Charlotte of Valois

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

Charlotte, ca. 1517 by Jean Clouet

Charlotte was born in the Château d'Amboise, on 23 October 1516, 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, Claude's mother. She lived a happy life, moving from the Château d'Amboise to the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye before March 1519.

Following the death of her older sister Louise in 1518, Charlotte took her place as the fiancée of King Charles I of Spain under the Treaty of Noyon. The marriage would never come to fruition.^[1]

Later life and death

The Princess spent all of her remaining days at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye. 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 had gone to war. He was later imprisoned, so was nowhere near his daughter at the time of her death. It appears as if Charlotte was very close to her aunt, who was heartbroken and distraught when her "little one"^{[citation needed]} died, on 18 September 1524.

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.

• 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.