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CHA indignation throughout Germany. The ambition, arrogance, and rapacity now displayed by the emperor amid the intoxications of his success, alarmed not only the protestants, but even the pope himself; a scheme called the Interim, which Charles published with the view of conciliating the rival parties, roused the violent hostility of both; and Maurice of Saxony, who bitterly resented the harsh and perfidious treatment of his father-in-law, the landgrave of Hesse, and the disregard of his own reiterated applications to Charles for his release, entered into a secret alliance with the other protestant princes of Germany, for their mutual protection against the arbitrary designs of the emperor. Maurice acted with consummate skill, and successfully employed various artifices to deceive Charles as to his real intentions, and to gain time for maturing his schemes. So dexterously did he conceal his operations from his wary and suspicious superior, that his machinations remained entirely unsuspected, until his plans were ripe for execution. At length, in 1552, he suddenly threw off the mask, took the field at the head of a powerful army, for the purpose of securing the protestant religion, maintaining the constitution and laws of the empire, and delivering his father-in-law from his long and unjust imprisonment. So rapid were his movements, that he had nearly surprised Charles himself, who was living in security at Innspruck; and it was only by a rapid flight over the Alps by roads almost impassable, amid the darkness of a stormy night, that the bewildered and mortified emperor escaped being taken prisoner. At this juncture too, Henry II., the new king of France, resumed hostilities against his father's unscrupulous enemy. In these circumstances, Charles was compelled to relinquish all the advantages he had wrested from the protestant confederacy, and to sign the treaty of Passau, August 1552, by which the free exercise of their religion was secured to all the adherents of the reformed faith.

The war with France still continued, but the issue proved disastrous to the imperialists, who lost several towns, and Charles himself totally failed in his attempt upon Metz, which he besieged with an army of one hundred thousand men. "Fortune," he said, "resembled other females, and strove to confer her favours on young men, while she turned her back on those who were advanced in years." In 1554; he bestowed on his son Philip the crowns of Naples and Sicily, on his marriage with Mary, queen of England. In the following year, Joanna of Spain died, after having been insane for nearly fifty years; and Charles, disgusted with the reverses of fortune which had clouded his latter days, and oppressed by sickness, resolved to carry into effect a resolution which he had formed many years before, to resign his dominions to his brother and his son. Having assembled the states of the Low Countries at Brussels, 25th October, 1555, he surrendered to his son Philip the sovereignty of the Netherlands. "From the seventeenth year of his age," he said, "he had devoted all his thoughts and attention to public objects, reserving no portion of his time for the indulgence of his ease, and very little for the enjoyment of private pleasure. He had visited Germany nine times, Spain six times, France four, Italy seven, Flanders ten times, England twice, Africa as often, and had made eleven voyages by sea. He had never shunned labour nor repined under fatigue; but now, when his health was broken, and his vigour exhausted by the rage of an incurable distemper, his growing infirmities admonished him to retire from the helm. He was not so fond of reigning as to wish to retain the sceptre with an impotent hand." Then turning to his son, he gave him some prudent advice respecting his duties to his subjects; and exhausted with fatigue and emotion, he concluded this impressive and touching scene. A few weeks after he resigned in the same solemn manner, in the presence of an assembly of Spanish grandees and German princes, the crowns of Spain and of the Indies. He retained the imperial dignity a few months longer, in the vain hope that he might at last induce the electors to bestow it upon his son; but finding all his efforts ineffectual, he resigned the government of the empire to his brother Frederick. In August 1556 he embarked for Spain, which he had selected as his place of final retreat. He landed at Laredo in Biscay on the 28th September, and lost no time in proceeding towards the place which he had chosen for his residence—the Hieronymite monastery of Yuste, situated in a sequestered valley near Placencia in Estremadura. As the apartments which he had ordered to be prepared for him were not ready, he took up his abode for some months at Jarandllla, a village two leagues east of Yuste. At length, on the 8th of February, 1557, accompanied by a small body of retainers, he took possession of the simple residence in which he was destined to pass the brief remainder of his days. There he amused himself principally with mechanical pursuits, and especially with the adjustment of clocks and watches, in which he was assisted by a clever mechanician named Torriana. He continued however to take a lively interest in public affairs, and regularly sent advice to his son respecting the measures which he considered requisite for the welfare of his kingdom. Towards the close of his eventful career, incessant attacks of gout, aggravated by the intemperate indulgence of his appetite, which had been one of his besetting sins through life, shattered his constitution, and enfeebled his mind as well as his body. He became the prey of a gloomy superstition, and sought to expiate his sins by the practice of ascetic austerities, and the application of the lash with such severity, that the scourges which he used were found after his decease stained with blood. At length he caused his own funeral obsequies to be celebrated in the chapel of the convent, and himself took part in the mournful ceremony. The exact date of this event cannot now be ascertained, but very soon after, some say on the same day, he was seized with a fever, which his enfeebled frame could not resist. He expired on the 21st of September, 1558, in the fifty-ninth year of his age. Charles V. was undoubtedly the greatest monarch of the sixteenth century, and occupied the most prominent place in its annals. He was both a consummate politician and a brave soldier. He was alike bold and sagacious—cautious in the extreme in forming his plans, and prompt as well as indomitably firm and persevering in carrying them into execution. He possessed great skill in reading characters, and in selecting counsellors and generals whose abilities were admirably adapted for the duty intrusted to them. In spite of his phlegmatic temperament and reserved disposition, he was good-humoured, easy, and affable in his manners, and was always a favourite of the multitude. But his ambition was insatiable, and his policy fraudulent and insidious. He was cold, selfish, and suspicious, and he was not unfrequently as ignoble in his rivalries and aims as he was unscrupulous in the means which he adopted to obtain success. Though he laboured zealously to uphold the Romish faith, he showed no fanaticism while he wielded the sceptre; but on his retirement into the cloister he exhibited, as Mr. Stirling remarks, all the passions, prejudices, and superstitions of a friar. He dwelt with complacency on his persecution of the protestants, and frequently expressed his deep regret that he had kept his plighted word to Luther. As a codicil to his will, he enjoined upon his son to pursue every heretic in his dominions with the utmost severity, and without favour or mercy to any one. By his queen Isabella, daughter of Emmanuel of Portugal, a princess of great beauty and accomplishments, Charles had one son, who succeeded him, and two daughters. He left also a number of natural children, of whom the most celebrated was .—J. T.  CHARLES VI., born in 1685, was 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 of Anjou, assumed the sovereignty under the title of Philip V., and Charles, aided by England, Holland, and Portugal, was engaged in a protracted and fluctuating struggle with that prince, when the death of his brother Joseph I. called him to the imperial throne, 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 government of that country, and left Charles to employ his famous general, Prince Eugene, for the defence of Venice against the Turks. Subsequent wars, consequent on the disputed succession in Poland, involved the loss of considerable territories and at the peace of Belgrade in 1739; he was compelled to cede Wallachia and Servia to Turkey. He died of a surfeit in 1740.—W. B.  CHARLES VII., born in 1697, was the eldest son of Maximilian-Emmanuel, elector of Bavaria. In early life he served against the Turks, and at the death of his father in 1726 he succeeded him in the electorate; but his passion for the chase, his licentious habits, and the extravagance in which he indulged, were incompatible with a wise and honourable administration. Although he had joined the European powers in the pragmatic sanction, by which Charles VI. hoped to secure the rights of his daughter, Maria Theresa, the elector at the death of that monarch laid claim to the imperial crown, on the plea of his descent 