View source for Charles, Duke of Orléans

{{Short description|French nobleman (1394–1465)}}
{{other people|Charles d'Orléans}}
{{EngvarB|date=July 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2017}}
{{Infobox royalty|name= Charles
|image=Charles Ier d'Orléans.jpg
|caption= Miniature from the southern Netherlands, 1473
|succession=[[Duke of Orléans]]
| reign = 23 November 1407 – 5 January 1465
| reign-type = Tenure
|predecessor=[[Louis I, Duke of Orléans|Louis I]]
|successor=[[Louis XII of France|Louis II]]
|birth_date=24 November 1394
|birth_place=[[Paris]], France
|death_date={{death date and age|df=yes|1465|1|5|1394|11|24}}
|death_place=[[Amboise]], France
|spouse={{plainlist|
* {{Marriage|[[Isabella of Valois]]|1406|1409|end=died}}
* {{marriage|[[Bonne of Armagnac]]|1410|1435|end=died}}
* {{marriage|[[Marie of Cleves, Duchess of Orléans|Marie of Cleves]]|1440}}
}}
|issue=[[Joan of Valois, Duchess of Alençon|Joan, Duchess of Alençon]]<br>[[Marie of Orléans (1457–1493)|Marie, Viscountess of Narbonne]]<br> [[Louis XII of France]] <br>[[Anne of Orléans, Abbess of Fontevraud|Anne, Abbess of Fontevraud]]
|full name=
|house=[[House of Valois#Dukes of Orléans|Valois-Orléans]]
|father=[[Louis I, Duke of Orléans]]
|mother=[[Valentina Visconti, Duchess of Orléans|Valentina Visconti]]
| burial_place=[[Saint Denis Basilica]], France
}}
[[Image:Towrlndn.JPG|right|thumb|A depiction of Charles' imprisonment in the [[Tower of London]] from an [[illuminated manuscript]] of his poems]]
'''Charles of Orléans''' (24 November 1394 – 5 January 1465) was [[Duke of Orléans]] from 1407, following the murder of his father, [[Louis I, Duke of Orléans]]. He was also [[Duke of Valois]], Count of [[Beaumont-sur-Oise]] and of [[Blois]], [[Lord of Coucy]], and the inheritor of [[Asti]] in Italy via his mother [[Valentina Visconti, Duchess of Orléans|Valentina Visconti]].

He is now remembered as an accomplished [[Medieval French literature|medieval poet]], owing to the more than five hundred extant poems he produced, written in both French and English, during his 25 years spent as a prisoner of war and after his return to France.

== Accession ==
Charles was born in Paris, the son of [[Louis I, Duke of Orléans]] and Valentina Visconti, daughter of [[Gian Galeazzo Visconti]], [[Duke of Milan]].{{sfn|Goodrich|1967|p=11}}  He acceded to the [[duchy]] at the age of thirteen after his father had been [[Assassination of Louis I, Duke of Orléans|assassinated]] on the orders of [[John the Fearless|John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy]].{{sfn|Vaughan|2002|p=44–46}} Charles was expected to carry on his father's leadership against the [[Burgundian (party)|Burgundian]]s, a French faction which supported the [[Duke of Burgundy]]. The latter was never punished for his role in Louis' assassination, and Charles had to watch as his grief-stricken mother Valentina Visconti succumbed to illness not long afterwards. At her deathbed, Charles and the other boys of the family were made to swear the traditional oath of vengeance for their father's murder.

During the early years of his reign as duke, the orphaned Charles was heavily influenced by the guidance of his father-in-law, [[Bernard VII, Count of Armagnac]], for which reason Charles' faction came to be known as the [[Armagnac (party)|Armagnac]]s.{{citation  needed|date=July 2025}}

Even before his father's death, he received a  pension of 12,000 [[Livre tournois|livres]] from [[Charles VI of France|King Charles VI]], his uncle, in 1403. In addition, his first marriage, to [[Isabella of Valois]], widow of [[Richard II of England]], may have brought him a [[dowry]] of 500,000 francs.{{sfn|Saintsbury|1911|pp=282–283}}

