Charles VIII of France

Early life and background

Charles of Valois was born on 30 June 1470 at the Château d'Amboise in Touraine.^[1] He was the son of King Louis XI and his second wife Charlotte of Savoy, who had married in 1451.^[2] Of the five sons born to the royal couple, Charles was the only one to survive infancy. He had two elder sisters who survived to adulthood: Anne, born in 1461 and married to Peter II of Bourbon, Sire de Beaujeu, and Joan, born in 1464 and married in 1476 to Louis, Duke of Orléans, the first prince of the blood and presumptive heir to the French throne. His godparents were Charles II, Duke of Bourbon, after whom he was named, Joan of Valois, Duchess of Bourbon, and Edward of Westminster, the teenage Prince of Wales and son of King Henry VI of England, who was residing in French exile following the deposition of his father by Edward IV.^[2][3]

The young prince possessed a delicate constitution and fragile health.^[4][5] Anxious to secure the royal succession, Louis XI prioritized his son's physical survival over formal scholastic study.^[5][6][7] To oversee his physical condition, the king engaged the physician Jean Martin, under whose care Charles survived his youth. Louis XI chose as tutor the humanist Guillaume Tardif, who was active alongside scholars such as Guillaume Fichet and Robert Gaguin. Louis XI forbade Charles from learning Latin, an idiom the king himself had begun studying at age six.^[6][7] To instruct the heir in governance and ethics, Louis XI commissioned his physician and astrologer Pierre Choisnet to compose the moral and historical didactic manual Rosier des guerres.

Throughout his early childhood, the Dauphin served as a tool for his father's diplomatic manoeuvres through successive marital engagements. On 29 August 1475, the Treaty of Picquigny that concluded hostilities between France and England was sealed with a betrothal agreement between Charles and Elizabeth of York, daughter of King Edward IV of England.^[8] Following the death of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, in January 1477, French troops entered the Duchy and County of Burgundy. Louis XI sought to betroth Charles to the Burgundian heiress Mary of Burgundy, who was thirteen years his senior.^[8] Mary rejected the proposal, choosing instead to marry Archduke Maximilian of Austria, the son of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III, initiating the War of the Burgundian Succession. Following Mary's accidental death in March 1482, Maximilian acted as regent for their young children, Philip and Margaret. Faced with armed resistance from Flemish towns including Ghent and Bruges, Maximilian signed the Treaty of Arras in December 1482. Under this agreement, Charles was betrothed on 22 July 1483 to Maximilian and Mary's three-year-old daughter, Margaret of Austria.^[8][9] Margaret's promised dowry included the County of Artois and the Free County of Burgundy (Franche-Comté).^[10][11] Because this accord breached the Treaty of Picquigny, it provoked clashes with England, including a naval engagement where French forces defeated English privateers.^[12] In April 1483, Margaret arrived at the French court, accompanied by Philippa of Guelders, to be brought up as future queen of France.^[12][13]

As Louis XI's health deteriorated during 1482, he introduced the young dauphin to the principles of government.^[14] The king advised Charles to retain the existing royal personnel to facilitate administrative stability, specifically mentioning his principal secretary Pierre I Brûlart.^[15] Louis XI also instructed Charles to submit to the guidance of his elder sister Anne.^[15] In the final weeks of his father's life, Charles and his betrothed Margaret were confined to the fortress of Amboise by order of the king, whose suspicious precautions grew severe before his death on 30 August 1483.^[16]

Regency of Anne of France

Charles succeeded to the French throne at age thirteen as Charles VIII on 30 August 1483.^[17][18] In accordance with Louis XI's instructions, governance was entrusted to Charles's twenty-two-year-old sister Anne of France and her husband Peter of Bourbon, Sire de Beaujeu.^[2][18][19] Louis XI had characterized Anne as 'the least foolish woman in France'.^[20][21][22] The regency of the Beaujeu couple was challenged by Louis, Duke of Orléans, who asserted that as the premier prince of the blood he held the right to direct the council.^[23] The Estates-General met at Tours in early 1484.^[23] Charles was present at early sessions but departed early because of ill health.^[23] The assembly ratified the tutelage of Anne and Peter, and Charles was anointed and crowned King of France at Reims Cathedral on 30 May 1484.^[15][19]

The Beaujeu administration faced resistance from prominent nobles who sought to limit royal centralization, leading to the conflict known as the Mad War (Guerre folle) between 1485 and 1488. The aristocratic coalition was headed by Louis of Orléans and Duke Francis II of Brittany, supported by Archduke Maximilian, John IV of Chalon-Arlay, Prince of Orange, and Alain d'Albret. In late 1484, Orléans attempted to seize personal custody of the king but was detained and placed under house arrest in Gien.^[23] Escaping in 1485, he renewed hostilities against royal forces but failed to take Paris.^[23] In March 1485, Orléans submitted to Charles and requested pardon, which was granted, though he was ordered to remain in his lands.^[23] Renewing their rebellion in 1486 with foreign encouragement, the rebel princes met royal troops commanded by Louis II de La Trémoille. On 28 July 1488, the royal army crushed the ducal forces at the Battle of Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier.^[23] Louis of Orléans was taken prisoner and incarcerated for three years, while the Prince of Orange was also captured. Under the Treaty of Sablé (also known as the Treaty of Le Verger), signed in August 1488, Francis II was required to acknowledge French suzerainty, expel foreign mercenaries, surrender frontier strongholds, and promise not to marry his daughters without royal consent.^[23]

Duke Francis II of Brittany died from a riding accident in September 1488, leaving his eleven-year-old daughter Anne of Brittany as the sole heiress of the duchy.^[24][25] Seeking to preserve Breton independence from the French crown, the ducal council negotiated with foreign rulers.^[26] In February 1489, Anne was crowned Duchess of Brittany at Rennes Cathedral. Brittany established alliances with England, Spain, and Maximilian of Austria. In December 1490, Anne was married by proxy to the widowed Maximilian, becoming formally designated Queen of the Romans.^[26] For the French regency, this alliance was unacceptable, as it placed Habsburg authority on both the northeastern and western borders of the realm. The royal council resolved to annul Anne's proxy marriage and unite Brittany directly with the French crown.^[26][27]

