Chapter X: Part VI: After the Reformation (4)

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--The most important works on the Charlemagne cycle of
romance are:--G. Paris, _Hist. poetique de Charlemagne_ (Paris, 1865;
reprint, with additional notes by Paris and P. Meyer, 1905); L.
Gautier, _Les Epopees francaises_ (Paris, 4 vols. new ed., 1878, 1892,
1880, 1882) and the supplementary _Bibliographie des chansons de
geste_ (1897). The third volume of the _Epopees francaises_ contains
an analysis and full particulars of the _chansons de geste_
immediately connected with the history of Charlemagne. See also G.
Rauschen, _Die Legende Karls des Grossen im 11ten und 12ten
Jahrhundert_ (Leipzig, 1890); Kristoffer Nyrop, _Den oldfranske
Heldedigtning_ (Copenhagen, 1883; Ital. trans. Turin, 1886); Pio
Rajna, _Le Origini dell' epopea francese_ (Florence, 1884); G.T.
Graesse, "Die grossen Sagenkreise des Mittelalters," in his
_Litterargeschichte_ (Dresden, 1842); _Histoire litteraire de la
France_ (vol. xxii., 1852); H.L. Ward, _Catalogue of Romances in the
Dept. of MSS. in the British Museum_ (1883), vol. i. pp. 546-689; E.
Muntz, _La Legende de Charlemagne dans l'art du moyen age_ (Paris,
1885); and for the German legend, vol. iii. of H.F. Massmann's edition
of the _Kaiserchronik_ (Quedlinburg, 1849-1854). _The English
Charlemagne Romances_ were edited (extra series) for the Early Eng.
Text Soc. by Sidney J. Herrtage, Emil Hausknecht, Octavia Richardson
and Sidney Lee (1879-1881), the romance of _Duke Huon of Bordeaux_
containing a general account of the cycle by Sidney Lee; the
_Karlamagnussaga_, by C.R. Unger (Christiania, 1860), see also G.
Paris in _Bibl. de l'Ecole des Charles_ (1864-1865). For individual
_chansons_ see _Anseis de Carthage_, ed. J. Alton (Tubingen, 1892);
_Aiquin_, ed. F. Jouon des Longrais (Nantes, 1880); _Aspremont_, ed.
F. Guessard and L. Gautier (Paris, 1885); _Basin_, or _Charles et
Elegast_ or _Le Couronnement de Charles_, preserved only in foreign
versions (see Paris, _Hist. Poet._ pp. 315, seq.); _Berta de li gran
pie_, ed. A. Mussafia, in _Romania_ (vols. iii. and iv., 1874-1875);
_Berte aus grans pies_, ed. A. Scheler (Brussels, 1874);
_Charlemagne_, by Girard d'Amiens, detailed analysis in Paris, _Hist.
Poet._ (Appendix iv.); _Couronnement Looys_, ed. E. Langlois (Le Puy,
1888); _Desier_ (Desiderius or Didier), lost songs of the wars of
Lombardy, some fragments of which are preserved in _Ogier le Danois;
Destruction de Rome_, ed. G. Grober in _Romania_(1873); A. Thomas,
_Nouvelles recherches sur "l'entree de Spagne_," in _Bibl. des ecoles
francaises de Rome_ (Paris, 1882); _Fierabras_, ed. A. Krober and G.
Servois (Paris, 1860) in _Anciens poetes de la France_, and Provencal
text, ed. I. Bekker (Berlin, 1829); _Galien_, ed. E. Stengel and K.
Pfeil (Marburg, 1890); _Gaydon_, ed. F. Guessard and S. Luce (_Anciens
poetes_ ... 1862); _Gui de Bourgogne_, ed. F. Guessard and H.
Michelant (same series, 1859); _Mainet_ (fragments only extant), ed.
G. Paris, in _Romania_ (1875); _Otinel_, ed Guessard and Michelant
_(Anciens poetes_, 1859), and _Sir Otuel_, ed. S.J. Herrtage
(_E.E.T.S._, 1880); _Prise de Pampelune_ (ed. A. Mussafia, Vienna,
1864); for the Carolingian romances relating to Roland, see ROLAND;
_Les Saisnes_, ed. F. Michel (1839); _The Sege of Melaine_,
introductory to Otinel, preserved in English only (ed. _E.E.T.S._,
1880); _Simon de Pouille_, analysis in _Epop. fr._ (iii. pp. 346 sq.);
_Voyage de C. a Jerusalem_, ed. E. Koschwitz (Heilbronn, 1879). For
the chronicle of the Pseudo-Turpin, see an edition by Castets (Paris,
1881) for the "Societe des langues romanes," and the dissertation by
G. Paris, _De Pseudo-Turpino_ (Paris, 1865). The Spanish versions of
Carolingian legends are studied by Mila y Fontanals in _De la poesia
heroico-popular castellana_ (Barcelona, 1874). (M. Br.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] A remnant of the popular poetry contemporary with Charlemagne and
written in the vernacular has been thought to be discernible under
its Latin translation in the description of a siege during
Charlemagne's war against the Saracens, known as the "Fragment from
the Hague" (Pertz, _Script._ iii. pp. 708-710).

[2] The words _douze pairs_ were anglicized in a variety of forms
ranging from douzepers to dosepers. The word even occurred as a
singular in the metrical romance of _Octavian_:--"Ferst they sent out
a doseper." At the beginning of the 13th century there existed a
_cour des pairs_ which exercised judicial functions and dated
possibly from the 11th century, but their prerogatives at the
beginning of the 14th century appear to have been mainly ceremonial
and decorative. In 1257 the twelve peers were the chiefs of the great
feudal provinces, the dukes of Normandy, Burgundy and Aquitaine, the
counts of Toulouse, Champagne and Flanders, and six spiritual peers,
the archbishop of Reims, the bishops of Laon, Chalons-sur-Marne,
Beauvais, Langres and Noyon. (See Du Cange, _Glossarium_, s.v.
"Par.").

