Charles de Bourbon (22 September 1523 – 9 May 1590), known as the Cardinal de Bourbon, was a French noble and prelate. He was the Archbishop of Rouen from 1550 (as Charles I) and the Catholic Ligue candidate for King of France as Charles X from 1589.

Born the third son of Charles of Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme and Françoise d'Alençon he was destined for a career in the church. As a member of the House of Bourbon-Vendôme, he was a prince du sang. Already having secured several sees, he was made a cardinal by Pope Paul III in January 1548. In 1550 he received the office of Archbishop of Rouen making him the Primate of Normandy. The following year the promotion of Bourbon to Patriarch of the French church was threatened by King Henry II to secure concessions from the Pope. During the Italian Wars which resumed that year, Bourbon played a role by supporting Catherine de Medici's regency governments in France and briefly holding a lieutenant-generalship in Picardy. In 1557 the Pope appointed the Cardinals Bourbon, Lorraine and Châtillon as the leaders of an inquisition in France to root out heresy. The effectiveness of their inquisition would be obstructed by both the king and the Parlements and by July 1558 their appointments were voided by the Parlement of Paris.

Under the Guisard government that accompanied the reign of Francis II, Bourbon allied himself with the Guise, against his brothers. With his brother the Prince of Condé implicated in the Conspiracy of Amboise in March 1560, and further troubles in the south in the following months, Bourbon was tasked with coaxing the renegade prince to show himself at court, which he succeeded in doing in September, allowing Condé to be arrested and charged with treason. After the premature death of the king, Bourbon navigated himself into favour with the regency government of Catherine for Charles IX. In March 1562 he again assumed his duties in Paris, trying to avoid an explosive confrontation between Condé and the Duke of Guise. After the first civil war that followed that year, Bourbon was entrusted with pushing the terms through the Parlement, which he achieved. In the years that followed, Bourbon positioned himself on the centre of Catherine's council. He was increasingly disillusioned with his brother Condé and the Queen of Navarre, conducting a lawsuit against her without success. During the next two civil wars, he continued to fulfil diplomatic responsibilities for the crown. Bourbon was tasked with leading the mass that would celebrate the wedding between his nephew Henry of Navarre and Marguerite de Valois at their wedding. The lack of papal approval for the marriage terrified him, but he was eventually convinced to perform the ceremony.

After the fifth civil war, Bourbon virulently opposed the Peace of Monsieur, leading attempts to block it in Rouen. The new king Henry III entrusted him with persuading the Estates General to provide money for the resumed war effort, forced on the crown by the widespread opposition to the peace. He achieved little success. Henry was keen to overhaul the kingdom's finances and Bourbon participated in the various efforts towards this end in 1582 and 1586. However in the former assembly, Bourbon derailed proceedings with an outburst. He demanded for the king to expunge heresy.

In 1584, the king's brother Francis, Duke of Anjou died, making Bourbon's Protestant nephew the new heir to the throne. Neither Bourbon nor many other Catholics could tolerate such a prospect, and the notion of his succession to the throne as an alternative was established, formalised in a treaty with Spain in the Treaty of Joinville. In the following years, Bourbon supported the Catholic League in its efforts to enforce Catholic uniformity on Henry III. Henry was forced to agree to void Navarre's right to the succession, consequently making Bourbon his heir. After the day of the barricades, the liguer Estates General nominated Bourbon as the leader of the first estate. However the League was outflanked when Henry killed the young Duke of Guise and his brother. In the aftermath of this shocking development, much of the kingdom voided its allegiance to Henry and swore loyalty to the League and Bourbon as Charles X. Bourbon though had been arrested by the king in this sudden strike and he moved from château to château to keep him out of the hands of the League. In August 1589, Henry was in turn assassinated and the Parlement of Paris declared that Bourbon was now king. Nominally recognised as such across the League-dominated regions, he remained in the captivity of Henry of Navarre, dying in May 1590.

Early life and family Family Charles was born in 1523 at La Ferté-sous-Jouarre, in what is now the department of Seine-et-Marne, the eighth child of Charles of Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme and Françoise d'Alençon. The third son to make it out of infancy, he was destined for a career in the church. His elder brother Antoine of Navarre, became King of Navarre through his marriage to Jeanne d'Albret. Meanwhile, his younger brother Louis de Bourbon converted to Protestantism, and would lead the rebels in the first three religious wars.

Charles acted as godfather to his nephew the young Henry son of Antoine and Jeanne. He took great interest in his Catholic nephews Soissons and Conti, sons of his brother Louis, hoping to ensure that the Norman territories the family possessed were well maintained for the princes.

