Miniseries Five: Father Time's Mismanagement

Welcome to a new miniseries. This will be spanning a huge time period and I'll be using it as an excuse to cover Salic Law and its impacts in a bit more detail. I'll be looking at three men whose fathers and brother's weren't kings, but whose sons were. Well, technically one was a king, but jure uxoris (meaning by the right of his wife). In addition I will also cover one woman who came the closest to ending Salic Law for royal succession. This first episode is a lot of genealogy, but worth it. I'm including detailed family trees on social media.

Transcript:

Mini-Series Five: Father Time’s Mismanagement

I hope you’ll forgive the very punny title. As you’ll find out it works on many levels because if the Valois are known for one thing, it’s fathers and sons not getting along. The successor line, the Bourbons are a different story, for a few generations it looked like fathers and sons would never get to know each other. In this case though I’m specifically looking at three father’s who died before their distant cousin, and one woman who almost changed the rules. We’re lucky, none of them were actually close to being king. All three men died more than ten years before the man that their son would succeed, but it gives us a great chance to take a second look at Salic Law. Plus, I love genealogy, so I get to go through exactly how complicated Salic Law makes inheritance in France and how the French almost got rid of it just one time!

Before I get too excited talking about archaic law and men making up things to prevent women from ruling I should probably tell you who you’ll be learning about in the coming weeks. I want to remind you all that this will be a much more light hearted series as compared to the last, there is no drama that kept these men from ruling, just bad timing on their part. Oh, and there will be one woman in this series, well at least on the regular feed.

First, the man I’m most excited to share, Charles of Orleans, the oldest surviving son of Louis of Orleans, the brother of Charles VI. The subject Charles, not his uncle the king who thought he was made of glass, was only 14 when he became Duke of Orleans. You may remember this from the first time I discussed John the Fearless, duke of Burgundy. Charles Orleans’ son, Louis, will become the king of France in 1498, 34 years after Charles’ death. Charles Orleans was captured at the Battle of Agincourt, while imprisoned he wrote poetry in French and English, hence my interests in sharing his story. 

Second is also a Charles, and to make it harder also of Orleans, but thankfully he goes by the more used name of Charles, Count of Angouleme. This Charles, was the grandson of Louis of Orleans, it also makes him the nephew of the first subject. His son, Francios will become king of France in 1515, 19 years after the death of Charles. His daughter, Marguerite, is honestly the most amazing member of her family, by far. Patrons will be getting a special episode about her, I’m so excited about this!

Third is Antoine de Bourbon, who was the king on Navarre, but never got to rule France. His son is the first Bourbon monarch and takes power when the Valois male-line ends in 1589, 27 years after Antoine’s death. So, you have a general idea when each of these guys died, and while Antoine’s story will be a little messy at a few points, due to religion, no one will be being put into a rice box. 

Fourth is the woman who was almost queen, Isabella Clara Eugenia. Who you say? The daughter of the oldest sister of the last Valois king. She actually came closer than any princess had since Joan II of Navarre. 

In addition to Marguerite’s special episode I will also have a special episode about Anne of France, also known as Anne de Beaujeu (beau ju) for Patrons in the Heir Apparent and Usurped tiers. Anne, like Marguerite, was a writer, in addition to being a states person and I’m really looking forward to their episodes. I also have a few This Too Shall Passed episodes planned. 

(If you hear this you are listening to an AI stolen copy of this Passed episode. Please visit passedpod.com for links to this show by it’s creator, Veronica Fortune)

As I mentioned way back in ‘The Capetian Miracle Ends’ all French kings, save the Bonaparte line, are Capetian. After the death of Charles IV, the fair, the youngest son of Philip IV, also the fair, the senior branch of the Capetians were gone, at least in the male line (hmmm…should I do an episode about the flower-pot theory of reproduction, yes, I think I will). Remember, all three of Philip IV’s sons had failed to have surviving male issue. His oldest, Louis X was succeeded, posthumously, for five days by his son. Philip V, the tall, Louis X’s younger brother, had made up this new rule, using an actual ancient law dealing with property rights, to disinherit Louis only surviving child, Joan. Joan got her own episode, you’ll remember that she eventually inherited the throne of Navarre, but not France. Of course the nobility of France agreed with this plan, were past the point that a king can just do what he wants by force of will (though that will come back in France in a few generations, before it ends horribly). The relevant part of Salic Law, just to remind you, says:

Title LIX (59). Concerning Private Property.