[3] See J. Flach, _Le Compagnonnage dans les chansons de geste_
(Paris, 1891).

[4] For clerical accounts of Charles's voyage to the Holy Land see
the _Chronicon_ (c. 968) of Benedict, a monk of St Andre, and
_Descriptio qualiter Karolus Magnus clavum et coronam Domini ...
detulerit_, by an 11th-century writer.

CHARLEMAGNE, JEAN ARMAND (1753-1838), French dramatic author, was born at Bourget (Seine) on the 30th of November 1753. Originally intended for the church, he turned first to being a lawyer's clerk and then a soldier. He served in the American War of Independence, and on returning to France (1783) began to employ his pen on economic subjects, and later in writing for the stage. He became the author of a large number of plays, poems and romances, among which may be mentioned the comedies _M. de Crac a Paris_ (1793), _Le Souper des Jacobins_ (1795)and _L'Agioteur_ (1796) and _Observations de quelques patriotes sur la necessite de conserver les monuments de la litterature et des arts_ (1794), an essay written in collaboration with M.M. Chardin and Renouard, which induced the Convention to protect books adorned with the coats of arms of their former owners and other treasures from destruction at the hands of the revolutionists. He died in Paris on the 6th of March 1838.

CHARLEMONT, JAMES CAULFEILD, 1ST EARL OF (1728-1799), Irish statesman, son of the 3rd viscount Charlemont, was born in Dublin on the 18th of August 1728, and succeeded his father as 4th viscount in 1734. The title of Charlemont descended from Sir Toby Caulfeild (1565-1627) of Oxfordshire, England, who was given lands in Ireland, and created Baron Charlemont (the name of a fort on the Blackwater), for his services to King James I. in 1620, and the 1st viscount was the 5th baron (d. 1671), who was advanced by Charles II. Lord Charlemont is historically interesting for his political connexion with Flood and Grattan; he was a cultivated man with literary and artistic tastes, and both in Dublin and in London his amiable character gave him considerable social influence. For various early services in Ireland he was made an earl in 1763, but he disregarded court favours and cordially joined Grattan in 1780 in the assertion of Irish independence. He was president of the volunteer convention in Dublin in November 1783, having taken from the first a leading part in the embodiment of the volunteers; and he was a strong opponent of the proposals for the Union. He died on the 4th of August 1799; his eldest son, who succeeded him, being subsequently (1837) created an English baron.

His _Life_, by F. Hardy, appeared in 1810.

CHARLEROI (_Carolus Rex_), a town in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. Pop. (1904) 26,528. It was founded in 1666 on the site of a village called Charnoy by the Spanish governor Roderigo and named after his sovereign Charles II. of Spain. Charleroi is the centre of the iron industry of Belgium. It is connected by a canal with Brussels, and from its position on the Sambre enjoys facilities of communication by water with France as well as Belgium. It was ceded soon after its foundation to France by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, and Vauban fortified it. During the French occupation the town was considerably extended, and the fortifications were made so strong that Charleroi twice successfully resisted the strenuous attacks of William of Orange. In 1794 Charleroi again fell into the hands of the French, and on this occasion instead of fortifying they dismantled it. In 1816 Charleroi was refortified under Wellington's direction, and it was finally dismantled in 1859. Some portions of the old ramparts are left near the railway station. There is an archaeological museum with a miscellaneous collection of Roman and Frank antiquities.

CHARLEROI, a borough of Washington county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., on the Monongahela river, near the S.W. corner of the state, about 20 m. S. of Pittsburgh. Pop. (1900) 5930, (1749 foreign-born); (1910) 9615. It is served by the Pennsylvania railway. The surrounding country has good farming land and large coal mines. In 1905 the borough ranked fifth among the cities of the United States in the manufacture of glass (plate-glass, lamp chimneys and bottles), its product (valued at $1,841,308) being 2.3% of that of the whole country. Charleroi was settled in 1890 and was incorporated in 1891.

CHARLES (Fr. _Charles_; Span. _Carlos_; Ital. _Carlo_; Ger. _Karl_; derived from O.H.G. _Charal_, latinized as _Carolus_, meaning originally "man": cf. Mod. Ger., _Kerl_, "fellow," A.S. _ceorl_, Mod. Eng. "churl"), a masculine proper name. It has been borne by many European princes, notices of the more important of whom are given below in the following order: (1) Roman emperors, (2) kings of England, (3) other kings in the alphabetical order of their states, (4) other reigning princes in the same order, (5) non-reigning princes. Those princes who are known by a name in addition to Charles (Charles Albert, &c.) will be found after the private individuals bearing Charles as a surname.

