Charles IV of Anjou

Charles IV, Duke of Anjou, also Charles of Maine, Count of Le Maine and Guise (1446 – 10 December 1481), was the son of the Angevin prince Charles of Maine, Count of Maine and Isabelle of Luxembourg-Saint-Pol.^[1]

Coat of arms of Charles V

He succeeded his father as Count of Maine, Guise, Mortain and Gien in 1472. He succeeded his uncle René I of Naples in 1480 as fourth Duke of Anjou and Count of Provence, according to the will of René, who had no surviving son.^[2] René's surviving daughter Yolande received Bar and was already Duchess of Lorraine.

He also used the title of Duke of Calabria, in token of the claims to Naples he inherited from René.^[2]

In 1474 he married Joan of Lorraine (1458 – 25 January 1480),^[1] daughter of Frederick II of Vaudémont, but they had no children. He died on 10 December 1481.

He willed his inheritance to his cousin Louis XI of France, whose heirs thus obtained a claim to the affairs of Italy, pursued in the next decades,^[3] as well as the County of Provence which was later incorporated into France.

Notes

1. Potter 1995, p. 374.
2. Grierson & Travaini 1998, p. 338.
3. Emile de Bonnechose; William Robson (1856). History of France, from the Invasion of the Franks Under Clovis, to the Accession of Louis Philippe (2nd ed.). Routledge. p. 223.

References

• Grierson, Philip; Travaini, Lucia (1998). Medieval European Coinage: Volume 14, South Italy, Sicily, Sardinia. Cambridge University Press.
• Potter, David (1995). A History of France, 1460-1560: The Emergence of a Nation State. St. Martin's Press.

See also

• Counts and Dukes of Anjou
• Counts and Dukes of Maine
• Counts of Provence
• Dukes of Guise

Preceded by René	Duke of Anjou Count of Provence and Forcalquier 1480–1481	Crown lands of France
Preceded by Charles of Le Maine	Count of Gien, Guise, Maine and Mortain 1472–1481