Born in Paris on 6 May 1580, Charles was the son of
Louis de Gonzague, Duke of Nevers, and Princess
Henriette de Clèves, Duchess of Nevers. In 1600, as
duke of Rethel, he founded, in
Nevers, the
Order of the Yellow Ribbon, soon forbidden by the King, due to its peculiar character. In 1606, Charles decided the foundation of
Charleville and the Principality of Arches (
fr ). He became 1st
Prince of Arche and Charleville. In 1612, Charles, a descendant of the Byzantine Emperor
Andronicus II Palaeologus through his grandmother
Margaret Paleologa, who was of the line of
Theodore I, Marquess of Montferrat, Andronicus's son, claimed the throne of Constantinople, at the time the capital of the
Ottoman Empire. He began plotting with Greek rebels, including the
Maniots of Greece, who addressed him as "King Constantine Palaeologus". When the Ottoman authorities heard about this, they sent an army of 20,000 men and 70 ships to invade Mani. They succeeded in ravaging the
Mani Peninsula and imposing taxes on the Maniots. This caused Charles to move more actively for his crusade. He sent envoys to the courts of Europe looking for support. In 1619, he recruited six ships and some five thousand men, but a fire started by a possible incendiary prevented their journey. Following the death of the last legitimate male heir of the Gonzaga line in the Duchy of Mantua,
Vincenzo II (1627), Charles inherited the title through an agreement. His succession, however, spurred the enmity of
Charles Emmanuel I of Savoy, who aimed at the Gonzaga lands of
Montferrat, and, above all, of Spain and the
Holy Roman Empire, which did not like a pro-French ruler in Mantua. This led to the
War of the Mantuan Succession. In 1629 emperor
Ferdinand II sent an army to besiege
Mantua, Charles left without the promised support from
Louis XIII. The siege lasted until 18 July 1630, when the city, already struck by a plague, was
brutally sacked for three days. Mantua never recovered from this disaster. The subsequent diplomatic maneuvers which resulted in the
Treaty of Cherasco, allowed Charles, who had fled to the Papal States, to return to the duchy in 1631, although not without concessions to the
House of Savoy and to the Gonzaga of
Guastalla. The fiscal situation of the Mantuan territory was poor, but he was able to facilitate some economic recovery in the following years. Charles died in 1637. His successor was his grandson
Charles II, initially under the regency of
Maria Gonzaga, Charles I's daughter-in-law. ==Children==