Charlotte de Bourbon-Montpensier

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Portrait of Charlottes de Bourbon-Montpensier by Daniël van den Queborn, around 1582

Charlotte de Bourbon-Montpensier (* 1546 / 1547 ; † 5. May 1582 in Antwerp ) was the third wife of William I of Orange one of his greatest sources of support in the fight against the Spanish in the Eighty Years War and by marriage Countess of Nassau and Duchess of Orange .

Life

Charlotte was the fourth daughter of Duke Louis III. de Bourbon, duc de Montpensier and his wife Jacqueline de Longwy , Countess of Bar-sur-Seine . For reasons of family policy, they gave their parents to the Abbey of Notre-Dame de Jouarre at an early age in the care of their aunt Louise, who was abbess there. In order to be able to give his only son François the greatest possible inheritance, Louis III planned to help his unmarried daughters in various monasteries to the office of abbess, so that in return they would forego their inheritance in favor of their brother.

According to her parents' plans, Charlotte was supposed to succeed her aunt in Jouarre, but Louise died unexpectedly early when her niece was only twelve years old. To make matters worse, despite her young age, Charlotte repeatedly made it clear to witnesses that she did not want to become a nun or abbess and that she was not prepared to renounce her inheritance. But the girl was forced to join the convent by her parents and was officially appointed abbess of the monastery in 1559 . However, she only filled the office personally from 1565 after she had come of age.

In contrast to her father, who fought on the side of the Catholics during the French Wars of Religion from 1561, Charlotte turned to the Huguenots and fled the monastery to the Protestant Palatinate in 1571 . Count Palatine Friedrich III. took her up in Heidelberg and placed her under his protection. In the spring of 1572, just a few weeks after Charlotte's flight, Wilhelm I of Orange-Nassau was staying in the Palatinate capital and got to know the former nun. After more than two years, he finally asked her for her hand through his intermediary, Philips van Marnix . The marriage took place on June 12, 1575 in Den Briel, now Brielle .

The marriage met with incomprehension from many allies of the heavily indebted Wilhelm, because Charlotte had been disinherited by her father after fleeing the convent, so she did not bring a dowry into the marriage and was therefore not a financially rewarding match for him. Harsh protests against the marriage also came from the family of his second wife Anna von Sachsen . Although she had signed a separation agreement in 1571, the marriage had not yet officially been divorced. So this connection was a marriage out of affection, which is also evidenced by the extensive correspondence between the spouses.

In the years that followed, Charlotte actively supported her husband in the Dutch War of Independence against Spain by regularly sending him news and news by letter and by acting as an important link in the communication between William and the troops of the rebellious Dutch provinces.

After an unsuccessful assassination attempt on Wilhelm I on March 18, 1582, she looked after her wounded husband intensively. After he was on the mend, Charlotte fell ill with pneumonia, which was accompanied by high fever, and died on May 5, 1582. She was buried in the court church at Antwerp.

progeny

During her seven-year marriage to Wilhelm I, Charlotte von Bourbon-Montpensier gave birth to six daughters.

literature

  • Caroline Atwater Mason: A Lily of France . Grosset & Dunlap, New York 1901 ( online ; novel-like portrayal of Charlotte's life).
  • Roland Herbert Bainton: Ladies of the Reformation in France and England. Beacon Press, Boston 1973, pp. 89-111, ISBN 0-8070-5649-9 .
  • Jane Couchman: Charlotte de Bourbon, Princess of Orange. Lettres et documents (1565-1582) . In: Anne R. Larsen, Colette H. Winn: Writings by Pre-Revolutionary French Women. From Marie de France to Elizabeth Vigée-Le Brun . Garland, New York 2000, ISBN 0-8153-3190-8 , pp. 107-121 ( online ).
  • Jules Delaborde: Charlotte de Bourbon, princesse d'Orange . Fischbacher, Paris 1888 ( online ).
  • Eugène and Émile Haag: La France protestante. Volume 3. Cherbuliez, Paris 1847, pp. 479-480 ( online ).
  • Frances M. Cotton-Walker: Cloister to Court: Scenes from the Life of Charlotte de Bourbon. Longmans, London 1909.

Web links

Commons : Charlotte de Bourbon-Montpensier  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Klaus Vetter: At the court of William of Orange. Edition Leipzig, Leipzig 1990, p. 143, ISBN 3-361-00318-0 .