Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 02.djvu/493

LEFT CHARLES V. 429 CHARLES VII. daughter of Charles the Bold, last duke of Burgfundy, and inherited from his grandparents on both sides Aragon, Naples, Sicily, Sardinia, Castile, and the colonies in the New World, Austria, Bur- gundy, and the Netherlands, On the death of Ferdinand, his grandfather, Charles assumed the title of King of Spain. In 1519 he was elected emperor, and was crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle with extraordinary splendor. The progress of the Reformation in Germany de- manded the care of the new emperor, who held a diet at Worms. Luther, who appeared at this diet with a safe-con- duct from Charles, defended his case with energy and boldness. The emperor kept silent; but after Luther's departure a severe edict appeared against him in the name of Charles, who thought it his interest to declare himself the defender of the Roman Church. A war with France, which the rival claims of Fran- cis I. in Italy, the Netherlands, and Na- varre made inevitable, broke out in 1521. Neither side had a decided suecess till the battle of Pavia in 1525, where Fran- cis was totally defeated and taken pris- oner. Charles treated his captive with respect, but with great rigor as regarded the conditions of his release. A league of Italian states, headed by Pope Clem- ent VII., was now formed against the overgrown power of Charles, but their ill-directed efforts had no success. Rome itself was stormed and pillaged by the troops of the Constable of Bourbon, and the Pope made prisoner. Nor was the alliance of Henry VIII. of England with Francis against the emperor any more successful, the war ending in a treaty (Cambray, 1529), of which the condi- tions were favorable to Charles. A war against the Turks by which Solyman was compelled to retreat, and an expedition against the Dey of Tunis by which 20,000 Christian slaves were released, added to the influence of Charles, and acquired for him the reputation of a chivalrous defender of the faith. In 1537 he made truce with Francis, and soon after, while on his way to the Neth- erlands, spent six days at the court of the latter in Paris. In 1541 another ex- pedition against the African Moors, by which Charles hoped to crown his repu- tation, was unsuccessful, and he lost a part of his fleet and army before Algiers without gaining any advantage. A new war with France arose regarding the territory of Milan. The quarrel was patched up by the peace of Crespy in 1545. The religious strife was again dis- turbing the emperor. Charles, who was no bigot, sought to reconcile the two par- ties, and with this view alternately 28 — courted and threatened the Protestants. At length in 1546 the Protestant princes declared war, but were driven from the field and compelled to submit. But the defection of his ally, Maurice of Saxony, whom Charles had invested with the elec- toral dignity, again turned the tide in favor of the Protestants. Maurice sur- prised the imperial camp at Innsbruck in the middle of a stormy night, and Charles with great difficulty escaped alone in a litter. The Treaty of Passau was dictated by the Protestants. It gave them equal rights with the Catholics, and was confirmed three years later by the diet of Augsburg (1555). Foiled in his schemes and dejected with repeated failures, Charles resolved to resign the imperial dignity, and transfer his heredi- tary estates to his son Philip. In 1555 he conferred on him the sovereignty of the Netherlands, and on Jan. 15, 1556, that of Spain, retiring himself to a resi- dence beside the monastery of Yuste m Estremadura, where he amused himself by mechanical labors and the cultivation of a garden. He died Sept. 21, 1558. CHARLES VI., born in 1685, second son of Leopold I., and was destined by his father to the crown of Spain. On the death of Charles II. in that country, his testamentary heir, the Duke d Anjou, assumed the sovereignty under the title of Philip v.; and Charles VI., aided by England, Holland, and Portugal, was engaged in a protracted and fluctuating struggle with that prince (known in his- tory as the War of the Spanish Succes- sion), when the death of his brother Jo- seph I. called him to the imperial throne, in 1711, to which he added the crown of Hungary in the following year. The peace of Utrecht, in 1713, secured to his rival in Spain the rule of that country, and left Charles VI. to employ his fa- mous general. Prince Eugene, for the defense of Venice against the Tu^'^^' Subsequent wars, consequent on the dis- puted succession in Poland, involved the loss of considerable territory, and, at the peace of Belgrade, in 1739, Charles VI. was compelled to cede Serbia and Wallachia to Turkey. He died m 1740. CHARLES VII., bom in 1697, the eldest son of Maximilian Emanuel, Elec- tor of Bavaria, and was crowned em- peror of Germany in 1742. During the three succeeding years, that country was the scene of one hot and continuous con- test, known in history as the War of the Austrian Succession, in which Charles Vli., who owed his crown to the in- trigues and influence of his allies, France and Prussia, had to defend its possession against the legitimate claim of Maria -Vol. II — Cyc