Charles VIII of France

Charles VIII of France (Amboise, June 30, 1470-Amboise, April 7, 1498), called the Affable or the Big-headed, was King of France from 1483 until his death, the seventh and last king in direct succession of the Valois branch of the Capetian dynasty. He was the only son who did not die in infancy of King Louis XI of France and his second wife, Charlotte of Savoy.

Having become king at the age of thirteen, he was placed under the guardianship of his sister Anne, regent of France. At the age of twenty-one (in 1491), he married Anne of Brittany, thus preparing the union of the Duchy of Brittany with the Kingdom of France. His reign saw the loss of the counties of Artois, Burgundy, and Roussillon, annexed by his father, Louis XI (1483). His military campaign (1494-1495) to conquer the kingdom of Naples was the starting point of the Italian wars.

Biography

Birth and education

Born on 01470-06-30 June 30, 1470 at the Château d'Amboise, Charles of Valois was the first and only son of Louis XI to pass the one year old (of the five sons the king had, and later two daughters). He was of a frail constitution, and the king, anxious to secure a succession, was more concerned with his health than with his education. Thus, he forbade him the study of Latin, which he had learned himself at the age of six, and he chose the humanist Guillaume Tardif as his tutor. He had a historical, political and ethical treatise drawn up for the education of the dolphin, the Rosier des guerres . Fortunately for the dauphin, the king also took into his service the best doctor of the time, Jean Martin, thanks to whom, without a doubt, Carlos maintained good health.

Political instrumentalization

During his childhood, Carlos played above all the role of instrument of his father's politics, through successive marital commitments. First, on August 29, 1475, the Treaty of Picquigny, ending the Hundred Years' War, was accompanied by a promise of marriage between Charles and Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV of England. Later, in 1477, after the death of Charles the Bold, Louis XI intended to take his daughter and heir, Mary of Burgundy, under his guardianship and marry her to Charles in order to reunite the Burgundian States with France.. However, Maria was already sovereign, capable of reigning over her States, and she was also 13 years older than Carlos. She chose to marry Archduke Maximilian of Austria. An invasion of Burgundian possessions by French troops followed, a war that lasted until the end of 1482. But Duchess Maria was accidentally killed, leaving behind two small children. Maximilian, who was only her guardian and not the heir, preferred to sign the Treaty of Arras, which sealed peace, and offered 3-year-old Margarita of Austria, daughter of Maximilian and Maria, in engagement with Carlos. However, that treaty was in violation of the Treaty of Picquigny which stipulated the marriage of Charles to Elizabeth of York, which led to a new Anglo-French battle, during which the French navy defeated the English corsairs. Margaret of Burgundy However, she lived at the French court with her boyfriend, who loved her very much, but despite this, due to political calculation, Carlos finally did not marry her.

Preparing for power

At the end of Louis XI's life, Charles and his fiancée were confined to Amboise, by order of a father who had become paranoid. The latter, sensing that his end was near, instilled in him some notions of government. from 1482. He advised him to retain most of the royal staff to ease the transition (something he himself had not done), including his chief secretary Pierre I Brûlart and asked him to accept guardianship of his sister, Anne of Beaujeu. King Louis XI died on August 30, 1483, and Charles became king at age 13 as Charles VIII.

King of France

Accession to the throne and consecration

Charles ascended the throne at the age of 13 on the death of his father, Louis XI, on August 30, 1483. He was still a minor and, in accordance with his father's wishes, was placed under the guardianship of her older sister, Anne of France, then 23 years old, known as Anne of Beaujeu after her marriage to Pedro de Bourbon, Lord of Beaujeu. That supervision was contested for a time by the House of Orleans, but the meeting of the States General of Tours from January to March 1484 allowed the Beaujeu couple to strengthen their power. The coronation of King Charles VIII took place on May 30, 1484 in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Reims.