== Imprisonment ==
{{unsourced|section|date=July 2025}}
After [[Hundred Years' War| war]] with the [[Kingdom of England]] was [[Hundred Years' War, 1415–1453 | renewed]] by King [[Henry V of England]] in 1415,<ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = Burne
 |first1               = Alfred H.
 |author-link1         = Alfred Burne
 |date                 = 30 June 2014
 |orig-date            = 1956
 |title                = The Agincourt War: A Military History of the Hundred Years War from 1369 to 1453
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=Q3KpBQAAQBAJ
 |location             = London
 |publisher            = Frontline Books
 |pages                = 34, 40
 |isbn                 = 9781473838307
 |access-date          = 28 August 2025
 |quote                = Though it is impossible to say at what precise moment [Henry V] 'crossed the Rubicon' and decided definitely on war, it must have been sometime in the early spring of 1415. [...] the [English] fleet cast anchor on August 14, 1415, in the mouth of the Seine [...] Before dawn next day a reconnaissance party [...] landed and soon reported the coast clear. The king then ordered a general but methodical disembarkation and was himself one of the first to land. His first act was to kneel down on the shore and utter a prayer that in the coming war he might do nothing which would not redound to the honour of God and the furtherance of justice.
}}
</ref>
Charles was one of the many French noblemen at the [[Battle of Agincourt]] on 25 October 1415. He was discovered unwounded but trapped under a pile of corpses. He was taken prisoner by the English, and spent the next twenty-four years as their hostage. After his capture his entire library was moved from Blois into the care of the Duchess of Anjou, [[Yolande of Aragon]]<ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = Rohr
 |first1               = Zita Eva
 |date                 = 29 April 2016
 |title                = Yolande of Aragon (1381-1442) Family and Power: The Reverse of the Tapestry
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=b-sYDAAAQBAJ
 |series               = Queenship and Power
 |edition              = reprint
 |publication-place    = Basingstoke
 |publisher            = Palgrave Macmillan
 |page                 = 231
 |isbn                 = 9781137499134
 |access-date          = 5 September 2025
 |quote                = Upon Charles's capture, the bibliophile Yolande of Aragon lost no time in arranging for his entire library and literary collection to be entrusted[ ]to her personal care for safekeeping.
}}
</ref>
(who had elected to support the French), at [[Saumur]] in the [[Duchy of Anjou]] in 1427<ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = Rohr
 |first1               = Zita Eva
 |date                 = 23 July 2025
 |chapter              = The Ripple Effect
 |title                = Anne de France and Her Family (1325–1522): Genealogies of Premodern Gendered Power and Influence
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=MW1zEQAAQBAJ
 |series               = Queenship and Power ISSN 2730-9398
 |publication-place    = Cham, Zug
 |publisher            = Springer Nature
 |page                 = 359
 |doi                  = 10.1007/978-3-031-84861-2
 |isbn                 = 9783031848612
 |access-date          = 5 September 2025
 |quote                = The transmission of these more private libraries was very much a family affair with the father of Louis XII, Charles de Orléans's private library housed in Blois sent to the dedicated bibliophile Yolande d'Aragon in Saumur for safe-keeping in 1427, probably at her suggestion.
}}
</ref>
to prevent the works from falling into hostile hands.

The captive Duke was held at various locations in England; he was moved from one castle to another, including the [[Tower of London]],<ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = Porter
 |first1               = Stephen
 |date                 = 15 November 2012
 |title                = The Tower of London: The Biography
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=xXuoAwAAQBAJ
 |publication-place    = Stroud, Gloucestershire
 |publisher            = Amberley Publishing Limited
 |page                 = 1487
 |isbn                 = 9781445615707
 |access-date          = 12 September 2025
 |quote                = Charles, Duke of Orléans, was captured by Henry V's army at Agincourt in 1415. As the nephew of the French king, Charles VI, he was a considerable asset, and was held in England, although only initially in the Tower.
}}
</ref>{{efn |
In a 15th-century artistic interpretation, in a "widely famed image of Charles within the Tower of London [...] Charles is first seen writing his letter inside the [[White Tower (Tower of London) | White Tower]], watched over by men-at-arms wearing the English badge of the St. George's cross".
<ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = 
 |first1               = 
 |author-link1         = Janet Backhouse
 |editor-last1         = 
 |editor-first1        = 
 |editor-link1         = Mary-Jo Arn
 |year                 = 2000
 |chapter              = Charles of Orléans Illuminated
 |title                = Charles D'Orléans in England
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=n4pVuHw1DpEC
 |publication-place    = Woodbridge, Suffolk
 |publisher            = Boydell & Brewer
 |page                 = 160
 |isbn                 = 9780859915809
 |access-date          = 19 September 2025
}}
</ref>
}}
[[Bolingbroke Castle]] (from 1422<ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = Green
 |first1               = David
 |date                 = 11 August 2020
 |orig-date            = 2014
 |title                = The Hundred Years War: A People's History
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=-uyuBAAAQBAJ
 |publisher            = Yale University Press
 |isbn                 = 9780300209945
 |access-date          = 12 September 2025
 |quote                = With Henry V's death in 1422 and the continuing hostilities with the dauphin, the prospects for the release of Charles d'Orléans became ever more remote; by December he had passed into the custody of Sir Thomas Comberworth and was kept mostly at Bolingbroke Castle (Lincolnshire).
}}
</ref>
to 1423, where he contributed to the building of the Church tower), and [[Pontefract Castle]] – the castle where a former English king, [[Richard II]] (the first husband of Charles's own deceased first wife [[Isabella of Valois]]), had been imprisoned and had died in 1400 at the age of 33. His last place of confinement seems to have been [[Stourton, Wiltshire]].

