Charles I. (Rouen)

Portrait of Charles' de Bourbon by an anonymous 16th century artist

Charles de Bourbon de Vendôme , as Cardinal of Bourbon known (* 22. December 1523 in the castle of La Ferte-sous-Jouarre ; †  9. May 1590 in Fontenay-le-Comte ) was from 1550 to 1590 Archbishop of Rouen and cardinal from 1548 until his death .

As a prince of the blood closely related to both the French kings and the Navarre royal family, he was elected by the Guisen Catholic League three days after the assassination of Henry III. In 1589 proclaimed the new French king under the name of Charles X to prevent Charles' nephew, the Huguenot Henry of Navarre , from taking over the throne. But as early as March 1590, Charles de Bourbon recognized his rival for the throne as the legitimate king of France. The name Charles X was erased from all files and public documents that had accrued up to then by order of the Parliament of Paris.

Life

Childhood and youth

Charles was the eighth child and fifth son of Charles IV. De Bourbon and his wife Françoise d'Alençon , duchesse de Beaumont, daughter of Renés de Valois . A prince of the blood himself, he was related to the royal family of Navarre through his older brother Antoine de Bourbon , who was also his godfather .

His parents had envisaged a church career for him from early childhood, and so the education he received at La Fère Castle in Picardy was aimed at a career within the church from the start. He then went to Paris with his cousin Charles de Lorraine-Guise , who later became Archbishop of Reims , to study at the Collège de Navarre .

At the age of 16, Charles was named Bishop of Nevers on July 5, 1540 . It was the first of a total of six episcopal offices that he held in the course of his life.

Church career

On January 23, 1544, Charles de Bourbon was awarded another lucrative benefice with the bishopric of Saintes , before he, on the proposal of King Henry II, on January 9, 1547 by Pope Paul III. was appointed cardinal of the class of cardinal deacon with the title deaconry of San Sisto Vecchio . Subsequently he called himself Cardinal of Vendôme ( French Cardinal de Vendôme ), since his uncle Louis de Bourbon-Vendôme , who was also Cardinal since 1517, was already called Cardinal de Bourbon . It was only after his death in March 1557 that he was named Cardinal of Bourbon .

From March 9, 1550, he also held the office of Bishop of Carcassonne , which he held until December 15, 1553 and then again from October 4, 1565 to 1567. In 1550 he also became the bishopric of Nantes . The highlight of the year for Charles was his appointment as Archbishop of Rouen on October 3rd, with whom he succeeded Georges II d'Amboise . His solemn entry into Rouen took place on April 11, 1551, at which not only the most important nobles of the kingdom but also all the suffragan bishops of the ecclesiastical province were present; including Charles d'Humières ( Bishop of Bayeux ), Gabriel Le Veneur de Tillières ( Bishop of Évreux ) and Pierre Duval ( Bishop of Sées ).

On April 22, 1559, he was appointed governor of Paris and Île-de-France as successor to François de Montmorency and thus held a secular post for the first time in addition to his ecclesiastical offices. In August 1562, Charles succeeded his late brother Antoine as head of the royal advisory board to Charles IX. after and kept this post under Karl's successor Heinrich III. At the Estates General in Orléans from December 1560, however, he participated as a representative of the clergy .

In 1561 Charles de Bourbon was awarded the class of cardinal priest by the Pope , and he then moved to the titular church of San Crisogono . In the period from 1565 to 1590 he also served as the papal legate of Avignon.

After he had gradually renounced all episcopal offices with the exception of the seat in Rouen, Charles was on the recommendation of Charles IX. on August 26, 1569 by Pope Pius V appointed bishop of Beauvais and remained so until August 1575. Symbolically, the abbot of Notre Dame de Chartrice from the diocese of Châlons , Louis de Mainteterne, took office on October 30, 1569 for Charles because the newly elected bishop did not want to travel there himself due to the fierce fighting over Beauvais in the course of the Huguenot Wars . His first presence in Beauvais is not guaranteed until May 1572. He had previously initiated the construction of the Carthusian monastery of Notre Dame de Bonne-Espérance in Aubevoye near Gaillon in 1571 , which was also named after him Chartreuse de Bourbon . Two other building projects Charles' were the founding of a Paulaner monastery in Dieppe in 1580 and the building of the abbot's palace ( French Palais Abbatial ) of Saint-Germain-des-Prés in 1586 by the architect Guillaume Marchant .

