'Gilbert of Bourbon-Montpensier' (
1443 –
October 15 1496,
Pozzuoli), succeeded his father
Louis of Bourbon as
Count of Montpensier and
Dauphin d'Auvergne in
1486.

Coats of Arms of Gilbert, Count of Montpensier and dauphin d'Auvergne
Gilbert was the first person, after a number of divisions of
Auvergne in Middle Ages, to carry the bloodlines of the respective dynasties of each of the three main divisions of Auvergne, the
countship, the
dukedom and the
dauphinate.
His mother
Gabrielle de La Tour, though not a heiress of that family since there were primary primogenitural heirs, descended from the
counts of Auvergne and
counts of Boulogne.
His paternal grandmother
Marie of Berry, Duchess of Bourbon, was heiress to the
duchy of Auvergne. The creation for the Berry and Bourbon branches was made of lands that were confiscated from the count of Auvergne by
Philip II of France.
His paternal great-grandmother
Anne of Auvergne was daughter of the
dauphin of Auvergne and after the extinction of her brother's line, in her issue the heiress thereof.
Though Gilbert was by no means the primogenitural heir to any of them, as head of the cadet branch of his family, he received Montpensier and the dauphinate as
appanages inside the extended family.
On
February 24,
1482 Gilbert married
Chiara Gonzaga (
1 July 1464–
2 June 1503), daughter of
Federico I of Gonzaga of
Mantova; they had the following issue:
★ Louise, Duchess of Montpensier (
1482–
5 July 1561), eventually the heiress of all the Bourbon estates, but not titles
★
Louis II, Count of Montpensier (
1483–
14 August 1501)
★
Charles III,
Duke of Bourbon (
17 February 1489–
6 May 1527, in battle), from 1503 onwards the heir male of Bourbon ducal dynasty
★ François,
Duke of Châtellerault (
1492–
13 September 1515,
Battle of Marignano)
★ Renée, Lady of Mercoeur (
1494 –
May 26,
1539,
Nancy), married on
June 26,
1515, at the
Château d'Amboise to
Antoine, Duke of Lorraine
★ Anne (
1495–
1510,
Spain)
He was made the
Viceroy of
Naples in
1495 by king
Charles VIII of France after the conquest, losing it that same year to an allied Neapolitan/Spanish army commanded by
Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba.
See also
★
Duke of Bourbon