Charles de Bourbon, comte de Soissons

Charles of Bourbon, Count of Soissons, (1566 – 1612), a French "prince du sang" and military commander during the struggles over religion and the throne in late sixteenth century France. A first cousin of King Henri IV of France, he was the son of the Huguenot leader Louis I de Bourbon, prince de Condé and his second wife, Françoise d'Orléans-Longueville (5 April1549-1601). [cite web|url= http://genealogy.euweb.cz/capet/capet41.html#MCS|title= Rulers of Italy and Savoy: Savoy 3|accessdate= 2008-03-27|last= Miroslav|first= Marek|work= Genealogy.eu]

Career

Born in Nogent-le-Rotrou, Soissons joined the Catholic League during the French Wars of Religion despite his older half-brothers' Protestant affiliations. He left the royal court disenchanted soon thereafter however, and was won over to the cause of the anti-Guise "malcontents" by Henri, who would himself convert soon enough to Catholicism for the sake of the French crown. [cite book|author = Père Anselme|authorlink= Père Anselme|title= Histoire Genealogique et Chronologique de la Maison Royale de France|origdate = 1726|date=|year=|publisher= Compagnie des Libraires|location= Paris|language= French|pages= 350|chapter= Ducs de Bourbon: Comtes de Soissons]

Charles fought at the battle of Coutras in 1587, attended the Estates General at Blois in 1588, fought back the League's forces at the battle of Saint Symphorien in 1589, was taken prisoner at Château-Giron and, escaping from Nantes, joined forces with Henri at Dieppe. After the battle of Ivry he led the king's cavalry in besieging Paris in 1590, and proved his worth at the sieges of Chartres in 1591 and of Rouen in 1592. Although he briefly joined in the scheme of his brother Charles, Cardinal de Bourbon, to form a third party in the kingdom, he attended Henri's coronation in 1594. He fought loyally at the successful siege of Laon. Peace having been concluded with Spain, he commanded troops in the war in Savoy in 1600. [cite book|author = Père Anselme|authorlink= Père Anselme|title= Histoire Genealogique et Chronologique de la Maison Royale de France|origdate = 1726|date=|year=|publisher= Compagnie des Libraires|location= Paris|language= French|pages= 350|chapter= Ducs de Bourbon: Comtes de Soissons] He had been inducted into the Order of the Holy Spirit in 1585 by Henri III. Henri IV made him "Grand mâitre" of the royal household and governor of the province of Brittany in 1589. In 1602 he was made governor of the Dauphiné, and of Normandy in 1610, in which year he was also present at the coronation of Louis XIII. [cite book|author = Père Anselme|authorlink= Père Anselme|title= Histoire Genealogique et Chronologique de la Maison Royale de France|origdate = 1726|date=|year=|publisher= Compagnie des Libraires|location= Paris|language= French|pages= 350|chapter= Ducs de Bourbon: Comtes de Soissons] After Henri's death later that year, Soissons opposed the policies of his widow, the queen regent Marie de Médicis.

After the Bourbons obtained the French crown and the Princes de Condé and their heirs apparent (by right of their rank as "premier princes du sang") became known, respectively, as "Monsieur le prince" and "Monsieur le duc", Charles came to be styled "Monsieur le comte" at court. [cite web|url= http://www.heraldica.org/topics/france/frroyal.htm#address|title= The French Royal Family: Titles and Customs|accessdate= 2008-04-03|last= Velde|first= François|work= Heraldica.org] That honorific was borne also by his son Louis and, subsequently, by the Savoy counts of Soissons who inherited the countship from Charles's daughter, Marie, princesse de Carignan, even though they ranked as "princes étrangers" in France rather than as "princes du sang". [cite book|last= Spanheim|first= Ézéchiel|editor= ed. Emile Bourgeois|title= Relation de la Cour de France|series= le Temps retrouvé|year = 1973|publisher=Mercure de France|location= Paris|language= French|pages= pages 323, 107-108]

Family

As the youngest son of a cadet branch of the royal dynasty, Louis could not expect a large patrimony, but was allotted the countship of Soissons from among the Bourbon estates inherited from his paternal great-grandmother, Marie de Luxembourg. He also obtaineed the countship of Dreux and the "seigneuries" of Châtel-Chinon, Noyers, Baugé, and Blandy. In 1601 Charles wed Anne de Montafié (1577-1644) who, although not of royal blood, brought to the Bourbon-Soissons her father's countship of Montafié in Piedmont, as well as her mother's "seigneuries" of Bonnêtable and Lucé. [cite book|author = Père Anselme|authorlink= Père Anselme|title= Histoire Genealogique et Chronologique de la Maison Royale de France|origdate = 1726|date=|year=|publisher= Compagnie des Libraires|location= Paris|language= French|pages= 350|chapter= Ducs de Bourbon: Comtes de Soissons] Of their five children, three survived childhood:

* Louis de Bourbon, comte de Soissons 1604-1641
* Louise de Bourbon-Soissons 1603-1637 duchesse de Longueville
* Marie de Bourbon, comtesse de Soissons 1607-1692 princesse de Carignan

Charles's illegitimate daughters by Anne-Marie Bohier, daughter of Antoine, "seigneur" de la Rochebourdet, took the veil: Charlotte, bâtarde de Soissons (d.1626), became abbess of Fontevrault and Catherine, bâtarde de Soissons (d.1651), became abbess of Perrigne in Maine. [cite book|author = Père Anselme|authorlink= Père Anselme|title= Histoire Genealogique et Chronologique de la Maison Royale de France|origdate = 1726|date=|year=|publisher= Compagnie des Libraires|location= Paris|language= French|pages= 350|chapter= Ducs de Bourbon: Comtes de Soissons]

Charles de Soissons died at Blandy 1 November 1612, of puerperal fever according to Père Anselme, and was buried in the Soissons' family tomb in the charterhouse of Gaillon, where his wife and son would also be buried [cite book|author = Père Anselme|authorlink= Père Anselme|title= Histoire Genealogique et Chronologique de la Maison Royale de France|origdate = 1726|date=|year=|publisher= Compagnie des Libraires|location= Paris|language= French|pages= pages 350-352|chapter= Ducs de Bourbon: Comtes de Soissons] (The "Chartreuse de Bourbon-lèz-Gaillon", built in 1562 one km from the Chateau de Gaillon by Charles, Cardinal de Bourbon, who was buried there, was sold during the French Revolution and demolished in 1834). [cite web| coauthors = | title = La Chartreuse de Bourbon-lèz-Gaillon | publisher = Le Mercure de Gaillon| url = http://lemercuredegaillon.free.fr/gaillon27/chartreuse.htm| accessdate = 2008-04-03]

References