Ecclesiastical empire Charles rose rapidly in the Roman Catholic hierarchy, becoming a Cardinal in 1548. He resigned his office as Bishop of Carcassonne in 1550, receiving a 2/3 pension on his departure. After the death of his successor to the office in 1565 he attempted to regain the bishopric through rights of regression. The canons of Carcasonne resisted, however the king pressured them to allow his return. The vast array of ecclesiastical offices he held made him one of the most prominent pluralists of Francis I's reign. Indeed, by 1547 he held 3 Sees simultaneously. That same year Pope Paul III declared that Cardinals should only hold one bishopric. While this was initially ignored in France, by 1550 pressure was beginning to be brought to bear on pluralism. To this end the various Cardinals of France began trying to sell off their bishoprics. He acquired the rich abbey of Saint-Germain-en-Prés in Paris. He held a considerable number of abbeys in Normandie, among them Saint-Ouen Abbey, Rouen and Jumièges Abbey. By 1588 the majority of his income of 63,000 livres was derived from Norman benefices.

Reputation Charles had a reputation as a drunk, more interested in wine cellars than he was in the finer points of politics. Many historians have considered him unintelligent and a puppet of more able men. Others have argued he ably exploited his position in the succession.

Reign of Henry II New favourites With the death of King Francis I, the house of Bourbon entered a period in the political wilderness. Charles and his brothers were left out in the cold by Henry II who preferred his favourite Anne de Montmorency for many of the honours and privileges of court. Though the family was denied the ascendency typical to the princes of the blood in many reigns, Charles was already Bishop of Saintes and Carcassonne in 1548 when he was granted the honour of being elevated to the Cardinalate. He received the special promotion from Pope Paul III on 9 January 1548, as a show of the Papacy's favour towards France, his cousin Charles of Lorraine had been made Cardinal not six months prior.

Coronation That same year Henry II decided to make an entry into the city of Lyon. The prominent French cardinals sat with him through the festivities and tournaments that followed. The queen had not yet been crowned, and to this end a coronation was arranged for 10 June 1549. Several days before the event the king and queen travelled to the Basilica of Saint-Denis where they were received by Bourbon, who welcomed them to the abbey. On the day of the coronation it was the duty of Charles and the Cardinal of Lorraine to fetch the queen and her entourage and bring them to the abbey. Charles had the most critical role to play in the ceremony itself, anointing Catherine with the sacred oils.

Patriarch Despite having been made Archbishop of Rouen in 1550, an office he would hold until his death, Charles would very rarely visit his diocese, spending the majority of his time at court. This was not uncommon at this time, archbishops in general rarely had connections to their dioceses. In 1551 a council proposal was raised to elevate Charles to Patriarch of the French church, a radical response to the dispute that had engulfed Franco-Papal relations over the vacancy of the See of Marseille. Opposition to such a proposal came from both the Parlement of Paris, and the Cardinal of Lorraine. Charles for his part lacked much enthusiasm for the proposal, fearful of the potential for a further fracturing of the Catholic church when unity was needed against the Ottoman Empire. Regardless, the threats of establishing such a church had the desired effect and Pope Julius III conceded on most points in the dispute, which would be submerged the following year by the Franco-Papal alliance against Charles V Despite the threat of creating a French Patriarch, Henry had a low opinion of Charles's intelligence, thinking him unqualified to serve on his council.

Italian Wars Three Bishoprics The Italian Wars which resumed in 1551, led the following year to the French occupation of the Three Bishoprics, strategic cities in Alsace. Henry II, delighted by the acquisitions, visited Metz in 1552. Catherine de' Medici was placed at the head of a regency council, and set herself about governing with considerable energy. One of her first acts was to write to Charles in his capacity as governor of the city of Paris urging him to have preachers who denounced Henry's alliance with Protestant princes of the Holy Roman Empire arrested. Charles was to find new clergy who would support the king in his taxation of the church to fund the war effort. As Bishop of Laon, he was granted the title of 'peer of France', he maintained this title, even after he resigned the office in 1552.

Picardy The Italian Wars entered the province of Picardy in 1553, as Emperor Charles V sought revenge on France for the humiliation of the capture and successful defence of Metz the previous year. Charles was appointed as lieutenant-general of Amiens under the authority of Jacques d'Albon who held lieutenant-general powers over the wider province. The campaign season would not be a success, with the destruction of Thérouanne.

Inquisitor On 26 April 1557, Charles, Cardinals Lorraine and Châtillon were appointed as inquisitors for the Kingdom of France. This gave Charles the right to hear appeals and delegate authority over heresy cases. In July of that year the king confirmed the three cardinals position as leaders in the fight against heresy through a decree. However the decree provided more limits on their authority, with appeals courts set up in every Parlement town, in which twelve persons would sit of which half had to be Parlementaires. Over the next years little progress would be made against Protestantism in France, and the inquisition proved fairly toothless in comparison with its Spanish counterparts. This is largely due to the fact the papal commission to the three Cardinals were resisted strongly by the Parlement of Paris, which resented Papal intrusion on French religious affairs. As such, the commissions were not registered until January 1588, and were subsequently rescinded in June 1558. Even prior to the rescinding the commissions had largely been a dead letter. Henry preferred to prosecute the war against heresy through the secular courts, and to this end established the Edict of Compiègne in 1557 which established new penalties for various offences related to 'heresy'.

Guise ascendency