Charles of Orléans (1459 – 1 January 1496) (
French: Charles d'Orléans) was the
Count of Angoulême from 1467 until his death. He succeeded his father,
John, and was initially under the regency of his mother, Marguerite de Rohan, assisted by Jean I de La Rochefoucauld, one of his vassals.
Charles was a grandson of
Louis I, Duke of Orléans, a younger son of King
Charles V of France. He was thus a member of the Orléans cadet branch of the ruling
House of Valois. The Orléans came to the throne in 1498 in the person of Charles's cousin
Louis XII, who was followed in 1515 by Charles's own son
Francis I.[1]
Charles also had two illegitimate daughters by his mistress Jeanne (often mistakenly called Antoinette by confusion with a member of a quite distinct family by the same name) de Polignac,[4] Dame de Combronde, who was his wife's
lady-in-waiting:
Madeleine d'Angoulême,[4] Abbess of Fontevrault (died 26 October 1543)
He also had an illegitimate daughter by mistress Jeanne Le Conte:[4]
Souveraine d'Angoulême (died 23 February 1551),[4] married Michel III de Gaillard, Seigneur de Chilly. In 1534 Married French Ambassador Louis de Perreau, Sieur de Castillon.
Knecht, R.J. (1982). Francis I. Cambridge University Press.
Reid, Jonathan A. (2009). Gow, Andrew Colin (ed.). King's Sister - Queen of Dissent: Marguerite of Navarre (1492-1549) and her Evangelical Network. Vol. 1. Brill.