Charles I (Valois)

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Tomb of Charles of Valois in the Saint-Denis basilica
Charles before Pope Boniface VIII.

Charles I of Valois (born March 12, 1270 probably in Vincennes Castle ; † December 5 or 16, 1325 in Nogent-le-Roi ) was the fourth son, the second adult, of King Philip III. of the Bold of France and of Isabella of Aragon , the younger brother of King Philip IV the Fair . Due to the lack of offspring among the sons of Philip IV, he became the progenitor of the Valois dynasty .

title

biography

Coat of arms of the House of Valois

Moderately intelligent, above-average ambitious and somewhat greedy, Karl von Valois - as a younger son without inherited property - collected principalities. As the son, brother, brother-in-law, son-in-law of kings and queens ( France , Navarre , England and Naples ) and - after his death - father of the next French king and father-in-law of the German emperor, his lifelong goal was to acquire a crown of his own, which was his but never succeeded.

Titular King of Aragon

In 1284 Pope Martin IV recognized him as King of Aragon - as the son of Isabella of Aragon - and thus as a vassal of the Holy See. This meant that Karl was in competition with King Peter III. of Aragon , who had been an opponent of Rome and especially of Charles I of Anjou since the Sicilian Vespers in 1282 . His father undertook, against the advice of Prince Philip the Fair , in 1284 a crusade against Aragon to win this kingdom for his son and French influence, but only achieved the coronation of Charles with a cardinal's hat in 1285 , which was so ridiculed and him earned the nickname of a king of the hat . Karl never dared to use the scepter that he had made for this occasion. The crusade ended in a military disaster, King Philip III. died and the new King Philip IV immediately ended the campaign.

Charles had to give up the crown of Aragon and in 1290 received the hand of his cousin Margaret of Anjou as consolation , who brought him the counties of Anjou and Maine into marriage.

commander

Karl's greatest ability was that of a warlord. In France's war against England and Flanders , he successfully commanded a campaign in Gascony and then in Flanders, from which his royal brother concluded, a little prematurely, that Charles could also wage a campaign in Italy to get out of the cousins ​​who had got into trouble against Aragon Aid to the Kingdom of Naples . With the secret consent of the Pope, Charles went to the rescue of his father-in-law, Charles II of Naples . He was appointed papal vicar for Italy and got lost in the turmoil of Italian politics, compromised himself in a massacre in Florence and in financial blackmail , ended up in Sicily , where he consolidated his reputation as a looter and returned - completely discredited - in 1301 / 1302 returned to France. However, this commitment also promoted the Peace of Caltabellotta (1302), which ended the war between Naples and Sicily.

Titular Emperor of Constantinople

After Charles successfully fought again in Flanders, he now dreamed of the imperial crown of Constantinople . He had married Catherine de Courtenay in 1301 , who was the granddaughter and heiress of the last Latin Emperor of Constantinople , Baldwin II of Courtenay , titular empress of Constantinople.

In 1306, Charles concluded an agreement with Venice and also won the Serbs as an ally. Pope Clement V banned the Byzantine emperor Andronikos II. Palaiologos and thereby gave his consent to the conquest of Constantinople. Furthermore, Charles won the Byzantine governors of Thessaloniki and Sardis and above all the Catalan Company for his cause. In 1308, Charles' agent, Thibaud de Cepoy, landed on Euboea with eleven Venetian ships and successfully took possession of the island for his master. But it did not develop as planned, because the Catalan Company moved first to Thessaly and finally to the Latin Duchy of Athens , where the mercenaries defeated Duke Walter von Brienne on the Cephissus in 1311 and thus rose to become the new rulers of Athens. The Catalans no longer showed any interest in conquering Constantinople, which drained the ground for Charles's endeavors. In 1307 or 1308 Catherine de Courtenay died and the legal title passed to their daughter Katharina , who was married to Philip of Taranto in 1313 .

Candidate for the Roman-German crown, regent in France and military leader in Aquitaine

Karl attempted to reach for a crown again when the Roman-German King Albrecht I was murdered in 1308. Karl stood in the now following election for candidacy, encouraged by his brother Philip the Fair. However, the candidacy failed due to the rejection of the German princes and the Pope, and Henry VII was elected from the House of Luxembourg .

