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 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 an 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.