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Bourbon (CHARLES CARDINAL a French)

CHARLES, CARDINAL, a French prince and prelate; brother of Antoine de Bourbon, born in 1520; uncle to Henry IV., King of France. He was Archbishop of Rouen, Legate of Avignon, cardinal, peer of France, and member of the Council. In spite of family ties he ardently supported the Guises and the League, and was declared by that faction heir presumptive to the throne on the ground that that his his brother Antoine, through heresy, had forfeited his claim. On the death of Henry III. he was declared King, as Charles X., and was recognized by a majority of the parlements. Yet he was all the while a prisoner at Fontenay-le-Comte, and died there in 1590.