Rebellion Against the Regent

The government of the regents provoked a rebellion of the princes orchestrated by the king's brother-in-law and successor, Duke Louis II of Orleans (husband of Joan of Valois), the future Louis XII, who, with a view to removing the king of his tutors, he undertook what was later known as the crazy war. On July 28, 1488, Louis of Orleans was taken prisoner at the Battle of Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier. Imprisoned for three years, he was pardoned in 1491. The first months of the regency saw Louis XI's former relatives adopt very different attitudes. If some, like Philippe de Commines, sided with Anne of France from the beginning, others, more reserved like Imbert de Batarnay, waited a few months for the Beaujeu family to strengthen their power before joining her.

Marriage to Anne of Brittany

Reconstruction of the marriage of Charles VIII with Anna of Brittany in the castle of Langeais.

In the west, Duchess Anne of Brittany had been married by proxy at Rennes on December 19, 1490, to Maximilian I of Habsburg, which conferred on her the title of "Queen of the Romans," but proved to have serious consequences.. France —with Charles himself engaged to Margaret of Austria, daughter of Maximilian and Mary of Burgundy—, took it as a provocation: he not only violated the treaty of Sablé, since the King of France had not given his consent, but also which also placed the government of Brittany in the hands of an enemy of France. On the other hand, the marriage had taken place at a bad time: the Habsburgs were too busy fighting on two fronts, Hungary in the east and Grenada in the west, to give Britain due attention. Although both Castile and England sent a few reinforcement troops to the duchy, neither really wanted to go to open war with France. The spring of 1491 brought a new victory for Charles VIII under the command of the French general La Trémoille at the siege of Rennes.

As Maximilian failed to assist his fiancée, Rennes fell into French power and after lengthy negotiations the regents finally betrothed Anne to Charles on November 15 in the Jacobin chapel in Rennes. The duchess left, escorted by her own army to make it clear that she freely consented to the marriage - which was important for the legitimacy of the marriage, the Pope rejected force, and for the annexation of Brittany -, towards the castle of Langeais, where the wedding of the two betrothed took place on December 6, 1491. Anne's marriage to Maximilian was annulled since it had not been consummated. With this link, Charles VIII brought an important duchy closer, Britain won, thus leaving France "a beautiful kingdom, where he no longer had to fear anyone", even at the cost of the enmity of the future emperor. Her engagement with Margaret of Austria had to be annulled (something that had been done in the Treaty of Arras of 1482), having to return her dowry contributed by her, Franche-Comté, Charolais and Artois. Marguerite, who had been living in France for ten years under the tutelage of Louis XI, was returned to her father and all matters were settled in the Treaty of Senlis of 1493.

According to Guyard de Belleville, Anne of Brittany's marriage contract with Charles VIII included a singular clause that, if she were widowed and provided they had no male descendants, she could only remarry the king's successor; with that she secured the alliance of her duchy of Brittany and the crown of France more solidly. None of the six children from the union of Carlos with Anne of Brittany survived. Charles Orlando, the eldest son of Charles VIII and Queen Anne, Duchess of Brittany, died in 1495 at the age of 3. So Anne will marry Louis XII in 1499. The marriage did not start auspiciously initially, but it allowed Carlos to free himself from family tutelage and assume the reins of the kingdom. On February 8, 1492, Anne was crowned Queen of France and consecrated at Saint-Denis. Her husband forbade her to use the title of Duchess of Brittany and the queen would reside in the Clos Lucé, which Carlos acquired for her. Anne had two beds when she got married, and the king and queen often lived apart. Carlos' ban on the use of the title of Duchess of Brittany became the bone of contention between the two. When her husband fought in the Italian wars, her regency was again exercised by her sister, Anne of Beaujeu. Pregnant for most of her married life, Anne lived mainly in the castles of Amboise, Loches, and Plessis or in the cities of Lyon, Grenoble, or Moulins (when the king was in Italy).

The conquest of the kingdom of Naples: beginning of the Italian wars

The Porte Cailhau in Bordeaux, built around 1496 in honor of the victory of Charles VIII in the battle of Fornovo.

Due to conflicts between the various Italian states, many nobles had fled the great principalities of Rome, Venice, Naples, Milan, and Florence and found accommodation at the French court. They encouraged Carlos to intervene in the internecine Italian strife, claiming his rights to Naples, acquired by his grandmother, Maria of Anjou, against the claims of King Ferdinand II of Aragon.

