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Charles IX

Born: 1550 Father: Henry II Mother: Catherina de' Medici King: 1560-1574 Age: 10 Wife: Elisabeth of Austria, daughter of Maximilian II (married in 1570) Children: Marie Elisabeth               illegitimate by Marie Touchet, Dame de Belleville: Charles de Valois (1573-1650) Died: 1574 Age: 24

Charles IX by Francois Clouet, 1561

The second son of Henri II and Catherine de Médicis, Charles became king on the death of his brother Francois II and governed under tutelage of his mother and the Council of government. After the king reached the age of 13, he was legally entitled to proclaim himself major in lit de justice addressed to the Parlement de Rouen on 17 Aug 1563. However, he remained under his mother's domination, being incapable of choosing and following a policy of his own. To strengthen the prestige of the crown, Catherine took Charles on a tour of France from 1564 to 1566. The kingdom, however, was torn by the hostility between the Catholics and the Huguenots. The victories of his brother, the Duke of Anjou (later Henri III), over the Huguenots at Jarnac and Moncontour in 1569 made Charles jealous, so that in 1571, when the Huguenot Gaspard de Coligny came to court, Charles was persuaded to favor a Huguenot plan for intervention against the Spanish in the Netherlands; Charles sanctioned a defensive alliance with England and Huguenot aid to the Dutch. All this came to nothing, however, when Catherine, alarmed at the new policy and at Coligny's ascendancy, and dismayed at the reaction to an unsuccessful attempt on Coligny's life (22 Aug 1572), induced Charles to order the massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day (23-24 Aug 1572). The massacre apparently haunted Charles for the rest of his life. His health deteriorated, and he became increasingly melancholy. He died of tuberculosis, leaving no children by his consort, Elizabeth of Austria, whom he had married in 1570, but one son, Charles, later Duke of Angoulême, by his mistress Marie Touchet.

Source: http://lego70.tripod.com/fran/charles9.htm