seem interested in politics.
Now, I’m pretty much at the end of Charles story. Yeah, there’s minimal detail about him available, but I do want to talk a bit more about what happened after he was gone. Charles of Angouleme died on the 1st of January 1496, he was only 36 or 37. This is incredibly young, as I’m sure you all know, even in this time. His own father, John lived to 67, his uncle, Charles of Orleans, lived to 70, his cousin, Louis XII lived to 52, so not even making it to 40 was shocking. It appears that he died of an infection of some type, obviously there weren’t any cultures done.
So obviously this would be a short episode if I only talked about Charles of Angouleme. No one had complained about episodes being too long, so I’m going to use a bit of time to discuss Louise of Savoy, Charles of Angouleme’s wife. This isn’t just because she’s fascinating, but because I think it also helps answer the question of ‘would Charles have been a better king than the king who ruled instead of him?’ In all fairness the king who ruled prior to his death was Louis XII, the father of the French people, was younger than Charles, and loosing him as a king would have been a bit sad. But, I’ll get to that at the end. In addition to looking at Charles’ widow I’ll take a look at this son’s actual rule, at least a few parts. As for the third survivor of Charles, his daughter, Marguerite, she will be getting her own special episode soon for Patrons in the heir apparent and usurped tiers, please come see us at Patreon if you’re interested in special episodes!
Louise could have easily changed Charles’ entire household the moment he died, Francis wasn’t even two and Charles had given her custody of their children in his will. Instead, she was measured. She kept Dame Combronde in her household, as a friend and confidant. She saw to it that Charles’ illegitimate daughter were raised well, educated, and the two who married were married well, remember, one of these daughters is the ancestor, through the female line, of the Hanoverian kings of England and through them the current king, Charles III. I feel I should also let you know that at the time of her husband’s death Louise was only 19.
In researching both Charles and Louise I found a journal article about Louise’s supposed journal, by Dr. Myra Orth. Dr. Orth was an art historian and an expert on late-mediaeval and renaissance manuscripts, focusing on their illuminations (yes, that sounds like an amazing job). She believe the journal often identified as Louise’s was at the most ghost written by Francis du Moulin. If you’re curious as to why Francis was such a popular name with Louise’s advisors, it appears that Franciscan friars were her preferred religious advisors, and, well, that name is very popular with those who join the order, oddly, the most famous living Francis is not a Franciscan. Based on Dr. Orth’s research she goes further than Louise’s early 1900’s biographer, Henri Hauser, who felt that Louise dictated parts of the journal. Why am I bringing up this journal, well, it shows something of Louise’s potential religious leanings which will become important to France very soon. The journal was scathing to the clergy and royal finances. The entries start during the reign of Louis XII and end when Du Moulin falls out of royal favour in 1522. It also includes a great deal of information about Francis, the future Francis I. Most importantly, the writing style of the journal matches Du Moulins.
With her husband gone Louise needed to look after the education of her own children, in addition to his other children. And she did a great job at this. Both her daughter and son were considered leaders in the Renaissance in France. Their mutual love for literature and art along with the patronage of artists, architects, and thinkers would help shape French progress.
Now, I’ve told you Louise was 19 at the time of her husband’s death but I should probably tell you a bit more about the situation in France. In 1496 Charles VIII was still king of France, and he was only 26. He was married Anne of Brittany, who patrons will know was basically forced to marry him after losing the second half of the Mad War to Charles VIII’s sister Anne of France. Anne of Brittany was only 19, and had already had four pregnancies. There was every chance the young royal couple would have a son or two survive childhood and very little chance that Charles of Angouleme would be king, let alone his son. After Charles VIII, his brother-in-law/cousin, Louis of Orleans, was next in line, and Louis was only 34. While he was unlikely to have children with his wife, since he, well, loathed her, he could likely get an annulment and marry again. The idea of any member of the Angouleme family becoming king was almost unthinkable. And the only member of the Angouleme family who could rule, with the death of Charles, was two year old Francis. Today, we of course know that both Charles VIII and Louis XII would fail to have surviving male issue.
Had Charles of Angouleme survived he would have been 56 or so when he became king. Instead his 21 year old son would rule. There was a bit of a difference between Charles and Francis, they both loved learning and were educated men, but Francis didn’t mind a bit of war. Once he became king he was happy to continue the wars that his cousin/father-in-law, Louis XII, and Louis’ predecessor Charles VIII had started in Italy. In addition he also focused on Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, who was also Charles I of Spain, in part due to his losses in Italy at Charles’ hands. Their military aggression towards each other seemed to be more than just traditional military issues, it looks to have been personal. This is where I think Charles of Angouleme might have had a very different rule than his son. He seemed to have little interest in war, and that wouldn’t have been a bad thing for France. France had started to recover from the Hundred Years’ War, and instead of just letting it Charles VIII and Louis XII started more wars. For Francis things would go poorly, he would eventually be captured by his personal/military enemy, Charles V in 1525. He was forced to send two of his sons to secure his own ransom. It was as bad for France as John II being taken after Poitier. His sons weren’t released until 1530 as part of the Treaty of Cambrai, which was negotiated, not by Francis and Charles, but by Louise of Savoy and Margaret of Austria (Charles VIII of France’s spurned fiancé and Charles V’s aunt). Francis’ sister, Marguerite of Navarre also helped. Had Charles of Angouleme survived his illness in 1496 and lived to rule it is rather likely that at this point he would have been dead, since 71 is a long time to live in this time period. But, his personality might have rubbed off on his son had he lived for longer and had more influence over his son.
