Born on 22 September 1523 in La Ferté-sous-Jouarre, the third surviving son of Charles IV de Bourbon-Vendôme and Françoise d’Alençon, the younger brother of Antoine de Bourbon and uncle of Henri de Navarre, he rises rapidly through the church hierarchy: Bishop of Nevers in 1540 and then of Saintes in 1544, he is made a cardinal in 1548 by Pope Paul III and becomes Archbishop of Rouen in 1550, a post he holds until his death. His many abbatial benefices make him one of the wealthiest prelates in Europe.

A leading Prince of the Blood, on 18 August 1572 he marries Henri de Navarre to Marguerite de Valois, just days before the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre. He is chosen by the Catholic League as its figurehead as early as 1584, after the heir presumptive’s death, because of his place, after Henri de Navarre, in the line of succession to the throne, without sharing his nephew’s Protestant convictions.

On Henry III’s death in 1589, he is proclaimed King of France as Charles X by the League, which refuses to accept a Protestant king; the Parlement of Paris formally recognises him on 5 March 1590. Held prisoner throughout his fictitious “reign,” he dies two months later, on 9 May 1590 in Fontenay-le-Comte, aged sixty-six, without ever having truly ruled.