1. If any man die and leave no sons, if the father and mother survive, they shall inherit.

3. If the father and mother do not survive, and he leave brothers or sisters, they shall inherit.

3. But if there are none, the sisters of the father shall inherit.

4. But if there are no sisters of tile father, the sisters of the mother shall claim that inheritance.

5. If there are none of these, the nearest relatives on the father's side shall succeed to that inheritance.

6. But of Salic land no portion of the inheritance shall come to a woman: but the whole inheritance of the land shall come to the male sex.

Thanks to the Yale Law Library, I’ll include a link in the show notes. 

And that last line there, number six is what Philip V used to usurp his niece and make royal genealogy in France more complicated and needlessly difficult than it ever needed to be. Remember, before that moment there had never been the need to figure out who would inherit next, every Capetian king had been succeeded by his oldest surviving son and him by his son in turn. John I dying at only 5 days old threw a wrench into the works. Louis X claiming his potentially illegitimate daughter was just someone taking apart the wrong piece to get the wrench out. For more on this please see miniseries two, The Capetian Miracle ends. 

With this change and solidifying of royal inheritance everything changed in France. This was unexpected, it means that the French kept really good track of who was next as you’ll see soon. Now, this would have never worked in England, unless illegitimate lines were able to inherit. There are no legitimate male-line only descendants of either William the Bastard or Henry I or Henry II remaining. The last member died in 1499 with the death of Edward Plantagenet, the only surviving son of George, Duke of Clarence (this date is correct as well if you believe that Perkin Warbeck was actually one of the Princes in the Tower since they were executed in the same year). The French somehow avoided this. Looking at the descendants of Hugh Capet there seem to be almost a surplus of male issue, until there aren’t. I mentioned in the earlier series that until the death of John I, the posthumous son of Louis X there hadn’t been anything other than father-to-son inheritance since Hugh Capet. There had though been a few second sons to inherit. Henry I, Louis VII, Philip IV all had older brothers, though Philip’s brother was a young child when he died. Once the main line Capetian branch ended the Valois had every chance to succeed long-term. To make the next part easier I will be including detailed family trees on social media. Before I get to each subject’s episode or episodes I need to set up the three points where a Valois branch ended, so I’ll be going through a bit of the lives of each of the men from whom my upcoming subject’s sons inherited from. I want to get to the point of failure for each one before moving on to the man who didn’t succeed.  

Charles of Valois, who was never king (and probably wasn’t poisoning his nephews), was the founder of the house of Valois had two sons, Philip VI, the fortunate, and Charles of Alencon. Things looked even better one generation later when Philip’s oldest son, John II, had four sons, who each had sons of their own. The senior Valois line was doing great, even after the shocking reign of Charles VI, you should remember him from earlier episode, he thought he was made of glass and was generally mentally unwell. He at various points had three sons alive until near the very end of his reign. Left with only one son, the future Charles VII, at the end though it looked bad for a moment, but Charles VII had two surviving sons. His second son, also Charles, didn’t have any children. His heir, whom he never got along with, Louis XI only had one surviving son though. And this is where things go wrong. Louis XI didn’t have much of a chance to not get along with his son. This Charles, Charles VIII was only 13 when he succeeded to the throne, in August of 1483. His regent was his older sister, Anne, whom I’d rate as one of the top three kings to ever rule France (along with Blanche of Castile and Charles V, yes, I do know that I put two women in the top three French kings ever). Charles VIII was not well suited to the role of king. Thankfully Anne was suited and her husband was helpful, sadly, her regency ended in 1491. She is the woman who, likely, helped Henry Tudor gather forces for his, successful, attempt at the English throne. 