Young and ambitious, Charles VIII wanted to conquer the kingdom of Naples and for this reason he made diplomatic movements and territorial and financial concessions to ingratiate himself with all his neighbors and have full freedom in Italy: he signed, in 1492, the treaty of Etaples with Enrique VII of England; in 1493, the treaty of Barcelona with the king of Aragon Fernando II; and the aforementioned Treaty of Senlis with Maximilian of Austria that led to the restitution of Margarita's dowry to the Holy Empire.

On the death of King Ferdinand I of Naples in 1494, Charles VIII, leading an army of some 30,000 men, entered Italy in August 1494. That was the beginning of the First Italian War (1494-1497).). Against weak resistance, the French entered Florence in November and Rome in December.

The success of the expedition was a shock in the Italian peninsula, the indisputable superiority of the French artillery and the violence of the combats caused a true revolution in warfare in modern times. The French were in Naples in February of 1495. However, in March, under the impulse of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Pope Alexander VI, the League of Venice was formed, an almost general alliance against France. The French troops were overwhelmed.

Charles VIII's return to France was dangerous. He managed to cross the Apennines, however, and, narrowly winning the Battle of Fornovo, he managed to escape his enemies.

Duke Louis of Orleans, besieged in Novara due to his claims to the duchy of Milan, was in a very bad position as his army was ravaged by famine and disease. The situation was resolved thanks to the arrival of the royal army that negotiated with the allied Italian troops, the discussions led to the signing of a truce that was extended by the Treaty of Verceil in October 1495.

Charles VIII achieved the kingdom of France, reaching Grenoble at the end of the same month and, despite his lingering Italian ambitions, never crossed the Alps again. In early 1497, the French army remaining in Naples capitulated to the Spanish captain Gonzalo de Córdoba, known as "the Great Captain."

In his royal city of Amboise, Charles notably completed the renovation of the royal castle and the ornamentation of the Saint-Hubert chapel. He also had the royal domain of Château-Gaillard built there.

Accidental death in Amboise

Archangel Miguel appears to Carlos VIII.
Statuts de l'ordre de Saint-Michel, lighting attributed to Jean Hey, Paris, BNF, département des manuscrits, ms. Français 14 363, vers 1493-1494.

On April 7, 1498, the queen was recovering in the Château d'Amboise from her last delivery on March 20: another stillborn child. To distract her, Charles took her to see a jeu de paume (background of a tennis match) in the castle moat. Quickening his pace, the king violently struck his head against the stone lintel of a low door. Two in the afternoon, he collapsed on the ground. He couldn't speak. He lay on a mattress waiting for the doctors, he remained there for nine hours until his death.

During those nine hours, his doctors tried to save him. According to the memoirs of Philippe de Commines, he recovered his speech three times during this period and those close to him believed they heard him say more or less clearly: "My God and the glorious Virgin Mary, Monsignor Saint Claude and Monsignor Saint Blaise help me". ("Mon Dieu et la glorieuse Vierge Marie, Monseigneur Saint Claude et Monseigneur saint Blaise me soient en aide") King Charles VIII died on the night of April 7 after fifteen years of reign, at the age of 27 without having No male descendants had survived with Anne. His thirty-six-year-old second cousin Louis of Orleans succeeded him and became King Louis XII.

There are many hypotheses about the cause of his death. The Bishop of Angers speaks of "a catarrh, a term sometimes used at the time as a synonym for a stroke that fell into the throat." That "... that fell into his throat" can mean swallowing disorders, respiratory disorders, but also loss of speech.

In the week before the lintel accident, Carlos had complained of symptoms suggestive of high blood pressure, the cause of strokes. However, the clinical picture is similar to that of a cerebrovascular accident, either due to thrombosis, or intracranial hemorrhage or hematoma. A stroke can cause loss of consciousness, aphasia if it affects the left temporal area, and then is characterized by a more or less complete paralysis of the right side. Such bleeding (subdural hematoma) is often due to head trauma, usually followed by a latency period and then neurological involvement, the symptoms of which depend on the location of the hematoma.

