Charles IV of Lorraine

See also: Charles of Lorraine

Charles de Vaudémont , born the April 5th 1604, died with Bernkastel the September 18th 1675, was duke of Lorraine and duke of Bar in right of 1625 to 1675 and in fact of 1625 with 1634, in 1641 and of 1659 with 1670, under the name of Charles IV . He was wire of François of Lorraine, count de Vaudémont then duke under the name of François II of Lorraine, and Christine de Salm.

He should have been numbered Charles III of Lorraine , but the Lorraine historiographers, wanting to establish the legitimacy of the dukes of Lorraine and of Own way and to attach them directly to the Carolingians, incluèrent in the list of the dukes the Carolingian Charles († 991), duke of Low-Lotharingie.

Biography

Charles de Vaudémont passed his childhood to the Court of France and was playmate of the future Louis XIII. Returned to Lorraine, it implied that it was regarded as the heir to the duchy, under the terms of the will of Rene II which specified that the duchies were to be transmitted in male line. The hostility of his/her uncle Henri II, which intended to leave the duchy to his/her daughter Nicole, encouraged it to move away from the court. It combatit for the emperor by illustrating in particular with the Battle of the White Mountain, the November 8th 1620 and showed its competences of war leader.

After protracted negotiations, he married in 1621 his Nicole cousin. After having left provisions providing that Charles de Vaudémont would hold his authority of his wife, Henri II died the July 31st 1624.

Charles was not satisfied with a position of Prince Consort. He undertook with his father to obtain the totality of the capacity. In November 1625, François de Vaudémont, being pressed on the will of Rene II, asserted the duchy. The General states of Lorraine estimated its request legitimates and François de Vaudémont became duke on November 21st, 1625 under the name of François II of Lorraine. Five days later, he abdicated in favor of his son, who became full the duke Charles IV, having thus drawn aside his wife the Nicole duchess of the government of the duchy.

The relations between France and Lorraine were degraded, because Louis XIII refused to recognize the principles of the right which had brings Charles IV to the capacity. Moreover Charles supported discreetly the enemies of Richelieu and accommodated the plotters who could thus escape the royal justice of which the heir to the French throne. Moreover the policy of Louis XIII and Richelieu was to push back the border of the kingdom at the edge of the the Rhine, which implied the annexation of the Duché of Bar, of the Duché of Lorraine, sovereign states, of the Franche-Comté, possession Spanish, of the Alsace, possession of the Empire Romain Germanique. Badly supported by the Bavaria and the Austria, the king sought other alliances and, breaking with the policy ultra-catholic of his predecessors, was combined with the French huguenots, the English and the duke of Savoy. In September 1629, Gaston of Orleans, brother of the king, took refuge in Lorraine, and, without the assent of the king, married in 1632 there that which it will call the Angel all his life , the young person Marguerite, sister of the duke Charles.

In spring 1631, Gustave Adolphe, king de Suède, unloaded in Poméranie and the war set ablaze all Europe. Charles sent his army to support the Emperor. In June 1632, Louis XIII invades and occupied Barrois and Lorraine. Charles was constrained to sign a treaty which he thought well of not respecting. In September 1633, the French troops invade Lorraine again and Charles judged more favorable to abdicate the January 19th 1634 in favor of his brother Nicolas François, and went to take a command of the imperial troops. He fought the Swedes, then the French, over whom he gained several successes.

He undergoes reverses in 1635 whereas he tried to reconquer his duchies, then gained several victories of 1638 with 1640, in spite of mollesse of his Bavarian and Austrian allies. Consequently, he undertook to negotiate again with France and, by the treaty of Saint-Germain-in-Bush hammer of the April 2nd 1641, recovered his states exangues but had to accept French protectorate and to commit himself not concluding from alliance with the house of Austria. Notwithstanding, a few weeks later hardly, it supported the plot of the count de Soissons. Richelieu, after having controlled the culprits, decided to stop Charles IV who succeeds in fleeing at the end of July 1641 and took again the combat against enemy France.

The Traités of Westphalia of the October 24th 1648 marked officially the fastening of the Three bishoprices in France. Excluded from these treaties and having failed in his negotiations with Mazarin, Charles IV took again the war and was in position to threaten Paris in 1652. He lost his advantage and his credibility while seeking to negotiate at the same time with Mazarin and the critical princes. Spain reproached him for being the cause of the failure and it was stopped with Brussels the January 25th 1654 and was transferred to Alcazar from Tolède. The intervention and the efforts of his/her brother Nicolas François enabled him to be released the October 15th 1659, and to recover its duchies by the treaty of Vincennes of the February 28th 1661.

But Charles IV renonça not with his military activities and continued to fight with the profit of his neighbors. He engaged of work to give in state the Lorraine roads and barroises. With this intention, it overpowered taxes its subjects already ruined by the Guerre thirty year old. He refused in 1669 to lay off his armies on the injunction of Louis XIV of France and the French troops again invaded the duchies during the summer 1670. Charles IV again had to flee and, without resource, laid off his army.

After having overcome the French with the Battle of the bridge of Konz (Konzer Brucke), he falls ill and dies the next month.

Marriage and children

It Maria in first weddings, the May 23rd 1621, with Nicole of Lorraine (1608 † 1657), girl of Henri II duke of Lorraine, and Marguerite de Mantoue. They did not have children. Wishing to leave his wife, it tried to cause invalidation its marriage while making condemn in 1631 for sorcery Melchior of the Valley, the priest who had baptized Nicole. Charles finally separated in 1635 from his wife, with the pretext which it had not been free to choose at the time of his marriage, but papacy did not agree to cancel the marriage.

Despite everything, he married in second weddings Béatrix de Cusance (1614 † 1663), the April 9th 1637. Excommunicated, it separated from her. With died of Nicole, he married Béatrix by procuration (he was then held in Spain) to legitimate his children, but the husbands did not take again the common life. The children of this second marriage, despite everything, were regarded as nondynastes:

• Joseph (1637 † 1638)
• Anne (1639 † 1720), married in 1660 with François Marie of Lorraine (1624 † 1694), duke of Lillebonne
• Charles Henri (1649 † 1723), count then prince de Vaudémont

Again widowed with died of Beatrix, it remaria in third weddings in 1665 in Marie Louise d' Aspremont (1651 † 1692), but did not have a posterity of this marriage.

See also

• Church Saint-Nicolas-of-Lorraine of Rome

Sources

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