Charles d'Angoulême (1573-1650)

Charles de Valois (28 April 1573 – 24 September 1650) was a French royal bastard, count of Auvergne, duke of Angoulême, and memoirist.

Charles de Valois was the illegitimate son of Charles IX and Marie Touchet. He was born at the Château de Fayet in Dauphiné in 1573. His father, dying in the following year, commended him to the care and favour of his younger brother and successor, Henry III, who faithfully fulfilled the charge. His mother then married François de Balzac, marquis d'Entragues. One of their daughters (Charles's half-sister) named Catherine Henriette afterwards became the mistress of Henry IV.

Charles de Valois was carefully educated and was destined for the Knights of Malta. At the early age of sixteen he attained one of the highest dignities of the order, being made Grand Prior of France. Shortly after he came into possession of large estates left by his paternal grandmother Catherine de' Medici, from one of which he took his title of count of Auvergne.

In 1589 Henry III was assassinated, but on his deathbed he commended Charles to the good-will of his successor Henry IV. By that monarch he was made colonel of horse, and in that capacity served in the campaigns during the early part of the reign. But the connection between the king and Madame de Verneuil appears to have been very displeasing to Charles, and in 1601 he engaged in the conspiracy formed by the Dukes of Savoy, Biron and Monsieur de Turenne, one of the objects of which was to force Henry to repudiate his wife and marry the marchioness. The conspiracy was discovered; Biron and Bouillon were arrested and Biron was executed. Charles was released after a few months' imprisonment, chiefly through the influence of his half-sister, his aunt, the duchess of Angoulême and his father-in-law.

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