CHARLES II.[1] called THE BALD (823-877), Roman emperor and king of the West Franks, was the son of the emperor Louis the Pious and of his second wife Judith and was born in 823. The attempts made by his father to assign him a kingdom, first Alamannia (829), then the country between the Meuse and the Pyrenees (839), at the expense of his half-brothers Lothair and Louis led to a rising on the part of these two (see LOUIS I., the Pious). The death of the emperor in 840 was the signal for the outbreak of war between his sons. Charles allied himself with his brother Louis the German to resist the pretensions of the emperor Lothair, and the two allies conquered him in the bloody victory of Fontenoy-en-Puisaye (25 June 841). In the following year, the two brothers confirmed their alliance by the celebrated oaths of Strassburg, made by Charles in the Teutonic language spoken by the subjects of Louis, and by Louis in the Romance tongue of Charles's subjects. The war was brought to an end by the treaty of Verdun (August 843), which gave to Charles the Bald the kingdom of the western Franks, which practically corresponded with what is now France, as far as the Meuse, the Saone and the Rhone, with the addition of the Spanish March as far as the Ebro. The first years of his reign up to the death of Lothair I. (855) were comparatively peaceful, and during them was continued the system of "confraternal government" of the sons of Louis the Pious, who had various meetings with one another, at Coblenz (848), at Meersen (851), and at Attigny (854). In 858 Louis the German, summoned by the disaffected nobles, invaded the kingdom of Charles, who fled to Burgundy, and was only saved by the help of the bishops, and by the fidelity of the family of the Welfs, who were related to Judith. In 860 he in his turn tried to seize the kingdom of his nephew, Charles of Provence, but met with a repulse. On the death of Lothair II. in 869 he tried to seize his dominions, but by the treaty of Mersen (870) was compelled to share them with Louis the German. Besides this, Charles had to struggle against the incessant rebellions in Aquitaine, against the Bretons, whose revolt was led by their chief Nomenoe and Erispoe, and who inflicted on the king the defeats of Ballon (845) and Juvardeil (851), and especially against the Normans, who devastated the country in the north of Gaul, the valleys of the Seine and Loire, and even up to the borders of Aquitaine. Charles was several times compelled to purchase their retreat at a heavy price. He has been accused of being incapable of resisting them, but we must take into account the unwillingness of the nobles, who continually refused to join the royal army; moreover, the Frankish army does not seem to have been sufficiently accustomed to war to make any headway against the pirates. At any rate, Charles led various expeditions against the invaders, and tried to put a barrier in their way by having fortified bridges built over all the rivers. In 875, after the death of the emperor Louis II., Charles the Bald, supported by Pope John VIII., descended into Italy, receiving the royal crown at Pavia and the imperial crown at Rome (29th December). But Louis the German, who was also a candidate for the succession of Louis II., revenged himself for Charles's success by invading and devastating his dominions. Charles was recalled to Gaul, and after the death of Louis the German (28th August 876), in his turn made an attempt to seize his kingdom, but at Andernach met with a shameful defeat (8th October 876). In the meantime, John VIII., who was menaced by the Saracens, was continually urging him to come to Italy, and Charles, after having taken at Quierzy the necessary measures for safeguarding the government of his dominions in his absence, again crossed the Alps, but this expedition had been received with small enthusiasm by the nobles, and even by Boso, Charles's brother-in-law, who had been entrusted by him with the government of Lombardy, and they refused to come with their men to join the imperial army. At the same time Carlo man, son of Louis the German, entered northern Italy. Charles, ill and in great distress, started on his way back to Gaul, and died while crossing the pass of the Mont Cenis on the 5th or 6th of October 877. He was succeeded by his son Louis the Stammerer, the child of Ermentrude, daughter of a count of Orleans, whom he had married in 842, and who had died in 869. In 870 he had married Richilde, who was descended from a noble family of Lorraine, but none of the children whom he had by her played a part of any importance. Charles seems to have been a prince of education and letters, a friend of the church, and conscious of the support he could find in the episcopate against his unruly nobles, for he chose his councillors for preference from among the higher clergy, as in the case of Guenelon of Sens, who betrayed him, or of Hincmar of Reims. But his character and his reign have been judged very variously. The general tendency seems to have been to accept too easily the accounts of the chroniclers of the east Frankish kingdom, which are favourable to Louis the German, and to accuse Charles of cowardice and bad faith. He seems on the contrary not to have lacked activity or decision.

AUTHORITIES.--The most important authority for the history of
Charles's reign is represented by the _Annales Bertiniani_, which were
the work of Prudentius, bishop of Troyes, up to 861, then up to 882 of
the celebrated Hincmar, archbishop of Reims. This prince's charters
are to be found published in the collections of the _Academie des
Inscriptions_, by M.M. Prou. The most complete history of the reign
is found in E. Dummler, _Geschichte des ostfrankischen Reiches_ (3
vols., Leipzig, 1887-1888). See also J. Calmette, _La Diplomatie
carolingienne du traite de Verdun a la mort de Charles le Chauve_
(Paris, 1901), and F. Lot, "Une Annee du regne de Charles le Chauve,"
in _Le Moyen-Age_, (1902) pp. 393-438.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] For Charles I., Roman emperor, see CHARLEMAGNE; cf. under Charles
I. of France below.

CHARLES III., THE FAT[1] (832-888), Roman emperor and king of the West Franks, was the youngest of the three sons of Louis the German, and received from his father the kingdom of Swabia (Alamannia). After the death of his two brothers in succession, Carloman (881) and Louis the Young (882), he inherited the whole of his father's dominions. In 880 he had helped his two cousins in the west Frankish realm, Louis III. and Carloman, in their struggle with the usurper Boso of Provence, but abandoned them during the campaign in order to be crowned emperor at Rome by Pope John VIII. (February 881). On his return he led an expedition against the Norsemen of Friesland, who were entrenched in their camp at Elsloo, but instead of engaging with them he preferred to make terms and paid them tribute. In 884 the death of Carloman brought into his possession the west Frankish realm, and in 885 he got rid of his rival Hugh of Alsace, an illegitimate son of Lothair II., taking him prisoner by treachery and putting out his eyes. However, in spite of his six expeditions into Italy, he did not succeed in pacifying the country, nor in delivering it from the Saracens. He was equally unfortunate in Gaul and in Germany against the Norsemen, who in 886-887 besieged Paris. The emperor appeared before the city with a large army (October 886), but contented himself by treating with them, buying the retreat of the invaders at the price of a heavy ransom, and his permission for them to ravage Burgundy without his interfering. On his return to Alamannia, however, the general discontent showed itself openly and a conspiracy was formed against him. He was first forced to dismiss his favourite, the chancellor Liutward, bishop of Vercelli. The dissolution of his marriage with the pious empress Richarde, in spite of her innocence as proved by the judicial examination, alienated his nobles still more from him. He was deposed by an assembly which met at Frankfort or at Tribur (November 887), and died in poverty at Neidingen on the Danube (18th January 888).

See E. Dummler, _Geschichte des ostfrankischen Reiches_ vol. iii.
(Leipzig 1888).

