Charles VIII, calledthe Affable (French:l'Affable; 30 June 1470 – 7 April 1498), wasKing of France from 1483 to his death in 1498. He succeeded his fatherLouis XI at the age of 13. His elder sisterAnne acted asregent jointly with her husbandPeter II, Duke of Bourbon until 1491, when the young king turned 21 years of age. During Anne's regency, the great lords rebelled against royalcentralisation efforts in a conflict known as theMad War (1485–1488), which resulted in a victory for the royal government.
In a remarkable stroke of audacity, Charles marriedAnne of Brittany in 1491 after she had already been married by proxy to theHabsburgHoly Roman EmperorMaximilian I in a ceremony of questionable validity. Preoccupied by the problematic succession in theKingdom of Hungary, Maximilian failed to press his claim. Upon his marriage, Charles became administrator ofBrittany and established apersonal union that enabled France to avoid total encirclement byHabsburg territories.
To secure his rights to theNeapolitan throne thatRené of Anjou had left to his father, Charles made a series of concessions to neighbouring monarchs and, due to his revolutionary artillery, conquered theItalian Peninsula without much opposition. A coalition formed against theFrench invasion of 1494–1498 attempted to stop Charles' army at Fornovo, but failed and Charles marched his army back to France.
Charles died in 1498 after supposedly striking his head accidentally on thelintel of a door at theChâteau d'Amboise, his place of birth, but that has been subject to re-analysis. Since he had no male heir, he was succeeded by his second cousin once removed and brother-in-law at the time,Louis XII, from the Orléanscadet branch of theHouse of Valois.
Charles was born at theChâteau d'Amboise in France, the only surviving son of KingLouis XI by his second wifeCharlotte of Savoy.[1] His godparents wereCharles II, Duke of Bourbon (the godchild's namesake),Joan of Valois, Duchess of Bourbon, and the teenageEdward of Westminster, the son ofHenry VI of England who had been living in France since the deposition of his father byEdward IV. Charles succeeded to the throne on 30 August 1483 at the age of 13.[2] His health was poor. He was regarded by his contemporaries as possessing a pleasant disposition, but also as foolish and unsuited for the business of the state. In accordance with the wishes of Louis XI, the regency of the kingdom was granted to Charles' elder sisterAnne, a formidably intelligent and shrewd woman described by her father as "the least foolish woman in France".[3] She ruled as regent, together with her husband Peter of Bourbon, until 1491.[2][1]
Charles wasbetrothed on 22 July 1483 to the 3-year-oldMargaret of Austria, daughter of the Archduke Maximilian of Austria (later Holy Roman EmperorMaximilian I) andMary, Duchess of Burgundy.[4] The marriage was arranged by Louis XI, Maximilian, and the Estates of the Low Countries as part of the 1482Peace of Arras between France and theDuchy of Burgundy. Margaret brought the counties of Artois and Franche-Comté to France as her dowry,[5] and she was raised in the French court as a prospective queen.
In 1488, however,Francis II, Duke of Brittany, died in a riding accident, leaving his 11-year-old daughterAnne as his heir. Anne, who feared for the independence of her duchy against the ambitions of France, arranged a marriage in 1490 between herself and the widower Maximilian. The regent Anne of France and her husband Peter refused to countenance such a marriage, however, since it would place Maximilian and his family, the Habsburgs, on two French borders. The French army invaded Brittany, taking advantage of the preoccupation of Maximilian and his father, EmperorFrederick III, with the disputed succession toMathias Corvinus,King of Hungary. Anne of Brittany was forced to renounce Maximilian (whom she had only married by proxy) and agree to be married to Charles VIII instead.[6]
In December 1491, in an elaborate ceremony at theChâteau de Langeais, Charles and Anne of Brittany were married. The 14-year-old Duchess Anne, not happy with thearranged marriage, arrived for her wedding with her entourage carrying two beds. However, Charles's marriage brought him independence from his relatives and thereafter he managed affairs according to his own inclinations. Queen Anne lived at theClos Lucé in Amboise.
