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Charlotte de Bourbon

Charlotte of Bourbon
Charlottebourbon.jpg
Princess consort of Orange
Tenure 24 June 1575 – 5 May 1582
(6 years)
Born 1546/1547
Died 5 May 1582 (aged 35–36)
Antwerp
Spouse William I, Prince of Orange
Issue Louise Juliana, Electress Palatine
Elisabeth, Duchess of Bouillon
Catharina Belgica, Countess of Hanau-Münzenberg
Countess Charlotte Flandrina
Charlotte Brabantina, Duchess of Thouars
Emilia Antwerpiana, Countess Palatine of Zweibrücken-Landsberg
House Bourbon-Montpensier
Father Louis, Duke of Montpensier
Mother Jacqueline de Longwy

Charlotte of Bourbon (1546/1547 – 5 May 1582), was a Princess consort of Orange as the third spouse of William the Silent, Prince of Orange, the main leader of the Dutch revolt against the Spanish. She was the fourth daughter of Louis, Duke of Montpensier and Jacqueline de Longwy, Countess of Bar-sur-Seine.

Her paternal grandparents were Louis, Prince of La Roche-sur-Yon and Louise de Bourbon, Duchess of Montpensier. Her maternal grandparents were John IV de Longwy, Baron of Pagny, and Jeanne of Angoulême, illegitimate half-sister of King Francis I of France.

Her mother, Jacqueline, was a believer in the Reformed doctrines, and she secretly taught them to her children. By some accounts, Charlotte's father determined to thwart his wife's influence by sending three of his daughters to convents. Charlotte was then only thirteen years old and begged to be allowed to stay with her mother, who died during the time Charlotte was in the convent. Her father, influential in the court of Catherine de' Medici, placed her in the royal convent of Jouarre, near Meaux, to be raised as a nun. When she was professed as a nun at the age of thirteen, she made a formal written protest.

Other sources claim that Louis simply wanted to avoid paying dowries in order to conserve his only son's patrimony. Charlotte was first sent to Jouarre, where her aunt was abbess, as an infant. The plan for Charlotte was to renounce her inheritance and succeed her aunt. This plan was carried out upon the aunt's death, against Charlotte's wishes, and despite her being only 12. While abbess, Charlotte was secretly instructed in Calvinism by a dissident priest.

The young Charlotte shocked both her family and the royal court by escaping the convent in 1572, announcing her conversion to Calvinism and, on the advice of Jeanne d'Albret, fleeing to the Electorate of the Palatinate, well beyond her parents' reach.


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