Charlotte of Valois

{{Infobox royalty

| name = Charlotte

| image = Jean Clouet Charlotte of France MIA 35798.jpg

| image_size = 180px

| caption = Charlotte in 1524, by Jean Clouet

| house = House of Valois-Angoulême

| father = Francis I of France

| mother = Claude of France

| birth_date = 23 October 1516

| birth_place = Château d'Amboise

| death_date = {{death date and age|1524|9|18|1516|10|23|df=y}}

| death_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye

| burial_place = Basilica of Saint-Denis

}}

Charlotte of France (23 October 1516 – 18 September 1524) was the second child and second daughter of the French King Francis I and his wife Queen Claude.

Early life

Princess Charlotte was born on 23 October 1516 at the Château d'Amboise (in the Loire Valley in France) as the second daughter and child of King Francis I and Queen Claude. She had greenish blue eyes and bright red hair. She was one of the six children of the King and Queen that had red hair, a trait inherited from Anne of Brittany, the Queen's mother.

Following the death of her older sister Louise in 1518, Charlotte took her place as the fiancée of King Charles I of Spain (the later Holy Roman Emperor Charles V) under the Treaty of Noyon. The marriage would never be completed due to her early death.{{cite book |last1=Pardoe |first1=Julia |title=The Court and Reign of Francis the First, King of France |date=1849 |publisher=Lea and Blanchard |isbn=1143156226 |pages=217 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BIEQAAAAYAAJ |access-date=3 August 2022}}

Later life and death

File:Charlotte1516.jpg, c. 1517]]

She lived a happy life. Before March 1519 she moved from the Château d'Amboise to the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, where she remained for the rest of her short life. She had always been a delicate, frail child. At age seven, she contracted measles, the same disease which had killed her uncle, Charles Orlando, Dauphin of France, thirty years earlier. The only person who looked after her while she was sick was her aunt, Margaret of Angoulême, as her mother had already died two months earlier, her grandmother Louise of Savoy was very sick and her father was occupied by war. As he was later imprisoned, he was absent when his daughter died on 18 September 1524. Charlotte likely was very close to her aunt, who was heartbroken and distraught when her "little one"{{citation needed|date=April 2013}} died.

Ancestry

{{ahnentafel

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| 1 = 1. Charlotte of Valois

| 2 = 2. Francis I of France

| 3 = 3. Claude, Duchess of Brittany

| 4 = 4. Charles, Count of Angoulême{{cite book |first=R.J. |last=Knecht |title=Francis I |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1984 |pages=1–2}}

| 5 = 5. Louise of Savoy

| 6 = 6. Louis XII of France{{cite book |title=Histoire généalogique et chronologique de la maison royale de France |volume=1 |trans-title=Genealogical and chronological history of the royal house of France |last=Anselme de Sainte-Marie |first=Père |url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k76026j/f149.image |publisher=La compagnie des libraires |location=Paris |pages=134–136 |language=fr |edition=3rd |year=1726 }}

| 7 = 7. Anne, Duchess of Brittany

| 8 = 8. John, Count of Angoulême{{cite book |first=Tracy |last=Adams |title=The Life and Afterlife of Isabeau of Bavaria |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |year=2010 |page=255}}

| 9 = 9. Marguerite de Rohan{{cite book|last=Gicquel|first=Yvonig|author-link=:fr:Yvonig Gicquel|title=Alain IX de Rohan, 1382-1462: un grand seigneur de l'âge d'or de la Bretagne|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pGgfAAAAMAAJ|access-date=28 June 2018|year=1986|publisher=Éditions Jean Picollec|language=fr|isbn=9782864770718|page=480}}

|10 = 10. Philip II, Duke of Savoy{{cite book |first=Guida Myrl |last=Jackson-Laufer |title=Women Rulers Throughout the Ages: An Illustrated Guide |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=1999 |page=231}}

|11 = 11. Margaret of Bourbon

|12 = 12. Charles, Duke of Orléans{{cite book|last=Wilson|first=Katharina M.|title=An Encyclopedia of Continental Women Writers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2Wf1SVbGFg8C&pg=PA258|access-date=28 June 2018|year=1991|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=9780824085476|page=258}}

|13 = 13. Marie of Cleves

|14 = 14. Francis II, Duke of Brittany{{cite book|last1=Robin|first1=Diana Maury|last2=Larsen|first2=Anne R.|last3=Levin|first3=Carole|title=Encyclopedia of Women in the Renaissance: Italy, France, and England|date=2007|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1851097722 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OQ8mdTjxungC&q=anne+of+brittany+born+1477+nantes |page=20}}

|15 = 15. Margaret of Foix

}}

Charlotte of Valois

Early life

Later life and death

Ancestry

References

Further reading