The conditions of his confinement were not strict; he was allowed to live more or less in the manner to which he had become accustomed, like so many other captured nobles. However, for a quarter of a century he was not [[ransom]]ed, since the English King Henry V ({{reign | 1413 | 1422}}) had left instructions forbidding any release:<ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = Warner
 |first1               = Michael P.
 |year                 = 2021
 |chapter              = Gloucester's Retinue
 |title                = The Agincourt Campaign of 1415: The Retinues of the Dukes of Clarence and Gloucester
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=Lgo7EAAAQBAJ
 |series               = Warfare in history, ISSN 1358-779X, volume 52
 |edition              = reprint
 |publication-place    = Woodbridge, Suffolk
 |publisher            = Boydell & Brewer
 |page                 = 177
 |isbn                 = 9781783276363
 |access-date          = 19 September 2025
 |quote                = {{Bracket |[[Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester]]}} virulently opposed the release of the duke of Orléans in 1440 which Henry V had expressly forbidden in his will- and decried him as a 'capital enemy' of the English Crown.
}}
</ref>
Charles of Orléans was the natural head of the Armagnac faction and (as a [[Prince of the blood]] and the head of the House of [[Valois-Orléans]]) prominent in the line of succession to the French throne.{{efn |
Charles of Orléans was the grandson of King [[Charles V of France]] ({{reign | 1364 | 1380}}) and thus the nephew of King [[Charles VI of France | Charles VI]] ({{reign | 1380 | 1422}}) and the cousin of King [[Charles VII of France | Charles VII]] ({{reign | 1422 | 1461}}). The French crown eventually went to the Valois-Orléans line in the person Charles of Orléans's own son, who reigned as King [[Louis XII]] from 1498 to 1515.
}}
He was therefore long deemed by English statesmen too important to be returned to circulation within the French political scene.

== Poetry ==
It was during these twenty-four years that Charles would write most of his poetry, including melancholy works which seem to be commenting on the captivity itself, such as ''En la forêt de longue attente''.{{citation  needed|date=July 2025}}

The majority of his output consists of two books, one in French and the other in English, in the ''ballade'' and ''rondeau'' fixed forms. Though once controversial, it is now abundantly clear that Charles wrote the English poems which he left behind when he was released in 1440.{{sfn|Fox|1965|p=433–462}} Unfortunately, his acceptance in the English canon has been slow. [[Anne Coldiron|A. E. B. Coldiron]] has argued that the problem relates to his "approach to the erotic, his use of puns, wordplay, and rhetorical devices, his formal complexity and experimentation, his stance or voice: all these place him well outside the fifteenth-century literary milieu in which he found himself in England."{{sfn|Coldiron|2000|p=11}}

One of his poems, ''[[Is she not passing fair?]]'', was translated by [[Louisa Stuart Costello]] and set to music by [[Edward Elgar]]. [[Claude Debussy]] set three of his poems to music in his ''[[Trois Chansons (Debussy)|Trois Chansons de Charles d'Orléans]]'', [[List of compositions by Claude Debussy by Lesure numbers|L.92]], for unaccompanied mixed choir. [[Reynaldo Hahn]] set six of them: ''Les Fourriers d'été'', ''Comment se peut-il faire ainsi'', ''Un loyal cœur'' (in ''Chansons et Madrigaux'', 1907), ''Quand je fus pris au pavillon'', ''Je me mets en votre mercy'', and ''Gardez le trait de la fenêtre'' (in ''Rondels'', 1899). [[Maurice Jaubert]] set another two : 'Complainte de France' and 'Ballade sur la paix'.{{citation  needed|date=July 2025}}