FOOTNOTE:

[1] This surname has only been applied to Charles since the 13th
century.

CHARLES IV. (1316-1378), Roman emperor and king of Bohemia, was the eldest son of John of Luxemburg, king of Bohemia, and Elizabeth, sister of Wenceslas III., the last Bohemian king of the Premyslides dynasty. He was born at Prague on the 14th of May 1316, and in 1323 went to the court of his uncle, Charles IV., king of France, and exchanged his baptismal name of Wenceslas for that of Charles. He remained for seven years in France, where he was well educated and learnt five languages; and there he married Blanche, sister of King Philip VI., the successor of Charles IV. In 1331 he gained some experience of warfare in Italy with his father; and on his return to Bohemia in 1333 he was made margrave of Moravia. Three years later he undertook the government of Tirol on behalf of his brother John Henry, and was soon actively concerned in a struggle for the possession of this county. In consequence of an alliance between his father and Pope Clement VI., the relentless enemy of the emperor Louis IV., Charles was chosen German king in opposition to Louis by some of the princes at Rense on the 11th of July 1346. As he had previously promised to be subservient to Clement he made extensive concessions to the pope in 1347. Confirming the papacy in the possession of wide territories, he promised to annul the acts of Louis against Clement, to take no part in Italian affairs, and to defend and protect the church. Meanwhile he had accompanied his father into France and had taken part in the battle of Crecy in August 1346, when John was killed and Charles escaped wounded from the field. As king of Bohemia he returned to Germany, and after being crowned German king at Bonn on the 26th of November 1346, prepared to attack Louis. Hostilities were interrupted by the death of the emperor in October 1347, and Gunther, count of Schwarzburg, who was chosen king by the partisans of Louis, soon abandoned the struggle. Charles, having made good use of the difficulties of his opponents, was recrowned at Aix-la-Chapelle on the 25th of July 1349, and was soon the undisputed ruler of Germany. Gifts or promises had won the support of the Rhenish and Swabian towns; a marriage alliance secured the friendship of the Habsburgs; and that of Rudolph II., count palatine of the Rhine, was obtained when Charles, who had become a widower in 1348, married his daughter Anna.

In 1350 the king was visited at Prague by Cola di Rienzi, who urged him to go to Italy, where the poet Petrarch and the citizens of Florence also implored his presence. Turning a deaf ear to these entreaties, Charles kept Rienzi in prison for a year, and then handed him as a prisoner to Clement at Avignon. Four years later, however, he crossed the Alps without an army, received the Lombard crown at Milan on the 6th of January 1355, and was crowned emperor at Rome by a cardinal on the 5th of April in the same year. His sole object appears to have been to obtain the imperial crown in peace, and in accordance with a promise previously made to Pope Clement he only remained in the city for a few hours, in spite of the expressed wishes of the Romans. Having virtually abandoned all the imperial rights in Italy, the emperor recrossed the Alps, pursued by the scornful words of Petrarch but laden with considerable wealth. On his return Charles was occupied with the administration of Germany, then just recovering from the Black Death, and in 1356 he promulgated the Golden Bull (q.v.) to regulate the election of the king. Having given Moravia to one brother, John Henry, and erected the county of Luxemburg into a duchy for another, Wenceslas, he was unremitting in his efforts to secure other territories as compensation and to strengthen the Bohemian monarchy. To this end he purchased part of the upper Palatinate of the Rhine in 1353, and in 1367 annexed Lower Lusatia to Bohemia and bought numerous estates in various parts of Germany. On the death in 1363 of Meinhard, duke of Upper Bavaria and count of Tirol, Upper Bavaria was claimed by the sons of the emperor Louis IV., and Tirol by Rudolph IV., duke of Austria. Both claims were admitted by Charles on the understanding that if these families died out both territories should pass to the house of Luxemburg. About the same time he was promised the succession to the margraviate of Brandenburg, which he actually obtained for his son Wenceslas in 1373. He also gained a considerable portion of Silesian territory, partly by inheritance through his third wife, Anna, daughter of Henry II., duke of Schweidnitz. In 1365 Charles visited Pope Urban V. at Avignon and undertook to escort him to Rome; and on the same occasion was crowned king of Burgundy, or Arles, at Arles on the 4th of June 1365.

His second journey to Italy took place in 1368, when he had a meeting with Urban at Viterbo, was besieged in his palace at Siena, and left the country before the end of the year 1369. During his later years the emperor took little part in German affairs beyond securing the election of his son Wenceslas as king of the Romans in 1376, and negotiating a peace between the Swabian league and some nobles in 1378. After dividing his lands between his three sons, he died on the 29th of November 1378 at Prague, where he was buried, and where a statue was erected to his memory in 1848.

Charles, who according to the emperor Maximilian I. was the step-father of the Empire, but the father of Bohemia, brought the latter country to a high state of prosperity. He reformed the finances, caused roads to be made, provided for greater security to life and property, and introduced or encouraged various forms of industry. In 1348 he founded the university of Prague, and afterwards made this city the seat of an archbishop, and beautified it by the erection of several fine buildings. He was an accomplished diplomatist, possessed a penetrating intellect, and was capable of much trickery in order to gain his ends. By refusing to become entangled in Italian troubles and confining himself to Bohemia, he proved that he preferred the substance of power to its shadow. Apparently the most pliant of men, he had in reality great persistence of character, and if foiled in one set of plans readily turned round and reached his goal by a totally different path. He was superstitious and peace-loving, had few personal wants, and is described as a round-shouldered man of medium height, with black hair and beard, and sallow cheeks.

