BIBLIOGRAPHY.--See the article in the _Dict, of Nat. Biog._ by A.W.

Ward (1887), with authorities there given; _Charles II._, by O. Airy

(1904); _Life of Sir G. Savile_, by H.C. Foxcroft, and esp. Halifax's

_Character of Charles II._ printed in the appendix (1898); _The Essex

Papers_ (Camden Soc., 1890); _Despatches of W. Perwich_ (Royal Hist.

Soc. Pubtns., 1903); _History of England, of the Civil War_ and _of

the Commonwealth_, by S.R. Gardiner; _Hist. of Scotland_, by A. Lang,

vol. iii. (1904); Macaulay's _Hist, of England_, vol. i.; _Notes which

passed at Meetings of the Privy Council between Charles II. and the

Earl of Clarendon_ (Roxburghe Club, 1896); _A French Ambassador at the

Court of Charles II._, by J.J. Jusserand (1902); _The Story of Nell

Gwyn and the Sayings of Charles II._, by P. Cunningham, ed. by H.B.

Wheatley (1892); for his adventures and period of exile see _Memoiren

der Herzogin Sophie_, ed. by A. Kocher (1879); "Briefe der Elisabeth

Stuart," by A. Wendland (_Litterarischer Verein in Stuttgart_, No.

228); Memoirs of Cardinal de Retz, Mlle de Montpensier and Mme de

Motteville; _The King in Exile_, by E. Scott (1905); Scottish History

Pubtns. vols. 17 (_Charles II. in Scotland_, by S.R. Gardiner, 1894)

and 18 (_Scotland and the Commonwealth, 1651-1653_, ed. by C.H. Firth,

1895); _Charles II. in the Channel Islands_, by S.E. Hoskins (1854) i

_Boscobel_, by T. Blount, &c., ed. by C.G. Thomas (1894); _The Flight

of the King_ (1897) and _After Worcester Fight_ (1904), by A. Fea;

_Edinburgh Review_, (January 1894); _Eng. Hist. Rev._ xix. (1904) 363;

_Revue historique_, xxviii. and xxix.; _Art Journal_ (1889), p. 178

("Boscobel and Whiteladies," by J. Penderel-Brodhurst); _England under

Charles II._, by W.F. Taylor (1889), a collection of passages from

contemporary writers; and R. Crawfurd, _The Last Days of Charles II._

(1909). (P. C. Y.)

FOOTNOTE:

[1] _Mem. of Thomas, earl of Ailesbury_, p. 95.

CHARLES I. and II., kings of France. By the French, Charles the Great,

Roman emperor and king of the Franks, is reckoned the first of the

series of French kings named Charles (see CHARLEMAGNE). Similarly the

emperor Charles II. the Bald (q.v.) is reckoned as Charles II. of

France. In some enumerations the emperor Charles III. the Fat (q.v.) is

reckoned as Charles II. of France, Charlemagne not being included in the

list, and Charles the Bald being styled Charles I.

CHARLES III., the Simple (879-929), king of France, was a posthumous son

of Louis the Stammerer and of his second wife Adelaide. On the

deposition of Charles the Fat in 887 he was excluded from the throne by

his youth; but during the reign of Odo, who had succeeded Charles, he

succeeded in gaining the recognition of a certain number of notables and

in securing his coronation at Reims on the 28th of January 893. He now

obtained the alliance of the emperor, and forced Odo to cede part of

Neustria. In 898, by the death of his rival (Jan. 1), he obtained

possession of the whole kingdom. His most important act was the treaty

of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte with the Normans in 911. Some of them were

baptized; the territory which was afterwards known as the duchy of

Normandy was ceded to them; but the story of the marriage of their chief

Rollo with a sister of the king, related by the chronicler Dudo of Saint

Quentin, is very doubtful. The same year Charles, on the invitation of

the barons, took possession of the kingdom of Lotharingia. In 920 the

barons, jealous of the growth of the royal authority and discontented

with the favour shown by the king to his counsellor Hagano, rebelled,

and in 922 elected Robert, brother of King Odo, in place of Charles.

Robert was killed in the battle of Soissons, but the victory remained

with his party, who elected Rudolph, duke of Burgundy, king. In his

extremity Charles trusted himself to Herbert, count of Vermandois, who

deceived him, and threw him into confinement at Chateau-Thierry and

afterwards at Peronne. In the latter town he died on the 7th of October

929. In 907 he had married Frederona, sister of Bovo, bishop of Chalons.

After her death he married Eadgyfu (Odgiva), daughter of Edward the

Elder, king of the English, who was the mother of Louis IV.

See A. Eckel, _Charles le Simple_ (Paris, 1899).

CHARLES IV. (1294-1328), king of France, called THE FAIR, was the third

and youngest son of Philip IV. and Jeanne of Navarre. In 1316 he was

created count of La Marche, and succeeded his brother Philip V. as king

of France and Navarre early in 1322. He followed the policy of his

predecessors in enforcing the royal authority over the nobles, but the

machinery of a centralized government strong enough to hold nobility in

check increased the royal expenditure, to meet which Charles had

recourse to doubtful financial expedients. At the beginning of his reign

he ordered a recast of the coinage, with serious results to commerce;

civil officials were deprived of offices, which had been conferred free,

but were now put up to auction; duties were imposed on exported

merchandise and on goods brought into Paris; the practice of exacting

heavy fines was encouraged by making the salaries of the magistrates

dependent on them; and on the pretext of a crusade to free Armenia from

the Turks, Charles obtained from the pope a tithe levied on the clergy,

the proceeds of which he kept for his own use; he also confiscated the

property of the Lombard bankers who had been invited to France by his

father at a time of financial crisis. The history of the assemblies

summoned by Charles IV. is obscure, but in 1326, on the outbreak of war

with England, an assembly of prelates and barons met at Meaux.

Commissioners were afterwards despatched to the provinces to state the

position of affairs and to receive complaints. The king justified his

failure to summon the estates on the ground of the expense incurred by

provincial deputies. The external politics of his reign were not marked

by any striking events. He maintained excellent relations with Pope John

XXII., who made overtures to him, indirectly, offering his support in

case of his candidature for the imperial crown. Charles tried to form a

party in Italy in support of the pope against the emperor Louis IV. of

Bavaria, but failed. A treaty with the English which secured the

district of Agenais for France was followed by a feudal war in Guienne.

Isabella, Charles's sister and the wife of Edward II., was sent to

France to negotiate, and with her brother's help arranged the final

conspiracy against her husband. Charles's first wife was Blanche,

daughter of Otto IV., count of Burgundy, and of Matilda (Mahaut),

countess of Artois, to whom he was married in 1307. In May 1314, by

order of King Philip IV., she was arrested and imprisoned in the

Chateau-Gaillard with her sister-in-law Marguerite, daughter of Robert

II., duke of Burgundy, and wife of Louis Hutin, on the charge of

adultery with two gentlemen of the royal household, Philippe and Gautier

d'Aunai. Jeanne, sister of Marguerite and wife of Philip the Tall, was

also arrested for not having denounced the culprits, and imprisoned at

Dourdan. The two knights were put to the torture and executed, and their

goods confiscated. It is impossible to say how far the charges were

true. Tradition has involved and obscured the story, which is the origin

of the legend of the _tour de Nesle_ made famous by the drama of A.

Dumas the elder. Marguerite died shortly in prison; Jeanne was declared

innocent by the parlement and returned to her husband. Blanche was still

in prison when Charles became king. He induced Pope John XXII. to

declare the marriage null, on the ground that Blanche's mother had been

his godmother. Blanche died in 1326, still in confinement, though at the

last in the abbey of Maubuisson.

In 1322, freed from his first marriage, Charles married his cousin Mary

of Luxemburg, daughter of the emperor Henry VII., and upon her death,

two years later, Jeanne, daughter of Louis, count of Evreux. Charles IV.

died at Vincennes on the 1st of February 1328. He left no issue by his

first two wives to succeed him, and daughters only by Jeanne of Evreux.

He was the last of the direct line of Capetians.

See A. d'Herbomey, "Notes et documents pour servir a l'histoire des

rois fils de Philippe le Bel," in _Bibl. de l'Ecole des Chartes_ (lix.

pp. 479 seq. and 689 seq.); de Brequigny, "Memoire sur les differends

entre la France et l'Angleterre sous le regne de Charles le Bel," in

_Mem. de l'Acad. des Inscriptions_ (xli. pp. 641-692); H. Lot,

"Projets de crusade sous Charles le Bel et sous Philippe de Valois"

(_Bibl. de l'Ecole des Chartes_, xx. pp. 503-509); "Chronique

parisienne anonyme de 1316 a 1339 ..." ed. Hellot in _Mem. de la soc.

de l'hist. de Paris_ (xi., 1884, pp. 1-207).

CHARLES V. (1337-1380), king of France, called THE WISE, was born at the

chateau of Vincennes on the 21st of January 1337, the son of John II.

and Bonne of Luxemburg. In 1349 he became dauphin of the Viennois by

purchase from Humbert II., and in 1355 he was created duke of Normandy.

At the battle of Poitiers (1356) his father ordered him to leave the

field when the battle turned against the French, and he was thus saved

from the imprisonment that overtook his father. After arranging for the

government of Normandy he proceeded to Paris, where he took the title of

lieutenant of the kingdom. During the years of John II.'s imprisonment

in England Charles was virtually king of France. He summoned the

states-general of northern France (Langue d'oil) to Paris in October

1356 to obtain men and money to carry on the war. But under the

leadership of Etienne Marcel, provost of the Parisian merchants and

president of the third estate, and Robert le Coq, bishop of Laon,

president of the clergy, a partisan of Charles of Navarre, the states

refused any "aid" except on conditions which Charles declined to accept.

They demanded the dismissal of a number of the royal ministers; the

establishment of a commission elected from the three estates to regulate

the dauphin's administration, and of another board to act as council of

war; also the release of Charles the Bad, king of Navarre, who had been

imprisoned by King John. The estates of Languedoc, summoned to Toulouse,

also made protests against misgovernment, but they agreed to raise a

war-levy on terms to which the dauphin acceded. Charles sought the

alliance of his uncle, the emperor Charles IV., to whom he did homage at

Metz as dauphin of the Viennois, and he was also made imperial vicar of

Dauphine, thus acknowledging the imperial jurisdiction. But he gained

small material advantage from these proceedings. The states-general were

again convoked in February 1357. Their demands were more moderate than

in the preceding year, but they nominated members to replace certain

obnoxious persons on the royal council, demanded the right to assemble

without the royal summons, and certain administrative reforms. In return

they promised to raise and finance an army of 30,000 men, but the

money--a tithe levied on the annual revenues of the clergy and

nobility--voted for this object was not to pass through the dauphin's

hands. Charles appeared to consent, but the agreement was annulled by

letters from King John, announcing at the same time the conclusion of a

two years' truce, and the reformers failed to secure their ends. Charles

had escaped from their power by leaving Paris, but he returned for a new

meeting of the estates in the autumn of 1357.

Meanwhile Charles of Navarre had been released by his partisans, and

allying himself with Marcel had become a popular hero in Paris. The

dauphin was obliged to receive him and to undergo an apparent

reconciliation. In Paris Etienne Marcel was supreme. He forced his way

into the dauphin's palace (February 1358), and Charles's servant, Jean

de Conflans, marshal of Champagne, and Robert de Clermont, marshal of

Normandy, were murdered before his eyes. Charles was powerless openly to

resent these outrages, but he obtained from the provincial assemblies

the money refused him by the states-general, and deferred his vengeance

until the dissensions of his enemies should offer him an opportunity.

Charles of Navarre, now in league with the English and master of lower

Normandy and of the approaches to Paris, returned to the immediate

neighbourhood of the city, and Marcel found himself driven to avowed

co-operation with the dauphin's enemies, the English and the Navarrese.

