Charlotte of Valois

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.

Charlotte
Charlotte in 1524, by Jean Clouet
Born	23 October 1516 Château d'Amboise
Died	18 September 1524(1524-09-18) (aged 7) Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye
Burial	Basilica of Saint-Denis
House	House of Valois-Angoulême
Father	Francis I of France
Mother	Claude of France

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.^[1]

Later life and death

Princess Charlotte by Jean Clouet, 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]} died.

Ancestry

Ancestors of Charlotte of Valois

8. John, Count of Angoulême[2] 4. Charles, Count of Angoulême[3] 9. Marguerite de Rohan[4] 2. Francis I of France 10. Philip II, Duke of Savoy[5] 5. Louise of Savoy[3] 11. Margaret of Bourbon[5] 1. Charlotte of Valois 12. Charles, Duke of Orléans[6] 6. Louis XII of France[7] 13. Marie of Cleves[6] 3. Claude, Duchess of Brittany 14. Francis II, Duke of Brittany[8] 7. Anne, Duchess of Brittany[7] 15. Margaret of Foix[8]

References

1. Pardoe, Julia (1849). The Court and Reign of Francis the First, King of France. Lea and Blanchard. p. 217. ISBN 1143156226. Retrieved 3 August 2022.
2. Adams, Tracy (2010). The Life and Afterlife of Isabeau of Bavaria. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 255.
3. Knecht, R.J. (1984). Francis I. Cambridge University Press. pp. 1–2.
4. Gicquel, Yvonig [in French] (1986). Alain IX de Rohan, 1382-1462: un grand seigneur de l'âge d'or de la Bretagne (in French). Éditions Jean Picollec. p. 480. ISBN 9782864770718. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
5. Jackson-Laufer, Guida Myrl (1999). Women Rulers Throughout the Ages: An Illustrated Guide. ABC-CLIO. p. 231.
6. Wilson, Katharina M. (1991). An Encyclopedia of Continental Women Writers. Taylor & Francis. p. 258. ISBN 9780824085476. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
7. Anselme de Sainte-Marie, Père (1726). Histoire généalogique et chronologique de la maison royale de France [Genealogical and chronological history of the royal house of France] (in French). Vol. 1 (3rd ed.). Paris: La compagnie des libraires. pp. 134–136.
8. Robin, Diana Maury; Larsen, Anne R.; Levin, Carole (2007). Encyclopedia of Women in the Renaissance: Italy, France, and England. ABC-CLIO. p. 20. ISBN 978-1851097722.

Further reading

• Freer, Martha Walker. The Life of Marguerite D'Angoulême, Queen of Navarre. pp. 141–143. Second Edition, Revised. London, 1856.
• The Cambridge Modern History. A. W. Ward, editor. Vol. 2, p. 417. MacMillan Company, 1904.
• Portrait of Charlotte of France. Minneapolis Institute of Arts.