Taking advantage of the Austrian ruler's military commitments in the Hungarian succession dispute following the death of King Matthias Corvinus, royal troops under La Trémoille invaded Brittany in 1491.^[26] Rennes fell to the French.^[27] Following negotiations, the formal betrothal between Charles and Duchess Anne was conducted in the chapel of the Jacobin monastery in Rennes on 15 November 1491.^[27] Anne travelled to the Château de Langeais accompanied by her Breton guard, displaying her legal freedom of action to satisfy canonical requirements and avoid the appearance of coercion.^[27] As a symbol of personal reluctance, Anne brought two separate beds to the wedding.^[28] The marriage was celebrated on 6 December 1491 at Langeais.^[27][29] The marriage contract stipulated that Brittany passed to Charles, and that should he die without male issue, Anne could remarry only the subsequent King of France or the presumptive heir.^[29][30]

The wedding marked the conclusion of the Beaujeu regency, and Charles VIII assumed direct authority over the royal council, while Anne and Peter retired to Moulins in the Bourbonnais.^[31] Charles pardoned his cousin Louis of Orléans in 1491, releasing him from captivity and integrating him into royal governance.^[23] Charles's betrothal to Margaret of Austria, who had resided at the French court for nearly a decade, was dissolved. Margaret remained in France until 1493, as Charles evaluated political options before repatriating her to her family along with her dowry.^[29] Queen Anne lived in Amboise.^[28]

Preparations for the Italian campaign

Upon establishing his personal rule, Charles turned French foreign policy toward the Italian Peninsula. His ambitions were grounded in the claims of the House of Valois to the Kingdom of Naples, inherited through his grandmother Marie of Anjou, daughter of Louis II of Anjou and sister of René of Anjou.^[32][33] Charles VIII believed that capturing Naples would provide a base for a wider crusade to recapture Jerusalem and expel the Ottoman Turks from Constantinople, which had fallen in 1453.^[31] In 1489, Pope Innocent VIII, engaged in conflict with King Ferdinand I of Naples, offered the Neapolitan investiture to Charles.^[34][35] Within the French royal court, courtiers such as Étienne de Vesc and Guillaume Briçonnet actively urged Charles to undertake the expedition.^[36]

To secure France against external attack during an expedition, Charles concluded three diplomatic treaties involving financial payments and territorial retrocessions.^[31][37][38] By the Treaty of Étaples, signed on 3 November 1492 with King Henry VII of England (and ratified in January 1493), Charles agreed to pay an indemnity, cover Breton debts, and cease all assistance to the Yorkist pretender Perkin Warbeck, in return for the withdrawal of the English army that had besieged Boulogne.^[38][39] Under the Treaty of Barcelona of 19 January 1493, Charles ceded the frontier counties of Roussillon and Cerdagne back to King Ferdinand II of Aragon to secure Aragonese neutrality in Italy.^[37][40] By the Treaty of Senlis on 23 May 1493, concluded with Maximilian I, Charles liquidated the Burgundian dowry arrangements from the Peace of Arras: Maximilian recovered Artois, the Free County of Burgundy, Charolais, and Noyon for his son Philip the Handsome, while France retained the Duchy of Burgundy and Thérouanne.^[41]

Charles assembled an army that represented an innovative military force for its era.^[39] The expedition numbered around 25,000 to 30,000 men, including 8,000 Swiss mercenary pikemen who were recognized as the premier infantry of the period, royal heavy cavalry (compagnies d'ordonnance), and gascon crossbowmen.^[42][43][44] A defining feature of the force was its modern artillery train, consisting of approximately seventy bronze siege cannons and culverins mounted on wheeled carriages pulled by horses.^[45] The superiority of the French artillery and the violence of the fighting brought about a revolution in warfare.^{[46][47][48][49]}

The First Italian War (1494–1495)

The death of King Ferdinand I of Naples on 25 January 1494 brought his son Alfonso II to the throne.^[50] Alfonso II adopted an aggressive posture toward Ludovico Sforza, regent of the Duchy of Milan, asserting claims on behalf of his daughter Isabella of Aragon, who was married to the titular duke Gian Galeazzo Sforza. Feeling threatened, Ludovico invited Charles VIII to enter Italy and enforce his Angevin claim.^[36][51] Charles accepted, assembling his troops in Lyon and crossing Mount Genèvre into Piedmont in late August and early September 1494.^[42][43][52] Charles met Ludovico Sforza and Beatrice d'Este at Asti, where he was received with lavish festivities.^[52][53] Charles arrived in Pavia on 21 October 1494.^[42]

On 8 September 1494, French forces under Louis of Orléans stormed Rapallo on the Ligurian coast, routing Aragonese soldiers and massacring defenders and civilians, an event that intimidated Italian regional powers.^[43] Charles directed his army southward through Tuscany, bypassing hostile movements in Romagna by Caterina Sforza.^[54] Piero de' Medici, ruler of Florence, went out to meet Charles and surrendered the fortresses of Sarzana, Sarzanello, Pietrasanta, and the ports of Pisa and Livorno without civic approval, promising a loan of 200,000 ducats.^[52] Enraged by this unilateral surrender, the Florentine populace revolted on 8 November 1494, driving Piero and the Medici family into exile and re-establishing the Florentine Republic.^[52] Charles took Pisa from Florence.^[33] Charles entered Florence in triumphal style on 17 November 1494, accompanied by armed knights and his artillery train.^[42][52] The prominent Dominican prior Girolamo Savonarola hailed Charles as a divine instrument sent by God to purge Florence and initiate the moral reform of the Church, urging the monarch to show clemency.^[52][55]

Leaving Florence, Charles continued through Siena, entering the city on 2 December, and advanced into the Papal States, capturing Civitavecchia.^[54] In Rome, Pope Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia) initially fortified Castel Sant'Angelo but yielded to French military superiority. On 31 December 1494, French columns, led by Swiss pikemen with drums beating, entered Rome through the Porta del Popolo.^[43][54] On 6 January 1495, Alexander VI granted free passage to the French army and handed over his son Cesare Borgia as a cardinal-legate hostage, alongside Prince Cem, the exiled brother of Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II, whom Charles hoped to employ in his crusading plans.^[33][54] Cesare escaped from the French camp at Spoleto shortly thereafter, and Prince Cem died in French custody at Capua or Naples in February 1495, amid unproven contemporary allegations of poisoning by the Pope.^[33]

