Chapter XIV: Part VI: After the Reformation (8)

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.