Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/437

Rh obliged to undergo. Comines (seeing, as he tells us, that his master was madly rushing to destruction, but, as we can perceive, also affected by the promises of Louis) went over to the court of France. The king was now bold enough to reverse his hypocritical policy, and deny the validity of the treaty which he had signed under constraint at Peronne ; and the towns on the Somme, never loyal to Burgundy, were reattached to France. The consequent war was, however, carried on by Charles with his usual success and his usual extravagance of severity. His ambition and his policy were now changed. He cared no longer to make the lords independent of the king, but aimed at erecting a kingdom with himself as indepen dent sovereign. Circumstances enabled him to obtain the reversion of Gueldres ; and he entered into negotiations with the Emperor Frederick, to whose son he agreed to marry his daughter on condition that he should himself be elected king of the Romans. The emperor proposed instead to crown him king of Burgundy. A meeting, enlivened by a protracted round of gorgeous jousts and feasts, was held at Treves (1473), in order to carry out the latter proposal ; but the electors mada a protest to Frederick, who was not remarkable for decision, and persuaded him to flee secretly by night. ln 1469 Sigisrnund, duke of Austria, being in great financial difficulty, had sold Alsaoe to Charles. The governor appointed by the latter was Peter von Hagenbach. His boldness as a soldier, his rough shrewdness, and his capacity for strong government had recommended him ; but horrible stories were told of his brutality, his licence, and his blasphemies, He did indeed terrify the country into order, but his severity at length excited people and nobles alike against him, and he was tortured and condemned to death by a court of deputies, repre senting the Alsatian towns, with Bern, and one or two others. Charles did not fail to take signal ven geance, and the country was given up to indiscriminate slaughter and devastation. Bat he was now surrounded by powerful and determined enemies. He had himself refused to renew the treaty with Louis, who had on his part purchased the alliance of the Swiss. Sigismund of Austria, now desirous of redeeming Alsace, but having no objection to save his money., had been concerned in the rebellion of that province, and afterwards openly joined the French. But, notwithstanding all this, and in spite of the prohibitions and threats of the emperor, Charles pre pared for the invasion of Cologne, in support of its bishop- ruler, by whose means he expected to bring the city under his own control. As a preliminary he attacked the strong town of Neuss. For eleven months it appeared that nothing could tear him from the siege. The Swiss routed his army, and ravaged Franche-Comte&quot; ; the French army laid waste his territory and pillaged his towns ; the emperor opposed him with a large force ; the Pope commanded him to desist. At length he came to an understanding with the emperor. Neuss was put under a papal legate, and the fate of Cologne was left in the hands of the Holy Father (June 1475). Immediately after this the English landed at Calais, but only to sign a treaty of peace with Louis at Picquigny. Yet Charles did not give up heart ; and an important acquisition was made in the conquest of Lorraine. Again the Swiss took the aggressive, and possessed them selves of the Pays de Vaud. Notwithstanding his capture of Grandson, Charles was plainly overmatched ; and, in 1476, he was utterly routed by them at Morat with immense slaughter. Still with no thought of yielding, he devoted himself with all his energy to raise and organize a fresh army. In a few months he was once more ready for war. Rene&quot; had meanwhile recovered Nancy ; but soon, through the cowardice of the Alsatians, he was deserted, and his capital was invested by Charles. But Rene s triumph was at hand. The assistance of the Swiss was gained, and the Burgundians were attacked by an enemy they could not resist. On the 5th of January 1477 the battle took place. The Burgundians were scattered, and next day the massive body of Charles the Bold was found in a ditch, mutilated by several deadly wounds. It was buried at Nancy, but in 1550 his remains were r.emoved to Bruges by Charles V.

1em  CHARLES ALBERT (1798-1849), king of Sardinia, was the son of Charles Emmanuel of Savoy Carignano. In his youth Charles became attached to the national party in Italy, and even formed a connection with the Carbonari. In 1821 Victor Emmanuel, on his abdication, appointed him regent ; and he now availed himself of the oppor tunity for carrying out a liberal policy. He confirmed the constitution which had lately been established on the model of the new Spanish constitution, and which con sisted of an assembly of one chamber, with a king de prived of the right of veto and of almost all real power. The approach of the Austrian?, however, and the declaration of the new king, Charles Felix, refusing to recognize his acts, caused him to flee secretly from Turin after holding the regency little more than a week, and he was afterwards forbidden to enter the Sardinian court. In 1823 he served as a volunteer in the French army which invaded Spain in order to overthrow its new constitution ; and by thus de serting his principles he obtained permission to return to Turin. He was for a few months, in 1829, viceroy of Sardinia ; and in 1831 he succeeded Charles Felix on the throne. He felt obliged to resort to severe measures in order to secure his throne against the secret societies, of which the chief at that time was the society of &quot; Young Italy,&quot; which had been founded by Mazziui. In 1847 risings took place in Sicily, Rome, Tuscany, and Naples; the Austrians were expelled from Milan, and the people of Piedmont gained the re-establishment of the constitution which Charles had advocated in his youth. At the same time Charles greatly increased the freedom of the press. Daring the next year he marched against the Austrians, who had already been broken by defeat, and who at once retreated. On the last day of April 1848 he won the victory of Pastrengo, and in the end of May, that of Goito. Bat two months after he was defeated at Custozza by Marshal Radetsky, and forced to retire to Milan, where he made an armistice with the Austrians, and, contrary to his promise, surrendered the city. On the expiration of the truce Charles again took up arms. A battle ensued with Radetsky at Noyara, in which the Piedmontese army was rapidly and completely routed, though the king risked his life bravely, and some thought even desperately. An armistice was again sought, but the terms offered by Austria were such that Charles abdicated in favour of his son Victor Emmanuel II. He died four months later, on 28th July 1849. Charles did what he could to further commerce and to popularize art and science, and appears, notwithstanding apparent inconsistencies, to have sincerely desired the good of his people.  CHARLES AUGUSTUS (1757-1828), grand-duke of Saxe-Weimar, having been early deprived of his father, was educated under the governorship of Count Gortz, and among his tutors were Wieland, Knebel, Seidler, and Hermann. At seventeen he commenced his friendship with Goethe, who afterwards joined Schiller, Wieland, and Herder in forming the company of men of genius that dis tinguished his court, Charles assumed the direction of the government at the age of eighteen ; and in the next year 