his mistress, Françoise de Foix. Death Claude died on 20 July 1524 at the Château de Blois, aged twenty-four. The exact cause of her death was disputed among sources and historians: while some alleged that she died in childbirth or after a miscarriage, others believed that she died for exhaustion after her many pregnancies or after suffering from bone tuberculosis (like her mother) and finally some believed that she died from syphilis caught from her husband. She was buried at St. Denis Basilica. She was initially succeeded as ruler of Brittany by her eldest son, the Dauphin Francis, who became Duke Francis III, with Claude's widower King Francis I as guardian. After the Dauphin's death in 1536, Claude's second son, Henry, Duke of Orleans, became Dauphin and Duke of Brittany. He later became King of France as Henry II. Claude's widowed husband himself remarried several years after Claude's death, to Eleanor of Austria, the sister of Emperor Charles V. The atmosphere at court became considerably more debauched, and there were rumours that King Francis's death in 1547 was due to syphilis. Issue Claude and Francis I had seven children, two of whom lived past the age of thirty: Louise (19 August 1515 – 21 September 1518, aged three): died young, engaged to Charles I of Spain almost from birth until death. Charlotte (23 October 1516 – 8 September 1524, aged seven): died young, engaged to Charles I of Spain from 1518 until death. Francis (28 February 1518 – 10 August 1536, aged 18), who succeeded Claude as Duke of Brittany, but died unmarried and childless. Henry II (31 March 1519 – 10 July 1559, aged 40), who succeeded Francis I as King of France and married Catherine de' Medici, by whom he had issue. Madeleine (10 August 1520 – 2 July 1537, aged 16), who married James V of Scotland and had no issue. Charles (22 January 1522 – 9 September 1545, aged 23), who died unmarried and childless. Margaret (5 June 1523 – 14 September 1574, aged 51), who married Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy, in 1559 and had issue. "Reine Claude" Claude is remembered in a classic small plum, the size of a walnut, pale green with a glaucous bloom. It is still called "Reine Claude" (literally, "Queen Claude") in France and is known in England as a "greengage". Depictions in popular culture Queen Claude of France is