Everything about Charles Ix Of France totally explained
Charles IX (
June 27,
1550 –
May 30,
1574) born
Charles-Maximilien, was
King of France, ruling from
1560 until his death. He is best known as king at the time of the
St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre.
Life
He was born in the
royal chateau of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, third son of King
Henry II of France and
Catherine de' Medici, grandson of
François I and
Claude de France, and brother of
François II and
Henri III. He was one of 10 children:
He was made a Knight of the
Order of the Garter on Sunday
May 14 1564 at St George's, Windsor, along with
Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford and
Sir Henry Sidney. That year, Charles IX issued the
Edict of Roussillon fixing
January 1 as the first day of the year.
King of France
After the death of his elder brother,
François II, in
1560, he inherited the throne and was crowned King of France in
1560 in the cathedral at
Reims. The politics of that era were greatly influenced by his mother, Catherine de' Medici, who was regent for the ten-year-old Charles and by the power of the opposing religious faction leaders; the protestant-leaning
House of Bourbon and the ultra-Catholic
House of Guise.
The first of the
French Wars of Religion broke out in 1562-1563 when armed protestant troops seized many French cities following an attack on protestant worshippers by retainers of the Duke of Guise. After a four year peace, an attempt by Huguenot armies at
Meaux to capture and control the king led to the Second War of religion from 1567 to 1568. A third war raged chiefly in south-western France from 1568 to 1570 with foreign intervention.
Marriage
On
November 26,
1570 Charles married
Elisabeth of Austria. They had one daughter,
Marie-Elisabeth (
October 27,
1572 –
April 9,
1578). Charles IX also had an illegitimate son, the
duc d'Angoulême, with his mistress,
Marie Touchet.
In 1572, Charles IX witnessed the massacre of thousands of
Huguenots (
Protestants) in and around Paris in what became known as the
St. Bartholomew's Day massacre.
Charles IX didn't long survive the Massacre. He had always been fragile, both emotionally and physically: Emotionally, his moods now swung from coarse boasting about the extremity of the Massacre, to claims that the screams of the murdered Huguenots kept ringing in his ears. Frantically he blamed his mother: "Who but you is the cause of all of this? God's blood, you're the cause of it all!" The Queen-mother responded by declaring she'd a lunatic for a son.
Physically, Charles had never been strong, tending towards tuberculosis.
The strain following the Massacres weakened his body to the point where, by spring of 1574, the hoarse coughing turned bloody and the hemorrhages grew more violent. He became bedridden and delusional,
What blood shed! What murders! he cried to his nurse. What evil council I've followed! O my God, forgive me...I am lost! I'm lost!"
Death
On his last day,
30 May 1574, at the
Château de Vincennes,
Val-de-Marne, Charles called for
Henry of Navarre, embraced him, and said, "Brother, you're losing a good friend. Had I believed all that I was told, you wouldn't be alive. But I always loved you...I trust you alone to look after my wife and daughter. Pray God for me. Farewell."
Charles wasn't yet twenty-four years old. The crown of France now passed to his brother,
Henry III of Valois.
In Fiction
Charles IX is a supporting character in Alexandre Dumas' historical fiction Queen Margot, which focuses on the marriage between Henri de Navarre and Marguirite de Valois. In the book, Charles' mother Catherine de Medicis accidentally causes his death by arsenic poisoning. She is attempting to assassinate Henri by means of a tainted book placed in his chamber but Charles finds the book instead and ingests a lethal dose of arsenic.
Ancestors
Further Information
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