Like his father, Francis was made to marry someone he may not have preferred by his king. Louis XII ordered his oldest daughter, Claude to marry Francis in 1505 when Louis XII thought he was dying. The couple didn’t marry then, mainly because another one of the strong women of the era, Anne of Brittany, Louis’ wife, said no. Louis XII survived and had to wait until Anne of Brittany died before having his daughter married to his cousin/heir/and now son-in-law. I should tell you in rather odd news that with Francis and Claude’s marriage the three surviving, legitimate Orleans children, were, well, back together. Claude was a descendant of both Charles of Orleans and his sister Margaret of Orleans, and Francis was a descendant of John of Angouleme, their brother. Don’t worry, their children’s pedigree lines don’t look completely Haspburgian, but it’s pretty close.
The last thing I want to discuss before answering the big question of this episode is religion. Many of you likely know that Martin Luther released his 95 thesis in 1517, as an academic discussion piece. Luther’s ideas were, well, religiously complicated, mainly dealing with purgatory, sin, and payments as in money to the church to deal with sin and purgatory. A lot of this goes back to rather fascinating early conversations in the church of the nature of Jesus, sin, heaven, hell, and how sin worked. It is a theological discussion for another day, and possibly another podcast. As any of you who listened to John of Gaunt’s episode will know though, Luther wasn’t the first reformer. When he did share his thoughts there had been changes occurring in the Catholic church for decades. The Lollards, the Hussites, and even the Cathars had been trying to reform the church or even start their own church for centuries prior to Luther even being born. One thing that’s often brought up in relation to Luther is the Bible in the vernacular, but this was not one of his main worries, it is just another theological discussion, that again, it’s for this podcast. But quickly, I even mentioned a few weeks ago in This Too Shall Passed that Books of Hours were written in the vernacular, but those weren’t the only religious books written in languages other than Latin. Anne of Bohemia, the first wife of Richard II had bibles written in multiple languages, including English. So, what does religion have to do with Charles of Angouleme or French history at all? Well, things are about to get messy in France regarding religion and Charles’ family is going to be in the middle of it. By all accounts he was perfectly orthodox in his beliefs, his Book of Hours appears as expected, and there seems to be nothing heretical, but his wife and children, especially his daughter, may not have felt the same.
Louise was a supporter of the Franciscan order. In general the Franciscans were orthodox, members had participated in the Inquisition, I know, nobody expects the Inquisition, but they were mildly reform minded in a certain area. The Franciscan order was founded on a basis of poverty, their founder, Francis of Assisi wanted them to be a poor brotherhood. The order had struggled with this throughout their existence and in the 1300s there were some in the group who accused various popes of heresy. So, while in general an orthodox order, they were willing to raise their voices when they saw things they felt were against the word of God. These were the men who were assisting Louise with the education of her soon-to-be rather influential son and daughter. Had Louis XII had his own sons and Francis never reigned the French religious wars may have never occurred, or may have occurred in a different way. Instead there would be a slow-simmering stew of religious change pushing from behind the crown. As far as I can find Louise, Marguerite, and Francis were all officially Catholic, but Marguerite and her second husband had Protestant sympathies. Francis was, at least at the beginning of his reign, tolerant of reformers. So, what does this have to do with Charles? Well, he was man of letters, a thoughtful man, who might have taken a different stand than his son. While Martin Luther had published his writings in 1517, John Calvin was more influential in France, and was himself influenced by Luther. Francis had a general interest in learning and brought in those who had new ideas, which it’s highly likely his father would have as well. Charles may have done so earlier that Francis. While we can’t know how different the religious situation in France would have been under a Charles of Angouleme government versus that of his son, we do know that religion will impact multiple reigns throughout Europe through to the 16th century. It’s an interesting little what-if.
So, would Charles of Angouleme have been a better king that the king who ruled instead of him? Well, for him it was his son, Francis I who ruled instead of him. I think Francis was a good king in many ways, I like people who are interested in education, but, but, but, France was a mess when it came to war under Francis. In addition, Francis avoided calling the Estates General, as Louis XII had, and this is going to set French royalty up for a big fall. And, due to the time Francis’ oldest son, also Francis, spent in Spanish captivity, he likely contracted tuberculosis and died prior to his father. This, in the end, would leave Francis with only one heir, Henri, who wouldn’t have his first son until three years before his father died. It left the Angouleme-Valois line in a precarious situation. Had Charles lived longer there’s a chance his son would have avoided these wasteful wars, and there’s an even greater chance their would have been more Angouleme heirs, since Charles and Louise could have had more children. I think overall the real difference would have been keeping France out of wars she couldn’t win for a few extra years. This might have furthered France’s recovery from the Hundred Years’ War.
Thank you for joining me today. A few have asked if there’s another way to support the show financially outside of Patreon, and I’m so grateful for this. I’ve set up a buy me a coffee account, you can visit this at buymeacoffee.com/ (forward slash) passedpod. I’ve added links to all my social media descriptions. All support is always welcomed, and I understand that some can’t donate monthly. I’m working on something exciting, or at least something I think is really exciting. I will give you more information when it’s ready, but Patrons will get a sneak peak in early October, so if you’re curious, come join us! I’d also like to welcome my newest patron, Heather! Patrons, Marguerite will be up on Sunday and I will see the rest of you in two weeks for Antoine of Navarre. See you then!
https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2040&context=mff#:~:text=Louise%20of%20Savoy's%20Journal%20records,him%20was%20contested%20by%20others.