No contemporary account mentions paralysis, even partial, or convulsions. But Jean Markale mentions "an attack of temporary hemiplegia" in the spring of 1497. It is possible that he may have suffered an epileptic seizure, the "haut mal" that at the time was believed to be the work of the devil and that so frightened doctors and others that no one touched these patients, particularly in light of their history. relatives However, in the case of neurological damage, epileptic seizures, without being systematic, are not a rarity.

Carlos VIII would have died, therefore, as a result of a head injury that caused a stroke with subdural hematoma and neurological damage.

• 

  Double tournois or niquet under Carlos VIII.

• 

  Gold shield in the sun under Charles VIII.

• 

  Karolus or dizain under Charles VIII.

Funeral and burial

The funeral celebrations were grandiose, they brought together a large number of people and lasted until May 1, 1498, the day the tomb was closed.

After his death, the succession passed to his cousin and heir, Louis of Orleans, crowned king under the name of Louis XII, who annulled his marriage to Joan of Valois (who founded the order of the Annunciate and was canonized in 1950) to marry his cousin's widow, Anne of Brittany.

Offspring

Ana and Carlos had six children, three of whom were stillborn, but none survived:

• Carlos Orlando (1492-1495); Dolphin of Viennois at birth.
• Francisco (Courcelles, August 1493), born prematurely. He's buried in the church of Notre-Dame de Cléry.
• Child born dead (1495).
• Carlos (Plessis-lès-Tours, September 1496-dead on October 2, 1496), delfín de Viennois at birth.
• Francis (born and deceased in July 1497), dolphin of Viennois at birth.
• Ana de Francia (Tours, born and deceased on 20 March 1498).

Charles VIII would have had five natural daughters: Cristina, Francisca, Carlota, Luisa and Margarita. But in this matter the evidence of affiliation is lacking.

Grave

Tomb of Charles VIII (Collection François Roger de Gaignières)

Charles VIII was buried in the Basilica of Saint-Denis while his heart was transferred to the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Cléry, so that it could be close to his parents, Louis XI and Charlotte of Savoy. Charles VIII's tomb was one of the richest in Saint-Denis, largely made of gilt bronze and enamel. Like all tombs that were not made of stone, it was melted down by the revolutionaries in 1792. The last vestiges disappeared in 1793.

Charles VIII was not buried in the chapel that Charles V had established, which had become the chapel of Saint-Jean-Baptiste, the chapel of the 'Charles kings', as his name might have predisposed. There was no room in that chapel. He was buried in one of the best exposed places in the church: in the transept transept, northwest of the main altar. That sector had not known any change since the burial of Juana II of Navarre at the feet of her father, Luis X, in 1349.

Queen Anne of Britain oversaw the design of the tomb and then the construction. The execution was entrusted to Guido Mazzoni, "a gentleman, painter and illuminator" that Charles VIII had brought back from his Italian conquests and who had entered the service of Louis XII. In fact, the tomb surpassed all the others in Saint-Denis for its dimensions and its sumptuous ornamentation. The monument was 8½ feet long and 4½ feet wide. It dominated the medieval recumbent statues in front of which it was placed. The monumental statue in gilded bronze represented the praying king. He was covered in a blue dress with golden enamel fleurs-de-lys.

The rectangular base was decorated with female figures in medallions—as in the tomb of Francis II of Brittany in Nantes. Intertwined "K" ribbons unwind between these female figures, around the base. Charles VIII's personal emblem (flaming or webbed sword) also adorned the tomb. In the four corners of the basement, angels in polychrome bronze carried shields with the arms of France (blue with three gold fleur-de-lis) and quartered Naples and Jerusalem (quartered in 1 and 4 strewn with gold fleur-de-lis with label of gules and, in 2 and 3, silver with a cross enhanced with gold, edged with four crossheads of the same).

This tomb influenced later constructions of the basilica, in particular because of the representation of the sovereign in prayer, without a crown. It will be taken up again in the XVI century in the tombs in transit (Louis XII, Francis I and Henry II).

The heart of Charles VIII was taken to the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Cléry where his parents rested. In 1873, he was found under the pavement of the collegiate church. A slab offered in 1892 by the French Archaeological Society marks the location ever since.

