Charles de Lorraine, duc d'Aumale (25 January 1555 – , Brussels) was a French noble, military commander and governor during the latter French Wars of Religion. The son of Claude, Duke of Aumale and Louise de Brézé, Aumale inherited his families position in north eastern France, and his fathers title of Grand Veneur. Educated as a fervent Catholic, his clients engineered the creation of the first national Catholic Ligue in 1576, and he continued to support the remnants of the organisation after the Treaty of Bergerac caused much of the ligue to dissolve. During the sixth civil war that the ligue had induced, he fought with the king's brother Alençon at the sieges of La Charité-sur-Loire and Issoire. During the seventh civil war in 1579, he brought his ligueur forces to support the royal army under Marshal Matignon during the siege of La Fère but left on bitter terms with the commander when the siege was brought to a close on generous terms.
In 1584 Alençon died, leaving the Protestant Navarre as heir to the throne. This was unacceptable to Aumale, and the Lorraine family at large, and they engineered the refounding of the ligue to oppose his succession. In the civil war that followed with the crown, Aumale operated in his base of Picardie, seizing the town of Doullens in March and later marching on Reims, before the war was brought to a close in July, with Henri conceding to most of the ligueur demands, though not establishing Aumale as governor of Picardie. In the years that followed Aumale continued a low grade rebellion, and in 1587 captured Doullens again, alongside Corbie and Le Crotoy. In June a plot was engineered to capture the key port town of Boulogne held by a client of Aumale's enemy Épernon, but it failed. The king was outraged by these provocations but felt unable to confront Aumale and openly resume civil war. In early 1588 Aumale made another attempt on the town, this time by direct force as opposed to subterfuge, Épernon and his clients successfully resisted his assaults, and the town held. With an Estates General due to be called in late 1588 after the Day of the Barricades in Paris forced further concessions from the king, Aumale ensured the deputies from Picardie delivered to the main meeting in Blois the message that he should be governor of Picardie, and that Épernon should be divested of Boulogne. The king, increasingly unable to tolerate the corner he was backed into by the ligue, assassinated the duke of Guise, Aumale's cousin, on 23 December. In response much of the country went into rebellion against the crown. Paris which was already in rebellion appointed Aumale its governor, and he proceeded to help the rebel government (the Seize) purge royalists from possessing weapons. Aumale took a central role in the new ligueur administration of the country, and was resultingly declared guilty of lèse majesté in February 1589. In May, his forces attempted to recapture the town of Senlis for the ligue but were badly defeated by a royal force. That August the king was assassinated, revenge for the death of Guise, and the Protestant Navarre succeeded him.
By this time Aumale had been elected governor of Picardie by the local ligueur government, and he clashed with Navarre (now Henri IV) at the Battle of Arques in September 1589. With Henri's conversion to Catholicism in 1593, many of the ligueur towns in Picardie began to defect to the crown, and Aumale's position became increasingly tenuous. By 1595 he was the only member of his family who had not either defected to Navarre or entered negotiations, despite repeated attempts to bring him around. Aumale remained steadfast, and chose exile in the Spanish Netherlands. Though he would later have a change of heart, it was too late, and a death sentence had been pronounced against him for treason by the Paris Parlement. He fought with the Spanish at Amiens and Nieuwpoort in 1600, while his estates in France deteriorated. He died in 1631 in Bruxelles, still a Spanish exile.
Early life and family Family Charles de Lorraine was born in 1555 the eldest surviving son of Claude de Lorraine, duc d'Aumale and Louise de Brézé the wealthy heiress. He had four sisters who made it to adulthood among them Diane de Lorraine and Catherine de Lorraine, who would marry her distant cousin the duke of Mercœur, and one brother the chevalier d'Aumale.
Education Aumale received an elite education, alongside many other leading nobles he attended the College de Navarre in Paris, an institution that rivalled the Sorbonne in prestige at the time. In 1572 he attended the Jesuit university at Pont-à-Mousson in Lorraine. He was shaped by the two years he spent in the institution, becoming far more devoutly Catholic than his cousins and resultingly developing a more uncompromising religious worldview as far as compromise with Protestantism was concerned.
Inheritance Aumale inherited his father's office of Grand Veneur, one of the Great Offices of State. Under his father hunts had been regular, and the office significant. The post however decreased in importance during the reign of Henri III, who rarely went on hunts. The budget was cut from 70,000 livres to 24,500 livres, forcing Aumale to sell lands to cover the costs of the honour. In 1583, Henri chided Aumale for granting other nobleman too much access to the royal forests for hunting, asking him to be more moderate in the amount of permission he granted to others, so that the forests would still be well stocked for the king.
