by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2018
Charlotte de Bourbon-Monpensier, Princess of Orange; Credit – Wikipedia
On April 24, 1575, Willem I (the Silent), Prince of Orange married his third wife Charlotte de Bourbon-Monpensier. She was born in 1546/1547, the fifth of the six children of Louis, Duke of Montpensier and Jacqueline de Longwy, Countess of Bar-sur-Seine, a niece of King François I of France.
Charlotte had one brother and four sisters:
- Françoise de Bourbon (1539–1587), married Henri Robert de La Marck, Duke of Bouillon, Prince of Sedan, had two children
- Anne de Bourbon (1540–1572), married François de Clèves, Duke de Nevers
- Jeanne de Bourbon (1541–1620), Abbess of Jouarre
- François de Bourbon, Duke of Montpensier (1542–1592), married Renée d’Anjou, had one son
- Louise de Bourbon (1548–1586), Abbess of Faremoutier
As a young child, Charlotte was sent to the Abbey of Notre-Dame de Jouarre in the care of her aunt Louise, who was the abbess there. To give his only son François the greatest possible legacy, Charlotte’s father Louis planned to send his unmarried daughters to various abbeys to avoid paying their dowries. Charlotte begged not to go to the abbey and when she took her final vows at the age of thirteen, she made a formal written protest. Upon her aunt’s death, Charlotte became the abbess against her wishes.
While in the abbey, Charlotte was instructed in Calvinism by a dissident priest. At the time of the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre in 1572, when thousands of French Protestants were killed, Charlotte converted to Protestantism, escaped from the abbey in a cart filled with hay, and fled to the Electorate of the Palatinate (in Germany), well beyond her parents’ reach. Friedrich III, Elector Palatine took her to Heidelberg and placed her under his protection. Only a few weeks after Charlotte’s escape, she met Willem I, Prince of Orange while he was visiting Friedrich III, Elector Palatine. Two years later, he asked for her hand in marriage.
Willem and Charlotte had six daughters:
- Louise Juliana (1576 – 1644), married Friedrich IV, Elector Palatine, had eight children including Friedrich V, Elector Palatine, grandfather of King George I of Great Britain
- Elisabeth (1577 – 1642), married Henri de La Tour d’Auvergne, had seven children
- Catharina Belgica (1578 – 1648), married Count Philipp Ludwig II of Hanau-Münzenberg, had ten children
- Charlotte Flandrina (1579 – 1640), converted to Roman Catholicism and became a nun
- Charlotte Brabantina (1580 – 1631), married Claude, Duc de Thouars, had four children
- Emilia Antwerpiana (1581 – 1657), married Friedrich Casimir, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken-Landsberg, had three children
Charlotte nursing her husband Willem I after the failed assassination attempt with family and friends gathered around Willem’s bed; Credit – Wikipedia
This marriage was Willem’s happiest marriage. Charlotte supported her husband in the Dutch independence war against Spain by serving as an important link in the communication between Willem and the troops of the Dutch provinces. After an unsuccessful assassination attempt on Willem on March 18, 1582, Charlotte took great care of her wounded husband. Exhausted from caring for Willem, she fell ill with pneumonia and a high fever and died at the age of 35 on May 5, 1582. Charlotte was buried at the Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp (Belgium) but her tomb has not survived.
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