In 1483, while his father was still alive, Charles VIII, was betrothed to Margaret of Austria who was three at the time. Margaret was raised in France and grew to care greatly for her betrothed. Sadly for her it did not end well. Charles’ sister, Anne, whom I’ll call Madame la Grande, because that’s what she was called, who was in control of things was happy for him to marry Margaret until she realised, in 1488, that there might be a better bride for her brother. That’s the year that Francis II of Brittany died, this was the duke who had helped protect Henry VII of England. Francis’ heir was his oldest daughter, Anne. Now, going all the way back to the War of Bretton Succession, in theory the duchy should have gone to the senior male-line descendant of Joan of Brittany and Charles of Blois. In case you’re curious this would have been John III of Navarre, also known as Jean d’albret. Of note, D’Albret’s mother had renounced her rights a few times and even sold them to Louis XI of France. I’ll get back to Margaret and Charles in two seconds, but Jean D’Albret is actually the great-grandfather-in-law of your third subject, Antione du Bourbon. This means in theory the result that is about to happen would happen anyway, it just would have taken longer. What was going to happen next you ask? Well, Anne of Brittany, at only 11 decided to arrange a marriage between herself and Margaret’s father, Maximilian of Austria. The French regent though said no, and due to Brittany’s loss in the recent Mad War, in French la Guerre folle (gerr full), Anne of Brittany was forced to ask for French approval for marriages. 

Despite Madame la Grande’s denial Anne was still married by proxy to Maximilian, this marriage would, legally, last from December 1490 until February 1492. Anne was unable to move to Germany though, due to both her husband being busy with his own wars and the French literally blocking her. In 1491 the French actually lay siege to Rennes, where Anne was staying. After two months she was forced to allow Charles VIII into the city. The couple was officially married on the 6th of December 1491. You’ll notice that overlaps with the dates of Anne’s first marriage. Yup, Charles VIII didn’t wait for papal dispensation, which came in February the following year. Now Brittany is, at least temporarily, part of France, to keep it though, Charles needs to have children with Anne. And this is one thing they seemed to be good at, at least the making kids part. Between October 1492 and March 1498 Anne had six documented pregnancies (remember, her annulment only came through in February 1492). Only one child, their oldest, Charles Orlando, survived infancy. He died of measles at the age of three, I’ll use this as my vaccination reminder, don’t risk measles. His parents were, unsurprisingly devastated to the point where his mother’s mental health was questioned. This means, though, that when Charles VIII hit his head on the lintel of a door in 1498 leaving a tennis match and died a few hours later his line ended. Those who follow me on Instagram will know I have a love of kingly deaths caused by door lintels and tennis, so this actually ranks as my favourite royal death, as macabre as that is. His uncle hadn’t had any children, his grea-uncles, as you’ll remember, had all died young, which left the descendants of his great-great-uncle Louis of Orleans, the first on that list was interestingly Louis II of Orleans, who will become Louis XII. And this is what gets us to our first Passed, the man who died too early to rule, Charles of Orleans, the oldest surviving son of Louis of Orleans. and the father of Louis II of Orleans. This line becomes the short-live Valois-Orleans’ family. You will of course have to wait until next week to hear Charles of Orleans’ story, but now you have the set up, sorry to leave you hanging. But here’s a little about his son, Louis. This Louis became Louis XII of France and was actually a rather impressive king, easily in the top ten, maybe even five French kings. Sadly he hadn’t had the happiest personal life, at least not at first. Louis XI, Charles VII’s father, had forced Louis of Orleans to marry his daughter, no not Madame la Grande, but his other daughter, Joan, in 1476. Joan likely had a malformation of her spine, she walked with a limp and had a hump on her back. Due to this her father thought she would be unable to bear children and apparently hoped that marrying her to Louis would end the Orlean’s line. I should mention that Louis XI earned the nickname The Universal Spider due to his spinning of webs, as in his plotting and conspiring. In all fairness he was also called the Prudent. So, yes, if you’re unclear the king of France had married his own daughter off, not for her happiness or even financial wellbeing, but to stop his cousin from having children. Oh, and I should mention the Joan was actually a brilliant, educated, and interesting woman, she just had a physical deformity. She was three years older than Louis of Orleans. Now, I have no idea if their marriage was consummated, because this is a disputed issue. That dispute is actually kind of the start of Louis XII’s reign. Louis was now king and he wanted his marriage annulled, so he could marry Anne of Brittany. Yes, I did say the correct name, the widow of the previous king, Charles VIII. Louis’ grounds for dissolving his marriage were that he was below the legal age of consent, 14, further, that the marriage had never been consummated, and finally that Joan had employed witchcraft to stop him from having sex with her. Joan’s argument in opposition to this (remember, she is now the queen of France) is that the marriage had been consummated, which was all she needed to argue to win. Sadly for Joan the Pope was on Louis’ side and their marriage was annulled. By the way, he could have made this easier by just claiming consanguinity, they we related through Charles V of France and it looks like papal dispensation hadn’t been received. 

