Born at Reims in the summer of 953, Charles was the son of Louis IV of France and Gerberga of Saxony and the younger brother of King Lothair.

[5] The council of Sainte-Macre at Fismes (near Reims) exonerated the queen and the bishop, but Charles maintained his claim and was driven from the kingdom, finding refuge at the court of his cousin, the emperor Otto II.

Lothair fled to Paris and was besieged there but a relief army of Hugh Capet forced Otto and Charles to lift the siege on 30 November.

Lothair and Capet, the tables turned once more, chased the German king and Charles back to Aachen and retook Laon.

Sigebert of Gembloux records it under the year 991, but he may have confused it with his capture, since two documents of January 992 seem to imply that Charles was still alive.

[9] The Historia Francorum Senonensis, written between 1015 and 1034, propagated the view that Charles was the rightful king in 987 and Hugh a usurper.

[10] In 1666, the lead sarcophagus of Charles was discovered in the Basilica of Saint Servatius in Maastricht with an inscription bearing the date 1001.