Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/430

418 terrible system of religious policy which led the different branches of his house into the fatal crusade against the Reformation, set one-half of Christendom in arms against the other, and psrmanently arrested the development of Southern E irope. As to Luther and the Diet of Worms he regretted that respect for human engagements had led him to forget his duty to God in permitting the arch-heretic to escape, but congratulated himself that he had never exposed his soul to contamination by hearing the new doctrines defended -in his presence, as if ignorance were the only sure safeguard of truth. At the same time, those who would see in this proof of a blood-thirsty disposition entirely mistake the character of Charles or the state of the Spanish conscience. Charles was neither cruel nor cold by nature; he was popular among all classes and nationalities of his subjects, clement to rebels, revered by his immediate attendants, loved by the members of his own family, and deeply attached to his wife. Conscious that he was by divine right the political head of Christendom, he did not evade or depreciate the duties such a position imposed, but exerted himself to the utmost and in a religious spirit to fulfil them, though by no means unwilling to employ all the arts permitted by the statesmanship of the time. In fact he lulfillsd better than most men the mission which his experience and position imposed and his education enabled him to comprehend, and of this he considered the suppression of opinion destructive of the church the most indispensable part, quite as obligatory as the defence of Christendom against the Turks and the corsairs, more so than the assertion of his imperial dignity against the Pope, or of the rights of the house of Austria against the French. But his conscientious conviction of the necessity of sup pressing heresy neutralized all the excellencies of his character. It was not so much in what he did, as in what he was not permitted to do, that his reign was helpful to the civilization of mod?rn Europe.

1em 1em  CHARLES VI. (1685-1740), emperor, was the second son of Leopold I. As the only male representative of the house of Hapsburg, he claimed the throne of Spain, which was left by Charles II. to Philip, duke of Anjou, grandson of Louis XIV. ; and in order to prevent the predominance of the house of Bourbon, England, Holland, Prussia, Germany, and Portugal gave him their support. In 1703 he was proclaimed at Vienna ; and having, after a visit to England, invaded Spain, with the assistance of an English fleet under Peterborough and an English land-force under the earl of Galway, he was proclaimed king in Madrid in 1706. He himsslf remained at Barcelona ; and the war continued with -vary ing success, till the death of his brother, the Emperor Joseph I., in 1711, produced the most im portant changes in the policy of the allied European powers. They became as much afraid of the supremacy of the house of Hapsburg as they had formerly been of that of Bourbon; and in 1713, by the treaty of Utrecht, they made peace with France. In the next year Charles was obliged to follow their example, and by the treaty of Rastadt he gave up all to Philip except the Spanish possessions in the Netherlands and Italy. In 1715 Charles undertook the defence of Venice against the Turks ; his general, Prince Eugene, gained some considerable successes, including the victory of Belgrade ; and, at the conclusion of peace in 171S, he added Bslgrade, and parts of Servia, Slavonia, Bosnia, and Wallachia to the empire. He was next engaged in meeting an attack on his Italian territory made by Spain, whose policy was then directed by Alberoni ; and, with the assistance of England, France, and Holland, he was speedily successful. After this for several years all his efforts were spent in endeavouring to obtain the recognition by the European powers of his Pragmatic Sanction of 1713, which settled the succession on his daughter, Maria Theresa, and her heirs. By ceding Parma and Piacenza, Charles purchased the favour of Spain, and he afterwards in a similar manner acquired the alliance of Russia and Prussia. But England, France, Denmark, -and Holland united to oppose him ; and it was only at the cost of considerable sacrifices that he at length, in a conference held at Vienna in 1731, obtained their recognition of his scheme. One of the promises which he then made was to secure the succession to the crown of Poland to the son of the reigning king ; and on the death of the latter he was consequently involved in a war with France, Spain, and Sardinia, which supported a rival claimant. In this struggle he lost Milan, Lorraine, and most of Lombardy, which were seized by the French, together with the two Sicilies, which were conquered by the Spaniards. His last war, against the Turks, was equally unfortunate. He died in 1740, leaving the empire considerably weakened by his reign.  CHARLES VII. (1697-1745), emperor, also known by the name of Charles Albert, was the son of Maximilian Emmanuel, elector of Bavaria. He was taken from home while a child by the Emperor Joseph I., who had outlawed his father, and seized Bavaria ; and he was not liberated till the conclusion of the treaty of Rastadt in 1714. He commanded against the Turks in the war which the Emperor Charles VI. undertook in order to protect the Venetians, In 1722 he obtained in marriage the second daughter of the late Emperor Joseph, after renouncing all claims to the imperial crown. But when he succeeded to he electorate of Bavaria (1726), he refused to recognize the Pragmatic Sanction ; and on the death of Charles VI. he gained the alliance of France and Spain, proclaimed himself king of Bohemia, and, having obtained his own unanimous election, was crowned as emperor at Frankfort in 1742. The Hungarians, however, having espoused the cause of Maria Theresa, she was enabled to occupy Upper Austria and Bohemia, and Charles was forced to retire. In the next year his general, Seckendorf, met with some success, and in 1744 Frederick of Prussia invaded Bohemia in his interest. Charles died at Munich in 1745.  CHARLES I. of. See.  CHARLES II. (1661-1700), king of Spain, son of Philip IV., was only four years old at the death of his father. The regency was left in the hands of the queen, Anna Maria of Austria. She appointed a council, at the head of which she placed Neidhard, her confessor, whom she also made grand inquisitor. But Don John, the illegitimate son of the late king, having gained great popularity by his military successes, marched on Madrid, and forced her to dismiss Neidhard, and give to himself the vice-royalty of Aragon. An unsuccessful war with France, and the loss of Sicily further weakened her power; and in 1675 