Jump to content

Charles, Duke of Orléans

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected fromCharles, duc d'Orléans)
For other people named Charles d'Orléans, seeCharles d'Orléans (disambiguation).

Charles
Duke of Orléans
Tenure23 November 1407 - 5 January 1465
PredecessorLouis I
SuccessorLouis II
Born24 November 1394
Paris,France
Died5 January 1465(1465-01-05)(aged 70)
Amboise,France
Burial
Saint Denis Basilica,France
Spouse
​
​
(m.1406; died 1409)​
​
​
(m.1410; died 1435)​
​
(m.1440)​
IssueJoan, Duchess of Alençon
Marie, Viscountess of Narbonne
Louis XII of France
Anne, Abbess of Fontevraud
HouseValois-Orléans
FatherLouis I, Duke of Orléans
MotherValentina Visconti
A depiction of Charles' imprisonment in theTower of Londonfrom anilluminated manuscriptof his poems

Charles of Orléans(24 November 1394 – 5 January 1465) wasDuke of Orléansfrom 1407, following the murder of his father,Louis I, Duke of Orléans.He was alsoDuke of Valois,Count ofBeaumont-sur-Oiseand ofBlois,Lord of Coucy,and the inheritor ofAstiin Italy via his motherValentina Visconti.

He is now remembered as an accomplishedmedieval poet,owing to the more than five hundred extant poems he produced, written in both French and English, during his 25 years spent as a prisoner of war and after his return to France.

Accession[edit]

Charles was born in Paris, the son ofLouis I, Duke of Orléansand Valentina Visconti, daughter ofGian Galeazzo Visconti,Duke of Milan.[1]He acceded to theduchyat the age of thirteen after his father had beenassassinatedon the orders ofJohn the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy.[2]Charles was expected to carry on his father's leadership against theBurgundians,a French faction which supported theDuke of Burgundy.The latter was never punished for his role in Louis' assassination, and Charles had to watch as his grief-stricken mother Valentina Visconti succumbed to illness not long afterwards. At her deathbed, Charles and the other boys of the family were made to swear the traditional oath of vengeance for their father's murder.

During the early years of his reign as duke, the orphaned Charles was heavily influenced by the guidance of his father-in-law,Bernard VII, Count of Armagnac,for which reason Charles' faction came to be known as theArmagnacs.

Even before his father's death, he received a pension of 12,000livresfromKing Charles VI,his uncle, in 1403. In addition, his first marriage, toIsabella of Valois,widow ofRichard II of England,may have brought him adowryof 500,000 francs.[3]

Imprisonment[edit]

After the war with theKingdom of Englandwas renewed in 1415, Charles was one of the many French noblemen at theBattle of Agincourton 25 October 1415. He was discovered unwounded but trapped under a pile of corpses. He was taken prisoner by the English, and spent the next twenty-four years as their hostage. After his capture, his entire library was moved byYolande of AragontoSaumur,to prevent it from falling into enemy hands.

He was held at various locations, and moved from one castle to another in England, including theTower of London,Bolingbroke Castle1422-1423 (where he contributed to the building of the Church tower) andPontefract Castle– the castle where England's young KingRichard II(first husband of Charles's own deceased first wifeIsabella of Valois) had been imprisoned and died 15 years earlier at the age of 33. His last place of confinement seems to have beenStourton, Wiltshire.

The conditions of his confinement were not strict; he was allowed to live more or less in the manner to which he had become accustomed, like so many other captured nobles. However, he was not offered release in exchange for a ransom, since the English KingHenry Vhad left instructions forbidding any release: Charles was the natural head of the Armagnac faction and in the line of succession to the French throne, and was therefore deemed too important to be returned to circulation.

Poetry[edit]

It was during these twenty-four years that Charles would write most of his poetry, including melancholy works which seem to be commenting on the captivity itself, such asEn la forêt de longue attente.

The majority of his output consists of two books, one in French and the other in English, in theballadeandrondeaufixed forms. Though once controversial, it is now abundantly clear that Charles wrote the English poems which he left behind when he was released in 1440.[4]Unfortunately, his acceptance in the English canon has been slow.A. E. B. Coldironhas argued that the problem relates to his "approach to the erotic, his use of puns, wordplay, and rhetorical devices, his formal complexity and experimentation, his stance or voice: all these place him well outside the fifteenth-century literary milieu in which he found himself in England."[5]

One of his poems,Is she not passing fair?,was translated byLouisa Stuart Costelloand set to music byEdward Elgar.Claude Debussyset three of his poems to music in hisTrois Chansons de Charles d'Orléans,L.92,for unaccompanied mixed choir.Reynaldo Hahnset six of them:Les Fourriers d'été,Comment se peut-il faire ainsi,Un loyal cœur(inChansons et Madrigaux,1907),Quand je fus pris au pavillon,Je me mets en votre mercy,andGardez le trait de la fenêtre(inRondels,1899).

