[MR] Wikipedia & Others: Charles VIII of France, the Ogre King

[Garth Groff and Sally Sanford]

Noble Friends,

On this date in 1483 King of France Louis XI ("The Universal Spider") died
after a long series of illnesses. His only surviving son became king at the
age of 13. Sort of.

Because of Charles' age, Louis had designated his older sister Anne as
regent. Louis called his daughter "the least foolish woman in France", and
she proved to be a shrewd and capable ruler. Anne was assisted by her
husband Peter of Bourbon. Together they ruled in Charles' name until he
turned 21 in 1491.

Charles was tragically flawed by congenital deformities, and was nearly a
dwarf with short legs and an enormous head. His less charitable detractors
called him an ogre. Contemporary accounts claim he had six toes on each
foot; possibly true, as this deformity is not all that uncommon even today
and he wore very wide-toed shoes. His fashionable sycophants copied the
young king's footwear, thankfully ending the craze for poulaine shoes with
their absurdly long toes.

Shortly before his death King Louis had arranged a marriage (by proxy and
unconsummated) for Charles with Margaret of Austria, granddaughter of Holy
Roman Emperor Frederick III (Louis' chief rival).  In order to prevent
France from being encircled by hostile Holy Roman Empire territories,
Charles repudiated this marriage and invaded Brittany. He forced Duchess
Anne of Brittany to marry him, even though she was betrothed to Frederick's
son Maximilian (future Emperor Maximilian I). Marriage contacts were
considered binding by the Church, and it took papal intervention to sort
the whole mess out. Charles kept the long-suffering Anne pregnant,
producing six children who all were stillborn or died very young.

Charles was obsessed with conquest of Italy, and spent much of reign in
fruitless campaigns there, leaving his treasury bankrupt. Although not by
design, Charles' forays into Italy exposed France to Italian Renaissance
culture and fashions, which the French then seized as their own.

Charles VIII finally met his end on 7 April 1498. While on his way to watch
a tennis match he cracked his head on a door lintel. It must have been a
very short doorway, if Charles really was short as history claims.
Nevertheless, he fell into a coma later that day and expired some nine
hours later.

As Charles had no male heirs, or any surviving children at all, the throne
passed to his brother-in-law and second cousin Louis of Orleans, who would
rule as Louis XII. Poor Anne returned to Brittany hoping to restore the
Duchy's independence, but Louis had other ideas and wasn't about to lose
Brittany. He dumped his barren wife Joan, and proposed to Anne. Anne
stalled for time, expecting that the pope would never agree. To her
chagrin, Louis and Joan's annulment received fast track approval. Poor Anne
was again Queen Consort of France in a marriage she really didn't want.

Wow! And you thought English history was complicated.

Here is a brief bio of Charles:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_VIII_of_France .

Though less scholarly and more than a bit snarky, this page discusses
Charles' physical deformities, along with some of his many moral failings:
https://www.factinate.com/people/facts-charles-viii .

Though Anne of Brittany was a pawn in all this, she had her own agenda and
fought with cunning for her Duchy's independence:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_of_Brittany .

Yours Aye,


Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge  🦆
Continuing a crusade to keep Merry Rose relevant and in business.