On the way to Naples, the French massacred every person or town that resisted them.^[44] Alfonso II abdicated in favor of his son Ferdinand II (Ferrandino) and escaped to Sicily. Ferrandino was unable to hold the capital and fled to the island of Ischia. On 22 February 1495, Charles entered Naples without facing a pitched battle.^[43][56] Charles proclaimed himself King of Naples, King of Jerusalem, and Emperor of Constantinople, having purchased the Byzantine imperial title from Andreas Palaiologos in 1494 in exchange for a pension.^[57][58] On 12 May 1495 (recorded as 20 May in other sources), he celebrated a coronation ceremony in Naples Cathedral, followed by extensive public festivities.^[44][59]

The swift French conquest of southern Italy alarmed the major European powers and Italian city-states. On 31 March 1495, the League of Venice (the Holy League) was constituted against France, uniting Pope Alexander VI, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, the Republic of Venice, the Duchy of Milan, the Duchy of Mantua, and later England.^[60] Realizing he risked being cut off from France, Charles garrisoned Naples under Gilbert of Bourbon, Count of Montpensier, and Yves d'Alègre, departing northward on 20 May 1495 with about half of his army.^[60]

On 6 July 1495, the French army engaged the League's forces, commanded by Francesco II Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua, at the Battle of Fornovo.^[60] The League possessed numerical superiority, fielding over 20,000 men. The battle was fought in rain and across the swollen Taro river. The French line successfully held against flank charges and forced a pathway to Lombardy. The League suffered around 2,000 casualties, while the French lost approximately 1,000 men.^[60] However, the coalition forces captured the royal baggage train, seizing the campaign booty, gold, tapestries, and the king's private illustrated album containing erotic portraits of his Italian mistresses.^[60][61][62] The League was unable to stop Charles from marching his army out of Italy.^[60]

In northwestern Italy, Louis of Orléans had occupied Novara in June 1495 to press his dynastic claims to the Duchy of Milan through his grandmother Valentina Visconti. Sforza forces besieged Orléans in Novara, reducing the French garrison to starvation and epidemics. The royal army negotiated a truce with the Italian coalition, leading to the Peace of Vercelli in October 1495, which permitted the French to evacuate Novara without surrendering their remaining troops.^[63] Charles recrossed the Alps, reaching Grenoble at the end of October 1495, and entered Lyon on 7 November 1495 in a ceremonial procession with heraldic decorations displaying the combined arms of France, Naples, Sicily, and Jerusalem.^[57] Meanwhile, the garrisons Charles had left in Naples were quickly subdued by Aragonese forces sent by Ferdinand II of Aragon.^[49][64]

Physical appearance and personal life

Contemporary chroniclers and diplomats left detailed descriptions of Charles VIII's unconventional physical appearance. He was exceptionally short in stature, frail, and suffered from congenital physical anomalies.^[63][65] He possessed an unusually large head, a prominent aquiline nose, thick lips that remained perpetually open, and prominent, short-sighted white eyes.^[66][67] His legs were thin and bowed, he walked with an uneven gait, and he was reported to have six toes on each foot (polydactyly), for which custom-designed wide shoes were fashioned.^[4][68] Chronicler Marin Sanudo observed that Charles could not bear the weight of a full helmet during military operations because of his fragile physical build.^[66][69] He also suffered from a persistent tremor in his hands.^[66][69] Nonetheless, contemporaries agreed that his gaze possessed a certain nobility and dignity.^[66][69]

In 1492, the Venetian ambassador Zaccaria Contarini recorded an assessment of the twenty-two-year-old monarch: 'His Majesty the King of France is twenty-two years old, small and poorly formed in body, with an ugly face that has large white eyes, far more fitted to see little than much, an aquiline nose that is likewise large and thick beyond proportion, thick lips that remain continuously open, and spasmodic movements of the hands that are unsightly to behold, and he is slow in speech. In my judgment, which may well be mistaken, I hold it certain that he is worth little in body and mind; nevertheless, he is praised by all in Paris for playing tennis, hunting, and jousting, exercises to which he devotes much of his time.'^[70][71] The Italian diplomat Jacopo d'Atri wrote to Isabella d'Este that the monarch was 'not as deformed as our people describe him'.^[63] The memoirist Philippe de Commynes observed: 'There was never a man so small of body and weak of mind as the king, but it was impossible to find in this world a better creature than he'.^[72][73]

Charles was deeply influenced by the medieval romances of chivalry, showing enthusiasm for the tales of Charlemagne and the Paladins, which fueled his crusading vision for the Italian expedition.^[74] Despite possessing limited formal education and difficulty reading state papers, he patronized scholars and poets, maintaining humanists like Publio Fausto Andrelini of Forlì at court to promote Renaissance letters in France.^[75] In June 1492, while on a pilgrimage to Saint-Claude and paying respects to his father's tomb, Charles observed the precipitous Mont Aiguille in Dauphiné and ordered his chamberlain Antoine de Ville to scale it, completing one of the earliest recorded technical alpine ascents, an event later mentioned by François Rabelais.^[75][76]

Italian diarists and chroniclers recorded Charles's intense interest in women throughout the expedition of 1494–1495. Girolamo Priuli noted that upon returning to France, Charles suffered from physical exhaustion ('mal di costa') attributed to excessive sexual relations in Italy, adding that he pursued women persistently.^[77][78] Marin Sanudo reported that French courtiers continually brought different women to the king's quarters.^[79][80] When Beatrice d'Este met Charles at Asti in September 1494, she arrived with eighty noblewomen of Milan, all of whom Charles kissed upon the lips according to the French greeting, presenting several of them with gold rings.^[53][81] He admired Beatrice's dancing and had her model twenty different dresses to select one for a portrait.^[82] In Naples, Charles took a mistress named Eleonora Piccolomini d'Aragona (Eleonora Marzano), daughter of the late Duke of Amalfi, who was encouraged by her mother to win royal favor for the return of the County of Celano.^[83] During the Battle of Fornovo, League soldiers captured Charles's personal album filled with erotic illustrations of nude mistresses he had taken in various Italian cities; Charles sent prolonged appeals to Francesco II Gonzaga to recover the book, which Gonzaga had forwarded to his wife in Mantua.^[61][62]

