Charles XII of France
From Worldatplay
| His Most Christian Majesty King Charles XII | |
| King of France and Navarre | |
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 King of France and Navarre
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| Full title | His Most Christian Majesty Charles XII, By the Grace of God, King of France and Navarre, Eldest Son of the Church, Defender of the Faith |
| Reign November 20, 2006 - present | |
| Preceded by | Charles XI |
| Succeeded by | Incumbent |
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| Born | 9 June 1978 Versailles, France |
| Consort | Caterina of Modena |
| Heir apparent | Prince Louis, Dauphin of France |
| Profession | Monarch |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
| Royal House | House of Bourbon |
| Father | Charles XI of France |
| Mother | Charlotte of Bavaria |
| Languages | French, English, Dutch, German, Russian, Arabic, Italian |
Charles XII (baptised Charles Xavier Philippe Joseph Marie Maximilien, born 9 June 1978, Versailles) is the reigning King of France and Navarre. Having assumed the throne upon his father's assassination in the fall of 2006, Charles has been widely viewed as one of the most politically active monarchs since the end of the Second World War, having vetoed several pieces of government legislation, most notably the Life Peerage Bill in the spring of 2007. He has also presided over the foreign policy of the Bourbon monarchy in recent political turbulence on the European continent.
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Early Life and Education
Charles was born on 9 June 1978 at the Palace of Versailles. His father was the Dauphin Charles (later King Charles XI), and his mother was the Dauphine Charlotte of Bavaria. At birth, his grandfather Henri VII created him a Royal Highness and also as the Duke of Burgundy, a title which he would hold until the accession of his father in 1990, when the young prince then became the Dauphin of France. He was baptized on 19 September 1978 by Archbishop
For most of his early life, up until he was 11, he was educated in the palace by various tutors, including the Austrian political philosopher Dr. Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn and the He proved to be a rather precocious, intellectually gifted, and excited child that took to all opportunities to learn new things, in particular history, languages, and Catholic theology. He began attending the Lycee Henri IV in Paris when he was 13 as opposed to the normal starting age of 15 due to his intellectual talents, and graduated in 1996, having taken his exam in the humanities stream. After graduating high school, he decided to complete his two years of mandatory military service and did so by serving with a regiment of Alpine troops. Following this, he was admitted to the Sorbonne, he pursued studies in 18th century European history and postwar philosophy and graduated with a bachelor's degree in the latter in 2003. While Charles had initially planned to go on to graduate school to eventually earn his doctorate in history, his career choice was dramatically altered due to an unexpected vacancy in the Chamber of Peers right after his graduation.
Early political career
In 2002, the elderly Duc de Saint-Simon, who had sat in the Chamber of Peers since 1953, died of pancreatic cancer and thus opened up an at-large seat in the assembly, which, under the Constitution of 1815, is the King's perogative to fill. Political commentators had suggested that the Dauphin could be appointed, even though no Dauphin had served in the Chamber since the early days of the Restoration. However, the Dauphin, who had already made a name for himself by publishing scathing attacks on government policy in the newspapers, was viewed as an independent who could help balance the politics of the upper chamber. King Charles XI also explained that he wanted to give his son experience in playing the rather difficult game of dealing with politicians, and that there could be no better training befitting a future monarch.
While in the assembly, Charles remained officially unaffiliated with any party, so as to preserve the political neutrality of the Crown. However, he often voted with the small "Progressive" grouping in the Chamber, which consisted of some peers largely from northern and eastern France, and would often vote against any measure he believed increased useless state authority. The Dauphin also launched a massive tirade against proposed Conservative legislation in 2004 that would have formally amended the French Constitution to ban homosexual marriage, stating that "while there is no greater opponent of that most unholy and unwarranted change to the institution of marriage than myself, it should not be the purview of the state to regulate these marriages. Marriage is an institution that consists of two individuals and whatever faith they do or do not believe in, not them and the state. Let the existing law on civil unions stand." He was also both widely praised and widely criticised for his Februrary 2005 filibuster of a government proposal to increase the VAT by two percent, which ran for eight hours straight and largely consisted of his reading aloud of various essays published by Frederic Bastiat.
