 In this work of fiction, he is a frail and sickly ruler, and dies after reading a book poisoned with arsenic, which his mother intended for Henry of Navarre.In the 1994 film, "La Reine Margot", directed by Patrice Chéreau, which is based on Dumas's novel, Charles is pictured as mentally unstable and sickly.He has a small role in the "Doctor Who" story "The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve", portrayed by Barry Justice.