In the contemporary manuscript Les dictz des femmes de diverses nations (BNF, ms. Fr. 24461), a verse miniature depicts a lady captioned the 'duchesse de Bar', riding a mule with a feather-plumed hat and dagger, praised as pleasing to Charles VIII.^[84][85] Nineteenth-century historian René de Maulde-La Clavière argued this referred to Beatrice d'Este, as her husband Ludovico Sforza was styled 'Duke of Bar' (Bari) in contemporary French records.^{[84][86][87][88]} Later scholars, such as Florence Buttay, identified the figure as Philippa of Guelders, Duchess of Bar through her marriage to René II of Lorraine, who had made a notable impression on Charles upon her arrival at court in 1483, though Beatrice was never the king's lover and there is no record that Philippa was.^[89][90][91]

In 1492, Charles adopted the personal royal motto 'Plus qu'aultre' ('More than any other'), inscribed on works such as the frontispiece of Le Livre des faiz monseigneur saint Loys.^[92] Historian Yvonne Labande-Mailfert suggested this phrase reflected Charles's aspiration to launch a grand crusade, intending to surpass the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, who had completed the Reconquista with the capture of Granada that same year.^[93]

Death and medical analysis

On 7 April 1498, Charles VIII was residing at the Château d'Amboise, where Queen Anne was recuperating from the stillbirth of a daughter on 20 March.^[94] Seeking to divert his wife, Charles escorted her to view a match of jeu de paume (real tennis) played in the castle moat.^[95][96] They passed through the Hacquelebac gallery, a dark passageway then utilized as a latrine.^[95] Hastening his stride, Charles struck his forehead violently against the stone lintel of a low doorway.^[95][96][97] Although shaken, he remained conscious, proceeded to the viewing seats, and watched the match for several hours, conversing with courtiers.^[94][98][99] At approximately 2:00 p.m., while leaving the game, he collapsed onto the floor, losing the power of speech.^[98] He was laid upon a straw pallet in the passageway rather than carried to his chambers and died nine hours later, around 11:00 p.m., at the age of twenty-seven.^{[98][99][100]}

According to the memoirs of Philippe de Commynes, Charles briefly regained consciousness three times before his death, with attendants reporting his words as: 'My God and the glorious Virgin Mary, Monseigneur Saint Claude and Monseigneur Saint Blaise be my aid'.^[99][101] Contemporary witnesses described varied symptoms. The Bishop of Angers reported that a 'catarrh fell into his throat', a contemporary phrase often denoting apoplexy, respiratory arrest, or aphonia.^[102] Cardinal Rochefort's official missive diagnosed the fatality as apoplexy ('a malattia de poplesia').^[103] In letters sent to Milan, Mantua, and Ferrara, Italian ambassadors Donato Preti and Maffeo Pirovani stated that Charles had succumbed to an epileptic seizure ('male caduco'), noting that he had suffered previous episodes.^[103] Niccolò Machiavelli recorded that Charles had shown signs of epilepsy prior to his death.^[103] A temporary attack of hemiplegia had also been documented in the spring of 1497.^[102]

Modern medical researchers have evaluated multiple hypotheses regarding Charles VIII's death. Traditional accounts attributed death directly to a traumatic intracranial injury or acute subdural hematoma resulting from the doorway impact.^{[97][102][104]} However, retrospective studies, including a 2021 investigation, argued that a mild blunt head trauma was insufficient to produce fatal internal injury hours after an asymptomatic latency period.^[104] Alternative medical assessments point to an underlying cerebrovascular accident (stroke), possibly linked to severe arterial hypertension, of which Charles had complained the previous week.^[94][102] Furthermore, because Charles likely contracted syphilis during the 1495 Neapolitan campaign, where the disease spread widely through Europe, scholars have proposed that neurosyphilis with secondary epilepsy and cerebral hemorrhage caused his fatal collapse.^{[103][104][105][106]}

The royal funeral ceremonies were held with great pomp, gathering over 7,000 mourners, including 400 poor persons, and concluding with Charles's interment in the royal necropolis of Saint-Denis Basilica on 1 May 1498.^[107][108] In accordance with royal custom, his heart was extracted and buried in the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Cléry, near the remains of his parents Louis XI and Charlotte of Savoy.^[109] In 1873 the heart was found beneath the paving of the church, and since 1892 a slab given by the Société française d'archéologie has marked the spot.

Queen Anne supervised the design and construction of the royal tomb at Saint-Denis, and its execution was entrusted to Guido Mazzoni, a knight, painter and illuminator whom Charles had brought back from his Italian conquests. Located in the transept crossing northwest of the high altar, the tomb was among the most elaborate monuments in the basilica, measuring eight and a half feet in length and four and a half feet in width. It featured a monumental gilded bronze statue of Charles at prayer (an orant figure), dressed in a blue enamel robe with gold fleurs-de-lis. The rectangular base was decorated with female figures in medallions, with ribbons of interlaced letter 'K' running between them; the king's personal emblem of a flaming sword also decorated the tomb, and at the four corners of the base polychrome bronze angels held shields bearing the arms of France and the quartered arms of Naples and Jerusalem. The revolutionaries melted the tomb down in 1792, and its last remains disappeared in 1793. Its image of the king at prayer without a crown influenced later tombs in the basilica and was taken up in the sixteenth-century tombs of Louis XII, Francis I and Henry II.

Historiography and legacy

Historiographical assessments of Charles VIII have evolved considerably over the centuries. Early modern and nineteenth-century historians judged him harshly, portraying his reign as an era of administrative incompetence and ruinous military overextension.^[110][111] Chroniclers like Commynes emphasized his impulsiveness, physical ungainliness, and lack of political maturity.^[110] In the nineteenth century, Jules Michelet characterized Charles's Italian expedition as a catalyst that exposed French civilization to the Italian Renaissance, igniting a cultural rebirth in France.^[112] Scholarship by Paul Pélicier in 1882 and Henri-François Delaborde in 1888 did not overturn the perception of an unrealistic chivalric king whose foreign adventures surrendered key frontier provinces (Roussillon, Cerdagne, Artois, and Franche-Comté) and burdened the realm with heavy debt.^{[111][113][114]}

In the late twentieth century, revisionist historians led by Yvonne Labande-Mailfert re-examined Charles's reign within its late-medieval intellectual and spiritual context.^[115] Modern scholarship emphasizes that European princely courts of the 1490s operated under potent messianic and apocalyptic expectations.^[116] Prophetic preachers, including Savonarola, framed the French monarch as a chosen sovereign destined to initiate spiritual renewal and universal empire.^[116] Viewed from this perspective, Charles's Italian expedition was not an irrational impulse, but an expression of contemporary religious and political ideology focused on crusading, Church reform, and universal Christian monarchy.^[115][117]