Charles had been compelled in March to take the title of regent to

prevent the possibility of further intervention from King John. In

defiance of a recent ordinance prohibiting provincial assemblies, he

presided over the estates of Picardy and Artois, and then over those of

Champagne. The states-general of 1358 were summoned to Compiegne instead

of Paris, and granted a large aid. The condition of northern France was

rendered more desperate by the outbreak (May-June 1358) of the peasant

revolt known as the Jacquerie, which was repressed with a barbarity far

exceeding the excesses of the rebels. Within the walls of Paris Jean

Maillart had formed a royalist party; Marcel was assassinated (31st July

1358), and the dauphin entered Paris in the following month. A reaction

in Charles's favour had set in, and from the estates of 1359 he regained

the authority he had lost. It was with their full concurrence that he

restored their honours to the officials who had been dismissed by the

estates of 1356 and 1357. They supported him in repudiating the treaty

of London (1359), which King John had signed in anxiety for his personal

freedom, and voted money unconditionally for the continuation of the

war. From this time the estates were only once convoked by Charles, who

contented himself thenceforward by appeals to the assembly of notables

or to the provincial bodies. Charles of Navarre was now at open war with

the regent; Edward III. landed at Calais in October; and a great part of

the country was exposed to double depredations from the English and the

Navarrese troops. In the scarcity of money Charles had recourse to the

debasement of the coinage, which suffered no less than twenty-two

variations in the two years before the treaty of Bretigny. This

disastrous financial expedient was made good later, the coinage being

established on a firm basis during the last sixteen years of Charles's

reign in accordance with the principles of Nicolas Oresme. On the

conclusion of peace King John was restored to France, but, being unable

to raise his ransom, he returned in 1364 to England, where he died in

April, leaving the crown to Charles, who was crowned at Reims on the

19th of May.

The new king found an able servant in Bertrand du Guesclin, who won a

victory over the Navarrese troops at Cocherel and took prisoner their

best general, Jean de Grailli, captal of Buch. The establishment of

Charles's brother, Philip the Bold, in the duchy of Burgundy, though it

constituted in the event a serious menace to the monarchy, put an end to

the king of Navarre's ambitions in that direction. A treaty of peace

between the two kings was signed in 1365, by which Charles of Navarre

gave up Mantes, Meulan and the county of Longueville in exchange for

Montpellier. Negotiations were renewed in 1370 when Charles of Navarre

did homage for his French possessions, though he was then considering an

offensive and defensive alliance with Edward III. Du Guesclin undertook

to free France from the depredations of the "free companies," mercenary

soldiers put out of employment by the cessation of the war. An attempt

to send them on a crusade against the Turks failed, and Du Guesclin led

them to Spain to put Henry of Trastamara on the throne of Castile. By

the marriage of his brother Philip the Bold with Margaret of Flanders,

Charles detached the Flemings from the English alliance, and as soon as

he had restored something like order in the internal affairs of the

kingdom he provoked a quarrel with the English. The text of the treaty

of Bretigny presented technical difficulties of which Charles was not

slow to avail himself. The English power in Guienne was weakened by the

disastrous Spanish expedition of the Black Prince, whom Charles summoned

before the parlement of Paris in January 1369 to answer the charges

preferred against him by his subjects, thus expressly repudiating the

English supremacy in Guienne. War was renewed in May after a meeting of

the states-general. Between 1371 and 1373 Poitou and Saintonge were

reconquered by Du Guesclin, and soon the English had to abandon all

their territory north of the Garonne. John IV. of Brittany (Jean de

Montfort) had won his duchy with English help by the defeat of Charles

of Blois, the French nominee, at Auray in 1364. His sympathies remained

English, but he was now (1373) obliged to take refuge in England, and

later in Flanders, while the English only retained a footing in two or

three coast towns. Charles's generals avoided pitched battles, and

contented themselves with defensive and guerrilla tactics, with the

result that in 1380 only Bayonne, Bordeaux, Brest and Calais were still

in English hands.

Charles had in 1378 obtained proof of Charles of Navarre's treasonable

designs. He seized the Norman towns held by the Navarrese, while Henry

of Trastamara invaded Navarre, and imposed conditions of peace which

rendered his lifelong enemy at last powerless. A premature attempt to

amalgamate the duchy of Brittany with the French crown failed. Charles

summoned the duke to Paris in 1378, and on his non-appearance committed

one of his rare errors of policy by confiscating his duchy. But the

Bretons rose to defend their independence, and recalled their duke. The

matter was still unsettled when Charles died at Vincennes on the 16th of

September 1380. His health, always delicate, had been further weakened,

according to popular report, by a slow poison prepared for him by the

king of Navarre. His wife, Jeanne of Bourbon, died in 1378, and the

succession devolved on their elder son Charles, a boy of twelve. Their

younger son was Louis, duke of Orleans.

Personally Charles was no soldier. He owed the signal successes of his

reign partly to his skilful choice of advisers and administrators, to

his chancellors Jean and Guillaume de Dormans and Pierre d'Orgemont, to

Hugues Aubriot, provost of Paris, Bureau de la Riviere and others;

partly to a singular coolness and subtlety in the exercise of a not

over-scrupulous diplomacy, which made him a dangerous enemy. He had

learnt prudence and self-restraint in the troubled times of the regency,

and did not lose his moderation in success. He modelled his private life

on that of his predecessor Saint Louis, but was no fanatic in religion,

for he refused his support to the violent methods of the Inquisition in

southern France, and allowed the Jews to return to the country, at the

same time confirming their privileges. His support of the schismatic

pope Clement VII. at Avignon was doubtless due to political

considerations, as favouring the independence of the Gallican church.

Charles V. was a student of astrology, medicine, law and philosophy, and

collected a large and valuable library at the Louvre. He gathered round

him a group of distinguished writers and thinkers, among whom were Raoul

de Presles, Philippe de Mezieres, Nicolas Oresme and others. The ideas

of these men were applied by him to the practical work of

administration, though he confined himself chiefly to the consolidation

and improvement of existing institutions. The power of the nobility was

lessened by restrictions which, without prohibiting private wars, made

them practically impossible. The feudal fortresses were regularly

inspected by the central authority, and the nobles themselves became in

many cases paid officers of the king. Charles established a merchant

marine and a formidable navy, which under Jean de Vienne threatened the

English coast between 1377 and 1380. The states-general were silenced

and the royal prerogative increased; the royal domains were extended,

and the wealth of the crown was augmented; additions were made to the

revenue by the sale of municipal charters and patents; and taxation

became heavier, since Charles set no limits to the gratification of his

tastes either in the collection of jewels and precious objects, of

books, or of his love of building, examples of which are the renovation

of the Louvre and the erection of the palace of Saint Paul in Paris.

See the chronicles of Froissart, and of Pierre d'Orgemont (_Grandes

Chroniques de Saint Denis_, Paris, vol. vi, 1838); Christine de Pisan,

_Le Livre des fais et bonnes moeurs du sage roy Charles V_, written in

1404, ed. Michaud and Poujoulat, vol. ii. (1836); L. Delisle,

_Mandements et actes divers de Charles V_ (1886); letters of Charles

V. from the English archives in Champollion-Figeac, _Lettres de rois

et de reines_, ii. pp. 167 seq.; the anonymous _Songe du vergier_ or

_Somnium viridarii_, written in 1376 and giving the political ideas of

Charles V. and his advisers; "Relation de la mort de Charles V" in

Haureau, _Notices et extraits_, xxxi. pp. 278-284; Ch. Benoist, _La

Politique du roi Charles V_ (1874); S. Luce, _La France pendant la

guerre de cent ans_; G. Clement Simon, _La Rupture du traite de

Bretigny_ (1898); A. Vuitry, _Etudes sur le regime financier de la

France_, vols. i. and ii. (1883); and R. Delachenal, _Histoire de

Charles V_ (Paris, 1908).

CHARLES VI. (1368-1422), king of France, son of Charles V. and Jeanne of

Bourbon, was born in Paris on the 3rd of December 1368. He received the

appanage of Dauphine at his birth, and was thus the first of the princes

of France to bear the title of dauphin from infancy. Charles V. had

entrusted his education to Philippe de Mezieres, and had fixed his

majority at fourteen. He succeeded to the throne in 1380, at the age of

twelve, and the royal authority was divided between his paternal uncles,

Louis, duke of Anjou, John, duke of Berry, Philip the Bold, duke of

Burgundy, and his mother's brother, Louis II., duke of Bourbon. In

accordance with an ordinance of the late king the duke of Anjou became

regent, while the guardianship of the young king, together with the

control of Paris and Normandy, passed to the dukes of Burgundy and

Bourbon, who were to be assisted by certain of the councillors of

Charles V. The duke of Berry, excluded by this arrangement, was

compensated by the government of Languedoc and Guienne. Anjou held the

regency for a few months only, until the king's coronation in November

1380. He enriched himself from the estate of Charles V. and by excessive

exactions, before he set out in 1382 for Italy to effect the conquest of

Naples. Considerable discontent existed in the south of France at the

time of the death of Charles V., and when the duke of Anjou re-imposed

certain taxes which the late king had remitted at the end of his reign,

there were revolts at Puy and Montpellier. Paris, Rouen, the cities of

Flanders, with Amiens, Orleans, Reims and other French towns, also rose

(1382) in revolt against their masters. The _Maillotins_, as the

Parisian insurgents were named from the weapon they used, gained the

upper hand in Paris, and were able temporarily to make terms, but the

commune of Rouen was abolished, and the _Tuchins_, as the marauders in

Languedoc were called, were pitilessly hunted down. Charles VI. marched

to the help of the count of Flanders against the insurgents headed by

Philip van Artevelde, and gained a complete victory at Roosebeke

(November 27th, 1382). Strengthened by this success the king, on his

return to Paris in the following January, exacted vengeance on the

citizens by fines, executions and the suppression of the privileges of

the city. The help sent by the English to the Flemish cities resulted in

a second Flemish campaign. In 1385 Jean de Vienne made an unsuccessful

descent on the Scottish coast, and Charles equipped a fleet at Sluys for

the invasion of England, but a series of delays ended in the destruction

of the ships by the English.

In 1385 Charles VI. married Elizabeth, daughter of Stephen II., duke of

Bavaria, her name being gallicized as Isabeau. Three years later, with

the help of his brother, Louis of Orleans, duke of Touraine, he threw

off the tutelage of his uncles, whom he replaced by Bureau de la Riviere

and others among his father's counsellors, nicknamed by the royal

princes the _marmousets_ because of their humble origin. Two years later

he deprived the duke of Berry of the government of Languedoc. The

opening years of Charles VI.'s effective rule promised well, but excess

in gaiety of all kinds undermined his constitution, and in 1392 he had

an attack of madness at Le Mans, when on his way to Brittany to force

from John V. the surrender of his cousin Pierre de Craon, who had tried

to assassinate the constable Olivier de Clisson in the streets of Paris.

Other attacks followed, and it became evident that Charles was unable

permanently to sustain the royal authority. Clisson, Bureau de la

Riviere, Jean de Mercier, and the other _marmousets_ were driven from

office, and the royal dukes regained their power. The rivalries between

the most powerful of these--the duke of Burgundy, who during the king's

attacks of madness practically ruled the country, and the duke of

Orleans--were a constant menace to peace. In 1306 peace with England

seemed assured by the marriage of Richard II. with Charles VI.'s

daughter Isabella, but the Lancastrian revolution of 1399 destroyed the

diplomatic advantages gained by this union. In France the country was

disturbed by the papal schism. At an assembly of the clergy held in

Paris in 1398 it was resolved to refuse to recognize the authority of

Benedict XIII., who succeeded Clement VII. as schismatic pope at

Avignon. The question became a party one; Benedict was supported by

Louis of Orleans, while Philip the Bold and the university of Paris

opposed him. Obedience to Benedict's authority was resumed in 1403, only

to be withdrawn again in 1408, when the king declared himself the

guardian and protector of the French church, which was indeed for a time

self-governing. Edicts further extending the royal power in

ecclesiastical affairs were even issued in 1418, after the schism was at

an end.

The king's intelligence became yearly feebler, and in 1404 the death of

Philip the Bold aggravated the position of affairs. The new duke, John

the Fearless, did not immediately replace his father in general affairs,

and the influence of the duke of Orleans increased. Queen Isabeau, who

had generally supported the Burgundian party, was now practically

separated from her husband, whose madness had become pronounced. She was

replaced by a young Burgundian lady, Odette de Champdivers, called by

her contemporaries _la petite reine_, who rescued the king from the

state of neglect into which he had fallen. Isabeau of Bavaria was freely

accused of intrigue with the duke of Orleans. She was from time to time

regent of France, and as her policy was directed by personal

considerations and by her love of splendour she further added to the

general distress. The relations between John the Fearless and the duke

of Orleans became more embittered, and on the 23rd of November 1407

Orleans was murdered in the streets of Paris at the instigation of his

rival. The young duke Charles of Orleans married the daughter of the

Gascon count Bernard VII. of Armagnac, and presently formed alliances

with the dukes of Berry, Bourbon and Brittany, and others who formed the

party known as the Armagnacs (see ARMAGNAC), against the Burgundians who

had gained the upper hand in the royal council. In 1411 John the

Fearless contracted an alliance with Henry IV. of England, and civil war

began in the autumn, but in 1412 the Armagnacs in their turn sought

English aid, and, by promising the sovereignty of Aquitaine to the

English king, gave John the opportunity of posing as defender of France.