His autobiography the "Vita Caroli IV.," which deals with events down
to the year 1346, and various other documents relating to his life and
times, are published in the _Fontes rerum Germanicarum_, Band I.,
edited by J.F. Bohmer (Leipzig, 1885). For other documents relating to
the time see _Die Regesten des Kaiserreichs unter Kaiser Karl IV._,
edited by J.F. Bohmer and A. Huber (Innsbruck, 1889); _Acta Karoli IV.
imperatoris inedita_ (Innsbruck, 1891); E. Werunsky, _Excerpta ex
registris Clementis VI. et Innocentii VI._ (Innsbruck, 1885). See also
E. Werunsky, _Geschichte Kaiser Karls IV. und seiner Zeit_ (Innsbruck,
1880-1892); H. Friedjung, _Kaiser Karl IV. und sein Antheil am
geistigen Leben seiner Zeit_ (Vienna, 1876); A. Gottlob, _Karls IV.
private und politische Beziehungen zu Frankreich_ (Innsbruck, 1883);
O. Winckelmann, _Die Beziehungen Kaiser Karls IV. zum Konigreich
Arelat_ (Strassburg, 1882); K. Palm, "Zu Karls IV. Politik gegen
Baiern," in the _Forschungen zur deutschen Geschichte_, Band XV.
(Gottingen, 1862-1866); Th. Lindner, "Karl IV. und die Wittelsbacher,"
and S. Stienherz, "Die Beziehungen Ludwigs I. von Ungarn zu Karl IV.,"
and "Karl IV. und die osterreichischen Freiheitsbriefe," in the
_Mittheilungen des Instituts fur osterreichische Geschichtsforschung_
(Innsbruck, 1880).

CHARLES V. (1500-1558), Roman emperor and (as CHARLES I.) king of Spain, was born at Ghent on the 24th of February 1500. His parents were Philip of Burgundy and Joanna, third child of Ferdinand and Isabella. Philip died in 1506, and Charles succeeded to his Netherland possessions and the county of Burgundy (Franche Comte). His grandfather, the emperor Maximilian, as regent, appointed his daughter Margaret vice-regent, and under her strenuous guardianship Charles lived in the Netherlands until the estates declared him of age in 1515. In Castile, Ferdinand, king of Aragon, acted as regent for his daughter Joanna, whose intellect was already clouded. On the 23rd of January 1516 Ferdinand died. Charles's visit to Spain was delayed until the autumn of 1517, and only in 1518 was he formally recognized as king conjointly with his mother, firstly by the cortes of Castile, and then by those of Aragon. Joanna lived to the very eve of her son's abdication, so that he was only for some months technically sole king of Spain. During this Spanish visit Maximilian died, and Charles succeeded to the inheritance of the Habsburgs, to which was shortly added the duchy of Wurttemberg. Maximilian had also intended that he should succeed as emperor. In spite of the formidable rivalry of Francis I. and the opposition of Pope Leo X., pecuniary corruption and national feeling combined to secure his election in 1519. Charles hurriedly left Spain, and after a visit to Henry VIII. and his aunt Catherine, was crowned at Aix on the 23rd of October 1520.

The difficulty of Charles's reign consists in the complexity of interests caused by the unnatural aggregate of distinct territories and races. The crown of Castile brought with it the two recently conquered kingdoms of Navarre and Granada, together with the new colonies in America and scattered possessions in northern Africa. That of Aragon comprised the three distinct states of Aragon, Valencia and Catalonia, and in addition the kingdoms of Naples, Sicily and Sardinia, each with a separate character and constitution of its own. No less than eight independent cortes or parliaments existed in this Spanish-Italian group, adding greatly to the intricacy of government. In the Netherland provinces again the tie was almost purely personal; there existed only the rudiments of a central administration and a common representative system, while the county of Burgundy had a history apart. Much the same was true of the Habsburg group of states, but Charles soon freed himself from direct responsibility for their government by making them over, together with Wurttemberg, to his brother Ferdinand. The Empire entailed serious liabilities on its ruler without furnishing any reliable assets: only through the cumbrous machinery of the diet could Charles tap the military and financial resources of Germany. His problem here was complicated by the growth of Lutheranism, which he had to face at his very first diet in 1521. In addition to such administrative difficulties Charles had inherited a quarrel with France, to which the rivalry of Francis I. for the Empire gave a personal character. Almost equally formidable was the advance of Sultan Suliman up the Danube, and the union of the Turkish naval power with that of the Barbary States of northern Africa. Against Lutheran Germany the Catholic emperor might hope to rely upon the pope, and against France on England. But the attitude of the popes was almost uniformly disagreeable, while from Henry VIII. and Edward VI. Charles met with more unpleasantness than favour.

The difficulty of Charles himself is also that of the historian and reader of his reign. It is probably more instructive to treat it according to the emperor's several problems than in strict chronological order. Yet an attempt to distinguish the several periods of his career may serve as a useful introduction. The two best dividing lines are, perhaps, the coronation as emperor at Bologna in 1530, and the peace of Crepy in 1544. Until his visit to Italy (1529) Charles remained in the background of the European stage, except for his momentous meeting with Luther at the diet of Worms (1521). This meeting in itself forms a subdivision. Previously to this, during his nominal rule in the Netherlands, his visit to Spain, and his candidature for the Empire, he seemed, as it was said, spell-bound under the ferule of his minister Chievres. Almost every report represented him as colourless, reserved and weak. His dependence on his Flemish counsellors provoked the rising in Castile, the feebleness of his government the social war in Aragon. The religious question first gave him a living interest, and at this moment Chievres died. Aleander, the papal nuncio at Worms, now recognized that public opinion had been wrong in its estimate of Charles. Never again was he under tutelage. The necessity, however, of residence in Spain prevented his taking a personal part in the great fight with Francis I. for Italy. He could claim no credit for the capture of his rival at Pavia. When his army sacked Rome and held Pope Clement VII. prisoner, he could not have known where this army was. And when later the French overran Naples, and all but deprived him of his hold on Italy, he had to instruct his generals that they must shift for themselves. The world had become afraid of him, but knew little of his character. In the second main division of his career Charles changed all this. No monarch until Napoleon was so widely seen in Europe and in Africa. Complexity of problems is the characteristic of this period. At the head of his army Charles forced the Turks backwards down the Danube (1532). He personally conquered Tunis (1535), and was only prevented by "act of God" from winning Algiers (1541). The invasion of Provence in 1536 was headed by the emperor. In person he crushed the rebellion of Ghent (1540). In his last war with Francis (1542-44) he journeyed from Spain to the Netherlands, brought the rebellious duke of Cleves to his knees, and was within easy reach of Paris when he made the peace of Crepy (1544). In Germany, meanwhile, from the diet of Augsburg (1530) onwards, he had presided at the diets or conferences, which, as he hoped, would effect the reunion of the church.

