Charles, Count of Angoulême

Charles of Orléans was the Count of Angoulême from 1467 until his death. He succeeded his father, John, and was initially under the regency of his mother, Margaret of Rohan, assisted by Jean I de La Rochefoucauld, one of his vassals.
Charles commissioned the luxuriously illustrated Heures de Charles d'Angoulême.

Family

Charles was a grandson of Louis I, Duke of Orléans, a younger son of King Charles V of France. He was thus a member of the Orléans cadet branch of the ruling House of Valois. The Orléans came to the throne in 1498 in the person of Charles's cousin Louis XII, who was followed in 1515 by Charles's own son Francis I.

Marriage and issue

Charles married Louise of Savoy, daughter of Philip the Landless and Margaret of Bourbon, on 16 February 1488.
They had:

Marguerite of Angoulême
François of Angoulême, who became King of France as Francis I.

Charles also had two illegitimate daughters by his mistress Antoinette de Polignac, Dame de Combronde, who was his wife's lady-in-waiting. She is often mistakenly called Antoinette by confusion with a member of a quite distinct family by the same name. They had two daughters:

Jeanne d'Angoulême, married firstly Jean Aubin, Seigneur de Malicorne, and secondly, Jean IV de Longwy, Baron of Pagny, by whom she had three daughters. The youngest, Jacqueline de Longwy, in her own turn married Louis III de Bourbon, Duke of Montpensier.
Madeleine d'Angoulême, Abbess of Fontevrault

He also had an illegitimate daughter by mistress Jeanne Le Conte:

Souveraine d'Angoulême, married Michel III de Gaillard, Seigneur de Chilly. In 1534 Married French Ambassador Louis de Perreau, Sieur de Castillon.