In Paris the Burgundians were hand in hand with the corporation of the

butchers, who were the leaders of the Parisian populace. The

malcontents, who took their name from one of their number, Caboche,

penetrated into the palace of the dauphin Louis, and demanded the

surrender of the unpopular members of his household. A royal ordinance,

promising reforms in administration, was promulgated on the 27th of May

1413, and some of the royal advisers were executed. The king and the

dauphin, powerless in the hands of Duke John and the Parisians, appealed

secretly to the Armagnac princes for deliverance. They entered Paris in

September; the ordinance extracted by the Cabochiens was rescinded; and

numbers of the insurgents were banished the city.

In the next year Henry V. of England, after concluding an alliance with

Burgundy, resumed the pretensions of Edward III. to the crown of France,

and in 1415 followed the disastrous battle of Agincourt. The two elder

sons of Charles VI., Louis, duke of Guienne, and John, duke of Touraine,

died in 1415 and 1417, and Charles, count of Ponthieu, became heir

apparent. Paris was governed by Bernard of Armagnac, constable of

France, who expelled all suspected of Burgundian sympathies and treated

Paris like a conquered city. Queen Isabeau was imprisoned at Tours, but

escaped to Burgundy. The capture of Paris by the Burgundians on the 20th

of May 1418 was followed by a series of horrible massacres of the

Armagnacs; and in July Duke John and Isabeau, who assumed the title of

regent, entered Paris. Meanwhile Henry V. had completed the conquest of

Normandy. The murder of John the Fearless in 1419 under the eyes of the

dauphin Charles threw the Burgundians definitely into the arms of the

English, and his successor Philip the Good, in concert with Queen

Isabeau, concluded (1420) the treaty of Troyes with Henry V., who became

master of France. Charles VI. had long been of no account in the

government, and the state of neglect in which he existed at Senlis

induced Henry V. to undertake the re-organization of his household. He

came to Paris in September 1422, and died on the 21st of October.

The chief authorities for the reign of Charles VI. are:--_Chronica

Caroli VI._, written by a monk of Saint Denis, commissioned officially

to write the history of his time, edited by C. Bellaguet with a French

translation (6 vols., 1839-1852); Jean Juvenal des Ursins,

_Chronique_, printed by D. Godefroy in _Histoire de Charles VI_

(1653), chiefly an abridgment of the monk of St Denis's narrative; a

fragment of the _Grandes Chroniques de Saint Denis_ covering the years

1381 to 1383 (ed. J. Pichon 1864); correspondence of Charles VI.

printed by Champollion-Figeac in _Lettres de rois_, vol. ii.; _Choix

de pieces inedites rel. au regne de Charles VI_ (2 vols., 1863-1864),

edited by L. Douet d'Arcq for the Societe de l'Histoire de France; J.

Froissart, _Chroniques_; Enguerrand de Monstrelet, _Chroniques_,

covering the first half of the 15th century (Eng. trans., 4 vols.,

1809); _Chronique des quatre premiers Valois_, by an unknown author,

ed. S. Luce (1862). See also E. Lavisse, _Hist, de France_, iv. 267

seq.; E. Petit, "Sejours de Charles VI," _Bull. du com. des travaux

hist._ (1893); Vallet de Viriville, "Isabeau de Baviere," _Revue

francaise_ (1858-1859); M. Thibaut, _Isabeau de Baviere_ (1903).

CHARLES VII. (1403-1461), king of France, fifth son of Charles VI. and

Isabeau of Bavaria, was born in Paris on the 22nd of February 1403. The

count of Ponthieu, as he was called in his boyhood, was betrothed in

1413 to Mary of Anjou, daughter of Louis II., duke of Anjou and king of

Sicily, and spent the next two years at the Angevin court. He received

the duchy of Touraine in 1416, and in the next year the death of his

brother John made him dauphin of France. He became lieutenant-general of

the kingdom in 1417, and made active efforts to combat the complaisance

of his mother. He assumed the title of regent in December 1418, but his

authority in northern France was paralysed in 1419 by the murder of John

the Fearless, duke of Burgundy, in his presence at Montereau. Although

the deed was not apparently premeditated, as the English and Burgundians

declared, it ruined Charles's cause for the time. He was disinherited by

the treaty of Troyes in 1420, and at the time of his father's death in

1422 had retired to Mehun-sur-Yevre, near Bourges, which had been the

nominal seat of government since 1418. He was recognized as king in

Touraine, Berry and Poitou, in Languedoc and other provinces of southern

France; but the English power in the north was presently increased by

the provinces of Champagne and Maine, as the result of the victories of

Crevant (1423) and Verneuil (1424). The Armagnac administrators who had

been driven out of Paris by the duke of Bedford gathered round the young

king, nicknamed the "king of Bourges," but he was weak in body and mind,

and was under the domination of Jean Louvet and Tanguy du Chastel, the

instigators of the murder of John the Fearless, and other discredited

partisans. The power of these favourites was shaken by the influence of

the queen's mother, Yolande of Aragon, duchess of Anjou. She sought the

alliance of John V., duke of Brittany, who, however, vacillated

throughout his life between the English and French alliance, concerned

chiefly to maintain the independence of his duchy. His brother, Arthur

of Brittany, earl of Richmond (comte de Richemont), was reconciled with

the king, and became constable in 1425, with the avowed intention of

making peace between Charles VII. and the duke of Burgundy. Richemont

caused the assassination of Charles's favourites Pierre de Giac and Le

Camus de Beaulieu, and imposed one of his own choosing, Georges de la

Tremoille, an adventurer who rapidly usurped the constable's power. For

five years (1427-1432) a private war between these two exhausted the

Armagnac forces, and central France returned to anarchy.

Meanwhile Bedford had established settled government throughout the

north of France, and in 1428 he advanced to the siege of Orleans. For

the movement which was to lead to the deliverance of France from the

English invaders, see JOAN OF ARC. The siege of Orleans was raised by

her efforts on the 8th of May 1429, and two months later Charles VII.

was crowned at Reims. Charles's intimate counsellors, La Tremoille and

Regnault de Chartres, archbishop of Reims, saw their profits menaced by

the triumphs of Joan of Arc, and accordingly the court put every

difficulty in the way of her military career, and received the news of

her capture before Compiegne (1430) with indifference. No measures were

taken for her deliverance or her ransom, and Normandy and the Isle of

France remained in English hands. Fifteen years of anarchy and civil war

intervened before peace was restored. Bands of armed men fighting for

their own hand traversed the country, and in the ten years between 1434

and 1444 the provinces were terrorized by these _ecorcheurs_, who, with

the decline of discipline in the English army, were also recruited from

the ranks of the invaders. The duke of Bedford died in 1435, and in the

same year Philip the Good of Burgundy concluded a treaty with Charles

VII. at Arras, after fruitless negotiations for an English treaty. From

this time Charles's policy was strengthened. La Tremoille had been

assassinated in 1433 by the constable's orders, with the connivance of

Yolande of Aragon. For his former favourites were substituted energetic

advisers, his brother-in-law Charles of Anjou, Dunois (the famous

bastard of Orleans), Pierre de Breze, Richemont and others. Richemont

entered Paris on the 13th of April 1436, and in the next five years the

finance of the country was re-established on a settled basis. Charles

himself commanded the troops who captured Pontoise in 1441, and in the

next year he made a successful expedition in the south.

Meanwhile the princes of the blood and the great nobles resented the

ascendancy of councillors and soldiers drawn from the smaller nobility

and the _bourgeoisie_. They made a formidable league against the crown

in 1440 which included Charles I., duke of Bourbon, John II., duke of

Alencon, John IV. of Armagnac, and the dauphin, afterwards Louis XI. The

revolt broke out in Poitou in 1440 and was known as the _Praguerie_.

Charles VII. repressed the rising, and showed great skill with the rebel

nobles, finally buying them over individually by considerable

concessions. In 1444 a truce was concluded with England at Tours, and

Charles proceeded to organize a regular army. The central authority was

gradually made effective, and a definite system of payment, by removing

the original cause of brigandage, and the establishment of a strict

discipline learnt perhaps from the English troops, gradually stamped out

the most serious of the many evils under which the country had suffered.

Pierre Bessonneau, and the brothers Gaspard and Jean Bureau created a

considerable force of artillery. Domestic troubles in their own country

weakened the English in France. The conquest of Normandy was completed

by the battle of Formigny (15th of April 1450). Guienne was conquered in

1451 by Duncis, but not subdued, and another expedition was necessary in

1453, when Talbot was defeated and slain at Castillon. Meanwhile in 1450

Charles VII. had resolved on the rehabilitation of Joan of Arc, thus

rendering a tardy recognition of her services. This was granted in 1456

by the Holy See. The only foothold retained by the English on French

ground was Calais. In its earlier stages the deliverance of France from

the English had been the work of the people themselves. The change which

made Charles take an active part in public affairs is said to have been

largely due to the influence of Agnes Sorel, who became his mistress in

1444 and died in 1450. She was the first to play a public and political

role as mistress of a king of France, and may be said to have

established a tradition. Pierre de Breze, who had had a large share in

the repression of the Praguerie, obtained through her a dominating

influence over the king, and he inspired the monarch himself and the

whole administration with new vigour. Charles and Rene of Anjou retired

from court, and the greater part of the members of the king's council

were drawn from the bourgeois classes. The most famous of all these was

Jacques Coeur (q.v.). It was by the zeal of these councillors that

Charles obtained the surname of "The Well-Served."

Charles VII. continued his father's general policy in church matters. He

desired to lessen the power of the Holy See in France and to preserve as

far as possible the liberties of the Gallican church. With the council

of Constance (1414-1418) the great schism was practically healed.

Charles, while careful to protest against its renewal, supported the

anti-papal contentions of the French members of the council of Basel

(1431-1449), and in 1438 he promulgated the Pragmatic Sanction at

Bourges, by which the patronage of ecclesiastical benefices was removed

from the Holy See, while certain interventions of the royal power were

admitted. Bishops and abbots were to be elected, in accordance with

ancient custom, by their clergy. After the English had evacuated French

territory Charles still had to cope with feudal revolt, and with the

hostility of the dauphin, who was in open revolt in 1446, and for the

next ten years ruled like an independent sovereign in Dauphine. He took

refuge in 1457 with Charles's most formidable enemy, Philip of Burgundy.

Charles VII. nevertheless found means to prevent Philip from attaining

his ambitions in Lorraine and in Germany. But the dauphin succeeded in

embarrassing his father's policy at home and abroad, and had his own

party in the court itself. Charles VII. died at Mehun-sur-Yevre on the

22nd of July 1461. He believed that he was poisoned by his son, who

cannot, however, be accused of anything more than an eager expectation

of his death.

AUTHORITIES.--The history of the reign of Charles VII. has been

written by two modern historians,--Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de

Charles VII ... et de son epoque_ (Paris, 3 vols., 1862-1865), and G.

du Fresne de Beaucourt, _Hist, de Charles VII_ (Paris, 6 vols.,

1881-1891). There is abundant contemporary material. The herald,

Jacques le Bouvier or Berry (b. 1386), whose _Chronicques du feu roi

Charles VII_ was first printed in 1528 as the work of Alain Chartier,

was an eye-witness of many of the events he described. His

_Recouvrement de Normandie_, with other material on the same subject,

was edited for the "Rolls" series (_Chronicles and Memorials_) by

Joseph Stevenson in 1863. The _Histoire de Charles VII_ by Jean

Chartier, historiographer-royal from 1437, was included in the

_Grandes Chroniques de Saint-Denis_, and was first printed under

Chartier's name by Denis Godefroy, together with other contemporary

narratives, in 1661. It was re-edited by Vallet de Viriville (Paris, 3

vols., 1858-1859). With these must be considered the Burgundian

chroniclers Enguerrand de Monstrelet, whose chronicle (ed. L. Douet

d'Arcq; Paris, 6 vols., 1857-1862) covers the years 1400-1444, and

Georges Chastellain, the existing fragments of whose chronicle are

published in his _OEuvres_ (ed. Kervyn de Lettenhove; Brussels, 8

vols., 1863-1866). For a detailed bibliography and an account of

printed and MS. documents see du Fresne de Beaucourt, already cited,

also A. Molinier, _Manuel de bibliographie historique_, iv. 240-306.