King of the Catholic League

After the death of François-Hercule de Valois, duc d'Alençon , the childless Henry III determined. King Henry of Navarre as heir to the throne. However, the Guisen party did not want to accept a Huguenot on the French throne and therefore strictly rejected Henry of Navarre. Duke Henri I de Lorraine, duc de Guise , secretly concluded the Treaty of Joinville with Philip II of Spain on December 31, 1584 , which was also ratified by Pope Sixtus V. The contract saw the death of Henry III. Charles de Bourbon as heir to the throne in order to exclude all other French princes entitled to inherit the Reformed faith. In July 1585, the league even succeeded in getting Henry III. to wrest the Treaty of Nemours , which only allowed the practice of the Catholic faith in France and excluded Huguenots from any public office. Henry of Navarre effectively retired as heir to the throne. In July 1588, Heinrich III agreed. also entered the Édit de l'Union , in which he recognized Charles de Bourbon as his “closest blood relative” (“[…] plus proche parent de son sang […]”) and thus implicitly as his legitimate successor.

The exclusion of the fiercest competitor had paved the way for Charles to the French royal throne since then, but this situation changed in a flash during the Estates General in Blois . Henry III. After the assassination of Henri I de Lorraine on December 23, 1588, the cardinal was imprisoned as a Guise supporter and brought to Tours . When the king was assassinated on August 2, 1589, Charles - although still living in captivity - was proclaimed king under the name of Charles X by the head of the Catholic League, Charles II. De Lorraine, duc de Mayenne . The Parlement of Paris then issued two orders on November 21, 1589 and March 5, 1590, which appointed him the "true and legitimate King of France" ("[...] vrai et légitime roy de France [...]"). The league then began to have coins with his likeness and his coat of arms minted and put into circulation. Because of their small number, these are now sought-after collector's items.

Meanwhile in custody in the castle of Fontenay-le-Comte in Poitou , the now 66-year-old Charles sent his chancellor in March 1590 with a letter to his nephew Henry IV, in which he recognized him as the rightful king. Despite this letter, he remained in prison and died in custody on May 9, 1590 of kidney stones. His body was buried in the Carthusian monastery of Aubevoye and his heart was buried in the church of Sant-Nicolas in Fontenay-le-Comte.

On September 3, 1594, the Paris Parliament issued an order that the name of Charles X should be deleted from all public records.

Other offices and activities

In addition to his offices as bishop, Charles de Bourbon was also the commendate abbot of numerous French monasteries, including some of the richest in the country, such as the Abbey of Jumièges , the monasteries of St. Germain-des-Prés, La Sainte-Trinité in Vendôme and Saint Ouen in Rouen as well as the Abbeys of Corbie and Saint Denis . At times he was subordinate to more than 20 monasteries, which made him one of the richest princes in France. In addition, on December 31, 1579, he was appointed the first Commander of the Order of the Holy Spirit .

As one of the highest-ranking prelates in France, who was also a prince of the blood, Charles carried out almost all marriages of members of the royal family in his day. This included the marriage of Francis II with Maria Stuart in the Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral as well as the marriage of Elisabeth of Valois with the Spanish king Philip II (represented by Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alba ) and Charles IX. of France with Elisabeth of Austria , whom he also crowned queen around four months later in Saint-Denis. In August 1572 he also married Henri I de Bourbon and his own niece Marie de Clèves (1553–1574), whose godfather he was, and led the solemn engagement ceremony of Princess Margaret of Valois with the Huguenot King Henry of Navarra in the Louvre . The wedding ceremony of Henry III. and Louises de Lorraine-Vaudémont on February 15, 1575 in the Cathedral of Reims was celebrated by him.