By the middle of 2006, Charles was well established as a player in the small but growing "Ecocapitalist" orientation in the assembly, so named because of its economic thought that sought to embrace both reasonable economic progress while adopting concerns for the environment and other social concerns. The Dauphin immediately became the leader of the party in the Chamber of Peers, and helped to negotiate the passage of several key pieces of legislation of the new government, most importantly an act that enshrined in French law the gold standard, and declared that it could only be abolished with the consent of three-fourths of both Houses of the Parliament. Political observers widely expected that Charles would remain the leader of the government in the Chamber for some time, however, no one at that time could forwee the coming tragedy that would affect the whole nation.
Titles and styles
- 9 June 1978 - 14 April 1990: His Royal Highness The Prince Charles, Duke of Burgundy
- 14 April 1990 - 20 November 2006: His Royal Highness The Prince Charles, Dauphin of France
- 20 November 2006 - Present: His Most Christian Majesty The King of France and Navarre
Ancestry
| Charles XII of France (1978-) | Father: Charles XI of France (1953-2006) | Paternal Grandfather: Henri VII of France (1919-1990) | Paternal Great-grandfather: Henri, Dauphin of France (1890-1938) |
| Paternal Great-grandmother: Princess Louise of Battenberg (1889-1965) | |||
| Paternal Grandmother: Marie Sophie de Rochechouart de Mortemart(1924-) | Paternal Great-grandfather: Etienne-François, duc de Rochechouart (1882-1945) | ||
| Paternal Great-grandmother: Antoinette de Bernadotte (1901-1974) | |||
| Mother: Charlotte of Bavaria (1954-) | Maternal Grandfather: Prince Heinrich of Bavaria (1922-) | Maternal Great-grandfather: Rupprecht, Crown Prince of Bavaria (1869-1955) | |
| Maternal Great-grandmother: Maria Alix Carolina of Saxony (1898-1972) | |||
| Maternal Grandmother: Princess Kira Andreevna of Russia (1927-) | Maternal Great-grandfather: Prince Andrei Alexandrovich of Russia (1897-1981) | ||
| Maternal Great-grandmother: Princess Elisabeth of Saxe-Meningen (1896-1975) |
| Maximilian III of Bavaria | Father: Ludwig II of Bavaria | Paternal Grandfather: Maximilian II of Bavaria | Paternal Great-grandfather: Ludwig I of Bavaria |
| Paternal Great-grandmother: Therese of Saxe-Hilburghausen | |||
| Paternal Grandmother: Marie of Prussia | Paternal Great-grandfather: Prince Wilhelm of Prussia | ||
| Paternal Great-grandmother: Marie-Anne of Hesse-Homburg | |||
| Mother: Duchess Sophie Charlotte in Bavaria | Maternal Grandfather: Maximilian Joseph, Duke in Bavaria | Maternal Great-grandfather: Pius August, Duke in Bavaria | |
| Maternal Great-grandmother: Amelie Louise of Arenberg | |||
| Maternal Grandmother: Ludovica, Duchess in Bavaria | Maternal Great-grandfather: Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria | ||
| Maternal Great-grandmother: Caroline of Baden |
| Caterina Maria of Austria-Este (1980-) | Father: Archduke Carlo Amedeo of Austria-Este (1952-) | Paternal Grandfather: Archduke Robert of Austria-Este (1915-1996) | Paternal Great-grandfather: Charles I of Austria (1887-1922) |
| Paternal Great-grandmother: Zita of Bourbon-Parma (1892-1989) | |||
| Paternal Grandmother: Margherita of Savoy-Aosta (1930-) | Paternal Great-grandfather: Amedeo of Savoy-Aosta (1898-1942) | ||
| Paternal Great-grandmother: Anne of Orleans (1906-1986) | |||
| Mother: Beatrice of the Two Sicilies (1950-) | Maternal Grandfather: Ferdinand, Duke of Castro (1926-2008) | Maternal Great-grandfather: Raineri, Duke of Castro (1883-1973) | |
| Maternal Great-grandmother: Countess Carolina Zamoyska (1896-1968) | |||
| Maternal Grandmother: Chantal de Chevron-Villette (1925-2005) | Maternal Great-grandfather: Maurice de Chevron-Vilette (1894-1971) | ||
| Maternal Great-grandmother: Charlotte de Polignac (1896-1980) |
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