CHARLES VIII. (1470-1498), king of France, was the only son of Louis XI.

During the whole of his childhood Charles lived far from his father at

the chateau of Amboise, which was throughout his life his favourite

residence. On the death of Louis XI in 1483 Charles, a lad of thirteen,

was of age, but was absolutely incapable of governing. Until 1492 he

abandoned the government to his sister Anne of Beaujeu. In 1491 he

married Anne, duchess of Brittany, who was already betrothed to

Maximilian of Austria. Urged by his favourite, Etienne de Vesc, he then,

at the age of twenty-two, threw off the yoke of the Beaujeus, and at the

same time discarded their wise and able policy. But he was a thoroughly

worthless man with a weak and ill-balanced intellect. He had a romantic

imagination and conceived vast projects. He proposed at first to claim

the rights of the house of Anjou, to which Louis XI. had succeeded, on

the kingdom of Naples, and to use this as a stepping-stone to the

capture of Constantinople from the Turks and his own coronation as

emperor of the East. He sacrificed everything to this adventurous

policy, signed disastrous treaties to keep his hands free, and set out

for Italy in 1494. The ceremonial side of the expedition being in his

eyes the most important, he allowed himself to be intoxicated by his

easy triumph and duped by the Italians. On the 12th of May 1495 he

entered Naples in great pomp, clothed in the imperial insignia. A

general coalition was, however, formed against him, and he was forced to

return precipitately to France. It cannot be denied that he showed

bravery at the battle of Fornovo (the 5th of July 1495). He was

preparing a fresh expedition to Italy, when he died on the 8th of April

1498, from the results of an accident, at the chateau of Amboise.

See _Histoire de Charles VIII, roy de France_, by G. de Jaligny, Andre

de la Vigne, &c., edited by Godefroy (Paris, 1684); De Cherrier,

_Histoire de Charles VIII_ (Paris, 1868); H. Fr. Delaborde,

_Expedition de Charles VIII en Italie_ (Paris, 1888). For a complete

bibliography see H. Hauser, _Les Sources de l'histoire de France,

1494-1610_, vol. i. (Paris, 1906); and E. Lavisse, _Histoire de

France_, vol. v. part i., by H. Lemonnier (Paris, 1903).

CHARLES IX. (1550-1574), king of France, was the third son of Henry II.

and Catherine de' Medici. At first he bore the title of duke of Orleans.

He became king in 1560 by the death of his brother Francis II., but as

he was only ten years old the power was in the hands of the

queen-mother, Catherine. Charles seems to have been a youth of good

parts, lively and agreeable, but he had a weak, passionate and fantastic

nature. His education had spoiled him. He was left to his whims--even

the strangest--and to his taste for violent exercises; and the excesses

to which he gave himself up ruined his health. Proclaimed of age on the

17th of August 1563, he continued to be absorbed in his fantasies and

his hunting, and submitted docilely to the authority of his mother. In

1570 he was married to Elizabeth of Austria, daughter of Maximilian II.

It was about this time that he dreamed of making a figure in the world.

The successes of his brother, the duke of Anjou, at Jarnac and

Moncontour had already caused him some jealousy. When Coligny came to

court, he received him very warmly, and seemed at first to accept the

idea of an intervention in the Netherlands against the Spaniards. For

the upshot of this adventure see the article ST BARTHOLOMEW, MASSACRE

OF. Charles was in these circumstances no hypocrite, but weak,

hesitating and ill-balanced. Moreover, the terrible events in which he

had played a part transformed his character. He became melancholy,

severe and taciturn. "It is feared," said the Venetian ambassador, "that

he may become cruel." Undermined by fever, at the age of twenty he had

the appearance of an old man, and night and day he was haunted with

nightmares. He died on the 30th of May 1574. By his mistress, Marie

Touchet, he had one son, Charles, duke of Angouleme. Charles IX. had a

sincere love of letters, himself practised poetry, was the patron of

Ronsard and the poets of the Pleiad, and granted privileges to the first

academy founded by Antoine de Baif (afterwards the Academie du Palais).

He left a work on hunting, _Traite de la chasse royale_, which was

published in 1625, and reprinted in 1859.

AUTHORITIES.--The principal sources are the contemporary memoirs and

chronicles of T.A. d'Aubigne, Brantome, Castelnau, Haton, la Place,

Montluc, la Noue, l'Estoile, Ste Foy, de Thou, Tavannes, &c.; the

published correspondence of Catherine de' Medici, Marguerite de

Valois, and the Venetian ambassadors; and Calendars of State Papers,

&c. See also Abel Desjardins, _Charles IX, deux annees de regne_

(Paris, 1873); de la Ferriere, _Le XVIe siecle et les Valois_ (Paris,

1879); H. Mariejol, _La Reforme et la Ligue_ (Paris, 1904), in vol. v.

of the _Histoire de France_, by E. Lavisse, which contains a

bibliography for the reign.

CHARLES X. (1757-1836), king of France from 1824 to 1830, was the fourth

child of the dauphin, son of Louis XV. and of Marie Josephe of Saxony,

and consequently brother of Louis XVI. He was known before his accession

as Charles Philippe, count of Artois. At the age of sixteen he married

Marie Therese of Savoy, sister-in-law of his brother, the count of

Provence (Louis XVIII.). His youth was passed in scandalous dissipation,

which drew upon himself and his coterie the detestation of the people of

Paris. Although lacking military tastes, he joined the French army at

the siege of Gibraltar in 1772, merely for distraction. In a few years

he had incurred a debt of 56 million francs, a burden assumed by the

impoverished state. Prior to the Revolution he took only a minor part in

politics, but when it broke out he soon became, with the queen, the

chief of the reactionary party at court. In July 1789 he left France,

became leader of the _emigres_, and visited several of the courts of

Europe in the interest of the royalist cause. After the execution of

Louis XVI. he received from his brother, the count of Provence, the

title of lieutenant-general of the realm, and, on the death of Louis

XVII., that of "Monsieur." In 1795 he attempted to aid the royalist

rising of La Vendee, landing at the island of Yeu. But he refused to

advance farther and to put himself resolutely at the head of his party,

although warmly acclaimed by it, and courage failing him, he returned to

England, settling first in London, then in Holyrood Palace at Edinburgh

and afterwards at Hartwell. There he remained until 1813, returning to

France in February 1814, and entering Paris in April, in the track of

the Allies.

During the reign of his brother, Louis XVIII., he was the leader of the

ultra-royalists, the party of extreme reaction. On succeeding to the

throne in September 1824 the dignity of his address and his affable

condescension won him a passing popularity. But his coronation at Reims,

with all the gorgeous ceremonial of the old regime, proclaimed his

intention of ruling, as the Most Christian King, by divine right. His

first acts, indeed, allayed the worst alarms of the Liberals; but it was

soon apparent that the weight of the crown would be consistently thrown

into the scale of the reactionary forces. The _emigres_ were awarded a

milliard as compensation for their confiscated lands; and Gallicans and

Liberals alike were offended by measures which threw increased power

into the hands of the Jesuits and Ultramontanes. In a few months there

were disquieting signs of the growing unpopularity of the king. The

royal princesses were insulted in the streets; and on the 29th of April

1825 Charles, when reviewing the National Guard, was met with cries from

the ranks of "Down with the ministers!" His reply was, next day, a

decree disbanding the citizen army.

It was not till 1829, when the result of the elections had proved the

futility of Villele's policy of repression, that Charles consented

unwillingly to try a policy of compromise. It was, however, too late.

Villele's successor was the vicomte de Martignac, who took Decazes for

his model; and in the speech from the throne Charles declared that the

happiness of France depended on "the sincere union of the royal

authority with the liberties consecrated by the charter." But Charles

had none of the patience and commonsense which had enabled Louis XVIII.

to play with decency the part of a constitutional king. "I would rather

hew wood," he exclaimed, "than be a king under the conditions of the

king of England"; and when the Liberal opposition obstructed all the

measures proposed by a ministry not selected from the parliamentary

majority, he lost patience. "I told you," he said, "that there was no

coming to terms with these men." Martignac was dismissed; and Prince

Jules de Polignac, the very incarnation of clericalism and reaction, was

called to the helm of state.

The inevitable result was obvious to all the world. "There is no such

thing as political experience," wrote Wellington, certainly no friend of

Liberalism; "with the warning of James II. before him, Charles X. was

setting up a government by priests, through priests, for priests." A

formidable agitation sprang up in France, which only served to make the

king more obstinate. In opening the session of 1830 he declared that he

would "find the power" to overcome the obstacles placed in his path by

"culpable manoeuvres." The reply of the chambers was a protest against

"the unjust distrust of the sentiment and reason of France"; whereupon

they were first prorogued, and on the 16th of May dissolved. The result

of the new elections was what might have been foreseen: a large increase

in the Opposition; and Charles, on the advice of his ministers,

determined on a virtual suspension of the constitution. On the 25th of

July were issued the famous "four ordinances" which were the immediate

cause of the revolution that followed.

With singular fatuity Charles had taken no precautions in view of a

violent outbreak. Marshal Marmont, who commanded the scattered troops in

Paris, had received no orders, beyond a jesting command from the duke of

Angouleme to place them under arms "as some windows might be broken." At

the beginning of the revolution Charles was at St Cloud, whence on the

news of the fighting he withdrew first to Versailles and then to

Rambouillet. So little did he understand the seriousness of the

situation that, when the laconic message "All is over!" was brought to

him, he believed that the insurrection had been suppressed. On realizing

the truth he hastily abdicated in favour of his grandson, the duke of

Bordeaux (comte de Chambord), and appointed Louis Philippe, duke of

Orleans, lieutenant-general of the kingdom (July 30th). But, on the news

of Louis Philippe's acceptance of the crown, he gave up the contest and

began a dignified retreat to the sea-coast, followed by his suite, and

surrounded by the infantry, cavalry and artillery of the guard. Beyond

sending a corps of observation to follow his movements, the new

government did nothing to arrest his escape. At Maintenon Charles took

leave of the bulk of his troops, and proceeding with an escort of some

1200 men to Cherbourg, took ship there for England on the 16th of

August. For a time he returned to Holyrood Palace at Edinburgh, which

was again placed at his disposal. He died at Goritz, whither he had

gone for his health, on the 6th of November 1836.

The best that can be said of Charles X. is that, if he did not know how

to rule, he knew how to cease to rule. The dignity of his exit was more

worthy of the ancient splendour of the royal house of France than the

theatrical humility of Louis Philippe's entrance. But Charles was an

impossible monarch for the 19th century, or perhaps for any other

century. He was a typical Bourbon, unable either to learn or to forget;

and the closing years of his life he spent in religious austerities,

intended to expiate, not his failure to grasp a great opportunity, but

the comparatively venial excesses of his youth.[1]

See Achille de Vaulabelle, _Chute de l'empire: histoire des deux

restaurations_ (Paris, 1847-1857); Louis de Vielcastel, _Hist. de la

restauration_ (Paris, 1860-1878); Alphonse de Lamartine, _Hist. de la

restauration_ (Paris, 1851-1852); Louis Blanc, _Hist. de dix ans,

1830-1840_ (5 vols., 1842-1844); G.I. de Montbel, _Derniere Epoque de

l'hist. de Charles X_ (5th ed., Paris, 1840); Theodore Anne,

_Memoires, souvenirs, et anecdotes sur l'interieur du palais de

Charles X et les evenements de 1815 a 1830_ (2 vols., Paris, 1831);

ib., _Journal de Saint-Cloud a Cherbourg_; Vedrenne, _Vie de Charles

X_ (3 vols., Paris, 1879); Petit, _Charles X_ (Paris, 1886);

Villeneuve, _Charles X et Louis XIX en exil. Memoires inedits_ (Paris,

1889); Imbert de Saint-Amand, _La Cour de Charles X_ (Paris, 1892).

