Charles de Bourbon (2 June 1489 – 25 March 1537) was a French prince du sang and military commander at the court of Francis I of France. He is notable as the paternal grandfather of King Henry IV of France.

Charles was born at the Château de Vendôme, the son of François, Count of Vendôme and Marie de Luxembourg.

Charles succeeded his father as Count of Vendôme in 1495. Charles's first military service was in Italy, under Louis XII. His county was elevated into a duchy in 1514. He fought at the battle of Marignan and participated in the Flemish campaign. Because of his loyalty to the king, he was appointed head of the council when Francis I was captured at Pavia.

On 18 May 1513, he married Françoise d'Alençon, daughter of René, Duke of Alençon. They had thirteen children:

The successive deaths of his cousins Charles IV, Duke of Alençon (1525) and Charles III, Duke of Bourbon (1527) made him the fourth in the order of succession to the throne, just behind the king's sons. At the natural course of affairs his wife, a sister of the last duke of Alençon, would have been the heiress of her brother; but Francis I allowed his sister, Marguerite of Angoulême, the late duke's wife, to keep them, even though they did not have children. Charles would also have been heir to the duchy of Bourbon, but it was forfeited to the crown by the treason of the last holder. At the death of Constable de Bourbon in 1527, he became the Head of the House of Bourbon.

His son Antoine married Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of Navarre, daughter of Marguerite of Angoulême, settling the Alençon inheritance. Their son would succeed to the French throne as Henry IV. Antoine and Louis, Prince of Condé, became powerful military leaders on opposite sides in the French Wars of Religion. Charles died at Amiens in 1537 at the age of 47.

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