Charles, Count of Valois

Born 12 March 1270, the fourth son of King Philip III of France and Isabella of Aragon, Charles was royal without a throne—so he collected titles instead. He held the counties of Valois, Alençon, and Perche in appanage, gained Anjou and Maine through his first marriage to Margaret, Countess of Anjou, and became titular Latin Emperor of Constantinople from 1301 to 1307 through his second wife, Catherine I, though he ruled only from exile over Crusader States in Greece. His family tree tangled through the courts of France, Navarre, England, and Naples—grandson of King Louis IX, brother and broth…