There still remained the matter of Charles' first betrothed, the young Margaret of Austria. Although the cancellation of her betrothal meant that she by rights should have been returned to her family, Charles did not initially do so, intending to marry her usefully elsewhere in France. Eventually, in 1493, she was returned to her family, together with herdowry – though the Duchy of Burgundy was retained in theTreaty of Senlis.
Around the king there was a circle of court poets, the most memorable being the Italian humanistPublio Fausto Andrelini fromForlì, who spreadRenaissance humanism in France. During a pilgrimage to pay respects to his father's remains, Charles observedMont Aiguille and orderedAntoine de Ville [fr] to ascend to the summit in an early technical alpine climb, later alluded to byRabelais.[7][8]
In 1489,Pope Innocent VIII (1484–1492), then being at odds withFerdinand I of Naples, offered Naples to Charles, who had a vague claim to theKingdom of Naples through his paternal grandmother,Marie of Anjou. Innocent's policy of meddling in the affairs of other Italian states[12] was continued by his successor,Pope Alexander VI (1492–1503), when the latter supported a plan for carving out a new state in central Italy. The new state would have impacted on Milan more than any of the other states involved.[citation needed] Consequently, in 1493,Ludovico Sforza, theDuke of Milan, appealed for help to Charles VIII.[13] Charles then returnedPerpignan to Ferdinand II of Aragon to free up forces for the invasion of Italy.[14] The next year in 1494, Milan faced an additional threat. On 25 January 1494,Ferdinand I, King of Naples, died unexpectedly.[15] His death madeAlfonso II, king of Naples. Alfonso II laid claim to the Milanese duchy.[16] Alfonso II now urged Charles to take Milan militarily. Charles was also urged on in this adventure by his favorite courtier,Étienne de Vesc. Thus, Charles came to imagine himself capable of actually taking Naples, and invaded Italy.
In an event that was to prove a watershed in Italian history,[17] Charles invaded Italy with 25,000 men (including 8,000Swiss mercenaries) in September 1494 and marched across the peninsula virtually unopposed, using gunpowder artillery powerful enough to rapidly reduce Italian fortifications not designed to endure it. He arrived inPavia on 21 October 1494 and enteredPisa on 8 November 1494.[18] The French army subduedFlorence in passing on their way south. Reaching Naples on 22 February 1495,[19] the French Army took Naples without a pitched battle or siege; Alfonso was expelled, and Charles was crowned King of Naples.
There were those in the Republic of Florence who appreciated the presence of the French king and his Army. The famous friarSavonarola believed that King Charles VIII was God's tool to purify the corruption of Florence. He believed that once Charles had ousted the evil sinners of Florence, the city would become a center of morality. Thus, Florence was the appropriate place to restructure the Church. This situation would eventually spill over into another conflict betweenPope Alexander VI, who despised the idea of having the king in northern Italy where the Pope feared the King of France would interfere with thePapal States,[20] and Savonarola, who called for the king's intervention. This conflict would eventually lead Savonarola to be suspected of heresy and to be executed by the State.
The speed and power of the French advance frightened the other Italian rulers, including the Pope and even Ludovico of Milan. They formed an anti-French coalition, theLeague of Venice on 31 March 1495. The formation of the League of Venice, which included the northern Italian states of Duchy of Milan, theRepublic of Venice, theDuchy of Mantua, and theRepublic of Florence in addition to theKingdom of Spain, the Holy Roman Empire and the Kingdom of Naples, appeared to have trapped Charles in southern Italy and blocked his return to France. Charles would have to cross the territory of at least some of the League members to return home to France. AtFornovo in July 1495, the League was unable to stop Charles from marching his army out of Italy.[21] The League lost 2,000 men to Charles' 1,000 and, although Charles lost nearly all the booty of the campaign, the League was unable to stop him from crossing their territory on his way back to France. Meanwhile, Charles' remaining garrisons in Naples were quickly subdued by Aragonese forces sent byFerdinand II of Aragon, ally of Alfonso on 6–7 July 1495.[22] Thus in the end, Charles VIII lost all the gains that he had made in Italy.