FOOTNOTE:

[1] This, at any rate, represents the general verdict of history. It

is interesting, however, to note that so liberal-minded and shrewd a

critic of men as King Leopold I. of the Belgians formed a different

estimate. In a letter of the 18th of November 1836 addressed to

Princess (afterwards Queen) Victoria he writes:--"History will state

that Louis XVIII. was a most liberal monarch, reigning with great

mildness and justice to his end, but that his brother, from his

despotic and harsh disposition, upset all the other had done, and

lost the throne. Louis XVIII. was a clever, hard-hearted man,

shackled by no principle, very proud and false. Charles X. an honest

man, a kind friend, an honourable master, sincere in his opinions,

and inclined to do everything that is right. That teaches us what we

ought to believe in history as it is compiled according to ostensible

events and results known to the generality of people."

CHARLES I. (1288-1342), king of Hungary, the son of Charles Martell of

Naples, and Clemencia, daughter of the emperor Rudolph, was known as

Charles Robert previously to being enthroned king of Hungary in 1309. He

claimed the Hungarian crown, as the grandson of Stephen V., under the

banner of the pope, and in August 1300 proceeded from Naples to Dalmatia

to make good his claim. He was crowned at Esztergom after the death of

the last Arpad, Andrew III. (1301), but was forced the same year to

surrender the crown to Wenceslaus II. of Bohemia (1289-1306). His

failure only made Pope Boniface VIII. still more zealous on his behalf,

and at the diet of Pressburg (1304) his Magyar adherents induced him to

attempt to recover the crown of St Stephen from the Czechs. But in the

meantime (1305) Wenceslaus transferred his rights to Duke Otto of

Bavaria, who in his turn was taken prisoner by the Hungarian rebels.

Charles's prospects now improved, and he was enthroned at Buda on the

15th of June 1309, though his installation was not regarded as valid

till he was crowned with the sacred crown (which was at last recovered

from the robber-barons) at Szekesfehervar on the 27th of August 1310.

For the next three years Charles had to contend with rebellion after

rebellion, and it was only after his great victory over all the elements

of rapine and disorder at Rozgony (June 15, 1312) that he was really

master in his own land. His foreign policy aimed at the aggrandizement

of his family, but his plans were prudent as well as ambitious, and

Hungary benefited by them greatly. His most successful achievement was

the union with Poland for mutual defence against the Habsburgs and the

Czechs. This was accomplished by the convention of Trencsen (1335),

confirmed the same year at the brilliant congress of Visegrad, where all

the princes of central Europe met to compose their differences and were

splendidly entertained during the months of October and November. The

immediate result of the congress was a combined attack by the Magyars

and Poles upon the emperor Louis and his ally Albert of Austria, which

resulted in favour of Charles in 1337. Charles's desire to unite the

kingdoms of Hungary and Naples under the eldest son Louis was frustrated

by Venice and the pope, from fear lest Hungary might become the dominant

Adriatic power. He was, however, more than compensated for this

disappointment by his compact (1339) with his ally and brother-in-law,

Casimir of Poland, whereby it was agreed that Louis should succeed to

the Polish throne on the death of the childless Casimir. For an account

of the numerous important reforms effected by Charles see HUNGARY:

_History_. A statesman of the first rank, he not only raised Hungary

once more to the rank of a great power, but enriched and civilized her.

In character he was pious, courtly and valiant, popular alike with the

nobility and the middle classes, whose increasing welfare he did so much

to promote, and much beloved by the clergy. His court was famous

throughout Europe as a school of chivalry.

Charles was married thrice. His first wife was Maria, daughter of Duke

Casimir of Teschen, whom he wedded in 1306. On her death in 1318 he

married Beatrice, daughter of the emperor Henry VII. On her decease two

years later he gave his hand to Elizabeth, daughter of Wladislaus

Lokietek, king of Poland. Five sons were the fruit of these marriages,

of whom three, Louis, Andrew and Stephen, survived him. He died on the

16th of July 1342, and was laid beside the high altar at Szekesfehervar,

the ancient burial-place of the Arpads.

See Bela Kerekgyarto, _The Hungarian Royal Court under the House of

Anjou_ (Hung.) (Budapest, 1881); _Rationes Collectorum Pontif. in

Hungaria_ (Budapest, 1887); _Diplomas of the Angevin Period_, edited

by Imre Nagy (Hung. and Lat.), vols. i.-iii. (Budapest, 1878, &c.).

(R. N. B.)

CHARLES I. (1226-1285), king of Naples and Sicily and count of Anjou,

was the seventh child of Louis VIII. of France and Blanche of Castile.

Louis died a few months after Charles's birth and was succeeded by his

son Louis IX. (St Louis), and on the death in 1232 of the third son

John, count of Anjou and Maine, those fiefs were conferred on Charles.

In 1246 he married Beatrice, daughter and heiress of Raymond Berenger

V., the last count of Provence, and after defeating James I. of Aragon

and other rivals with the help of his brother the French king, he took

possession of his new county. In 1248 he accompanied Louis in the

crusade to Egypt, but on the defeat of the Crusaders he was taken

prisoner with his brother. Shortly afterwards he was ransomed, and

returned to Provence in 1250. During his absence several towns had

asserted their independence; but he succeeded in subduing them without

much difficulty and gradually suppressed their communal liberties.

Charles's ambition aimed at wider fields, and when Margaret, countess of

Flanders, asked help of the French court against the German king William

of Holland, by whom she had been defeated, he gladly accepted her offer

of the county of Hainaut in exchange for his assistance (1253); this

arrangement was, however, rescinded by Louis of France, who returned

from captivity in 1254, and Charles gave up Hainaut for an immense sum

of money. He extended his influence by the subjugation of Marseilles in

1257, then one of the most important maritime cities of the world, and

two years later several communes of Piedmont recognized Charles's

suzerainty. In 1262 Pope Urban IV. determined to destroy the power of

the Hohenstaufen in Italy, and offered the kingdoms of Naples and

Sicily, in consideration of a yearly tribute, to Charles of Anjou, in

opposition to Manfred, the bastard son of the late emperor Frederick II.

The next year Charles succeeded in getting himself elected senator of

Rome, which gave him an advantage in dealing with the pope. After long

negotiations he accepted the Sicilian and Neapolitan crowns, and in 1264

he sent a first expedition of Provencals to Italy; he also collected a

large army and navy in Provence and France with the help of King Louis,

and by an alliance with the cities of Lombardy was able to send part of

his force overland. Pope Clement IV. confirmed the Sicilian agreement on

conditions even more favourable to Charles, who sailed in 1265, and

conferred on the expedition all the privileges of a crusade. After

narrowly escaping capture by Manfred's fleet he reached Rome safely,

where he was crowned king of the Two Sicilies. The land army arrived

soon afterwards, and on the 26th of February 1266 Charles encountered

Manfred at Benevento, where after a hard-fought battle Manfred was

defeated and killed, and the whole kingdom was soon in Charles's

possession. Then Conradin, Frederick's grandson and last legitimate

descendant of the Hohenstaufen, came into Italy, where he found many

partisans among the Ghibellines of Lombardy and Tuscany, and among

Manfred's former adherents in the south. He gathered a large army

consisting partly of Germans and Saracens, but was totally defeated by

Charles at Tagliacozzo (23rd of August 1268); taken prisoner, he was

tried as a rebel and executed at Naples. Charles, in a spirit of the

most vindictive cruelty, had large numbers of Conradin's barons put to

death and their estates confiscated, and the whole population of several

towns massacred.

He was now one of the most powerful sovereigns of Europe, for besides

ruling over Provence and Anjou and the kingdom of the Two Sicilies, he

was imperial vicar of Tuscany, lord of many cities of Lombardy and

Piedmont, and as the pope's favourite practically arbiter of the papal

states, especially during the interregnum between the death of Clement

IV. (1268) and the election of Gregory X. (1272). But his ambition was

by no means satisfied, and he even aspired to the crown of the East

Roman empire. In 1272 he took part with Louis IX. in a crusade to north

Africa, where the French king died of fever, and Charles, after

defeating the soldan of Tunis, returned to Sicily. The election of

Rudolph of Habsburg as German king after a long interregnum, and that of

Nicholas III. to the Holy See (1277), diminished Charles's power, for

the new pope set himself to compose the difference between Guelphs and

Ghibellines in the Italian cities, but at his death Charles secured the

election of his henchman Martin IV. (1281), who recommenced persecuting

the Ghibellines, excommunicated the Greek emperor, Michael Palaeologus,

proclaimed a crusade against the Greeks, filled every appointment in the

papal states with Charles's vassals, and reappointed the Angevin king

senator of Rome. But the cruelty of the French rulers of Sicily drove

the people of the island to despair, and a Neapolitan nobleman, Giovanni

da Procida, organized the rebellion known as the Sicilian Vespers (see

VESPERS, SICILIAN), in which the French in Sicily were all massacred or

expelled (1282). Charles determined to subjugate the island and sailed

with his fleet for Messina. The city held out until Peter III. of

Aragon, whose wife Constance was a daughter of Manfred, arrived in

Sicily, and a Sicilian-Catalan fleet under the Calabrese admiral,

Ruggiero di Lauria, completely destroyed that of Charles. "If thou art

determined, O God, to destroy me," the unhappy Angevin exclaimed, "let

my fall be gradual!" He was forced to abandon all attempts at

reconquest, but proposed to decide the question by single combat between

himself and Peter, to take place at Bordeaux under English protection.

The Aragonese accepted, but fearing treachery, as the French army was in

the neighbourhood, he failed to appear on the appointed day. In the

meanwhile Ruggiero di Lauria appeared before Naples and destroyed

another Angevin fleet commanded by Charles's son, who was taken prisoner

(May 1284). Charles came to Naples with a new fleet from Provence, and

was preparing to invade Sicily again, when he contracted a fever and

died at Foggia on the 7th of January 1285. He was undoubtedly an

extremely able soldier and a skilful statesman, and much of his

legislation shows a real political sense; but his inordinate ambition,

his oppressive methods of government and taxation, and his cruelty

created enemies on all sides, and led to the collapse of the edifice of

dominion which he had raised.

CHARLES II. (1250-1309), king of Naples and Sicily, son of Charles I.,

had been captured by Ruggiero di Lauria in the naval battle at Naples in

1284, and when his father died he was still a prisoner in the hands of

Peter of Aragon. In 1288 King Edward I. of England had mediated to make

peace, and Charles was liberated on the understanding that he was to

retain Naples alone, Sicily being left to the Aragonese; Charles was

also to induce his cousin Charles of Valois to renounce for twenty

thousand pounds of silver the kingdom of Aragon which had been given to

him by Pope Martin IV. to punish Peter for having invaded Sicily, but

which the Valois had never effectively occupied. The Angevin king was

thereupon set free, leaving three of his sons and sixty Provencal

nobles as hostages, promising to pay 30,000 marks and to return a

prisoner if the conditions were not fulfilled within three years. He

went to Rieti, where the new pope Nicholas IV. immediately absolved him

from all the conditions he had sworn to observe, crowned him king of the

Two Sicilies (1289), and excommunicated Alphonso, while Charles of

Valois, in alliance with Castile, prepared to take possession of Aragon.

Alphonso III, the Aragonese king, being hard pressed, had to promise to

withdraw the troops he had sent to help his brother James in Sicily, to

renounce all rights over the island, and pay a tribute to the Holy See.