Marriage and children In late 1576, at Joinville, Aumale married his first cousin, Marie de Lorraine, Mademoiselle d'Elbeuf, daughter of the marquis of Elbeuf and Louise de Rieux. Marrying a first cousin required an expensive Papal dispensation. Another of Aumale's cousins the duke of Guise paid the 100,000 livres dowry required for the match. It was hoped this would ease Aumale's financial troubles, however it took a while for Guise to produce the money. At the same time as his wedding, his sister Diane de Lorraine married the prince François de Luxembourg, comte de Roucy. In January 1582, Mademoiselle d'Elbeuf would catch the king's eye, and he quickly became infatuated. During the religious war of the 1590s, Elbeuf would find herself increasingly managing the families financial situation.
Together they had two children. His elder daughter, would marry his kinsmen Henri I, Duke of Nemours, transmitting what was left of the Aumale inheritance to the Nemours, while the younger daughter would marry the Spanish general Ambrogio Spinola.
Reign of Henri III At the coronation of Henri III on 13 February 1575, the Guise family had pride of place in the ceremony. The duke of Elbeuf took the role of the Grand Chambellan for the coronation, Cardinal Guise took the place of the archbishop of Reims, while the three lay peers of the event were all of the house of Lorraine, the duke's of Guise, Mayenne and Aumale.
First ligue The fifth war of religion was brought to a close by the generous Peace of Monsieur which afforded many liberties to the Protestants, and granted their leading aristocratic representatives major concessions. Catholic ligues arose in opposition to many of its terms, and the kingdom was soon pushed back into civil war. The ligue was initially founded by Jacques d'Humières, governor of Péronne, though the driving force was to be found in two lesser nobles, one of them Jacques d'Applaincourt an ensign in Aumale's company.
The king tasked Alençon with leading the royal army, and he conducted a campaign that captured La Charité-sur-Loire and Issoire, before the lack of pay caused his army to disintegrate. Accompanying him in the conduct of this campaign was the duke of Guise, the governor of Berry Claude de La Châtre and Aumale. Meanwhile, Aumale's cousin campaigned successfully against Condé near La Rochelle. With the main royal army dissolved for want of funds, Henri brought the war to a close with the harsher Treaty of Bergerac, which sated many of the ligueur demands, and abolished the ligue. Aumale, who was staying at the Château d'Anet, provided an early copy of the treaty to the leading Norman ligueur Maineville, who took responsibility for rallying the uncompromising ligueurs against the new peace, though most were satisfied with its terms and the organisation faded away.
In April 1578, a famous duel occurred between Caylus favourite for the king and Entragues a favourite of the duke of Guise. In the combat that followed Caylus and one of his seconds were killed, while both of Entragues' seconds were killed. Henri was furious about the loss of two of his favourites, and Entragues fled to the Guise for protection. On 10 May the entire Guise family made their displeasure at the events of the previous month clear through a coordinated departure from court, Aumale leaving with them at this time.
Increasingly unsatisfied with the dilution of honour that had befallen the Ordre de Saint-Michel, Henri decided to found a new order of chivalry, in the hopes of more tightly controlling its recipients. To this end he established the Ordre du Saint-Esprit in 1578. All the Lorraine princes received the honour of elevation as chevaliers, including Aumale. Aumale would be among the first intake to receive the honour alongside the king, Nevers and Mercœur, in 1578 itself. Elbeuf would have to wait until 1581 and Mayenne to 1582.
Seventh war of religion In November 1579, Condé, frustrated at his failure to be returned to the governorship of Picardie, seized the Picard town of La Fère, he ravaged the nearby countryside and made an abortive attempt on Doullens. Henri was keen to negotiate with the renegade prince and dispatched Catherine de Medici to speak with him. Condé told the king through Catherine that he rebelled because Aumale was attempting to revitalise the ligue in contravention of the terms agreed in Bergerac. In June 1580, a royal army was dispatched to besiege La Fère under the overall authority of the royalist Marshal Matignon. Aumale joined the army with his own force, which contained many Picard nobles sympathetic to the ligue. Matignon had significant success in the siege, though he was keen to avoid the possibility of Aumale attaining too much glory from the expedition, and offered generous terms to the garrison for their surrender. Aumale, furious that he had not been consulted, stormed from the royal camp without leave.
Henri planned a grand marriage in 1581 between one of his favourites Joyeuse and his queen's half sister Marguerite de Lorraine-Vaudémont, daughter of Mercœur a cousin of the Guise. The Lorraine's turned out in force to act as witness to the marriage, and Aumale was among those who gathered for the signing of the contract on 18 September 1581. The king hoped this marriage would bind the Lorraine family to one of his chief favourites. Further elevations for the king's favourites were arranged with the elevation of Épernon to the honour of being a Duke Peer of the kingdom with seniority over the Lorraine's and all other non royal princes. Aumale and Guise bore witness to the signing of the letters patent in Parlement on 21 November.
Financial reform