== Freedom ==
Finally freed on 3 November 1440 by the efforts of his former enemies, [[Philip the Good]] and [[Isabella of Portugal, Duchess of Burgundy|Isabella of Portugal]], the Duke and Duchess of Burgundy, he set foot on French soil again after 25 years, by now a middle-aged man at 46 and "speaking better English than French," according to the English chronicler [[Raphael Holinshed]]. Part of the agreement, concluded the previous July, was an immediate ransom payment of 80,000 {{lang|fr|saluts d'or}}, and a promise to pay 140,000 [[Écu|crowns]] later.{{sfn|Saintsbury|1911|p=283}} Philip the Good had also made it a condition that the murder of Charles' father Louis of Orleans by Philip's own father, [[John the Fearless]], would not be avenged (John himself had been assassinated in 1419).

Charles agreed to this condition prior to his release.{{sfn|Goldstone|2013|pp=225–226}} Meeting the Duchess of Burgundy after disembarking, the gallant Charles said: "M'Lady, I make myself your prisoner." At the celebration of his third marriage, to Marie of Cleves (Philip's niece), he was created a [[Knight of the Golden Fleece]]. His subsequent return to [[Orléans]] was marked by a splendid celebration organised by the citizens.{{Citation needed|date=January 2022}} Marie brought a considerable dowry, which helped to pay part of his ransom, although he had difficulty making up the balance, and that of his brother [[John, Count of Angoulême|Jean d'Angoulême]], also a prisoner.{{sfn|Saintsbury|1911|p=283}}

He made an unsuccessful attempt to press his claims to Asti in Italy, before settling down as a celebrated patron of the arts. In Blois, he kept a miniature court at which many of the French men of letters at the time—[[François Villon]], [[Olivier de la Marche]], [[Georges Chastellain]], [[Jean Meschinot]] and others—were residents or visitors or correspondents. He died at [[Amboise]] in his 71st year.{{sfn|Saintsbury|1911|p=283}}

==Marriage and children==
[[File:Arms of Louis XII (Milan).svg|thumb|Coat of arms of Charles d'Orléans]]
Charles married three times. His first marriage, in 1406 at [[Compiègne]], was with his first cousin [[Isabella of Valois]], daughter of [[Charles VI of France]] and widow of [[Richard II of England]]. She died three years later in childbirth aged 19.{{sfn|Goodrich|1967|p=11}} Their daughter [[Joan of Valois, Duchess of Alençon|Joan]] survived and married [[John II of Alençon]] in 1424 in Blois, but died childless.{{sfn|Goodrich|1967|p=112}}

Secondly, Charles married [[Bonne of Armagnac]],{{sfn|Goodrich|1967|p=11}} the daughter of [[Bernard VII, Count of Armagnac]], in 1410. Bonne died before he returned from captivity. The couple had no mutual children.

On his return to France in 1440, Charles married [[Marie of Cleves]]{{sfn|Goodrich|1967|p=11}} in [[Saint-Omer]] (daughter of [[Adolph I, Duke of Cleves]]) and niece of [[Philip the Good]], who had arranged his release. They had three children:
*[[Marie of Orléans (1457–1493)|Marie of Orléans]] (19 December 1457 – 1493, [[Mazères, Ariège|Mazères]]). Married [[John of Foix, Viscount of Narbonne|Jean of Foix]] in 1483.
*[[Louis XII of France]] (1462–1515).
* [[Anne of Orléans, Abbess of Fontevraud|Anne of Orléans]] (1464–1491, [[Poitiers]]), Abbess of [[Fontevrault]] and [[Holy Cross Abbey]] Poitiers.

==Honours==
* {{Flag|Kingdom of France|seme}} – [[Duchy of Orléans]] : Grand Master and Knight of the [[Order of the Porcupine]]
* {{flag|Duchy of Burgundy}} : Knight of the [[Order of the Golden Fleece]] ( ''[[List of Knights of the Golden Fleece|List]]'' )