But Alphonso died childless in 1291 before the treaty could be carried

out, and James took possession of Aragon, leaving the government of

Sicily to the third brother Frederick. The new pope Boniface VIII.,

elected in 1294 at Naples under the auspices of King Charles, mediated

between the latter and James, and a most dishonourable treaty was

signed: James was to marry Charles's daughter Bianca and was promised

the investiture by the pope of Sardinia and Corsica, while he was to

leave the Angevin a free hand in Sicily and even to assist him if the

Sicilians resisted. An attempt was made to bribe Frederick into

consenting to this arrangement, but being backed up by his people he

refused, and was afterwards crowned king of Sicily. The war was fought

with great fury on land and sea, but Charles, although aided by the

pope, by Charles of Valois, and by James II. of Aragon, was unable to

conquer the island, and his son the prince of Taranto was taken prisoner

at the battle of La Falconara in 1299. Peace was at last made in 1302 at

Caltabellotta, Charles II. giving up all rights to Sicily and agreeing

to the marriage of his daughter Leonora to King Frederick; the treaty

was ratified by the pope in 1303. Charles spent his last years quietly

in Naples, which city he improved and embellished. He died in August

1309, and was succeeded by his son Robert.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--A. de Saint-Priest, _Histoire de la conquete de Naples

par Charles d'Anjou_ (4 vols., Paris, 1847-1849), is still of use for

the documents from the archives of Barcelona, but it needs to be

collated with more recent works; S. de Sismondi, in vol. ii. of his

_Histoire des republiques italiennes_ (Brussels, 1838), gives a good

general sketch of the reigns of Charles I. and II., but is

occasionally inaccurate as to details; the best authority on the early

life of Charles I. is R. Sternfeld, _Karl von Anjou als Graf von

Provence_ (Berlin, 1888); Charles's connexion with north Italy is

dealt with in Merkel's _La Dominazione di Carlo d'Angio in Piemonte e

in Lombardia_ (Turin, 1891), while the R. Deputazione di Storia

Patria Toscana has recently published a _Codice diplomatico delle

relazioni di Carlo d'Angio con la Toscana_; the contents of the

Angevin archives at Naples have been published by Durrien, _Archives

angevines de Naples_ (Toulouse, 1866-1867). M. Amari's _La Guerra del

Vespro Siciliano_ (8th ed., Florence, 1876) is a valuable history, but

the author is too bitterly prejudiced against the French to be quite

impartial; his work should be compared with L. Cadier's _Essai sur

l'administration du royaume de Sicile sous Charles I et Charles II

d'Anjou_ (Paris, 1891, _Bibl. des ecoles francaises d'Athenes et de

Rome_, fasc. 59), which contains many documents, and tends somewhat to

rehabilitate the Angevin rule.

CHARLES II. (1332-1387), called THE BAD, king of Navarre and count of

Evreux, was a son of Jeanne II., queen of Navarre, by her marriage with

Philip, count of Evreux (d. 1343). Having become king of Navarre on

Jeanne's death in 1349, he suppressed a rising at Pampeluna with much

cruelty, and by this and similar actions thoroughly earned his surname

of "The Bad." In 1352 he married Jeanne (d. 1393), a daughter of John

II., king of France, a union which made his relationship to the French

crown still more complicated. Through his mother he was a grandson of

Louis X. and through his father a great-grandson of Philip III., having

thus a better claim to the throne of France than Edward III. of England;

and, moreover, he held lands under the suzerainty of the French king,

whose son-in-law he now became. Charles was a man of great ability,

possessing popular manners and considerable eloquence, but he was

singularly unscrupulous, a quality which was revealed during the years

in which he played an important part in the internal affairs of France.

Trouble soon arose between King John and his son-in-law. The promised

dowry had not been paid, and the county of Angouleme, which had formerly

belonged to Jeanne of Navarre, was now in the possession of the French

king's favourite, the constable Charles la Cerda. In January 1354 the

constable was assassinated by order of Charles, and preparations for war

were begun. The king of Navarre, who defended this deed, had, however,

many friends in France and was in communication with Edward III.; and

consequently John was forced to make a treaty at Mantes and to

compensate him for the loss of Angouleme by a large grant of lands,

chiefly in Normandy. This peace did not last long, and in 1355 John was

compelled to confirm the treaty of Mantes. Returning to Normandy,

Charles was partly responsible for some unrest in the duchy, and in

April 1356 he was treacherously seized by the French king at Rouen,

remaining in captivity until November 1357, when John, after his defeat

at Poitiers, was a prisoner in England. Charles was regarded with much

favour in France, and the states-general demanded his release, which,

however, was effected by a surprise. Owing to his popularity he was

considered by Etienne Marcel and his party as a suitable rival to the

dauphin, afterwards King Charles V., and on entering Paris he was well

received and delivered an eloquent harangue to the Parisians.

Subsequently peace was made with the dauphin, who promised to restore to

Charles his confiscated estates. This peace was not enduring, and as his

lands were not given back Charles had some ground for complaint. War

again broke out, quickly followed by a new treaty, after which the king

of Navarre took part in suppressing the peasant rising known as the

_Jacquerie_. Answering the entreaties of Marcel he returned to Paris on

June 1358, and became captain-general of the city, which was soon

besieged by the dauphin. This position, however, did not prevent him

from negotiating both with the dauphin and with the English; terms were

soon arranged with the former, and Charles, having lost much of his

popularity, left Paris just before the murder of Marcel in July 1358. He

continued his alternate policy of war and peace, meanwhile adding if

possible by his depredations to the misery of France, until the

conclusion of the treaty of Bretigny in May 1360 deprived him of the

alliance of the English, and compelled him to make peace with King John

in the following October. A new cause of trouble arose when the duchy of

Burgundy was left without a ruler in November 1361, and was claimed by

Charles; but, lacking both allies and money, he was unable to prevent

the French king from seizing Burgundy, while he himself returned to

Navarre.

In his own kingdom Charles took some steps to reform the financial and

judicial administration and so to increase his revenue; but he was soon

occupied once more with foreign entanglements, and in July 1362, in

alliance with Peter the Cruel, king of Castile, he invaded Aragon,

deserting his new ally soon afterwards for Peter IV., king of Aragon.

Meanwhile the war with the dauphin had been renewed. Still hankering

after Burgundy, Charles saw his French estates again seized; but after

some desultory warfare, chiefly in Normandy, peace was made in March

1365, and he returned to his work of interference in the politics of the

Spanish kingdoms. In turn he made treaties with the kings of Castile and

Aragon, who were at war with each other; promising to assist Peter the

Cruel to regain his throne, from which he had been driven in 1366 by his

half-brother Henry of Trastamara, and then assuring Henry and his ally

Peter of Aragon that he would aid them to retain Castile. He continued

this treacherous policy when Edward the Black Prince advanced to succour

Peter the Cruel; then signed a treaty with Edward of England, and then

in 1371 allied himself with Charles V. of France. His next important

move was to offer his assistance to Richard II. of England for an attack

upon France. About this time serious charges were brought against him.

Accused of attempting to poison the king of France and other prominent

persons, and of other crimes, his French estates were seized by order of

Charles V., and soon afterwards Navarre was invaded by the Castilians.

Won over by the surrender of Cherbourg in July 1378, the English under

John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, came to his aid; but a heavy price had

to be paid for the neutrality of the king of Castile. After the death of

Charles V. in 1380, the king of Navarre did not interfere in the

internal affairs of France, although he endeavoured vainly again to

obtain aid from Richard II., and to regain Cherbourg. His lands in

France were handed over to his eldest son Charles, who governed them

with the consent of the new king Charles VI. Charles died on the 1st of

January 1387, and many stories are current regarding the manner of his

death. Froissart relates that he was burned to death through his

bedclothes catching fire; Secousse says that he died in peace with many

signs of contrition; another story says he died of leprosy; and a

popular legend tells how he expired by a divine judgment through the

burning of the clothes steeped in sulphur and spirits in which he had

been wrapped as a cure for a loathsome disease caused by his debauchery.

He had three sons and four daughters, and was succeeded by his eldest

son Charles; one of his daughters, Jeanne, became the wife of Henry IV.

of England.

See Jean Froissart, _Chroniques_, edited by S. Luce and G. Raynaud

(Paris, 1869-1897); D.F. Secousse, _Memoires pour servir a l'histoire

de Charles II, roi de Navarre_ (Paris, 1755-1768); E. Meyer, _Charles

II, roi de Navarre et la Normandie au XIVe siecle_ (Paris, 1898); F.T.

Perrens, _Etienne Marcel_ (Paris, 1874); R. Delachenal, _Premieres

negotiations de Charles le Mauvais avec les Anglais_ (Paris, 1900);

and E. Lavisse, _Histoire de France_, tome iv. (Paris, 1902).

CHARLES III. (1361-1425), called THE NOBLE, king of Navarre and count of

Evreux, was the eldest son of Charles II. the Bad, king of Navarre, by

his marriage with Jeanne, daughter of John II., king of France, and was

married in 1375 to Leonora (d. 1415), daughter of Henry II., king of

Castile. Having passed much of his early life in France, he became king

of Navarre on the death of Charles II. in January 1387, and his reign

was a period of peace and order, thus contrasting sharply with the long

and calamitous reign of his father. In 1393 he regained Cherbourg, which

had been handed over by Charles II. to Richard II. of England, and in

1403 he came to an arrangement with the representatives of Charles VI.

of France concerning the extensive lands which he claimed in that

country. Cherbourg was given to the French king; certain exchanges of

land were made; and in the following year Charles III. surrendered the

county of Evreux, and was created duke of Nemours and made a peer of

France. After this his only interference in the internal affairs of

France was when he sought to make peace between the rival factions in

that country. Charles sought to improve the condition of Navarre by

making canals and rendering the rivers navigable, and in other ways. He

died at Olite on the 8th of September 1425 and was buried at Pampeluna.

After the death of his two sons in 1402 the king decreed that his

kingdom should pass to his daughter Blanche (d. 1441), who took for her

second husband John, afterwards John II., king of Aragon; and the cortes

of Navarre swore to recognize Charles (q.v.), prince of Viana, her son

by this marriage, as king after his mother's death.

CHARLES (KARL EITEL ZEPHYRIN LUDWIG; in Rum. CAROL), king of Rumania

(1839- ), second son of Prince Karl Anton of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen,

was born on the 20th of April 1839. He was educated at Dresden

(1850-1856), and passed through his university course at Bonn. Entering

the Prussian army in 1857, he won considerable distinction in the Danish

war of 1864, and received instruction in strategy from General von

Moltke. He afterwards travelled in France, Italy, Spain and Algeria. He

was a captain in the 2nd regiment of Prussian Dragoon Guards when he was

elected _hospodar_ or prince of Rumania on the 20th of April 1866, after

the compulsory abdication of Prince Alexander John Cuza. Regarded at

first with distrust by Turkey, Russia and Austria, he succeeded in

gaining general recognition in six months; but he had to contend for ten

years with fierce party struggles between the Conservatives and the

Liberals.

During this period, however, Charles displayed great tact in his

dealings with both parties, and kept his country in the path of

administrative and economic reform, organizing the army, developing the

railways, and establishing commercial relations with foreign powers. The

sympathy of Rumania with France in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, and

the consequent interruption of certain commercial undertakings, led to a

hostile movement against Prince Charles, which, being fostered by

Russia, made him resolve to abdicate; and it was with difficulty that he

was persuaded to remain. In the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78 he joined

the Russians before Plevna (q.v.), and being placed in command of the

combined Russian and Rumanian forces, forced Osman Pasha to surrender.

As a consequence of the prince's vigorous action the independence of

Rumania, which had been proclaimed in May 1877, was confirmed by various

treaties in 1878, and recognized by Great Britain, France and Germany in

1880. On the 26th of March 1881 he was proclaimed king of Rumania, and,

with his consort, was crowned on the 22nd of May following. From that

time he pursued a successful career in home and foreign policy, and

greatly improved the financial and military position of his country;

while his appreciation of the fine arts was shown by his formation of an

important collection of paintings of all schools in his palaces at

Sinaia and Bucharest. For a detailed account of his reign, see RUMANIA.

On the 1st of November 1869 he married Princess Elizabeth (q.v.), a

daughter of Prince Hermann of Wied, widely known under her literary name

of "Carmen Sylva." As the only child of the marriage, a daughter, died

in 1874, the succession was finally settled upon the king's nephew,

Prince Ferdinand of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, who was created prince of

Rumania on the 18th of March 1889, and married, on the 10th of January

1893, Princess Marie, daughter of Alfred, duke of Saxe-Coburg, their

children being Prince Carol (b. 1893) and Princess Elizabeth (b. 1894).

The official life of King Charles, mainly his own composition, _Aus

dem Leben Konig Karls von Rumanien_ (Stuttgart, 1894-1900, 4 vols.),

deals mainly with political history. See for an account of his

domestic life, M. Kremnitz, _Konig Karl von Rumanien. Ein Lebensbild_

(Breslau, 1903).