Karl and his older brother were the only full brothers in their life to show a close mutual affection for each other, as both had suffered from their father's remarriage to Maria von Brabant . However, Karl could never make a greater profit from it, since Philip was aware of the low talent of his brother, which did not come close to the responsibilities with which he was overwhelmed as a royal prince. It was Karl von Valois who led the royal embassy at the meeting in Tournai with the Flemings in 1311 and fell out with the royal council Enguerrand de Marigny , who openly eclipsed him. The king's brother did not forgive this affront and remained Marigny's most bitter enemy even after the king's death.

During the reign of his nephew, King Ludwig X. the Quarrel (1314–1316), Karl was ultimately the king's most influential advisor and was at the height of his career. Shortly before his death in 1316, the king even appointed him head of the Regency Council for the orphaned throne, leaving Karl the hope of continuing to play an important political role. But the king's brother, Count Philip of Poitou , moved into Paris in July 1316 and was immediately recognized by the Pairs as the new regent of France. Philip became king in the same year as Philip V himself. When Philip died on January 3, 1322, no one thought of the Count of Valois; instead, his nephew Charles became the next King of France as Charles IV.

In May 1324 he married his youngest, seven-year-old daughter Blanca Margarete, she came from a third marriage, with the eight-year-old Bohemian Crown Prince Karl, who later became King of Rome and Emperor Charles IV, who had lived at the court of the King of France since December 1323 and should initially be brought up by his aunt Maria, younger sister of John of Bohemia.

From the late summer of 1324, during the War of Saint-Sardos , he successfully commanded an army of the new king, Charles IV the Fair , in the Guyenne against the King of England. As a result of this war, the fourteen-year-old English Crown Prince Edward came to Paris, where he remained for a few weeks, and took the contested province as a fiefdom from the French king. As was the case after the campaign from 1294 to 1298, the status quo was restored and the English royal house of Plantagenet continued to be a feudal man to the King of France with regard to its continental possessions.

Charles of Valois died in December 1325 and was buried in the Saint-Jacques church in Paris .

Marriages and offspring

Karl married three times and had 14 children from his three wives:

He married his first wife on August 16, 1290 in Corbeil : Margarete von Anjou (* probably 1273, † December 31, 1299). She was a daughter of King Charles II of Naples and was also buried in the Saint-Jacques church in Paris. The couple had six children:

He married his second wife in 1301: Catherine de Courtenay (around 1275–1307 / 1308), titular empress of Constantinople and mistress of Courtenay , Blaton etc., titular margravine of Namur . Heir daughter of Philipp von Courtenay († 1283), titular emperor of Constantinople, she was also buried in the church of Saint-Jacques in Paris. The couple had four children:

He married his third wife in Poitiers in June 1308 : Mathilde von Châtillon (* probably 1293; † October 3, 1358), daughter of Guido III. von Châtillon , Count of Saint-Pol , she was buried in the convent of the Cordeliers in Paris. Karl and Mathilde also had four children:

literature

Web links

Commons : Charles I, Count of Valois  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ In the literature Blaton and Blaçon, cf. Article on Catherine de Courtenay
predecessor Office successor
Peter III
(King) 		Titular King of Aragon
Titular King of Valencia Titular
Count of Barcelona
1284–1290 		Alfons III
(King)
French crown domain Count of Valois
1285-1325 		Philip I.
Charles II Count of Anjou
Count of Maine
(de iure uxoris )
1290–1325 		Philip I.
French crown domain Count of Alençon,
Count of Chartres,
Count of Perche
1293–1325 		Charles II
Catherine de Courtenay Latin titular emperor of Constantinople
(de iure uxoris)
1302–1308 		Catherine de Valois-Courtenay
personal data
SURNAME Charles I.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Charles de Valois
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Regent of France, Titular King of Aragon and Valencia, Count of Barcelona
DATE OF BIRTH March 12, 1270
PLACE OF BIRTH uncertain: Vincennes Castle
DATE OF DEATH December 5, 1325 or December 16, 1325
Place of death Nogent-le-Roi