Labande-Mailfert, Yvonne. Charles VIII et son milieu (1470–1498): la jeunesse au pouvoir. Paris:
Klincksieck, 1975.
——. Charles VIII: le vouloir et la destinée. Paris: Fayard, 1986.
Major, J.Russell. Representative Institutions in Renaissance France 1421–1559. Madison:
University of Wisconsin Press, 1960.
Pelicier, Paul. Essai sur le gouvernment de la dame de Beaujeu (1483–1491). Paris, 1882.
——, ed. Lettres de Charles VIII, roi de France. 5 vols. Paris: Renouard, 1898–1905.
CHARLES DE BLOIS
(ca. 1319–1364). Duke of Brittany. Charles de Blois was a younger son of Gui de
Châtillon, count of Blois, and Marguerite de Valois, sister of King Philip VI. In June
1337, he contracted a marriage with Jeanne, countess of Penthièvre (1322–1384), niece
of the childless duke of Brittany Jean III. The duke preferred Jeanne as a successor over
his half-brother, Jean de Montfort, but he never made a public declaration of his
preference. When he died in April 1341, the decision was left to the king and peers of
France, who convened in September and awarded Brittany to Jeanne and Charles.
In the meantime, Montfort had seized major Breton towns and enlisted the support of
Edward III of England. Most of the great Breton lords were pro-French and supported
Charles, but many of them died in 1347 at La Roche-Derrien, when he was badly
defeated and captured by the English commander Thomas Dagworth. Montfort having
died in 1345, England now backed his young son, Jean. Charles secured his release in
1356 but had to promise not to take arms against the English, who now had a strong
foothold in Brittany. The duchy was excluded from the Anglo-French treaty of 1360, and
by 1362 young Jean de Montfort was old enough to fight in Brittany on his own behalf.
With the crucial support of some veteran English captains, Jean won a decisive victory at
Auray in 1364, where Charles lost his life. Although his widow had to recognize Jean IV
as duke of Brittany in 1365, the Blois-Penthièvre faction remained an important
opposition party in Brittany for another sixty years.
Charles had a reputation for piety and sanctity, and in 1371 his son-in-law, Louis of
Anjou, promoted an unsuccessful movement to have him canonized as a saint.
John Bell Henneman, Jr.
Jones, Michael. The Creation of Brittany:A Late Medieval State. London: Hambledon, 1988.
La Borderie, Arthur de, and Barthélemy Pocquet. Histoire de Bretagne. 6 vols. Rennes: Plihon et
Hommay, 1896–1914, Vol. 3 (1899).
Luce, Siméon. Histoire de Bertrand du Guesclin et de son époque. Paris: Hachette, 1876.
Plaine, François, ed. Monuments du procès de canonisation du bienheureux Charles, duc de
Bretagne, 1320–1364. St. Brieuc, 1921.
Medieval france: an encyclopedia 382