CHARLES II. (1661-1700), king of Spain, known among Spanish kings as

"The Desired" and "The Bewitched," was the son of Philip IV. by his

second marriage with Maria, daughter of the emperor Ferdinand III., his

niece. He was born on the 11th of November 1661, and was the only

surviving son of his father's two marriages--a child of old age and

disease, in whom the constant intermarriages of the Habsburgs had

developed the family type to deformity. His birth was greeted with joy

by the Spaniards, who feared the dispute as to the succession which must

have ensued if Philip IV. left no male issue. The boy was so feeble that

till the age of five or six he was fed only from the breast of a nurse.

For years afterwards it was not thought safe to allow him to walk. That

he might not be overtaxed he was left entirely uneducated, and his

indolence was indulged to such an extent that he was not even expected

to be clean. When his brother, the younger Don John of Austria, a

natural son of Philip IV., obtained power by exiling the queen mother

from court he insisted that at least the king's hair should be combed.

Charles made the malicious remark that nothing was safe from Don

John--not even vermin. The king was then fifteen, and, according to

Spanish law, of age. But he never became a man in body or mind. The

personages who ruled in his name arranged a marriage for him with Maria

Louisa of Orleans. The French princess, a lively young woman of no

sense, died in the stifling atmosphere of the Spanish court, and from

the attendance of Spanish doctors. Again his advisers arranged a

marriage with Maria Ana of Neuburg. The Bavarian wife stood the strain

and survived him. Both marriages were merely political--the first a

victory for the French, and the second for the Austrian party. France

and Austria were alike preparing for the day when the Spanish succession

would have to be fought for. The king was a mere puppet in the hands of

each alternately. By natural instinct he hated the French, but there was

no room in his nearly imbecile mind for more than childish superstition,

insane pride of birth, and an interest in court etiquette. The only

touch of manhood was a taste for shooting which he occasionally indulged

in the preserves of the Escorial. In his later days he suffered much

pain, and was driven wild by the conflict between his wish to transmit

his inheritance to "the illustrious house of Austria," his own kin, and

the belief instilled into him by the partisans of the French claimant

that only the power of Louis XIV. could avert the dismemberment of the

empire. A silly fanatic made the discovery that the king was bewitched,

and his confessor Froilan Diaz supported the belief. The king was

exorcised, and the exorcists of the kingdom were called upon to put

stringent questions to the devils they cast out. The Inquisition

interfered, and the dying king was driven mad among them. Very near his

end he had the lugubrious curiosity to cause the coffins of his embalmed

ancestors to be opened at the Escorial. The sight of the body of his

first wife, at whom he also insisted on looking, provoked a passion of

tears and despair. Under severe pressure from the cardinal archbishop of

Toledo, Portocarrero, he finally made a will in favour of Philip, duke

of Anjou, grandson of Louis XIV., and died on the 1st of November 1700,

after a lifetime of senile decay.

The best picture of Charles II. is to be found in _Les Memoires de la

tour d'Espagne_ of the Marquis de Villars (London, 1861), and the

_Letters_ of the Marquise de Villars (Paris, 1868).

CHARLES III. (1716-1788), king of Spain, born on the 20th January 1716,

was the first son of the second marriage of Philip V. with Elizabeth

Farnese of Parma. It was his good fortune to be sent to rule as duke of

Parma by right of his mother at the age of sixteen, and thus came under

more intelligent influence than he could have found in Spain. In 1734 he

made himself master of Naples and Sicily by arms. Charles had, however,

no military tastes, seldom wore uniform, and could with difficulty be

persuaded to witness a review. The peremptory action of the British

admiral commanding in the Mediterranean at the approach of the War of

the Austrian Succession, who forced him to promise to observe neutrality

under a threat to bombard Naples, made a deep impression on his mind. It

gave him a feeling of hostility to England which in after-times

influenced his policy.

As king of the Two Sicilies Charles began there the work of internal

reform which he afterwards continued in Spain. Foreign ministers who

dealt with him agreed that he had no great natural ability, but he was

honestly desirous to do his duty as king, and he showed good judgment in

his choice of ministers. The chief minister in Naples, Tanucci, had a

considerable influence over him. On the death of his half-brother

Ferdinand VI. he became king of Spain, and resigned the Two Sicilies to

his third son Ferdinand. As king of Spain his foreign policy was

disastrous. His strong family feeling and his detestation of England,

which was unchecked after the death of his wife, Maria Amelia, daughter

of Frederick Augustus II. of Saxony, led him into the Family Compact

with France. Spain was entangled in the close of the Seven Years' War,

to her great loss. In 1770 he almost ran into another war over the

barren Falkland Islands. In 1779 he was, somewhat reluctantly, led to

join France and the American insurgents against England, though he well

knew that the independence of the English colonies must have a ruinous

influence on his own American dominions. For his army he did practically

nothing, and for his fleet very little except build fine ships without

taking measures to train officers and men.

But his internal government was on the whole beneficial to the country.

He began by compelling the people of Madrid to give up emptying their

slops out of the windows, and when they objected he said they were like

children who cried when their faces were washed. In 1766 his attempt to

force the Madrilenos to adopt the French dress led to a riot during

which he did not display much personal courage. For a long time after it

he remained at Aranjuez, leaving the government in the hands of his

minister Aranda. All his reforms were not of this formal kind. Charles

was a thorough despot of the benevolent order, and had been deeply

offended by the real or suspected share of the Jesuits in the riot of

1766. He therefore consented to the expulsion of the order, and was then

the main advocate for its suppression. His quarrel with the Jesuits, and

the recollection of some disputes with the pope he had had when king of

Naples, turned him towards a general policy of restriction of the

overgrown power of the church. The number of the idle clergy, and more

particularly of the monastic orders, was reduced, and the Inquisition,

though not abolished, was rendered torpid. In the meantime much

antiquated legislation which tended to restrict trade and industry was

abolished; roads, canals and drainage works were carried out. Many of

his paternal ventures led to little more than waste of money, or the

creation of hotbeds of jobbery. Yet on the whole the country prospered.

The result was largely due to the king, who even when he was ill-advised

did at least work steadily at his task of government. His example was

not without effect on some at least of the nobles. In his domestic life

King Charles was regular, and was a considerate master, though he had a

somewhat caustic tongue and took a rather cynical view of mankind. He

was passionately fond of hunting. During his later years he had some

trouble with his eldest son and his daughter-in-law. If Charles had

lived to see the beginning of the French Revolution he would probably

have been frightened into reaction. As he died on the 14th of December

1788 he left the reputation of a philanthropic and "philosophic" king.

In spite of his hostility to the Jesuits, his dislike of friars in

general, and his jealousy of the Inquisition, he was a very sincere

Roman Catholic, and showed much zeal in endeavouring to persuade the

pope to proclaim the Immaculate Conception as a dogma necessary to

salvation.

See the _Reign of Charles III._, by M. Danvila y Collado (6 vols.), in

the _Historia General de Espana de la Real Academia de la Historia_

(Madrid, 1892, &c.); and F. Rousseau, _Regne de Charles III d'Espagne_

(Paris, 1907).

CHARLES IV. (1748-1819), king of Spain, second son of Charles III. and

his wife Maria Amelia of Saxony, was born at Portici on the 11th of

November 1748, while his father was king of the Two Sicilies. The elder

brother was set aside as imbecile and epileptic. Charles had inherited a

great frame and immense physical strength from the Saxon line of his

mother. When young he was fond of wrestling with the strongest

countrymen he could find. In character he was not malignant, but he was

intellectually torpid, and of a credulity which almost passes belief.

His wife, Maria Luisa of Parma, his first cousin, a thoroughly coarse

and vicious woman, ruled him completely, though he was capable of

obstinacy at times. During his father's lifetime he was led by her into

court intrigues which aimed at driving the king's favourite minister,

Floridablanca, from office, and replacing him by Aranda, the chief of

the "Aragonese" party. After he succeeded to the throne in 1788 his one

serious occupation was hunting. Affairs were left to be directed by his

wife and her lover Godoy (q.v.). For Godoy the king had an unaffected

liking, and the lifelong favour he showed him is almost pathetic. When

terrified by the French Revolution he turned to the Inquisition to help

him against the party which would have carried the reforming policy of

Charles III. much further. But he was too slothful to have more than a

passive part in the direction of his own government. He simply obeyed

the impulse given him by the queen and Godoy. If he ever knew his wife's

real character he thought it more consistent with his dignity to shut

his eyes. For he had a profound belief in his divine right and the

sanctity of his person. If he understood that his kingdom was treated as

a mere dependence by France, he also thought it due to his "face" to

make believe that he was a powerful monarch. Royalty never wore a more

silly aspect than in the person of Charles IV., and it is highly

credible that he never knew what his wife was, or what was the position

of his kingdom. When he was told that his son Ferdinand was appealing to

the emperor Napoleon against Godoy, he took the side of the favourite.

When the populace rose at Aranjuez in 1808 he abdicated to save the

minister. He took refuge in France, and when he and Ferdinand were both

prisoners of Napoleon's, he was with difficulty restrained from

assaulting his son. Then he abdicated in favour of Napoleon, handing

over his people like a herd of cattle. He accepted a pension from the

French emperor and spent the rest of his life between his wife and

Godoy. He died at Rome on the 20th of January 1819, probably without

having once suspected that he had done anything unbecoming a king by

divine right and a gentleman.

See _Historia del Reinado de Carlos IV._, by General Gomez de Arteche

(3 vols.), in the _Historia General de Espana de la Real Academia de

la Historia_ (Madrid, 1892, &c.).

CHARLES IX. (1550-1611), king of Sweden, was the youngest son of

Gustavus Vasa and Margareto Lejonhufrud. By his father's will he got, by

way of appanage, the duchy of Sodermanland, which included the provinces

of Nerike and Vermland; but he did not come into actual possession of

them till after the fall of Eric XIV. (1569). In 1568 he was the real

leader of the rebellion against Eric, but took no part in the designs of

his brother John against the unhappy king after his deposition. Indeed,

Charles's relations with John III. were always more or less strained. He

had no sympathy with John's high-church tendencies on the one hand, and

he sturdily resisted all the king's endeavours to restrict his authority

as duke of Sodermanland (Sudermania) on the other. The nobility and the

majority of the _Riksdag_ supported John, however, in his endeavours to

unify the realm, and Charles had consequently (1587) to resign his

pretensions to autonomy within his duchy; but, fanatical Calvinist as he

was, on the religious question he was immovable. The matter came to a

crisis on the death of John III. (1592). The heir to the throne was

John's eldest son, Sigismund, already king of Poland and a devoted

Catholic. The fear lest Sigismund might re-catholicize the land alarmed

the Protestant majority in Sweden, and Charles came forward as their

champion, and also as the defender of the Vasa dynasty against foreign

interference. It was due entirely to him that Sigismund was forced to

confirm the resolutions of the council of Upsala, thereby recognizing

the fact that Sweden was essentially a Protestant state (see SWEDEN:

_History_). In the ensuing years Charles's task was extraordinarily

difficult. He had steadily to oppose Sigismund's reactionary tendencies;

he had also to curb the nobility, which he did with cruel rigour.

Necessity compelled him to work rather with the people than the gentry;

hence it was that the _Riksdag_ assumed under his government a power and

an importance which it had never possessed before. In 1595 the _Riksdag_

of Soderkoping elected Charles regent, and his attempt to force Klas

Flemming, governor of Finland, to submit to his authority, rather than

to that of the king, provoked a civil war. Technically Charles was,

without doubt, guilty of high treason, and the considerable minority of

all classes which adhered to Sigismund on his landing in Sweden in 1598

indisputably behaved like loyal subjects. But Sigismund was both an

alien and a heretic to the majority of the Swedish nation, and his

formal deposition by the _Riksdag_ in 1599 was, in effect, a natural

vindication and legitimation of Charles's position. Finally, the diet of

Linkoping (Feb. 24, 1600) declared that Sigismund and his posterity had

forfeited the Swedish throne, and, passing over duke John, the second

son of John III., a youth of ten, recognized duke Charles as their

sovereign under the title of Charles IX.

Charles's short reign was an uninterrupted warfare. The hostility of

Poland and the break up of Russia involved him in two overseas contests

for the possession of Livonia and Ingria, while his pretensions to

Lapland brought upon him a war with Denmark in the last year of his

reign. In all these struggles he was more or less unsuccessful, owing

partly to the fact that he had to do with superior generals (e.g.