After this annulment Louis XII was able to marry Anne of Brittany. Anne was a good choice, she was obviously fertile, not even 22, and kept Brittany as part of France. They were married on the 9th of January 1499. Anne was able to negotiate that Brittany would remain seperate from France and that their second child would inherit the Duchy (interestingly it appears that a daughter had equal inheritance rights to a son in this clause). Anne and Louis had five pregnancy. If you’re keeping track that is 11 pregnancies for Anne between 1492 and 1513. Her only two children to survive into audulthood were from her second marriage, her daughters, Claude and Renee. Louis wasn’t giving up though. Anne died in early 1514, by October that year Louis had married Mary Tudor, the younger sister of Henry VIII of England. If you’ve watched The Tudors or the White Princess you may think Louis was an old man at death’s door, but he was actually only 51. Mary though, was rather young at on 20. This marriage was not to last long though. 

On to the next Charles, Charles of Angouleme, which oddly will actually tell you how the younger Louis XII’s story ends. And that was the end of the short-lived senior Valois-Orleans’ line. Which brings us to the Valois-Angouleme line, which should probably be called the Valois-Orleans-Angouleme line. See, while Louis XI had tried to end one part of the Orleans’ line he forgot the other, that of Charles of Orleans’ younger brother. I do again apologise that you’ll have to wait a few weeks to hear the story of Charles, Count of Angouleme, but I am hoping you’ll stick around for that. 

But here’s a bit of what happened after Charles of Angouleme. This new line would last for a few more generations than the most recent one, by that, I meant lasted three generations. It still managed to have five monarchs. The second Valois-Angouleme king, Henri II had four sons survive childhood, much like Philip IV, the Fair, this didn’t work out though. Three of his sons would rule and all four failed to produce male issue. In fact, Henri II only had one legitimate granddaughter from any of his sons. This means when Henri III was assassinated in 1589 that was it for any Valois-Orleans lines, at least male lines. This meant, yet again due to Philip V’s decision way back in 1316, more than two hundred and fifty years earlier France needed a new king. Before you think they had a lot of research to do, oh no, the French court 100% knew who the next king should be, he was in fact the first prince of the blood or premier prince du sang. But there was one problem, religion. In this moment France considered ditching Salic Law. This is where our last two subjects come in. 

I’m actually going to do these out of order because it will make more sense that way. The one who was almost the first queen of France is easy to explain, and unlike our other subjects her claim is rather obvious. Isabella Clara Eugenia was the oldest daughter of Elizabeth of France, the oldest daughter and second child of Henri II. Her uncle, Henri III was the last Valois-Anglouleme king. Had France practiced inheritance law like England or even more correctly Brittany she would have had a great claim. Since religion was such an issue in France, as patrons will find out in coming weeks, and Isabella was Catholic she was the first choice for much of the French estates general. 

The final person who was almost king, Antoine Bourbon, This is where I need to properly get into genealogy. Remember when I’m going through this list that 1589 is the date we’re going towards. As I mentioned above, the first Valois king, Philip VI had two sons, John II and Philip of Orleans, John had four sons, and Philip had none. So this leaves John’s four sons, his oldest Charles V had two sons, and we’ve seen both of his lines, the senior Valois line and the cadet Valois-Orleans lines. So, let’s go through each of John’s three younger sons, Louis of Anjou, John of Berry, and Philip of Burgundy Philip the Bold. 

First up Louis, Duke of Anjou. His only surviving son, also Louis, has issue another Louis, Rene, and Charles. Louis had no children. Rene, does and he has come up before, he is the father of Margaret of Anjou, Henry VI of England’s wife. He has two sons, John (d.1470) and Louis. The third son, Charles, has one son, also Charles. So, now we have John, Louis, and their cousin Charles. John only had one surviving son, Nicholas (d.1473), who died childless. Louis had no children. Their cousin, Charles (d.1481), had no children. With that, in 1481 the male line of the Valois-Anjou is over. 