Currency

In 1492, Charles VIII took as his motto the formula «More than another» ("Plus qu'aultre"), it is visible for example on the frontispiece of «Le Livre des faiz monseigneur saint Loys ». The interpretation proposed by the historian Yvonne Labande Mailfert is that the King of France then wanted to show everyone his desire to go on the crusade. And thus do for Christianity even more than what the Iberian sovereigns did, who had just completed the Reconquest with the capture of Granada.

Visions of the reign

« Imperant Roy portant tripple coronne », Jean Bénart, Charles VIII Louanges, anonymous illuminator, 1497 (Paris, BnF, département des manuscrits, ms. 2228, folio 1)

The figure of Charles VIII has always known severe treatment. Already in his time, he had the image of a fragile and unstable young king whose ugly physical portrait corresponded in every way to that of his defective mind. This is what emerges from the descriptions used by historians, that of Philippe de Commines in his Mémoires or even in the writings of the Venetian ambassador Zaccaria Contarini. The XIX French experienced an important historical production and the study of Carlos VIII was no exception. The renowned historian Jules Michelet in his Histoire de France gave it a place in the national novel. Charles VIII was the king who devoted himself to the wars in Italy, thus igniting the spark that allowed Italian culture to meet French civilization and thus sparked the fire of the Renaissance.

The works of Paul Pélicier in 1882 and then Delaborde in 1888 are works of scholarship that did not change the image of the reign of Charles VIII. The dominant vision in historiography was that of a period of real insufficiency. This immature and ill-advised sovereign would have squandered the kingdom's energies on the "Italian Enterprise", an irrational chivalric adventure. In fact, Charles VIII, in order to throw himself headlong into the Italian wars, had ceded land to foreign sovereigns in the treaties of Étaples (1492), of Barcelona (1493) and of Senlis (1493), which was contrary to the process of territorial construction of the kingdom, fruit of the policy of his father, Luis XI.

We will have to wait until the second half of the XX century to see the emergence of a new historiography about him. Yvonne Labande-Mailfert was certainly a pioneer in this process, and other historians have followed her example ever since. The historian rehabilitated both the moral portrait of Carlos VIII and his political actions, explaining them in their intellectual and political context (among others in the chapter called "The origins of the Italian wars and the will of the king"). Remember that it should not be transposed current political rationality to the world of the late XV century. The prophets and preachers were then holders of important power in the princely courts. Messianic expectations were very strong around Carlos VIII, many authors had placed their hope in him for a Reform of the Church and came to predict an imperial future for him. The environment in which Carlos VIII developed had, therefore, a logical internal that a reflection marked by a deterministic interpretation of history cannot understand. It is in particular taking this framework into account that the historians of the XXI century develop their reflection on it.

About his reign Maurois has written:

During his reign the disputes that came from afar among the nobles did not cease, so the people increasingly showed their tiredness with the remnants of feudalism still existing. Perhaps it is in this reign where the embryo of the future France is found, since a Philippe Pot, deputy of the General States, comes to say: "The State belongs to the people... The sovereign people create kings by suffrage... Kings are, not to profit from the people and to enrich themselves at their expense, but to enrich and make them happy, forgetting their own interests. If they sometimes do the opposite, they are tyrants..."

History of France, Madrid: Editorial Surco, 1951.

In popular culture

Cinema and television

• 1924: Yolanda Robert G. Watch Johnny Dooley.
• 1964: Bayard Claude Pierson with Philippe Drancy.
• 1977: Les Borgia ou le sang doré d’Alain Dhénaut with Georges Ser.
• 1981: The Borgias Brian Farnham with Andrew Dunford.
• 1988: Sans peur et sans reproche Gérard Jugnot with Patrick Timsit.
• 2011:
  • The Borgias Neil Jordan with Michel Muller.
  • Borgia Tom Fontana with Simon Larvaron.
• 2012: Isabel by Jordi Frades with Héctor Carballo.
• 2019: Anne de France ou l'honneur des Bourbons by Benjamin Lehrer and David Jankowski, episode of Secrets d'Histoire with Marius Tuzelet.

