Primary Contributors:

Ineke Huysman, Huygens ING

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Charlotte de Bourbon (1546/7–1582)

Charlotte de Bourbon was the third wife of William of Orange (1533–1584). As the fourth daughter of Louis III of Bourbon, duke of Montpensier (1513–1582) and Jacqueline de Longwy (1520–1561), countess of Bar-sur Seine, she had been expected to devote her life to the church and was sent to her aunt, abbess of the convent of Jouarre, to train as a nun. At the age of twelve she took her vows and six years later took over as abbess. In 1571, however, Charlotte left the convent, converted to Protestantism, an act that shocked her family deeply, and moved to the Calvinistic court of Frederik III, Elector Palatine in Heidelberg.

When Charlotte met William of Orange in 1572 at Frederik’s court, he was still married to Anna of Saxony (1544–1577). Three years later, however, he asked Charlotte for her hand in marriage, and she accepted. This was considered a scandal, however, on account of his existing marriage, which was annulled subsequently by a tribunal of preachers on the grounds of Anna’s adultery with Jan Rubens. The annulment was not seen as a formal divorce by many different parties, however, and even Charlotte herself doubted whether her own marriage was legal.

Charlotte and William had six daughters. When William was wounded on 18 March 1582 in an assassination attempt, Charlotte nursed him back to health. He recovered, but Charlotte herself died shortly after on 5 May, reputedly from exhaustion, and she was buried in Antwerp.

Partners and Additional Contributors

The metadata for this catalogue was provided by the Huygens ING under the direction of researcher Dr Ineke Huysman. Huygens ING has digitized the documents in cooperation with the Royal Collections The Netherlands in The Hague, where most of the original letters are conserved (Archief A11c Charlotte, prinses van Bourbon-Montpensier (1546/7-1582), echtgenote van Willem I, prins van Oranje).

The calendar has been prepared for publication as a part of a collaboration with EMLO and the associated Women’s Early Modern Letters Online [WEMLO] resource. Thanks are due to Professor James Daybell and Dr Kim McLean-Fiander, and to Dr Nadine Akkerman. Dr Huysman extends her thanks to Annashireen Eslamimoghaddam for her collation work with the metadata, while EMLO would like to thank its editorial team, funded by the Cultures of Knowledge project, for assistance in preparing this metadata for upload to the union catalogue.

Key Bibliographic Source(s)

J. Delaborde, Charlotte de Bourbon (Paris, 1888).

F. M. Cotton Walker, Cloister to court: scenes from the life of Charlotte of Bourbon, abbess of Jouarre, princess of Orange (London, 1909).

Contents

Currently the catalogue contains metadata of 26 letters written in French that date between 1575 and 1581. Of these letters, 20 are from Charlotte, and 6 are addressed to her. In the future, further letters from Charlotte’s correspondence that are kept in other archives, will be added.

Further resources

Bibliography

Charmarie Blaisdell, ‘Religion, Gender, and Class: Nuns and Authority in Early Modern France’, in Michael Wolfe. ed., Changing Identities in Early Modern France (London, 1997), pp. 147–68.

S. Broomhall and J. van Gent, eds, Gender, power and identity in the early modern House of Orange-Nassau (Abingdon, 2016).

Jane Couchman and Ann Crabb, eds, Women’s letters across Europe, 1400–1700: form and persuasion (Ashgate, 2005).

G. Groen van Prinsterer, ed., Archives ou correspondance inédite de la Maison d’Orange-Nassau, Première série, 8 vols (Leiden, 1835–1847; part I has been corrected and reprinted, Leiden, 1841).

B. C. de Savornin Lohman, et al., ed., Prins Willem van Oranje 1533–1933 (Haarlem, 1933).

Additional resources

For additional biographical information, see the entries in Wikipedia and the Online Dictionary of Dutch Women.

Women’s Early Modern Letters Online [WEMLO] project page.

WEMLO network and resources hub.

The Wives of the Stadtholders: an exhibition (September 2016).

Launch Catalogue