Freedom[edit]

Finally freed on 3 November 1440 by the efforts of his former enemies,Philip the GoodandIsabella of Portugal,the Duke and Duchess of Burgundy, he set foot on French soil again after 25 years, by now a middle-aged man at 46 and "speaking better English than French," according to the English chroniclerRaphael Holinshed.Part of the agreement, concluded the previous July, was an immediate ransom payment of 80,000saluts d'or,and a promise to pay 140,000crownslater.[6]Philip the Good had also made it a condition that the murder of Charles' father Louis of Orleans by Philip's own father,John the Fearless,would not be avenged (John himself had been assassinated in 1419).

Charles agreed to this condition prior to his release.[7]Meeting the Duchess of Burgundy after disembarking, the gallant Charles said: "M'Lady, I make myself your prisoner." At the celebration of his third marriage, to Marie of Cleves (Philip's niece), he was created aKnight of the Golden Fleece.His subsequent return toOrléanswas marked by a splendid celebration organised by the citizens.[citation needed]Marie brought a considerable dowry, which helped to pay part of his ransom, although he had difficulty making up the balance, and that of his brotherJean d'Angoulême,also a prisoner.[6]

He made an unsuccessful attempt to press his claims to Asti in Italy, before settling down as a celebrated patron of the arts. In Blois, he kept a miniature court at which many of the French men of letters at the time—François Villon,Olivier de la Marche,Georges Chastellain,Jean Meschinotand others—were residents or visitors or correspondents. He died atAmboisein his 71st year.[6]

Marriage and children[edit]

Coat of arms of Charles d'Orléans

Charles married three times. His first marriage, in 1406 atCompiègne,was with his first cousinIsabella of Valois,daughter ofCharles VI of Franceand widow ofRichard II of England.She died three years later in childbirth aged 19.[1]Their daughterJoansurvived and marriedJohn II of Alençonin 1424 in Blois, but died childless.[8]

Secondly, Charles marriedBonne of Armagnac,[1]the daughter ofBernard VII, Count of Armagnac,in 1410. Bonne died before he returned from captivity. The couple had no mutual children.

On his return to France in 1440, Charles marriedMarie of Cleves[1]inSaint-Omer(daughter ofAdolph I, Duke of Cleves) and niece ofPhilip the Good,who had arranged his release. They had three children:

Honours[edit]

In fiction and popular culture[edit]

  • Charles appears as "Duke of Orléans" inWilliam Shakespeare'sHenry V.In the 2012 television adaptationThe Hollow Crown,Charles is played by French actorStanley Weberand is inaccurately portrayed as dying at Agincourt.
  • The critically acclaimed historical novelHet Woud der Verwachting / Le Forêt de Longue Attente(1949) byHella Haasse(translated into English in 1989 under the titleIn a Dark Wood Wandering) gives a sympathetic description of the life of Charles, Duke of Orléans.
  • Charles is a major character inMargaret Frazer'sThe Maiden's Tale,a historical mystery and fictional account of a few weeks of his life in England in the autumn of 1439, shortly before his release in 1440.
  • Charles is a minor character in the historical fiction novelCrown in CandlelightbyRosemary Hawley Jarman.
  • Charles is referenced as the author of "the first known Valentine" in Netflix originalBig Mouth's Valentine's Day special, "My Furry Valentine".
  • Charles’ words "The world is weary of me. And I am weary of it." appear as anepigraphinMichel Houellebecq’sThe Map and the Territory.

References[edit]

  1. ^abcdGoodrich 1967,p. 11.
  2. ^Vaughan 2002,p. 44–46.
  3. ^Saintsbury 1911,pp. 282–283.
  4. ^Fox 1965,p. 433-462.
  5. ^Coldiron 2000,p. 11.
  6. ^abcSaintsbury 1911,p. 283.
  7. ^Goldstone 2013,pp. 225–226.
  8. ^Goodrich 1967,p. 112.

Sources[edit]

  • Coldiron, A. E. B. (2000).Canon, Period, and the Poetry of Charles of Orleans: Found in Translation.University of Michigan Press.
  • Fox, John (1965). "Charles d'Orléans, poète anglais?".Romania.86(3). Librairie Droz: 433–462.doi:10.3406/roma.1965.3007.
  • Goldstone, Nancy (2013).The Maid and the Queen: The Secret History of Joan of Arc.Phoenix Paperbacks, London.
  • Goodrich, Norma Lorre (1967).Charles of Orléans: A Study of Themes in his French and in his English Poetry.Librairie Droz.
  • Saintsbury, George(1911)."Orléans, Charles, Duke of".InChisholm, Hugh(ed.).Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 20 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 282–283.This includes Saintsbury's own assessment of the poems.
  • Vaughan, Richard (2002).John the Fearless: The Growth of Burgundian Power.Vol. 2. The Boydell Press.

External links[edit]

Wikisourcehas original works by or about:
Charles, Duke of Orléans
French nobility
Preceded by Duke of Valois
1406–1465 		Succeeded by
Duke of Orléans
Count of BloisandBeaumont-sur-Oise
1407–1465
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Charles,_Duke_of_Orléans&oldid=1221510793"