Ancestors

Succession

Predecessor: Louis XI	King of France 30 August 1483-7 April 1498	Successor: Luis XII
Predecessor: Francis of France (Indirectly)	Dolphin of France 01470-06-30 30 June 1470-01483-08-30 30 August 1483	Successor: Carlos Orlando de Francia (Indirectly)
Predecessor: Alfonso II	King of Naples (invasor) 1495-1496	Successor: Fernando II

Notes

References

• This work contains a translation derived from "Charles VIII (roi de France) from Wikipedia in French, published by its editors under the GNU Free Documentation License and the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Print fonts

• Louis Charles de La Trémoille (1875). Correspondance of Charles VIII et de ses conseillers avec Louis de la Trémoille, pendant la guerre de Bretagne (1488). Paris. pp. XII-284.. Reproduction en fac-similé: Genève: Mégariotis reprints, 1978, Plantilla:Lire en ligne.
• Paul Pélicier (ed.) and Bernard de Mandrot (ed.), Lettres de Charles VIII, roi de France: publiées d'après les originaux pour la Société de l'histoire de FranceParis, Librairie Renouard, 1898-1905, t. 1: 1483-1488, Template:Lire in ligne, t. 2: 1488-1489, Template:Lire in ligne, t. 3: 1490-1493, Template:Lire in ligne, t. 4: 1494-1495, Template:Lire in ligne, t. 5: 1496-1498, Template:Lire en ligne, Template:Lire en ligne.

Bibliography

Old Works

• Claude Joseph de Cherrier, Histoire de Charles VIII roi de France d'après des documents diplomatiques inédits ou nouvellement publiés, 2 vol., Paris, Librairie académique Didier et Cie, 1868, Template:Lire en ligne.
• Patrick Kerrebrouck; Christophe Brun; Christian de Mérindol (1990). Les Valois. Nouvelle histoire généalogique de l'auguste maison de France (3). Villeneuve d'Ascg France: P. van Kerrebrouck. p. 735. ISBN 978-2-9501509-2-9..

Historical Studies

• Ivan Cloulas (1986). Charles VIII et le mirage italien. L'Homme et l'événement. Paris: Albin Michel. p. 277. ISBN 2-226-02664-9..
• Anne Denis (1979). Charles VIII et les Italiens – histoire et mythe. Travaux d'Humanisme et Renaissance (167). Genève: Droz. p. 185. ISBN 978-2-600-03079-3..
• Yvonne Labande-Mailfert (1975). Charles VIII et son milieu –1470-1498, jeunesse au pouvoir. Paris: Klincksieck. p. 615. ISBN 2-252-01726-0..
• Yvonne Labande-Mailfert (1986). Charles VIII – le vouloir et la destinée. Paris: Fayard. p. 512. ISBN 2-213-01773-5..
• André Lapeyre; Rémy, Scheurer (1978). Les Notaires et secrétaires du roi sous les règnes de Louis XI, Charles VIII et Louis XII (1461-1515) – notices personnelles et généalogies. Documents inédits sur l'histoire de France. 1 (Notices) et 2 (Généalogies et index). Paris: Bibliothèque nationale. pp. XLIII-320 +XCI. ISBN 2-7177-1403-0., Template:Lire en ligne, Template:Lire en ligne.
• Le Fur, Didier (2006). Charles VIII. Paris: Perrin. p. 477. ISBN 2-262-02273-9..
• Pélissier, Léon-Gabriel (1900). «Le retour de Charles VIII à Rome – notes italiennes d'histoire de France». Revue d'histoire moderne et contemporaine (Paris: Société nouvelle de liberairie et d'édition (Librairie Georges Bellais)) (II (2e): 386-393..
• Patrick Boucheron, « Charles VIII descends in Italie et rate le monde », dans Patrick Boucheron (dir.) Histoire Mondiale de la France, Paris, Editions du Seuil, 2017, p. 247-251.

Vulgarizations

• Ivan Gobry (2001). Louis XI, La force et la ruse. Tallandier. p. 159. ISBN 978-235-02281-1..