Over the next few years, Charles VIII tried to rebuild his army and resume the campaign, but he was hampered by the large debts incurred in 1494–95. He never succeeded in gaining anything substantive.
Charles died in 1498, two and a half years after his retreat from Italy, as the result of an accident. While on his way to watch a game ofjeu de paume (real tennis) in Amboise he struck his head on thelintel of a door.[23] At around 2:00 p.m., while returning from the game, he fell into a sudden coma and died nine hours later. However, more recent analysis disputes this narrative of his death with a 2021 study concluding that such an injury would cause only minor trauma. That same study also hypothesized Charles actually died of severe brain injuries that could have been caused by anepileptic condition, itself a result ofneurosyphilis.[24]
Charles bequeathed a meagre legacy: he left France in debt and in disarray as a result of his ambition. However, his expedition did strengthen cultural ties to Italy, energizing French art and literature in the latter part of theRenaissance.[25] Since his children predeceased him, Charles was the last of the elder branch of theHouse of Valois. Upon his death, the throne passed to his brother-in-law and second cousin once removed,Louis XII.[26] Anne returned to Brittany and began taking steps to regain the independence of her duchy. In order to stymie these efforts, Louis XII had his 24-year childless marriage to Charles's sister,Joan,annulled and married Anne.[27]
In the 2011 French-German historical dramaBorgia, Charles VIII is played by Simon Larvaron. The event of the king's death is depicted in the TV seriesBorgia with a small twist: in the episode, Charleshimself plays a game ofjeu de paume withCesare Borgia and loses; whileleaving the game, Charles strikes his head on the lintel of a door.
The 2012 Spanish TV seriesIsabel also depicts the death of Charles VIII. In that series, Charles was played by the actor Héctor Carballo.[32]
In the 2017 German-Austrian historical dramaMaximilian, a young Charles when he was Dauphin is portrayed by French actor Max Baissette de Malglaive. Made available by American cable networkStarz in 2018.
^"Histoire et Événements" (in French). p. Le Mont Aiguille – Supereminet invius. Archived fromthe original on 20 May 2016. Retrieved31 December 2012.
^"L'ascension historique de 1492" [The historic ascent of 1492] (in French). Mont-Aiguille.com. 12 January 2009. Archived fromthe original on 16 June 2009. Retrieved3 January 2013.
^Heiner Gillmeister,Tennis: A Cultural History (London: Leicester University Press, 1998) p. 21. (ISBN978-0718501471)
^Zanello, Marc; Roux, Alexandre; Gavaret, Martine; Bartolomei, Fabrice; Huberfeld, Gilles; Charlier, Philippe; Georges-Zimmermann, Patrice; Carron, Romain; Pallud, Johan (December 2021). "King Charles VIII of France's Death: From an Unsubstantiated Traumatic Brain Injury to More Realistic Hypotheses".World Neurosurgery.156:60–67.doi:10.1016/j.wneu.2021.09.056.ISSN1878-8769.PMID34537407.
Anderson, Michael Alan (2014).St. Anne in Renaissance Music: Devotion and Politics. Cambridge University Press.
Blockmans, Wim; Prevenier, Walter (1999). Peters, Edward (ed.).The Promised Lands: The Low Countries Under Burgundian Rule, 1369-153. Translated by Fackelman, Elizabeth. University of Pennsylvania Press.211
Broomhall, Susan (2004).Women's Medical Work in Early Modern France. Manchester University Press.
Drees, Clayton J., ed. (2000).The Late Medieval Age of Crisis and Renewal, 1300-1500: A Biographical Dictionary. Greenwod Press.339
Fletcher, Stella (1999).The Longman Companion to Renaissance Europe, 1390–1530. Routledge.
Hand, Joni M. (2013).Women, Manuscripts and Identity in Northern Europe, 1350–1550. Ashgate Publishing.
Kendall, Paul Murray (1971).Louis XI: The Universal Spider. W. W. Norton & Company.
%2c_by_anonymous_artist%2c_16th_century_(cropped)_2.jpg)
