Catherine of Valois, Countess of Charolais

Catherine de Valois (* 1428, † July 1446 in Brussels), and Catherine de France, was a French princess and by marriage Countess of Charolais.

Life

Catherine was the second daughter and fourth child in order of the French king Charles VII and his wife Marie d' Anjou to the world. When she was twelve years old, she was on 19 May 1440 The Flemish Saint- Omer with the only legitimate son of Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy, Charles the Bold, Count of Charolais, married. Catherine was distantly related to him, since both had with King John II of France the same great-great grandfather. The marriage contract was signed at Blois on September 30th 1438 and part of the agreements that had been established in 1435 between the Kingdom of France and the Duchy of Burgundy in the Treaty of Arras. Through marriage the two families of the houses of Valois and Burgundy should be again brought closer together. Charles was at the time of the marriage conclusion only seven years old.

Catherine died at age 17 in July 1446 in Brussels, before they had received from Charles a child, and was founded in August of the year in the Cathedral of St. Michel et Gudule buried.