Charlotte of Valois

Charlotte
Charlotte de Valois, ca. 1517, by Jean Clouet. It is commonly believed that this is Madeleine of Valois, Charlotte's sister. This is a mistake.
Dauphine of France
Tenure	21 October 1517–28 February 1518
House	House of Valois
Father	Francis I of France
Mother	Claude of France
Born	23 October 1516(1516-10-23) Château d'Amboise
Died	18 September 1524(1524-09-18) (aged 7 years, 10 months) Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye
Burial	October 1524 Basilica of Saint-Denis, Saint-Denis
Religion	Roman Catholicism

Charlotte of Valois (23 October 1516 – 18 September 1524) was the second child and second daughter of Francis I, King of France and his wife, Claude of France, daughter of Louis XII of France and the Duchess of Brittany

Early life

Charlotte was born in the Château d'Amboise, on October 23, 1516, the second daughter and child of Francis I of France and Claude, Duchess of Brittany. She was a beautiful child, with greenish blue eyes and bright red hair. She was one of the six children of Francis I and Claude that had red hair, a trait inherited from Anne of Brittany, Claude's mother. She lived a happy life, moving from the Château d'Amboise to the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye before March 1519.

Dauphine of France

When Charlotte was one year old, her older sister Louise, Dauphine of France, died from convulsions and with no other child, Francis was forced to create his only living child Dauphine of France. Her father immediately ordered Jean Clouet to paint a portrait of the new Dauphine, the portrait reading Charlotte of France. But, on 28 February 1518, the Queen gave birth to a boy, named François, thus taking away the titles from Charlotte. François was styled Dauphin of France since birth and Charlotte was re-styled Charlotte of Valois.

Later life and death

Charlotte in 1524, by Jean Clouet

The Princess spent all of her remaining days at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye. She had always been a delicate, frail child. At age seven, she contracted measles, the same disease which had killed her half-uncle, Charles Orlando, Dauphin of France just thirty years earlier. At not quite seven, the Princess died. The only person who looked after her while she was sick was her aunt Margaret of Navarre, as her mother Claude had already died two months earlier, her grandmother Louise of Savoy was very sick and her father Francis I of France had gone to war. He would later be imprisoned, so he was not anywhere near his daughter at the time of her death. It appears as if Charlotte was very close to her aunt Margaret, who was heartbroken and distraught when her "little one" died, on 18 September 1524.

References

• Freer, Martha Walker. The Life of Marguerite D'Angoulême,Queen of Navarre. pp. 141–143. Second Edition, Revised. London, 1856.
• The Cambridge Modern History. A. W. Ward, editor. Vol. 2, p. 417. MacMillan Company, 1904.
• Portrait of Charlotte of France. Minneapolis Institute of Arts.