Next up is John Duke of Berry. This one is pretty quick and easy. John has one surviving son, also John. The younger John has no children and predeceases his father. So, when the elder John dies in 1416 the Valois-Berry line is over. I told you it was a short story. 

Finally, the Burgundians, oh and I’ll be using their soubriquets because those are amazing. If you want a more detailed story please go listen to the Grand Dukes of the West, really. But for now, Philip the Bold. Philip had three surviving sons; John the Fearless (you should remember him or at least his death), Antoine, and Philip. John has one surviving son, Philip the Good. Antoine has two sons, John and Philip. Finally Philip has two sons Charles and John. Of Philip the Good, John, Philip, Charles, and John though, only Philip the Good has a surviving son. Philip the Good had no trouble having children, in fact he gave Henry I of England a run for his money, fathering at least 18 illegitimate children. Much like Henry I he only managed to have one legitimate surviving child, but unlike Henry he had a son properly survive, no shipwrecks or anything, Charles the Bold. Charles is one of my favourite historical subjects, I’m sure I’ll find a way to do a special episode about him at some point. Charles didn’t earn his soubriquet by being safe and this would end the Valois-Burgundian line in 1477 when he died with only a daughter. With that I’ve eliminated all of John II sons and their respective male-lines. 

So, I need to go back to Philip IV’s generation. Philip IV’s brother, Charles of Valois (who’s Philip VI’s father), when not poisoning his nephews (I kid) had a second son, he actually had a few other sons, but only the second one survived. This son, Charles of Alencon died at the Battle of Crecy, but before he did he had four surviving sons; Charles, Philip, Peter, and Robert. Charles and Philip couldn’t have legitimate issue because they were both bishops, oops. Peter had one surviving son, John. Robert, the youngest had no surviving issue. This leaves Peter’s son John. John had one surviving son, also John (really they need more names). John had a single legitimate son, Rene. Rene kept this going by having one surviving son, Charles. Throughout much of his life Charles was the first prince of the blood, the highest ranked member of the royal family after the king and his immediate heirs. But he died in 1525, without issue, which ends the Valois-Alencon line. 

I now get to go back to Philip IV and Charles of Valois’ generation. They had a younger half brother as you might remember, Louis, Count of Evreaux. Louis had two surviving sons, Charles and Philip. Charles had one son, Louis, though Louis had no issue. Philip is, of course, Philip of Evreux, the husband of Joan II of Navarre and the father of Charles II of Navarre, the Bad. Philip and Joan had two further sons; Philip and Louis. Charles the Bad had one surviving son, Charles III, who only had daughters, though through his second daughter, Blanche, his line will eventually rejoin the French throne. Their second son, Philip, had no issue. Their third son, Louis, did the same. So, this ends the Evreaux cadet lines, and this happened all the way back in 1425. 

This means that by 1525 all the cadet lines of Valois were gone, it was only the senior royal line. So, who is going to inherit the throne if Henry II’s sons fail to have sons? Well, let’s go one more generation back, to the father of Philip IV, Charles of Valois, and Louis of Evreaux. Philip III had been the oldest son of Louis IX, Saint Louis. For reference, Philip III reigned from 1270 to 1285, we are looking at a new king in the 1500s, this is how complicated Salic Law made things! Because I’ve gone through everyone else’s family tree I’m actually going to skip this next one because Louis IX had four surviving sons; Philip III, John Tristan, Peter, and Robert of Clermont. It was through his youngest son, Robert that the Bourbon line comes. It’s also a cadet line of the Clermont line! The point I’m trying to make is that France was willing to look all the way back to a line from the 13th century to avoid having a woman rule.

Throughout his life Antoine de Bourbon, king of Navarre, had known he was in line for the French throne. He could never have expected that his distant cousins, Henri II’s sons, would fail to have issue. The idea that his son would be king of France would have been the furthest thing from his mind. But somehow it happened. The reason I’m looking forward to covering him is to get the chance to explore the interaction between the French and Navarees thrones. Plus, it gives me a chance to put names into the wars of religion going on at France during this time. 

With that long genealogy recap out of the way I will see you all next week to discuss prison and poetry with Charles of Orleans. 

For the full text of Salic Law please see here: https://avalon.law.yale.edu/medieval/salic.asp