Charles de Valois, Duke of Angoulême
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Charles de Valois (28 April 1573 – 24 September 1650) was an illegitimate son of Charles IX of France and Marie Touchet. He was
count of Auvergne This is a list of the various rulers of Auvergne. History In the 7th century Auvergne was disputed between the Franks and Aquitanians. It was later conquered by the Carolingians, and was integrated for a time into the kingdom of Aquitaine. The ...
,
duke of Angoulême Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are rank ...
, and memoirist.


Biography

Charles de Valois was born at the Château de Fayet in Dauphiné in 1573, the illegitimate son of Charles IX and
Marie Touchet Marie Touchet (; 1549 Р28 March 1638), Dame de Belleville, was the only mistress of Charles IX of France. Life Although born to a bourgeois family at Orl̩ans, the daughter of Marie Mathy and a Huguenot lieutenant Jean Touchet, she "held ...
. His father, died the following year, commended him to the care and favour of Henry III, who faithfully fulfilled the charge. His mother then married François de Balzac, marquis d'Entragues. Charles de Valois was carefully educated and was inducted into the
Knights of Malta The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), officially the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta ( it, Sovrano Militare Ordine Ospedaliero di San Giovanni di Gerusalemme, di Rodi e di Malta; ...
. In 1588, he attained one of the highest dignities of the order, being made Grand Prior of France. Shortly after he came into possession of large estates left by his paternal grandmother
Catherine de' Medici Catherine de' Medici ( it, Caterina de' Medici, ; french: Catherine de Médicis, ; 13 April 1519 â€“ 5 January 1589) was an Florentine noblewoman born into the Medici family. She was Queen of France from 1547 to 1559 by marriage to King ...
, from one of which he took his title of count of Auvergne. Following Henry III's was assassination, Charles was commended to the good-will of his successor Henry IV. Under Henry IV of France he was made colonel of horse, and in that capacity commanded a squadron at the
Battle of Ivry The Battle of Ivry was fought on 14 March 1590, during the French Wars of Religion. The battle was a decisive victory for Henry IV of France, leading French royal and English forces against the Catholic League by the Duc de Mayenne and Spanis ...
. In 1601, Charles engaged in the conspiracy formed by the Dukes of
Savoy Savoy (; frp, Savouè ; french: Savoie ) is a cultural-historical region in the Western Alps. Situated on the cultural boundary between Occitania and Piedmont, the area extends from Lake Geneva in the north to the Dauphiné in the south. Savo ...
, Biron and Monsieur de Turenne. The conspiracy was discovered; Biron and Bouillon were arrested and Biron was executed. Charles was released after a few months' imprisonment, chiefly through the influence of his half-sister, his aunt, the duchess of Angoulême and his father-in-law. Charles then entered into fresh intrigues with the court of Philip III of Spain, acting in concert with Henriette de Balzac d'Entragues, his half-sister, and her father d'Entragues. In 1604 he and d'Entragues were arrested and condemned to death; at the same time Henriette was condemned to perpetual imprisonment in a convent. She easily obtained pardon, and the sentence of death against the other two was commuted into perpetual imprisonment. Charles remained in the Bastille for eleven years, from 1605 to 1616. A decree of the parlement (1606), obtained by Marguerite de Valois, deprived him of nearly all his possessions, including Auvergne, though he still retained the title. In 1616 he was released, was restored to his rank of colonel-general of horse, and dispatched against one of the disaffected nobles, the duke of Longueville, who had taken Péronne. Next year he commanded the forces collected in the Île-de-France, and obtained some successes. In 1619 he received by bequest, ratified in 1620 by royal grant, the duchy of Angoulême. Soon after he was engaged on an important embassy to the Holy Roman Empire, the result of which was the treaty of Ulm, signed July 1620. In 1627 he commanded the large forces assembled at the siege of La Rochelle; and some years after in 1635, during the Thirty Years' War, he was general of the French army in Lorraine. In 1636 he was made lieutenant-general of the army. He appears to have retired from public life shortly after the death of
Richelieu Richelieu (, ; ) may refer to: People * Cardinal Richelieu (Armand-Jean du Plessis, 1585–1642), Louis XIII's chief minister * Alphonse-Louis du Plessis de Richelieu (1582–1653), French Carthusian bishop and Cardinal * Louis François Armand ...
in 1643. The duke was the author of the following works: *', from the assassination of Henri III. to the battle of Arques (1589–1593) published at Paris by Boneau, and reprinted by Buchon in his Choix de chroniques (1836) and by Petitot in his Mémoires (1st series, vol. xliv.) *' (1620) *a translation of a Spanish work by Diego de Torres. *''La générale et fidèle Relation de tout ce qui s'est passé en l'Isle de Ré, envoyée par le Roy à la Royne sa mère'' (Paris, 1624). Angoulême died on 24 September 1650.


Personal life

In 1591 he obtained a dispensation from the vows of the Order of Malta, and married Charlotte, daughter of Henry, ''maréchal d'Amville'', afterwards
Duke of Montmorency Duke of Montmorency was a title of French nobility that was created several times for members of the Montmorency family, who were lords of Montmorency, near Paris. History The first creation was in 1551 for Anne de Montmorency, Constable of ...
and his first wife. They had had three children: * Henri * Louis-Emmanuel de Valois, Count d'Alais, who succeeded his father as duke of Angoulême and was colonel-general of light cavalry and governor of Provence; his daughter
Marie Françoise de Valois Marie may refer to: People Name * Marie (given name) * Marie (Japanese given name) * Marie (murder victim), girl who was killed in Florida after being pushed in front of a moving vehicle in 1973 * Marie (died 1759), an enslaved Cree person in Tro ...
married
Louis, Duke of Joyeuse Louis de Lorraine, Duke of Joyeuse (11 January 1622 – 27 September 1654, Paris) was a younger son of Charles, Duke of Guise and Henriette Catherine de Joyeuse. Life He was appointed Grand Chamberlain of France in 1644, shortly after the Guises ...
; * François, who died in 1622. Charles' first wife died in 1636, and in 1644 he married Françoise de Narbonne, daughter of Charles, baron of Mareuil. They had no children and survived her husband until 1713.


References


Sources

* * * * * * * * * *189 Attribution * {{DEFAULTSORT:Valois, Charles 1573 births 1650 deaths Dukes of Angoulême
Charles Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English language, English and French language, French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic, Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*k ...
French memoirists 17th-century French writers 17th-century French male writers Illegitimate children of French monarchs Prisoners of the Bastille 17th-century memoirists Sons of kings