Le Maison de Valois-Angoulême

In 1328 the senior lineage of the Capetian Dinasty became extinct in the male line at the death of Charles IV of France.

After his death, the succession was unclear and several pretenders claimed the vacant French throne, he only left one daugther and his wife was pregnant, however at the end the queen Jeanne gave birth to another daughter.

In this moment the monarchy was defined to be ruled under Salic Law and thus all the sons born through female lines were barred from the throne, including Edward III of England who was claiming without any legal basis to be the rightfull king of France (The kings of England, and then from Great Britain continued to claim the French throne as late as 1801).

The nearest relative in the main line to the last king of France was Philip, Count of Valois, from then on the French Monarchy has been always ruled by the most strict and perfect Salic Law, this prevented France to be swallowed by England.

The main line of the Valois died out in 1498, it was followed by the brief reign of Louis XII who belonged to the junior branch of Valois-Orleans, however he also died without male heirs and in 1515 after his death, he was succeeded in the throne by a first cousin once removed, Francis I of Valois-Angoulême, a new lineage of french kings was born.

However the history had different plans for the new reigning House of France, it seems that the Valois-Angoulême were a cursed family, a lot of strange facts and unfortunate events lead us to think this.

The first king of this House is remembered as an accomplished writer and a man of letters, however his life was full of tragedies and slips. All of his reign was a bitter fight against his mosty hated enemy, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V who was also the King of Spain.

Charles V's reign supposed a permanent threat to the French Kingdom, Francis had unsuccesfully tried to become the Holy Roman Emperor in 1519, instead his enemy was chosen.

The most tragic event of his life came when he was captured in 1525 at the Battle of Pavia, he was forced to sign an humilliant treaty which greatly affected his own realm, he even had to leave his sons as hostages as a backing to his own word (That was put in doubt).

In 1536 he lost hiw eldest son and heir, Francis, Dauphin of France, and when he finally died in 1547 he was then succeeded by his second son, Henry that became Henry II of France, and who also had a very sad life but a even a worse dead.

Henry II married to the bitter and ambicious Catherine De Medici, and he had four sons that survived to adulthood and even the dinasty semt to be well safe in the male line, the destiny had different plans, all of the four would fail to produce their own male issue.

Henry II ended with the Italian Wars and even recaptured Calais, however everything else was obscure, he married his heir Francis to the heir of Scotland, Mary I, the marriage would then give the Dauphin of France rights not only to the Kingdom of France but also to that of Scotland, and potentially to that of England.

However the big hopes of the dinasty were all bitterly destroyed, Henry II died in 1559 when he was participating in a tournament to celebrate the peace with his long-time enemies the Habsburgs, there in a tragic accident a lance wounded him in an eye and had a long and very painfull death.

He was succeeded in the throne by Francis II who in turn died one year later, not only a king died but also the pretensions over Scotland and England also.

In 1560 came Charles IX a weak and fearfull child that had to suffer from the wars of religion and the struggle of power in France, his mother Catherine a rude women is supposed to be one of the main minds behind the bloody Massacre of Saint Barthelemy, where large crowds of hugenots were tragically murdered.

Charles IX died in 1574 childless and almost totally out of his mind, believing that he was going to hell after the massacres that occurred during his ephimeral reign. The last monarch of the dinasty, Henry III had also a poor reputation, some historians agree that he was an homosexual this after his exaggerate effeminate aspect and manners.

Henry III failed to produce heirs, to stop the religion wars in France and when his brother Hercules (The last male scion of the House of Valois) died, the faith of the dinasty was written. The premier prince du sang, and then heir presumptive was his distant cousin Henry of Bourbon, King of Navarre, a protestant.

Charles IX was murdered in 1589 and the Valos-Angolême dinasty died with him, the great House of Bourbon then succeeded, the Bourbons continue to this day and in fact they are the last surviving legitimate branch of the Capetian Dinasty.

I added a Family Tree (Original production) in order to expose the three generations of the Valois-Angoulême, even they had sad lifes, I hope they found a peacefull and quiet rest at Heaven.

God Bless Them