Charles I. de Croy

Charles I. de Croÿ (* 1455 in Thours-sur-Marne ; † September 11, 1527 in Beaumont ) was Count of Chimay and from 1486 1st Prince of Chimay. He served the Habsburgs in the Netherlands and was among other things the godfather and mentor of Charles V.

family

He came from the Croy family . The father was Philippe I de Croÿ . The mother was Walburga von Moers . He was the eldest son from this connection.

He himself married Louise d'Albret, Vicomtesse de Limoges († September 21, 1531) in 1495. She was the sister of Jean d'Albret, King of Navarre . With this he had eight children. The four sons died as small children. The eldest daughter entered a monastery. The second, named Anne, married Philippe II. De Croÿ , the first Duke of Aerschot. The third daughter, Marguerite, married Charles II. De Lalaing . From his uncle Philipp von Wavrain he inherited the rule Wavrain and other possessions in the Artois .

Life

He was educated at the Electoral Palatinate court . He later served under Maximilian I and received the knighthood from him on the battlefield near Guinegate in 1479 . In 1486 he commanded an army against a French army together with Count Engelbert von Nassau and Adolf von Kleve , Herr von Ravenstein. He brought relief to the besieged Thérouanne , took the city of Lens and the surrounding castles and palaces.

On the occasion of his coronation in Aachen in 1486, Maximilian I elevated him to the rank of imperial prince and the county of Chimay was made a principality. In 1489 he fought under Albrecht von Sachsen during the suppression of the uprising in the Netherlands. Archduke Philipp made him the godfather and mentor of his son Karl, who later became Emperor Karl V. In addition to his name, he also gave his godchild a magnificent silver helmet.

He was accepted into the order of the Golden Fleece in 1491 and became captain general of Hainaut . He subsequently played an important role in the government of the Habsburg Netherlands before partially retiring in 1509. His successor as a mentor to Charles V was Guillaume II. De Croÿ . On behalf of his godson Karl, he accompanied Archduke Ferdinand , of whom Charles V feared that he might compete for the crown in Spain, to the Netherlands. He was then Gouveneur d'hostel Ferdinand. In 1518, on behalf of Charles, he negotiated an alliance with the Bishop of Liège Erhard von der Mark and his brother Robert II. De La Marck , Duke of Boillion. However, the relationship was strained by the fact that there were conflicts between him and the Duke of Boullion over certain possessions. When the emperor interfered in the dispute in favor of his godfather, Boullion turned to France. This helped the war with the outbreak of Francis I in.

Charles died during a visit to his daughter Anne at Beaumont Castle and was buried in Chimay with great splendor .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Gerhard Rill: Prince and Court in Austria. Vol. 2, Vienna 2003, p. 42.

literature

• Raphaël de Smedt (ed.): Les chevaliers de l'ordre de la Toison d'or au XVe siècle. Notices bio-bibliographiques. 2nd edition, Peter Lang, Frankfurt 2000, ISBN 3-631-36017-7 ( Kieler Werkstücke . Series D, No. 3), pp. 245f., No. 104.
• Contemporaries of Erasmus. A Biographical Register of the Renaissance and Reformation Vol. 1-3 Toronto, 1995 p. 363
• General Encyclopedia of Sciences and Arts Vol. 20. Leipzig, 1829 pp. 224–225