==In fiction and popular culture==
{{unsourced|section|date=July 2025}}
* Charles appears as "Duke of Orléans" in [[William Shakespeare]]'s ''[[Henry V (play)|Henry V]].'' In the 2012 television adaptation ''[[The Hollow Crown (TV series)|The Hollow Crown]],'' Charles is played by French actor [[Stanley Weber]] and is inaccurately portrayed as dying at Agincourt.
* The critically acclaimed historical novel ''Het Woud der Verwachting / Le Forêt de Longue Attente'' (1949) by [[Hella Haasse]] (translated into English in 1989 under the title ''[[In a Dark Wood Wandering]]'') gives a sympathetic description of the life of Charles, Duke of Orléans.
* Charles is a major character in [[Margaret Frazer]]'s ''The Maiden's Tale'', a historical mystery and fictional account of a few weeks of his life in England in the autumn of 1439, shortly before his release in 1440.
* Charles is a minor character in the historical fiction novel ''Crown in Candlelight'' by [[Rosemary Hawley Jarman]].
* Charles is referenced as the author of "the first known Valentine" in Netflix original ''[[Big Mouth (American TV series)|Big Mouth]]''<nowiki/>'s Valentine's Day special, "My Furry Valentine".
* Charles’ words "The world is weary of me. And I am weary of it." appear as an [[Epigraph (literature)|epigraph]] in [[Michel Houellebecq]]’s ''[[The Map and the Territory]]''.

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{reflist|}}

==Sources==
*{{cite book |first=A. E. B. |last=Coldiron |title=Canon, Period, and the Poetry of Charles of Orleans: Found in Translation  |publisher=University of Michigan Press |year=2000}}
*{{cite journal |first=John |last=Fox |title=Charles d'Orléans, poète anglais? |journal=Romania |volume=86 |year=1965 |issue=3 |pages=433–462 |publisher=Librairie Droz|doi=10.3406/roma.1965.3007 }}
*{{cite book |title=The Maid and the Queen: The Secret History of Joan of Arc |last=Goldstone |first=Nancy |year=2013 |publisher= Phoenix Paperbacks, London}}
*{{cite book |first=Norma Lorre |last=Goodrich |title=Charles of Orléans: A Study of Themes in his French and in his English Poetry |publisher=Librairie Droz. |year=1967}}
* {{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Orléans, Charles, Duke of|volume=20|pages=282–283|first=George|last=Saintsbury|author-link=George Saintsbury}} This includes Saintsbury's own assessment of the poems.
*{{cite book |first=Richard |last=Vaughan |title=John the Fearless: The Growth of Burgundian Power |volume=2 |publisher=The Boydell Press |year=2002}}

==External links==
{{Sister project links |wikt=no |c= |n=no |q= |s= |b=no |v=no}}
* [http://archivesetmanuscrits.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cc538881 BnF MS. fr. 25458, the personal manuscript of Charles d'Orléans] at [[Gallica]]
* [http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=harley_ms_682_fs001r Collection of English poems by Charles d'Orléans]{{Dead link|date=November 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, composed during his captivity in England, at the British Library.
* {{Gutenberg author |id=Charles,+d'Orléans | name=Charles d'Orléans}}
* {{Internet Archive author |name=Charles d'Orléans}}
* {{Librivox author |id=977}}
* [http://medievalsourcesbibliography.org/authors/230 The Online Medieval Sources Bibliography] cites print and online works by Charles d'Orléans

{{S-start}}
{{S-reg|fr}}
{{s-bef| rows   = 2 | before = [[Louis of Valois, Duke of Orléans|Louis I/IV]] }}
{{s-ttl| title  = [[Duke of Valois]]
       | years  = 1406–1465 }}
{{s-aft| rows   = 2 | after  = [[Louis XII of France|Louis II/V]] }}
{{s-ttl| title  = [[Duke of Orléans]]<br>[[Count of Blois]] and [[Count of Beaumont-sur-Oise|Beaumont-sur-Oise]]
       | years  = 1407–1465 }}
{{s-end}}
{{Portal bar|London|Literature}}
{{Dukes of Orléans}}
{{Henriad}}
{{Shakespeare's plays}}
{{Authority control}}


{{DEFAULTSORT:Charles, Duke of Orleans}}
[[Category:1394 births]]
[[Category:1465 deaths]]
[[Category:15th-century French poets]]
[[Category:15th-century peers of France]]
[[Category:15th-century dukes of Orléans]]
[[Category:Armagnac faction]]
[[Category:Counts of Blois]]
[[Category:Counts of Soissons]]
[[Category:Dukes of Valois]]
[[Category:French male poets]]
[[Category:French prisoners of war in the Hundred Years' War]]
[[Category:Heirs presumptive to the French throne]]
[[Category:House of Valois-Orléans]]
[[Category:Knights of the Golden Fleece]]
[[Category:Knights of the Order of the Porcupine]]
[[Category:People of the Hundred Years' War]]
[[Category:Prisoners in the Tower of London]]
[[Category:French people imprisoned in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Royal reburials]]
[[Category:Writers from Paris]]
[[Category:French patrons of the arts]]