literature

• Frederic J. Baumgartner: The Case for Charles X . In: Sixteenth Century Journal . No. 2, Issue 4, October 1973, pp. 87-98, doi : 10.2307 / 2539725 .
• Charles Berton: Dictionnaire des cardinaux. Contenant des notions générales sur le cardinalat . J.-P. Migne, Paris 1857, columns 585-586, ( online )
• Jacques du Breul: Vie de Charles de Bourbon, cardial-archevêque de Rouen, oncle du roi Henri IV . Paris 1612.
• Honoré Fisquet : La France pontificale (Gallia christiana), histoire chronologique et biographique des archevêques et évêques de tous les diocèses de France depuis l'établissement du christianisme jusqu'à nos jours, divisée en 17 provinces ecclésiastique. Métropole de Rouen. Rouen . E. Repos, Paris 1866, pp. 213-219.
• Honoré Fisquet: La France pontificale (Gallia christiana), histoire chronologique et biographique des archevêques et évêques de tous les diocèses de France depuis l'établissement du christianisme jusqu'à nos jours, divisée en 17 provinces ecclésiastique. Métropole de Sens. Nevers - Bethléhem . E. Repos, Paris 1866, pp. 73-79 ( online ).
• Eugène Saulnier: Le rôle politique du cardinal de Bourbon (Charles X), 1523–1590 . Honoré Champion, Paris 1912 ( online ).

Web links

Commons : Charles de Bourbon  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Charles II de Bourbon-Vendôme. In: Salvador Miranda : The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church. ( Florida International University website), accessed August 2, 2016.
• Biography at france-pittoresque.com (french)
• Short biography (French)
• Digitized version of the Édit de l'Union

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} H. Fisquet: La France pontificale… Nevers - Bethléhem , p. 73.
2. ^ ^{A b} Charles II de Bourbon-Vendôme. In: Salvador Miranda : The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church. ( Florida International University website ), accessed August 2, 2016.
3. ↑ ^{a b} gcatholic.org , accessed October 3, 2012.
4. ↑ H. Fisquet: La France pontificale ... Nevers - Bethlehem , S. 74th
5. ^ Bourbon (Charles II) ]. In: Jean Chrétien Ferdinand Hoefer: Nouvelle biographie générale, Volume 7: Boulen - Bzovius . Firmin Didot, Paris 1857, columns 585-586 ( online ).
6. ^ Edouard Benjamin Frère: Manuel du bibliographe normand. Ou, Dictionnaire bibliographique et historique . Volume 1. Brument, Rouen 1858, p. 138 ( online ).
7. ↑ H. Fisquet: La France pontificale ... Rouen , S. 217th
8. ^ FJ Baumgartner: The Case for Charles X , p. 95.
9. ^ FA Isambert, Alphonse-Honoré Taillandier, Decrusy: Recueil général des anciennes lois françaises depuis l'an 420 jusqu'à la Révolution de 1789 . Volume XV. Plon, Paris 1829, p. 10 ( online ).
10. ^ FA Isambert, Alphonse-Honoré Taillandier, Decrusy: Recueil général des anciennes lois françaises depuis l'an 420 jusqu'à la Révolution de 1789 . Volume XV. Plon, Paris 1829, p. 18 ( online ).
11. ↑ H. Fisquet: La France pontificale ... Nevers - Bethlehem , S. 78th
12. ↑ archontology.org , accessed October 3, 2012.
13. ↑ Auguste Jal: Dictionnaire critique de biographie et d'histoire. Errata et supplément pour tous les dictionnaires historiques, d'après des documents authentiques inédits . Plon, Paris 1867.

predecessor	Office	successor
Georges II d'Amboise	Archbishop of Rouen 1550–1590	Charles II de Bourbon
Odet de Coligny	Bishop of Beauvais 1569–1575	Nicolas Fumée
Martín de Saint-André François de Faucon	Bishop of Carcassonne 1550–1553 1565–1567	François de Faucon Vitellozzo Vitelli
Jean de Lorraine-Guise	Bishop of Nantes 1550–1554	Antoine I. de Créquy
Julien II. Sodérini	Bishop of Saintes 1544–1550	Tristan de Bizet
Jacques I. d'Albret	Bishop of Nevers 1540–1546	Jacques II. Spifame