Peace with France and the Turk and a short spell of friendliness with Pope Paul III. enabled Charles at last to devote his whole energies to the healing of religious schism. Conciliation proving impossible, he led the army which received the submission of the Lutheran states, and then captured the elector of Saxony at Muhlberg, after which the other leader, Philip of Hesse, capitulated. The Armed Diet of 1548 was the high-water mark of Charles's power. Here, in defiance of the pope, he published the Interim which was meant to reconcile the Lutherans with the church, and the so-called Reform which was to amend its abuses. During the next four years, owing to ill-health and loss of insight, his power was ebbing. In 1552 he was flying over the Brenner from Maurice of Saxony, a princeling whose fortunes he had made. Once again the old complications had arisen. His old enemy's son, Henry II., had attacked him indirectly in Piedmont and Parma, and then directly in Germany in alliance with Maurice. Once more the Turk was moving in the Danube and in the western Mediterranean. The humiliation of his flight gave Charles new spirit, and he once more led an army through Germany against the French, only to be checked by the duke of Guise's defence of Metz. Henceforth the waves of his fortune plashed to and fro until his abdication without much ostensible loss or gain.

Charles had abundance of good sense, but little creative genius, and he was by nature conservative. Consequently he never sought to impose any new or common principles of administration on his several states. He took them as he found them, and at most, as in the Netherlands, improved upon what he found. So also in dealing with rival powers his policy may be called opportunist. He was indeed accused by his enemies of emulating Charlemagne, of aiming at universal empire. Historians have frequently repeated this charge. Charles himself in later life laughingly denied the imputation, and facts are in favour of his denial. When Francis I. was in his power he made no attempt to dismember France, in spite of his pledges to his allies Henry VIII. and the duke of Bourbon. He did, indeed, demand the duchy of Burgundy, because he believed this to have been unrighteously stolen by Louis XI. from his grandmother when a helpless girl. The claim was not pressed, and at the height of his fortunes in 1548 he advised his son never to surrender it, but also never to make it a cause of war. When Clement VII. was his prisoner, he was vehemently urged to overthrow the temporal power, to restore imperial dominion in Italy, at least to make the papacy harmless for the future. In reply he restored his enemy to the whole of his dominions, even reimposing him by force on the Florentine republic. To the end of his life his conscience was sensitive as to Ferdinand's expulsion of the house of Albret from Spanish Navarre, though this was essential to the safety of Spain. Though always at war he was essentially a lover of peace, and all his wars were virtually defensive. "Not greedy of territory," wrote Marcantonio Contarini in 1536, "but most greedy of peace and quiet." For peace he made sacrifices which angered his hot-headed brother Ferdinand. He would not aid in expelling the sultan's puppet Zapolya from Ferdinand's kingdom of Hungary, and he suffered the restoration of the ruffianly duke of Wurttemberg, to the grave prejudice of German Catholicism. In spite of his protests, Henry VIII. with impunity ill-treated his aunt Catherine, and the feeble government of Edward VI. bullied his cousin Mary, who had been his fiancee. No serious efforts were made to restore his brother-in-law, Christian II., to the throne of Denmark, and he advised his son Philip to make friends with the usurper. After the defeat of the Lutheran powers in 1547 he did not gain a palm's breadth of territory for himself. He resisted Ferdinand's claim for Wurttemberg, which the duke had deserved to forfeit; he disliked his acceptance of the voluntary surrender of the city of Constance; he would not have it said that he had gone to war for the benefit of the house of Habsburg.

On the other hand, Charles V.'s policy was not merely negative. He enlarged upon the old Habsburg practice of marriage as a means of alliance of influence. Previously to his election as emperor, his sister Isabella was married to Christian II. of Denmark, and the marriages of Mary and Ferdinand with the king of Hungary and his sister had been arranged. Before he was twenty Charles himself had been engaged some ten times with a view to political combinations. Naturally, therefore, he regarded his near relations as diplomatic assets. The federative system was equally familiar; Germany, the Netherlands, and even Spain, were in a measure federations. Combining these two principles, he would within his more immediate spheres of influence strengthen existing federations by intermarriage, while he hoped that the same means would convert the jarring powers of Europe into a happy family. He made it a condition of the treaty of Madrid (1526) that Francis I. should marry his sister Eleanor, Manuel of Portugal's widow, in the hope, not that she would be an ally or a spy within the enemy's camp, but an instrument of peace. His son's marriage with Mary Tudor would not only salve the rubs with England, but give such absolute security to the Netherlands that France would shrink from war. The personal union of all the Iberian kingdoms under a single ruler had long been an aim of Spanish statecraft. So Charles had married his sister Eleanor, much against her will, to the old king Manuel, and then his sister Catherine to his successor. The empress was a Portuguese infanta, and Philip's first wife was another. It is thus small wonder that, within a quarter of a century of Charles's death, Philip became king of Portugal.