His marriage to Anne brought Brittany under his control and kept France from being fully encircled by Habsburg territories. Brittany's drive for independence had been the greatest challenge of his early reign and had threatened the political stability of France.^[26][118] Although the Italian campaign resulted in the loss of Naples and drained the royal treasury, it established intense artistic, intellectual, and architectural connections between France and Italy.^[119][120] Italian artisans, humanists, and architects, including the engineer Fra Giocondo and the sculptor Guido Mazzoni, entered French service, transforming the royal residence at Amboise and constructing Château-Gaillard, thereby spreading the ideas of the Renaissance in France.^[75][120]

Issue and succession

Charles VIII and Anne of Brittany had six recorded children, none of whom survived infancy.^{[121][122][123][124]} Their eldest son, Charles Orlando, Dauphin of France, born on 11 October 1492, died of measles on 16 December 1495 at the age of three.^{[121][122][125]} A premature son named Francis, born in August 1493 after Anne went into labor during a hunt in Courcelles, died hours after birth and was buried at Notre-Dame de Cléry.^[122] A stillborn daughter was delivered in March 1495 (some records note an earlier stillborn infant in March 1494 in Lyon while Anne was traveling to join the king).^[122][126] Another son, Charles, Dauphin of France, was born on 8 September 1496 and died on 2 October 1496.^{[122][123][127]} A third dauphin, Francis, was born in July 1497 and lived only a few hours.^{[122][123][128]} Their final child, Anne of France, was born on 20 March 1498 at Plessis-lez-Tours and died on the same day.^{[122][123][128]} Charles Orlando, Charles, Francis, and Anne were all buried in the royal chapel of Tours Cathedral, where their joint marble tomb monument survives.^{[121][127][128][129]}

Beyond his legitimate children with Anne, sixteenth-century genealogies attribute five illegitimate daughters to Charles VIII: Christine, Francisque, Charlotte (for whom he served as godfather), Louise, and Marguerite.^{[130][131][132]} However, definitive archival evidence establishing royal paternity for these daughters remains lacking.^[130][131]

Because all legitimate children of Charles VIII predeceased him, his death marked the extinction of the senior line of the House of Valois, which had ruled France in direct succession since Philip VI in 1328.^[101][119] Under Salic law, the French crown passed to his second cousin once removed and brother-in-law, Louis, Duke of Orléans, who became King Louis XII as head of the Valois-Orléans cadet branch.^[119] Following Charles's death, Queen Anne returned to Brittany to manage her duchy's autonomous institutions.^[133][134] In accordance with the marriage contract requiring her to marry Charles's royal successor if widowed without heirs, Louis XII obtained a papal annulment of his twenty-four-year marriage to Charles's disabled sister Joan and married Anne at Nantes in January 1499, ensuring Brittany remained linked to the French crown.^{[133][135][136][137]}

Cultural depictions

Charles VIII's life, Italian campaign, and death have appeared in various literary and theatrical works. The 1671 English restoration drama The History of Charles the Eighth of France by John Crowne dramatized his reign. His Italian expedition and interactions with Alexander VI feature in the historical novel The Sultan's Helmsman. In cinema, Charles was portrayed by Johnny Dooley in the 1924 silent film Yolanda, by Philippe Drancy in the 1964 production Bayard, by Georges Ser in the 1977 French series Les Borgia ou le sang doré, by Andrew Dunford in the 1981 BBC series The Borgias, and by Patrick Timsit in the 1988 French comedy Sans peur et sans reproche.

In modern television series, Charles VIII was portrayed by French actor Michel Muller in Showtime's The Borgias (2011) and by Simon Larvaron in Tom Fontana's European series Borgia (2011). The Fontana series modified the circumstances of his death by showing Charles playing a tennis match with Cesare Borgia before hitting his head on a door lintel. In the 2012 Spanish historical drama Isabel, Charles was played by Héctor Carballo.^[138][139] In the 2017 German-Austrian series Maximilian, the young dauphin Charles was portrayed by Max Baissette de Malglaive. In 2019, actor Marius Tuzelet portrayed Charles in the French documentary series Secrets d'Histoire in an episode dedicated to Anne of France.

