BIRTH OF CHARLES IX OF FRANCE

 

 On this day ~ 27th June 1550 

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 BIRTH OF CHARLES IX OF FRANCE 

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 Charles Maximilien of France, was the third son of King Henri II of France, and Catherine de' Medici.

He was born on 27th June 1550 at the Château de saint~Germain~en~Laye, and was the fifth of ten children born to the royal couple.

 Charles' father died in 1559, after a splinter of a lance pierced his eye in a jousting accident.

The throne of France went to Charles' elder brother, King Francis II and his wife Mary~Queen of Scots.

Sadly, Francis II died in 1560, just a year later.

Ten-year-old Charles was immediately proclaimed king on 5th December 1560.

 Charles' mother, Catherine de' Medici, acted as regent for her young son.

Charles declared his legal majority in August 1563, formally ending the regency.
However, Catherine de Medici continued to play a principal role in politics, and often dominated her son.

 On 26th November 1570, Charles married Elisabeth of Austria, the daughter of Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor, and Maria of Spain.

The couple had one daughter, Marie Elisabeth.

 After decades of tension, war broke out between Protestants and Catholics.

In 1572, after several unsuccessful peace attempts, Charles ordered the marriage of his sister Margaret of Valois to Henri of Navarre - the future King Henri IV of France.

Henri of Navarre was a major Protestant nobleman in the line of succession to the French throne.
Charles hoped their marriage would reconcile his people.

 Many Huguenot nobles, including Admiral de Coligny, thronged into Paris for the wedding, which was set for 18th August 1572.

In the early morning of 24th August 1572, the Duke of Guise murdered Admiral de Coligny in his lodgings.

As de Coligny's body was thrown into the street, Parisians mutilated his body.

 Charles allowed the massacre of all Huguenot leaders who gathered in Paris for the royal wedding at the instigation of his mother, Catherine de Medici.

The mob action erupted into what is known as the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, a systematic slaughter of Huguenots that was to last five days.

Over the next few weeks, the disorder spread to more cities across France.
In all, up to 10,000 Huguenots were killed in Paris and the surrounding provinces.

 In the aftermath of the massacre, King Charles' fragile mental and physical health, weakened drastically.

His moods swung from boasting about the extremity of the massacre, to exclamations that the screams of the murdered Huguenots kept ringing in his ears.

Frantically, he would scream out

"What blood shed! What murders!
What evil counsel I have followed!
Oh my God, forgive me...
I am lost!
I am lost!"

He would shout at his mother,

"Who but you is the cause of all of this?
God's blood, you are the cause of it all!"

Catherine responded by declaring she had a lunatic for a son!

 Charles' physical condition deteriorated to the point where, by spring of 1574, his hoarse coughing turned bloody and his hemorrhages grew more violent.

Charles IX died at the Château de Vincennes on 30th May 1574, he was just 23.

The cause of his death was thought to be tuberculosis.

Charles was buried in the St Denis Basilica.

Charles younger brother, Henry~Duke of Anjou, inherited the French throne.

The Tudor Intruders (and more)
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 Source - europeanroyalhistory/charles-ix-of-france

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 16th Century portrait of King Charles IX of France ~ After François Clouet.