Chodkiewicz and Christian IV.) and partly to sheer ill-luck. Compared

with his foreign policy, the domestic policy of Charles IX. was

comparatively unimportant. It aimed at confirming and supplementing what

had already been done during his regency. Not till the 6th of March

1604, after Duke John had formally renounced his rights to the throne,

did Charles IX. begin to style himself king. The first deed in which the

title appears is dated the 20th of March 1604; but he was not crowned

till the 15th of March 1607. Four and a half years later Charles IX.

died at Nykoping (Oct. 30, 1611). As a ruler he is the link between his

great father and his still greater son. He consolidated the work of

Gustavus Vasa, the creation of a great Protestant state: he prepared the

way for the erection of the Protestant empire of Gustavus Adolphus.

Swedish historians have been excusably indulgent to the father of their

greatest ruler. Indisputably Charles was cruel, ungenerous and

vindictive; yet he seems, at all hazards, strenuously to have

endeavoured to do his duty during a period of political and religious

transition, and, despite his violence and brutality, possessed many of

the qualities of a wise and courageous statesman. By his first wife

Marie, daughter of the elector palatine Louis VI., he had six children,

of whom only one daughter, Catherine, survived; by his second wife,

Christina, daughter of Adolphus, duke of Holstein-Gottorp, he had five

children, including Gustavus Adolphus and Charles Philip, duke of

Finland.

See _Sveriges Historia_, vol. iii. (Stockholm, 1878); Robert Nisbet

Bain, _Scandinavia_ (Cambridge, 1905), caps. 5-7. (R. N. B.)

CHARLES X. [CHARLES GUSTAVUS] (1622-1660), king of Sweden, son of John

Casimir, count palatine of Zweibrucken, and Catherine, sister of

Gustavus Adolphus, was born at Nykoping Castle on the 8th of November

1622. He learnt the art of war under the great Lennart Torstensson,

being present at the second battle of Breitenfeld and at Jankowitz. From

1646 to 1648 he frequented the Swedish court. It was supposed that he

would marry the queen regnant, Christina, but her unsurmountable

objection to wedlock put an end to these anticipations, and to

compensate her cousin for a broken half-promise she declared him (1649)

her successor, despite the opposition of the senate headed by the

venerable Axel Oxenstjerna. In 1648 he was appointed generalissimo of

the Swedish forces in Germany. The conclusion of the treaties of

Westphalia prevented him from winning the military laurels he so

ardently desired, but as the Swedish plenipotentiary at the executive

congress of Nuremberg, he had unrivalled opportunities of learning

diplomacy, in which science he speedily became a past-master. As the

recognized heir to the throne, his position on his return to Sweden was

not without danger, for the growing discontent with the queen turned the

eyes of thousands to him as a possible deliverer. He therefore withdrew

to the isle of Oland till the abdication of Christina (June 5, 1654)

called him to the throne.

The beginning of his reign was devoted to the healing of domestic

discords, and the rallying of all the forces of the nation round his

standard for a new policy of conquest. He contracted a political

marriage (Oct. 24, 1654) with Hedwig Leonora, the daughter of Frederick

III., duke of Holstein-Gottorp, by way of securing a future ally against

Denmark. The two great pressing national questions, war and the

restitution of the alienated crown lands, were duly considered at the

_Riksdag_ which assembled at Stockholm in March 1655. The war question

was decided in three days by a secret committee presided over by the

king, who easily persuaded the delegates that a war with Poland was

necessary and might prove very advantageous; but the consideration of

the question of the subsidies due to the crown for military purposes was

postponed to the following _Riksdag_ (see SWEDEN: _History_). On the

10th of July Charles quitted Sweden to engage in his Polish adventure.

By the time war was declared he had at his disposal 50,000 men and 50

warships. Hostilities had already begun with the occupation of Dunaburg

(Dvinsk) in Polish Livonia by the Swedes (July 1, 1655), and the Polish

army encamped among the marshes of the Netze concluded a convention

(July 25) whereby the palatinates of Posen and Kalisz placed themselves

under the protection of the Swedish king. Thereupon the Swedes entered

Warsaw without opposition and occupied the whole of Great Poland. The

Polish king, John Casimir, fled to Silesia. Meanwhile Charles pressed on

towards Cracow, which was captured after a two months' siege. The fall

of Cracow extinguished the last hope of the boldest Pole; but before the

end of the year an extraordinary reaction began in Poland itself. On the

18th of October the Swedes invested the fortress-monastery of

Czenstochowa, but the place was heroically defended; and after a seventy

days' siege the besiegers were compelled to retire with great loss.

This astounding success elicited an outburst of popular enthusiasm which

gave the war a national and religious character. The tactlessness of

Charles, the rapacity of his generals, the barbarity of his mercenaries,

his refusal to legalize his position by summoning the Polish diet, his

negotiations for the partition of the very state he affected to

befriend, awoke the long slumbering public spirit of the country. In the

beginning of 1656 John Casimir returned from exile and the Polish army

was reorganized and increased. By this time Charles had discovered that

it was easier to defeat the Poles than to conquer Poland. His chief

object, the conquest of Prussia, was still unaccomplished, and a new foe

arose in the elector of Brandenburg, alarmed by the ambition of the

Swedish king. Charles forced the elector, indeed, at the point of the

sword to become his ally and vassal (treaty of Konigsberg, Jan. 17,

1656); but the Polish national rising now imperatively demanded his

presence in the south. For weeks he scoured the interminable

snow-covered plains of Poland in pursuit of the Polish guerillas,

penetrating as far south as Jaroslau in Galicia, by which time he had

lost two-thirds of his 15,000 men with no apparent result. His retreat

from Jaroslau to Warsaw, with the fragments of his host, amidst three

converging armies, in a marshy forest region, intersected in every

direction by well-guarded rivers, was one of his most brilliant

achievements. But his necessities were overwhelming. On the 21st of June

Warsaw was retaken by the Poles, and four days later Charles was obliged

to purchase the assistance of Frederick William by the treaty of

Marienburg. On July 18-20 the combined Swedes and Brandenburgers, 18,000

strong, after a three days' battle, defeated John Casimir's army of

100,000 at Warsaw and reoccupied the Polish capital; but this brilliant

feat of arms was altogether useless, and when the suspicious attitude of

Frederick William compelled the Swedish king at last to open

negotiations with the Poles, they refused the terms offered, the war was

resumed, and Charles concluded an offensive and defensive alliance with

the elector of Brandenburg (treaty of Labiau, Nov. 20) whereby it was

agreed that Frederick William and his heirs should henceforth possess

the full sovereignty of East Prussia.

This was an essential modification of Charles's Baltic policy; but the

alliance of the elector had now become indispensable on almost any

terms. So serious, indeed, were the difficulties of Charles X. in Poland

that it was with extreme satisfaction that he received the tidings of

the Danish declaration of war (June 1, 1657). The hostile action of

Denmark enabled him honourably to emerge from the inglorious Polish

imbroglio, and he was certain of the zealous support of his own people.

He had learnt from Torstensson that Denmark was most vulnerable if

attacked from the south, and, imitating the strategy of his master, he

fell upon her with a velocity which paralysed resistance. At the end of

June 1657, at the head of 8000 seasoned veterans, he broke up from

Bromberg in Prussia and reached the borders of Holstein on the 18th of

July. The Danish army at once dispersed and the duchy of Bremen was

recovered by the Swedes, who in the early autumn swarmed over Jutland

and firmly established themselves in the duchies. But the fortress of

Fredriksodde (Fredericia) held Charles's little army at bay from

mid-August to mid-October, while the fleet of Denmark, after a stubborn

two days' battle, compelled the Swedish fleet to abandon its projected

attack on the Danish islands. The position of the Swedish king had now

become critical. In July an offensive and defensive alliance was

concluded between Denmark and Poland. Still more ominously, the elector

of Brandenburg, perceiving Sweden to be in difficulties, joined the

league against her and compelled Charles to accept the proffered

mediation of Cromwell and Mazarin. The negotiations foundered, however,

upon the refusal of Sweden to refer the points in dispute to a general

peace-congress, and Charles was still further encouraged by the capture

of Fredriksodde (Oct. 23-24), whereupon he began to make preparations

for conveying his troops over to Funen in transport vessels. But soon

another and cheaper expedient presented itself. In the middle of

December 1657 began the great frost which was to be so fatal to Denmark.

In a few weeks the cold had grown so intense that even the freezing of

an arm of the sea with so rapid a current as the Little Belt became a

conceivable possibility; and henceforth meteorological observations

formed an essential part of the strategy of the Swedes. On the 28th of

January 1658, Charles X. arrived at Haderslev (Hadersleben) in South

Jutland, when it was estimated that in a couple of days the ice of the

Little Belt would be firm enough to bear even the passage of a

mail-clad host. The cold during the night of the 29th of January was

most severe; and early in the morning of the 30th the Swedish king gave

the order to start, the horsemen dismounting where the ice was weakest,

and cautiously leading their horses as far apart as possible, when they

swung into their saddles again, closed their ranks and made a dash for

the shore. The Danish troops lining the opposite coast were quickly

overpowered, and the whole of Funen was won with the loss of only two

companies of cavalry, which disappeared under the ice while fighting

with the Danish left wing. Pursuing his irresistible march, Charles X.,

with his eyes fixed steadily on Copenhagen, resolved to cross the frozen

Great Belt also. After some hesitation, he accepted the advice of his

chief engineer officer Eric Dahlberg, who acted as pioneer throughout

and chose the more circuitous route from Svendborg, by the islands of

Langeland, Laaland and Falster, in preference to the direct route from

Nyborg to Korsor, which would have been across a broad, almost

uninterrupted expanse of ice. Yet this second adventure was not embarked

upon without much anxious consideration. A council of war, which met at

two o'clock in the morning to consider the practicability of Dahlberg's

proposal, at once dismissed it as criminally hazardous. Even the king

wavered for an instant; but, Dahlberg persisting in his opinion, Charles

overruled the objections of the commanders. On the night of the 5th of

February the transit began, the cavalry leading the way through the

snow-covered ice, which quickly thawed beneath the horses' hoofs so that

the infantry which followed after had to wade through half an ell of

sludge, fearing every moment lest the rotting ice should break beneath

their feet. At three o'clock in the afternoon, Dahlberg leading the way,

the army reached Grimsted in Laaland without losing a man On the 8th of

February Charles reached Falster. On the 11th he stood safely on the

soil of Sjaelland (Zealand). Not without reason did the medal struck to

commemorate "the glorious transit of the Baltic Sea" bear the haughty

inscription: _Natura hoc debuit uni._ An exploit unique in history had

been achieved. The crushing effect of this unheard-of achievement on the

Danish government found expression in the treaties of Taastrup (Feb. 18)

and Roskilde (Feb. 26, 1658), whereby Denmark sacrificed nearly half her

territory to save the rest (see DENMARK: _History_). But even this was

not enough for the conqueror. Military ambition and greed of conquest

moved Charles X. to what, divested of all its pomp and circumstance, was

an outrageous act of political brigandage. At a council held at Gottorp

(July 7), Charles X. resolved to wipe from the map of Europe an

inconvenient rival, and without any warning, in defiance of all

international equity, let loose his veterans upon Denmark a second time.

For the details of this second struggle, with the concomitant diplomatic

intervention of the western powers, see DENMARK: _History_, and SWEDEN:

_History_. Only after great hesitation would Charles X. consent to

reopen negotiations with Denmark direct, at the same time proposing to

exercise pressure upon the enemy by a simultaneous winter campaign in

Norway. Such an enterprise necessitated fresh subsidies from his already

impoverished people, and obliged him in December 1659 to cross over to

Sweden to meet the estates, whom he had summoned to Gothenburg. The

lower estates murmured at the imposition of fresh burdens; and Charles

had need of all his adroitness to persuade them that his demands were

reasonable and necessary. At the very beginning of the _Riksdag_, in

January 1660, it was noticed that the king was ill; but he spared

himself as little in the council-chamber as in the battle-field, till

death suddenly overtook him on the night of the 13th of February 1660,

in his thirty-eighth year. The abrupt cessation of such an inexhaustible

fount of enterprise and energy was a distinct loss to Sweden; and signs

are not wanting that, in his latter years, Charles had begun to feel the

need and value of repose. Had he lived long enough to overcome his

martial ardour, and develop and organize the empire he helped to create,

Sweden might perhaps have remained a great power to this day. Even so

she owes her natural frontiers in the Scandinavian peninsula to Charles

X.