References

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14. Ivan Gobry: Louis XI – La force et la ruse. Librairie Jules Tallandier, Paris 2001, S. 133.
15. Gobry 2001, p. 133.
16. Gobry 2001, p. 132.
17. Kendall 1971, pp. 373–374. (Kendall, Paul Murray (1971). Louis XI: The Universal Spider. W. W. Norton & Company.)
18. Paul Murray Kendall, Louis XI: The Universal Spider (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1971), p. 373-374.
19. Georges Bordonove, Louis XII, Paris, Éditions Pygmallion, juillet 2020, 350 p. (ISBN 274414763X), p. 43
20. Hand 2013, p. 24. (Hand, Joni M. (2013). Women, Manuscripts and Identity in Northern Europe, 1350–1550. Ashgate Publishing.)
21. Карл VIII // Военная энциклопедия : [в 18 т.] / под ред. В. Ф. Новицкого … [и др.]. — СПб. ; [М.] : Тип. т-ва И. Д. Сытина, 1911—1915.
22. Hand 2013، لاپەڕە 24. sfn error: no target: CITEREFHand2013 (help)
23. «نسخه آرشیو شده». بایگانی‌شده از اصلی در ۳ ژانویه ۲۰۲۰. دریافت‌شده در ۳ ژانویه ۲۰۲۰.
24. Anderson 2014, p. 87. (Anderson, Michael Alan (2014). St. Anne in Renaissance Music: Devotion and Politics. Cambridge University Press.)
25. Anderson 2014، لاپەڕە 87. sfn error: no target: CITEREFAnderson2014 (help)
26. Thomas 2016, p. 342. (Thomas, Jennifer (2016). "Patronage and Personal Narrative in a Music Manuscript: Marguerite of Austria, Katherine of Aragon, and London Royal 8 G.vii". In Lamay, Thomasin (ed.). Musical Voices of Early Modern Women: Many-Headed Melodies. Routledge. pp. 337–364. ISBN 9781351916271.)
27. Dominique Le Page et Michel Nassiet, op. cit., p. 102.
28. De Castries, The lives of the kings & queens..., p. 135
29. Dominique Le Page und Michel Nassiet: L’Union de la Bretagne à la France. Skol Vreizh, Morlaix 2003, S. 102.
30. Bordonove 2000, p. 86-87.
31. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclopædia_Britannica/Charles_VIII._(King_of_France)
32. « Charles VIII, roi méconnu », sur revuedesdeuxmondes.fr, 6 janvier 1959 (consulté le 14 mars 2019).
33. Hegyi Klára: Sakk török módra. Törökország 500 évvel ezelőtt, tankonyvtar.hu
34. Mallet & Shaw 2012, p. 10. (Mallet, Michael; Shaw, Christine (2012). The Italian Wars: 1494–1559. Pearson Education, Limited.)
35. Charles'ın Napoli topraklarında anne tarafından büyükannesi Anjoulu Marie üzerinden zayıf da olsa Napoli tahtında hak iddiası bulunuyordu
36. Abulafia 2016, p. 153. (Abulafia, David, ed. (2016). The French Descent Into Renaissance Italy, 1494–95: Antecedents and Effects. Routledge. ISBN 9781351889339.)
37. André Bourde: Frankreich vom Ende des hundertjährigen Krieges bis zum Beginn der Selbstherrschaft Ludwigs XIV. In: Handbuch der europäischen Geschichte, Bd. 3, S. 139. Ernst Klett Verlag, Stuttgart 1971.
38. 巴亞爾等著，《法國史圖說》（上海：上海人民出版社，2005），頁180-183
39. Mallet & Shaw 2012, p. 13. (Mallet, Michael; Shaw, Christine (2012). The Italian Wars: 1494–1559. Pearson Education, Limited.)
40. Pigaillem 2008, p. 109. (Pigaillem, Henri (2008). Anne de Bretagne epouse de Charles VIII et de Louis XII (in French). Pygmalion.)
41. Mallet & Shaw 2012, p. 32. (Mallet, Michael; Shaw, Christine (2012). The Italian Wars: 1494–1559. Pearson Education, Limited.)
42. Mallet & Shaw 2012, pp. 20–21. (Mallet, Michael; Shaw, Christine (2012). The Italian Wars: 1494–1559. Pearson Education, Limited.)
43. Robert Ritchie: Historical Atlas of the Renaissance. Checkmark Books, New York 2004, S. 64.
44. "biography / Charles VIII"। britannica। সংগ্রহের তারিখ ১৯ জুন ২০২৬।
45. 페르낭 브로델 (1995). 〈제6장 기술의 보급: 혁명과 지체〉. 주경철 옮김. 《물질문명과 자본주의Ⅰ-2 일상생활의 구조 下》. 서울: 까치. 549쪽. ISBN 89-7291-084-8. 대포가 유럽의 전투에서 중요한 요소로 자리잡게 된 것은 1494년 9월 샤를 8세의 이탈리아 원정에서였다.
46. Philippe Contamine, « L'artillerie royale française à la veille des guerres d'Italie », Annales de Bretagne et des pays de l'Ouest, vol. 71, no 2,‎ 1964, p. 221-261 (DOI 10.3406/abpo.1964.2220, lire en ligne, consulté le 29 janvier 2019).
47. Geoffrey Parker (trad. de l'anglais), La révolution militaire : la guerre et l'essor de l'Occident : 1500-1800 (trad. par Jean Joba), Paris, Gallimard, 2013, 489 p. (ISBN 978-2-07-045335-1).
48. Philippe Contamine (1964). «L'artillerie royale française à la veille des guerres d'Italie». Annales de Bretagne et des pays de l'Ouest 71 (2): 221-261. Consultado el 29 de enero de 2019. .
49. Geoffrey Parker (2013). La révolution militaire : la guerre et l'essor de l'Occident : 1500-1800 (trad. par Jean Joba) (en inglés). Paris: Gallimard. p. 489. ISBN 978-2-07-045335-1. .
50. Mallet & Shaw 2012, p. 14. (Mallet, Michael; Shaw, Christine (2012). The Italian Wars: 1494–1559. Pearson Education, Limited.)
51. Sforza'nın kendisi Ferdinand'ın ardından tahta çıkan II. Alfonso ile çekişmekteydi
52. «www2.idehist.uu.se/distans/ilmh/Ren/flor-1494-entry.htm». بایگانی‌شده از اصلی در ۳۱ ژانویه ۲۰۱۸. دریافت‌شده در ۳ ژانویه ۲۰۲۰.
53. Malaguzzi Valeri, p. 48 e 564. (Francesco Malaguzzi Valeri, La corte di Lodovico il Moro: la vita privata e l'arte a Milano nella seconda metà del Quattrocento, vol. 1, Milano, Hoepli, 1913.)
54. L'amante del papa, Giulia Farnese, moglie del suo alleato Orsino Orsini, e la suocera, Adriana Mila, in viaggio da Bassanello verso il Vaticano, caddero in mano dei soldati francesi. Carlo le usò come merce di scambio: le donne vennero liberate nel giro di un mese e l'esercito francese entrò sfilando in Roma.
55. Mallet & Shaw 2012, p. 11. (Mallet, Michael; Shaw, Christine (2012). The Italian Wars: 1494–1559. Pearson Education, Limited.)
