Charles II de Valois, Duke of Orléans

Charles II of Orléans (22 January 1522 – 9 September 1545) was the third son of Francis I and Claude of France.

Duke of Orléans

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 Angoulême. After his brother's death, he became Duke of Orléans, a titled 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. He was, by far, his father's favorite son. 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.

In 1540 he was granted the title of Count of Clermont.

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.

Marriage arrangements

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. 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. 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" 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 Crépy 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-Comté 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 Angoulême, Châtellerault, Bourbon and Orléans

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