his mysterious death by fire in England evoked the martyrdom at English hands of Joan of Arc five centuries earlier, who had been betrayed by the young duke's ancestor, Georges de La Trémoïlle, founder of the family's fortune in France. Although the 1944 Almanach de Gotha states that his successor, as 14th duchesse de Thouars, was the eldest of his four sisters, Charlotte (1892-1971), the Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels of 1991 refrains from doing so, a 1959 ruling of the French courts having found that hereditary titles may only be transmitted "male-to-male" in "modern law". The original grant of the dukedom, in July 1563 by Charles IX, stipulated that it was heritable by both male and female successors, although when erected into a pairie by Henry IV in 1599, the letters patent restricted succession to the peerage—but not the dukedom—to male heirs, restrictions inapplicable to the title of pretence, Prince of Taranto, traditionally borne by the representative heir to the historical throne of Naples, which was heritable in the female line. The only son of the 1910 marriage of Charlotte de La Trémoïlle with Prince Henri Florent de Ligne (1881-1967), head of the Antoing cadet branch of that princely family, had de La Trémoïlle appended to his own surname in the Kingdom of Belgium as "Jean Charles, Prince de Ligne de La Trémoille" (1911-2005) on 20 December 1934, and his only son, Prince Charles-Antoine (born 1946), bears the same title and name. Chief line Viscounts of Thouars (elevated to duke 1563), Princes of Talmont, etc. Louis I de La Trémoille Louis II de La Trémoille (1460-1525), son, called the chevalier sans reproche ("knight beyond reproach"), defeated and captured Francis II, Duke of Brittany at the Battle of Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier (1488), distinguished himself in the Italian Wars, and was killed at the Battle of Pavia (1525). Charles I de La Trémoille, son, died in his father's lifetime and under his command at the Battle of Marignano (1515). François II de La Trémoille (1505-1541), son, acquired a claim on the Kingdom of Naples by his marriage with Anne de Laval, daughter of Charlotte of Aragon Louis III de La Trémoille (1521-1577), son, became duke of Thouars in 1563, and his son Charlotte Catherine de La Trémoille, princesse de Condé (1568–1629) daughter of the above Claude de La Trémoille (1566-1604), son, turned Protestant, was created a peer of France in 1595, and married a