In the wars with Francis I. Italy was the stake. In spite of his success Charles for long made no direct conquests. He would convert the peninsula into a federation mainly matrimonial. Savoy, the important buffer state, was detached from France by the marriage of the somewhat feeble duke to Charles's capable and devoted sister-in-law, Beatrice of Portugal. Milan, conquered from France, was granted to Francesco Sforza, heir of the old dynasty, and even after his treason was restored to him. In the vain hope of offspring Charles sacrificed his niece, Christina of Denmark, to the valetudinarian duke. In the long negotiations for a Habsburg-Valois dynasty which followed Francesco's death, Charles was probably sincere. He insisted that his daughter or niece should marry the third rather than the second son of Francis I., in order, apart from other reasons, to run less risk of the duchy falling under French dominion. The final investiture of Philip was forced upon him, and does not represent his saner policy. The Medici of Florence, the Gonzaga of Mantua, the papal house of Farnese, were all attached by Habsburg marriages. The republics of Genoa and Siena were drawn into the circle through the agency of their chief noble families, the Doria and Piccolomini; while Charles behaved with scrupulous moderation towards Venice in spite of her active hostility before and after the League of Cognac. Occasional acts of violence there were, such as the participation in the murder of Pierluigi Farnese, and the measures which provoked the rebellion of Siena. These were due to the difficulty of controlling the imperial agents from a distance, and in part to the faults of the victim prince and republic. On the whole, the loose federation of viceroyalties and principalities harmonized with Italian interests and traditions. The alternative was not Italian independence, but French domination. At any rate, Charles's structure was so durable that the French met with no real success in Italy until the 18th century.

Germany offered a fine field for a creative intellect, since the evils of her disintegration stood confessed. On the other hand, princes and towns were so jealous of an increase of central authority that Charles, at least until his victory over the League of Schmalkalden, had little effective power. Owing to his wars with French and Turks he was rarely in Germany, and his visits were very short. His problem was infinitely complicated by the union of Lutheranism and princely independence. He fell back on the old policy of Maximilian, and strove to create a party by personal alliances and intermarriage. In this he met with some success. The friendship of the electors of Brandenburg, whether Catholic or Protestant, was unbroken. In the war of Schmalkalden half the Protestant princes were on Charles's side or friendly neutrals. At the critical moment which preceded this, the lately rebellious duke of Cleves and the heir of Bavaria were secured through the agency of two of Ferdinand's invaluable daughters. The relations, indeed, between the two old enemies, Austria and Bavaria, were permanently improved. The elector palatine, whose love affairs with his sister Eleanor Charles as a boy had roughly broken, received in compensation a Danish niece. Her sister, widow of Francesco Sforza, was utilized to gain a hold upon the French dynasty which ruled Lorraine. More than once there were proposals for winning the hostile house of Saxony by matrimonial means. After his victory over the League of Schmalkalden, Charles perhaps had really a chance of making the imperial power a reality. But he lacked either courage or imagination, contenting himself with proposals for voluntary association on the lines of the defunct Swabian League, and dropping even these when public opinion was against them. Now, too, he made his great mistake in attempting to foist Philip upon the Empire as Ferdinand's successor. Gossip reported that Ferdinand himself was to be set aside, and careless historians have given currency to this. Such an idea was impossible. Charles wished Philip to succeed Ferdinand, while he ultimately conceded that Ferdinand's son Maximilian should follow Philip, and even in his lifetime exercise the practical power in Germany. This scheme irritated Ferdinand and his popular and ambitious son at the critical moment when it was essential that the Habsburgs should hold together against princely malcontents. Philip was imprudently introduced to Germany, which had also just received a foretaste of the unpleasant characteristics of Spanish troops. Yet the person rather than the policy was, perhaps, at fault. It was natural that the quasi-hereditary succession should revert to the elder line. France proved her recuperative power by the occupation of Savoy and of Metz, Toul and Verdun, the military keys of Lorraine. The separation of the Empire and Spain left two weakened powers not always at accord, and neither of them permanently able to cope on equal terms with France. Nevertheless, this scheme did contribute in no small measure to the failure of Charles in Germany. The main cause was, of course, the religious schism, but his treatment of this requires separate consideration.

The characteristics of Charles's government, its mingled conservatism and adaptability, are best seen in Spain and the Netherlands, with which he was in closer personal contact than with Italy and Germany. In Spain, when once he knew the country, he never repeated the mistakes which on his first visit caused the rising of the communes. The cortes of Castile were regularly summoned, and though he would allow no encroachment on the crown's prerogatives, he was equally scrupulous in respecting their constitutional rights. They became, perhaps, during the reign slightly more dependent on the crown. This has been ascribed to the system of gratuities which in later reigns became a scandal, but was not introduced by Charles, and as yet amounted to little more than the payment of members' expenses. Indirectly, crown influence increased owing to the greater control which had gradually been exercised over the composition of the municipal councils, which often returned the deputies for the cortes. Charles was throughout nervous as to the power and wealth of the greater nobles. They rather than the crown had conquered the communes, and in the past they rather than the towns had been the enemies of monarchy. He earnestly warned his son against giving them administrative power, especially the duke of Alva, who in spite of his sanctimonious and humble bearing cherished the highest ambitions: in foreign affairs and war he might be freely used, for he was Spain's best soldier. In the cortes of 1538 Charles came into collision with the nobles as a class. They usually attended only on ceremonial occasions, since they were exempted from direct taxation, which was the main function of the cortes. Now, however, they were summoned, because Charles was bent upon a scheme of indirect taxation which would have affected all classes. They offered an uncompromising opposition, and Charles somewhat angrily dismissed them, nor did he ever summon them again. The peculiar Spanish system of departmental councils was further developed, so that it may be said that the bureaucratic element was slightly increasing just as the parliamentary element was on the wane. The evils of this tendency were as yet scarcely apparent owing to Charles's personal intervention in all departments. The councils presented their reports through the minister chiefly concerned; Charles heard their advice, and formed his own conclusions. He impressed upon Philip that he should never become the servant of his ministers: let him hear them all but decide himself. Naturally enough, he was well served by his ministers, whom he very rarely changed. After the death of the Piedmontese Gattinara he relied mainly on Nicolas Perrenot de Granvella for Netherland and German affairs, and on Francisco de los Cobos for Spanish, while the younger Granvella was being trained. From 1520 to 1555 these were the only ministers of high importance. Above all, Charles never had a court favourite, and the only women who exercised any influence were his natural advisers, his wife, his aunt Margaret and his sister Mary. In all these ladies he was peculiarly fortunate. Charles was never quite popular in Spain, but the empress whom he married at his people's request was much beloved. Complaints were made of his absenteeism, but until 1543 he spent the greater portion of his reign in Spain, or on expeditions such as those against Tunis and Algiers which were distinctively in Spanish interests. Spaniards disliked his Netherland and German connexions, but without the vigorous blows which these enabled him to strike at France, it is improbable that Spain could have retained her hold on Italy, or her monopoly of commerce with the Indies. The wars with Francis I. were, in spite of the rival candidature for the Empire, Spanish wars entailed by Ferdinand's retention of Roussillon, his annexation of Navarre, his summary eviction of the French from Naples. The Netherlands had become convinced on commercial grounds of the wisdom of peace with France, and the German interest in Milan was not sufficiently active to be a standing cause of war. Charles and Francis had inherited the hostility of Ferdinand and Louis XII.