56. de Divitiis 2023, p. 259. (de Divitiis, Bianca (2023). A Companion to the Renaissance in Southern Italy (1350–1600). Brill. ISBN 9789004526372.)
57. Muzzerelle D., Entrées royales et fêtes populaires à Lyon (XVe – XVIIIe siècles), 12 juin-12 juillet 1970., Lyon, Bibliothèque municipale, 1970
58. Society, American Numismatic (1958). Centennial Publication (em inglês). Nova Iorque: American Numismatic Society. p. 265
59. Potter 2008, p. 30. (Potter, David (2008). Renaissance France at War: Armies, Culture and Society, c.1480-1560. The Boydell Press. ISBN 9781843834052.)
60. Mallet & Shaw 2012, p. 31. (Mallet, Michael; Shaw, Christine (2012). The Italian Wars: 1494–1559. Pearson Education, Limited.)
61. Alessandro Luzio; Rodolfo Renier (1890). Delle relazioni d'Isabella d'Este Gonzaga con Lodovico e Beatrice Sforza. Milano: Tipografia Bortolotti di Giuseppe Prato, p. 87.
62. Luzio e Renier, p. 87. (Alessandro Luzio e Rodolfo Renier, Delle relazioni d'Isabella d'Este Gonzaga con Lodovico e Beatrice Sforza, Milano, Tipografia Bortolotti di Giuseppe Prato, 1890.)
63. La galleria dei Gonzaga, venduta all'Inghilterra nel 1627-28: documenti degli archivi di Mantova e Londra, Alessandro Luzio Cogliati, 1913, p. 223.
64. Mallet & Shaw 2012, pp. 32–33. (Mallet, Michael; Shaw, Christine (2012). The Italian Wars: 1494–1559. Pearson Education, Limited.)
65. Anne Denis: Charles VIII et les Italiens – Histoire et Mythe / Démystification de Charles VIII. Librairie Droz, Genf 1979, S. 119.
66. Alessandro Luzio; Rodolfo Renier (1890). Delle relazioni d'Isabella d'Este Gonzaga con Lodovico e Beatrice Sforza. Milano: Tipografia Bortolotti di Giuseppe Prato, p. 116.
67. René de La Croix duc de Castries, The lives of the kings & queens of France, New York 1979, p. 135
68. (it) Claudia Melucci, « Belle e dannate : ecco la moda medievale delle scarpe più lunghe, che la Chiesa condannò », sur curioctopus.it, 27 janvier 2017 (consulté le 30 octobre 2023).
69. Luzio e Renier, p. 116. (Alessandro Luzio e Rodolfo Renier, Delle relazioni d'Isabella d'Este Gonzaga con Lodovico e Beatrice Sforza, Milano, Tipografia Bortolotti di Giuseppe Prato, 1890.)
70. Lezioni di letteratura italiana, dettate nell'Università di Napoli, Volume 2, Luigi Settembrini, 1868, p. 16.
71. Della diplomazia italiana, dal secolo XIII al XVI, Alfred Reumont · 1857, p. 81-82.
72. Filippo di Commynes (trad. Maria Clotilde Daviso di Charvensod), Memorie, Giulio Einaudi, 1960, p. 520
73. Filippo di Commynes, Memorie, traduzione di Maria Clotilde Daviso di Charvensod, Giulio Einaudi, 1960, p. 520.
74. Bernardino Zambotti, Diario Ferrarese dall'anno 1476 sino al 1504, in Giuseppe Pardi (a cura di), Rerum italicarum scriptores, p. XXXIV
75. "Histoire et Événements" (in French). p. Le Mont Aiguille – Supereminet invius. Archived from the original on 20 May 2016. Retrieved 31 December 2012.
76. "L'ascension historique de 1492" [The historic ascent of 1492] (in French). Mont-Aiguille.com. 12 January 2009. Archived from the original on 16 June 2009. Retrieved 3 January 2013.
77. Girolamo Piruli, Diarii, in RERUM ITALICARUM SCRIPTORES RACCOLTA DEGLI STORICI ITALIANI dal cinquecento al millecinquecento ORDINA DA L. A. MURATORI, vol. 1, p. 40.
78. Girolamo Piruli, Diarii, collana RERUM ITALICARUM SCRIPTORES RACCOLTA DEGLI STORICI ITALIANI dal cinquecento al millecinquecento ORDINATA DA L. A. MURATORI, vol. 1, p. 40.
79. Marin Sanudo (1883). La spedizione di Carlo VIII in Italia. Mancia del Commercio di M. Visentini, p. 261.
80. Sanudo, p. 261. (Marino Sanuto, La spedizione di Carlo VIII in Italia, a cura di Rinaldo Fulin, Venezia, Tipografia del Commercio di Marco Visentini, 1883.)
81. Francesco Malaguzzi Valeri (1913). La corte di Lodovico il Moro: la vita privata e l'arte a Milano nella seconda metà del Quattrocento. Vol. 1. Milano: Hoepli, p. 48 et 564.
82. (it) Alessandro Luzio, Isabella d'Este e i Borgia (lire en ligne), p. 485
83. Biblioteca dell'"Archivum Romanicum.": Storia, letteratura, paleografia, Volumi 44-45, L.S. Olschki, 1955, p. 163.
84. René Maulde-La-Clavière. Histoire de Loius XII: ptie. Louis d'Orléans. Vol. 3., p. 77-78.
85. “Pour haultain port pour gaye contenance / Riche acoultrure en nouuelle ordonnance / Pour bel acueil et beaulte prinse au chois / Nulle nen est dont on a souuenance / Qui tant pleust onc a Charles roy francoys”
86. Lettres de Charles VIII, roi de France, Numéro 313, Di Charles VIII (King of France), Société de l'histoire de France · 1903, p. 5, 9, 88, 96.
87. Maulde, pp. 77-78. (René Maulde-La-Clavière, Histoire de Loius XII: ptie. Louis d'Orléans., vol. 3.)
88. Lettres de Charles VIII, roi de France, Numero 313, Di Charles VIII (King of France), Société de l'histoire de France · 1903, pp. 5, 9, 88, 96.
89. Ghislain Tranié, Philippe de Gueldre, 1467-1547: "royne de Sicile" et "povre ver de terre", Paris, Classiques Garnier, coll. « Bibliothèque d'histoire de la Renaissance,13 », 2018, 636 p. (ISBN 978-2-406-08216-3), p. 214-215
90. (en) « Collecting Women: Three French Kings and Manuscripts of Empire in the Italian Wars », sur journals.uchicago.edu
91. Ghislain Tranié, Philippe de Gueldre (1467-1547): "Royne de Sicile" et "povre ver de terre", Paris, Classiques Garnier, coll. « Bibliothèque d'histoire de la Renaissance, 13 », 2018, 636 p. (ISBN 978-2-406-08216-3), p. 241
92. « Le Livre des faiz monseigneur saint Loys », composé à la requête du « cardinal de Bourbon » et de la « duchesse de Bourbonnois »., 1401-1500 (lire en ligne).
93. Labande-Mailfert 1986, p. 157.
