Charles VIII of France

King of France from 1483 to 1498

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Lived 1470–1498, aged 28France

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Wikipedia
71 languages
Cross-language footprint
Era
1470–1498
Aged 28
Awards
1
recognised work

Summary

Updated 2026-06-21

He married a woman already wed to a Habsburg, marched into Italy with revolutionary artillery, and died at 27 after allegedly hitting his head on a doorframe — leaving France to a cousin and historians still puzzling over the lintel story.

Biography

About

Charles VIII inherited the French throne at 13 in 1483, spending his first eight years under the joint regency of his sister Anne and her husband while great lords waged the Mad War against royal centralization. In 1491, he pulled off a diplomatic ambush by marrying Anne of Brittany despite her proxy marriage to Maximilian I — a union that gave France control of Brittany and broke Habsburg encirclement. Hungry for the Neapolitan throne his father had inherited from René of Anjou, Charles bought off his neighbors and swept into Italy in 1494 with new artillery that shattered opposition. A coali…

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