Charles II (11 September 1365 – 25 January 1431), called the Bold (French: le Hardi) was the Duke of Lorraine from 1390 to his death and Constable of France from 1418 to 1425.
Charles joined the Barbary Crusade, fought at Nicopolis, and aided the Teutonic knights in Livonia. During the Hundred Years' War, he sought closer ties to the French royal family, even being made Constable by Queen Isabeau. Following an indecisive war against his nephew, he died in 1431.
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Biography
Born 11 September 1365, Charles was the elder son of John I, Duke of Lorraine, and Sophie, daughter of Eberhard II, Count of Württemberg. During his youth, he had been close to Philip II, Duke of Burgundy, and they were comrades in arms on several occasions. This proximity to Burgundy was largely a result of his father's moving away from the French court, the court to which the Lorrainer dukes had neared in the past century and a half as they withdrew from the Holy Roman Empire, within which their duchy was still technically a vassal state. Charles was defiant of Louis I, Duke of Orléans, who had supported the citizens of Neufchâteau against his father and the Wenceslaus, King of the Romans when the latter was accused by his subjects of weakness. Wenceslaus was deposed in 1400 and replaced by Rupert III, Count Palatine of the Rhine, Charles's father-in-law.
Charles was also a major participant in some late Crusading movements. He joined the Barbary Crusade led by Louis II, Duke of Bourbon in 1390 and was at the disastrous Battle of Nicopolis in 1396. There he accompanied John the Fearless, the Count of Nevers and son of his friend Philip. In 1399, he assisted the Teutonic Knights in Livonia.