94. [Deblauwe 2013] Jacques Deblauwe (Dr), De quoi sont-ils morts ?, Paris, Flammarion - Pygmalion, coll. « Franck Ferrand présente », 2013, 418 p., sur data.over-blog-kiwi.com (ISBN 978-2-7564-1002-9, lire en ligne), p. 74.
95. « A l'entrée se hurta du front contre l'huis, combien qu'il fust bien petit » (Mémoires de Philippe de Commynes, livre VIII, chap. XXV).
96. Juan de Mariana: Historia general de España, vol. XIV, p. 5.
97. Heiner Gillmeister, Tennis. A Cultural History, 2. Aufl., Sheffield: Equinox Publishing Ltd 2017, S. 18
98. Deblauwe 2013, p. 77.
99. Philippe de Commynes (1447-1511), Mémoires de Messire Philippe de Comines, seigneur d'Argenton, t. 1 : où l'on trouve l'histoire des rois de France Louis XI et Charles VIII, depuis l'an 1464 iusques en 1498 (Nouvelle édition, revue… avec un recueil de traités, lettres, contrats et instructions… par messieurs Godefroy, augmentée par M. l'abbé LenglDu Fresnoy), 1747, sur gallica (lire en ligne), « Livre VIII, chap. XXV », p. 592.
100. Heiner Gillmeister, Tennis: A Cultural History (London: Leicester University Press, 1998) p. 21. (ISBN 978-0718501471)
101. Deblauwe 2013, p. 75.
102. Deblauwe 2013, p. 76.
103. (en) Marc Zanello, Alexandre Roux, Martine Gavaret et Fabrice Bartolomei, « King Charles VIII of France’s Death: From an Unsubstantiated Traumatic Brain Injury to More Realistic Hypotheses », World Neurosurgery, vol. 156,‎ décembre 2021, p. 60–67 (DOI 10.1016/j.wneu.2021.09.056, lire en ligne, consulté le 23 mai 2026)
104. Zanello, Marc; Roux, Alexandre; Gavaret, Martine; Bartolomei, Fabrice; Huberfeld, Gilles; Charlier, Philippe; Georges-Zimmermann, Patrice; Carron, Romain; Pallud, Johan (December 2021). "King Charles VIII of France's Death: From an Unsubstantiated Traumatic Brain Injury to More Realistic Hypotheses". World Neurosurgery. 156: 60–67. doi:10.1016/j.wneu.2021.09.056. ISSN 1878-8769. PMID 34537407.
105. Friederike Haussmann: Lucrezia Borgia. Glanz und Gewalt, München, S. 72
106. Ernst Bäumler: Amors vergifteter Pfeil. Kulturgeschichte einer verschwiegenen Krankheit, Hamburg 1976, S. 17 ff.
107. Bordonove 2000, p. 123.
108. Labande-Mailfert 1986, p. 452-464.
109. Un pèlerinage à Notre-Dame de Cléry. Blanchard, Orléans 1858, S. 35.
110. Labande-Mailfert 1975, p. 152-155.
111. Yann Lignereux, Les rois imaginaires : Une histoire visuelle de la monarchie de Charles VIII à Louis XIV, Rennes, PUR, 2016, p. 21-29.
112. Patrick Boucheron, « Charles VIII descend en Italie et rate le monde », dans Patrick Boucheron (dir.) Histoire Mondiale de la France, Paris, Editions du Seuil, 2017, p. 247-251.
113. Paul Pélicier, Essai sur le gouvernement de la dame de Beaujeu, Chartres, 1882
114. Henri Delaborde, L'expédition de Charles VIII en Italie : histoire diplomatique et militaire, Paris, Firmin-Didot et cie, 1888.
115. Labande-Mailfert 1975, p. 169-218.
116. Alexandre Yali Haran, Le lys et le globe : Messianique dynastique et rêve impérial en France à l'Aube des temps modernes, Seyssel, Champ Vallon, 2000.
117. Didier Le Fur, Charles VIII, Paris, Perrin, 2006.
118. https://biography.yourdictionary.com/charles-viii
119. Rorimer, James J. (1954). "The Glorification of Charles VIII". The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin. 12 (10): 281–299. doi:10.2307/3257546. ISSN 0026-1521. JSTOR 3257546.
120. (fr) (14 oktober 2022). Château-Gaillard (Amboise). Wikipédia.
121. Broomhall 2004, p. 188. (Broomhall, Susan (2004). Women's Medical Work in Early Modern France. Manchester University Press.)
122. Didier Feuer et Jean d'Hendecourt, Dictionnaire des souverains de France et de leurs épouses, Paris, Pygmalion, 2006, 458 p. (ISBN 978-2-7564-0030-3 et 2-756-40030-0, OCLC 2756400300), p. 28.
123. Didier Feuer; Jean d'Hendecourt (2006). Dictionnaire des souverains de France et de leurs épouses. Paris: Pygmalion. p. 458. ISBN 978-2-7564-0030-3. .
124. Sylvia Jurewitz-Freischmidt: Die Herrinnen der Loire-Schlösser, Königinnen und Maitressen um den Lilienthron. Piper Verlag, München 2003, S. 485. Ergänzt aus Stammliste der Valois.
125. Broomhall 2004، لاپەڕە 188. sfn error: no target: CITEREFBroomhall2004 (help)
126. N de Valois 1495. roglo.eu. Архів оригіналу за 24 квітня 2020. Процитовано 19 грудня 2014.Шаблон:Self-published source[неякісне джерело]
127. Gobry 2012, Genealogie de Charles VIII. (Gobry, Ivan (2012). Charles VIII (1483–1498). Pygmalion.)
128. Broomhall 2004, p. 189. (Broomhall, Susan (2004). Women's Medical Work in Early Modern France. Manchester University Press.)
129. Cynthia J. Brown: The cultural and political legacy of Anne de Bretagne. D.S. Brewer, Cambridge 2010, S. 83.
130. Citées par Patrick Van Kerrebrouck, Les Valois, 1990, p. 164.
131. Citées par Patrick Van Kerrebrouck, Les Valois, 1990, page 164.
132. Карл VIII був її хрещеним батьком.
133. Frederic J. Baumgartner, Louis XII (New York: St. Martin Press, 1996) p. 79.
134. Baumgartner، Frederic J. (1996). Louis XII. St. Martin Press. لاپەڕە 79. ژپنک ٩٧٨-٠٣١٢١٢٠٧٢٦.
135. Jean-Joseph Julaud, L'Histoire de France Pour les Nuls, Éditions First, 2006, p. 220.
136. Jean-Joseph Julaud (2006). L'Histoire de France Pour les Nuls. Éditions First. p. 220. .
137. Frederic J. Baumgartner, Louis XII (New York: St. Martin Press, 1996) s. 79.
138. "'Isabel' se refuerza de cara a la tercera temporada". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). 25 November 2013.
139. « Hector Carballo, le monarque français à la sauce espagnole », sur La Montée Ibérique (consulté le 19 octobre 2015).