Gilbert, Count of Montpensier

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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 blood of respective dynasties of each of the three main divisions. His mother Gabrielle de La Tour (however not a heiress of that family since there are primary primogenitural heirs) descended from counts of Auvergne and Boulogne. His paternal grandmother Marie of Berry, Duchess of Bourbon, was heiress to duchy of Auvergne, the creation for the Berry and Bourbon branches made of lands confiscated from counts of Auvergne by Philip II of France. His paternal great-grandmother Anne of Auvergne was daughter of the dauphin of Auvergne and after extinction of her brother's line, in her issue the heiress thereof. Though he was by no means the primogenitural heir on any of them, as head of cadet branch he received Montpensier and the dauphinate as appanages inside the extended family.

On February 24, 1482 Gilbert married Chiara Gonzaga (1464–1503), daughter of Federico I of Gonzaga of Mantova; they had the following issue:

Louise, Duchess of Montpensier (1482–1561), eventually the heiress of all the Bourbon estates, but not titles
Louis II, Count of Montpensier (1483–1501)
Charles III, Duke of Bourbon (1490–1527, in battle), from 1503 onwards the heir male of Bourbon ducal dynasty
François, Duke of Châtellerault (1492–1515, 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 after the conquest, losing it that same year to an allied Neapolitan/Spanish army commanded by Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba.