Charles XI

### Spouse

Angélique Catherine d'Este (m. 1675 - 1706)Marie Louise Gabrielle de Savoie (m. 1706 - 1713)

### Issue

Louise Henriette de France
Louis Joseph de France, Dauphin de France †

Jean IV, Roi de France

Louise Marguerite Antoinette de France

Charles Sébastien Xavier, Duc d'Angoulême

### Siblings

Jean III, Roi d'Espagne †Thérèse Élisabeth de France, Madame Royale †

### Religion

Roman Catholicism

**Charles XI** (Charles Auguste; 2nd February 1656 - 5th April 1713) reigned as King of France and Navarre from 1702 until 1713. For most of his life, Charles served as heir apparent to his father Louis XIII, and was nicknamed in that capacity *le Grand Dauphin,* particularly following the birth of his son, Louis Joseph*.* Following the death of his father, he ascended the throne, beginning a reign that would be both unremarkable and marked by considerable turmoil over the succession. The death of his only son without issue in 1703 created a long-running succession crisis - his brother, Jean, had taken the Spanish throne and was thus ineligible to succeed to the French throne. This left their distant cousin, the Duc d'Alençon, as heir presumptive. In 1706, however, the death of Charles' first wife Angélique Catherine d'Este freed him to remarry. To the realm's relief, his remarriage to Marie Louise de Savoie produced two sons, ending the crisis.

Charles himself was considered an incredibly unremarkable man, and even as King lived in the shadow of his exceptional father. Known as something of a dullard, the court of Charles XI paled in comparison to the opulence and pageantry of Louis XIII's. He was an easily influenced, placid man who was largely led by stronger personalities around him, such as ministers and even, to a lesser extent, his wives. His intellectual abilities were modest, and had been the subject of mockery during his father's reign. His father had also done everything to relegate Charles to the sidelines of politics, leaving him unprepared for the throne. His short reign was marked by the majority of the fighting in the War of the Spanish Succession, which began under his father. Charles kept France in the war, fighting to keep his younger brother, Jean, on the Spanish throne. In this, he ultimately proved successful, though he would not live to see the results of the end of the war. His reign of ten years, eight months was dwarfed by his father's fourty-eight, and his reign largely fell into relative obscurity after his death.

## Issue

With his first wife, Angélique Catherine d'Este, he had two surviving children, as well as eleven failed pregnancies:

* Miscarriage (3rd January 1676)
* Miscarriage (24th September 1676)
* Stillborn son (7th July 1678)
* Miscarriage (30th December 1679)
* Louise Henriette Augustine de France (born 4th May 1681)
* Stillborn daughter (19th June 1682)
* Louis Joseph de France, Monseigneur le Dauphin (22nd October 1683 - 9th April 1703)
* Miscarriage (14th March 1684)
* Miscarriage (29th August 1686)
* Stillborn son (1st November 1687)
* Miscarriage (15th March 1688)
* Stillborn daughter (26th October 1690)
* Miscarriage (9th February 1692)

With his second wife, Marie Louise de Savoie, he had three children:

* Jean IV Marie Auguste, Roi de France (born 14th May 1708)
* Louise Marguerite Antoinette de France (born 6th June 1709)
* Charles Sébastien Xavier de France, Duc d'Angoulême (born 18th September 1710)