The reign of Charles was in America the age of conquest and organization. Upon his accession the settlements upon the mainland were insignificant; by 1556 conquest was practically complete, and civil and ecclesiastical government firmly established. Actual expansion was the work of great adventurers starting on their own impulse from the older colonies. To Charles fell the task of encouraging such ventures, of controlling the conquerors, of settling the relations between colonists and natives, which involved those between the colonists and the missionary colonial church. He must arrest depopulation, provide for the labour market, regulate oceanic trade, and check military preponderance by civil and ecclesiastical organization. In America Charles took an unceasing interest; he had a boundless belief in its possibilities, and a determination to safeguard the interests of the crown. Cortes, Alvarado and the brothers Pizarro were brought into close personal communication with the emperor. If he bestowed on Cortes the confidence which the loyal conqueror deserved, he showed the sternest determination in crushing the rebellious and autonomous instincts of Almagro and the Pizarros. But for this, Peru and Chile must have become independent almost as soon as they were conquered. Throughout he strove to protect the natives, to prevent actual slavery, and the consequent raids upon the natives. Legislation was not, indeed, always consistent, because the claims of the colonists could not always be resisted, but on the whole he gave earnest support to the missionaries, who upheld the cause of the natives against the military, and sometimes the civil and ecclesiastical elements. His humane care for his native subjects may well be studied in the instructions sent to Philip from Germany in 1548, when Charles was at the summit of his power. If Charles had had his will, he would have opened the colonial trade to the whole of his wide possessions. The Castilians, however, jealously confined it to the city of Seville, artificially fostering the indolence of the colonists to maintain the agricultural and manufacturing monopoly of Castile, and by extreme protective measures forcing them to live on smuggled goods from other countries. Charles did actually attempt to cure the exclusive interest of the colonists in mineral wealth by the establishment of peasant and artisan colonies. If in many respects he failed, yet the organization of Spanish America and the survival of the native races were perhaps the most permanent results of his reign. It is a proof of the complexity of his interests that the march of the Turk upon Vienna and of the French on Naples delayed until the following reign the foundation of Spain's eastern empire. Charles carefully organized the expedition of Magellan, which sailed for the Moluccas and discovered the Philippines. Unfortunately, his straits for money in 1529 compelled him to mortgage to Portugal his disputed claim to the Moluccas, and the Philippines consequently dropped out of sight.

If in the administration of Spain Charles did little more than mark time, in the Netherlands advance was rapid. Of the seven northern provinces he added five, containing more than half the area of the later United Provinces. In the south he freed Flanders and Artois from French suzerainty, annexed Tournai and Cambrai, and closed the natural line of French advance through the great bishopric of Liege by a line of fortresses across its western frontier. Much was done to convert the aggregate of jarring provinces into a harmonious unity by means of common principles of law and finance, and by the creation of a national army. While every province had its own assembly, there were at Charles's accession only the rudiments of estates general for the Netherlands at large. At the close of the reign the common parliamentary system was in full swing, and was fast converting the loosely knit provinces into a state. By these means the ruler had wished to facilitate the process of supply, but supply soon entailed redress, and the provinces could recognize their common interests and grievances. Under Philip II. all patriotic spirits passionately turned to this creation of his father as the palladium of Netherland liberty. This process of consolidation was infinitely difficult, and conflicts between local and central authorities were frequent. That they were safely tided over was due to Charles's moderation and his legal mind, which prompted him to draw back when his case was bad. The harshest act of his life was the punishment of the rebellion of Ghent. Yet the city met with little or no sympathy in other quarters, because she had refused to act in concert with the other members of Flanders and the other provinces. It was no mere local quarrel, but a breach of the growing national unity.

In the Netherlands Charles showed none of the jealousy with which he regarded the Spanish nobles. He encouraged the growth of large estates through primogeniture; he gave the nobles the provincial governorships, the great court offices, the command of the professional cavalry. In the Order of the Golden Fleece and the long established presence of the court at Brussels, he possessed advantages which he lacked in Spain. The nobility were utilized as a link between the court and the provinces. Very different was it with the church. By far the greater part of the Netherlands fell under foreign sees, which were peculiarly liable to papal exactions and to the intrigues of rival powers. Thus the usual conflict between civil and ecclesiastical jurisdiction was peculiarly acute. To remedy this dualism of authority and the consequent moral and religious abuses, Charles early designed the creation of a national diocesan system, and this was a darling project throughout his life. He was doing what every German territorial prince, Catholic or Lutheran, attempted, making bishoprics and abbeys dependent on the crown, with nomination and institution in his hands, and with reasonable control over taxation and jurisdiction. The papacy unfortunately thwarted him, and the scheme, which under Charles would have been carried with national assent, and created a national church, took the appearance under Philip of alien domination.