François de Bourbon was the third and youngest son of Gilbert de Bourbon, the Count of Montpensier, and his noble Italian wife Clara Gonzaga, with both of François's parents dying before he even became a teenager. François fought loyally under the command of his elder brother Charles in Guyenne and Navarre and was rewarded and compensated for his services by Francis I of France (through letters patent) with the Duchy of Châtellerault (named after the French city of Châtellerault, alternatively spelled "Chatellraud", in Nouvelle-Aquitaine) in February 1514. François de Bourbon was killed in action on 13 September 1515 at the Battle of Marignano (in what is now the northern Italian city of Melegnano, in Lombardy) against the Swiss during the Italian Wars. After François's untimely death, his elder brother Charles, who was already Duke of Bourbon, inherited the Duchy of Châtellerault. After Charles's death in 1527 during the Sack of Rome, French King Francis I's mother Louise of Savoy inherited the Duchy of Châtellerault, with it reverting to the royal domain after Louise's death in 1531. Subsequently, the Duchy of Châtellerault was given to Charles II de Valois, Duke of Orléans, the third and youngest son of Francis I of France.