Blazon of arms:
Shield: Azure semée de lis Or a bordure compony Argent and Gules
SOURCES, NOTES & CREDITS: The illustration for background and the text are adapted from the article by Wikipedia. The blazon was contributed by John Hamilton Gaylor for which we thank him.
Charles, Count and Peer de la Marche (Peer of France) was the third and youngest son of Philip IV the Fair, King of France who was born in June 1294. The County de la Marche was raised to a peerage in 1316 (we believe created in 1316 by either Louis X his eldest brother or possibly by Philip V his older brother )(both Louis and Philip reigned in 1316).
Count Charles became Charles IV of France in 1322 and reigned until Feb 1328. He was the last king of the direct line of the House of Capet, King of France and King of Navarre as Charles I. When Charles IV died without a male heir, the senior line of the House of Capet, descended from Philip IV, became extinct. He was succeeded in Navarre by his niece Joan II and in France by his paternal first cousin Philip of Valois. However, the dispute on the succession to the French throne between the Valois monarchs descended in male line from Charles’s grandfather Philip III of France, and the English monarchs descended from Charles’s sister Isabella, was a factor of the Hundred Years’ War.
By virtue of the birthright of his mother, Joan I of Navarre, Charles claimed the title Charles I, King of Navarre. From 1314 to his accession to the throne, he held the title of Count of La Marche and was crowned King of France in 1322 at the cathedral in Reims.
Charles IV died on 1 Feb 1328 at circa. age 34.
The artwork is an interpretation of John Hamilton Gaylor.
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