Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/1056

CHA acquired considerable distinction as a commander in the wars with Russia, he readily established the credit of the new government, and succeeded in intimidating Denmark and other hostile states into treaties of peace. When his nephew Gustavus IV. attained his majority in 1796, Charles at once resigned his post of regent, and retired into private life. In 1809, on the abdication of Gustavus, he was called to the vacant throne, the estates of the kingdom formally proscribing Gustavus and his descendants in the excess of their zeal for the interests of the new monarch. Two years afterwards, the death of the prince of Holstein, who had been named heir-apparent, was followed by a burst of popular feeling in favour of Bernadotte, which constrained Charles, not unwillingly, to recognize the famous marshal as his heir and successor. This done, he ceased to take an active part in the business of government, confiding it with a confidence which was repaid by affection, to the more energetic hands of his adopted son.—J. S., G.  CHARLES XIV. See.    CHARLES D'ANJOU, King of Naples and Sicily, was born sometime between 1220 and 1226, and died in 1285. He was the youngest son of Louis VIII., and was made duke of Anjou and Provence. He took part in the eastern crusade of his brother, St. Louis, and on his return exercised, as the right hand of the regent, great authority in France. His ambition subsequently began to look towards Italy, and the death of the Emperor Conrad IV. gave him hopes of success in that quarter. Pope Urban, jealous of the house of Suabia, which had reigned in Naples more than half a century, offered the crown of the Two Sicilies to Charles on condition that he would conquer them from Manfred, their present usurper, and hold them as a fief of the holy see. Upon this a crusade was proclaimed against Manfred, as an enemy of christendom. Charles d'Anjou at the head of the finest chivalry in Europe, encountered him on the banks of the Calora; Manfred, who had an inferior force, seeing that the battle went against him, plunged into the midst of the enemy and fell. But Conradin, grandson of Frederick II., and the heir to the throne, was still living. When he was sixteen years old the eyes of the people no less than the hopes of the Ghibellines, who now felt the unmitigable severity of the French rule, were turned towards him. Conradin, who inherited the spirit of his father, at the head of the chivalry of Germany penetrated into Lombardy. The Ghibellines sent him reinforcements as he went onwards; but the battle of Tagliacozzo, in consequence of a cruel stratagem of Charles, proved fatal at once to the hopes of Italy and the house of Suabia. Conradin was taken and butchered after a mock trial. The cold-blooded cruelty and habitual perfidy of the new rulers led to the terrible tragedy known in history as the Sicilian Vespers, in which about eight thousand Frenchmen were massacred when the bells were ringing to evening service. After this the crown of Sicily was given to Don Pedro of Arragon, whose admiral, Roger di Loria, burned Charles' fleet before his eyes. Charles, whose rage was unbounded at the loss of Sicily, was making preparations for the recovery of that island, when he fell sick at Foggia.—R. M. A.  CHARLES II., surnamed, King of Naples, son of the preceding, was born in 1248, and died in 1309. He was made prisoner of war by the Arragonese in a naval action, and recovered his liberty only on this condition, among others, that the pope should be allowed to crown James of Arragon king of Sicily. He himself was crowned at Rieti, in 1289, king of Naples, Apulia, and Jerusalem. The crown of Hungary came to him on the death of his wife's brother Ladislaus, king of that country, but he gave it to his son Charles Martel. Charles II. greatly contributed to the embellishment of Naples, to the prosperity of the university, and the increase of monasteries. He was succeeded by Robert, his third son.—R. M., A.  CHARLES III.,, called , King of Naples and Hungary, was born in 1345. Son of the count of Gravina, he was adopted by Joan I., queen of Naples, who afterwards disavowed him in favour of Louis, duke of Anjou. Upon this, Charles Durazzo, stirred up by Urban VI. and the king of Hungary, the sworn foe of Joan, raised an army, with which he entered Naples, and took possession of the kingdom. Joan, because she refused to renew her act of adoption, was, by order of Charles, shut up in the castle of Muro, where she was smothered to death among mattresses. The reign of Charles in Naples was neither long nor happy. He was in a short time excommunicated by the pope, who also placed his kingdom under an interdict. In 1385, at the invitation of the nobles who were tired of the regency of Elizabeth, he accepted the crown of Hungary. But in the end of the following year he was, at the instigation of Elizabeth and in her own presence, assassinated at Buda.—R. M., A.  CHARLES IV., King of Naples, Sicily, and Spain. See V., emperor.  CHARLES V., King of Naples, Sicily, and Spain. See II. of Spain. <section end="1056H" /> <section begin="1056I" /> <section end="1056I" /> <section begin="1056J" />CHARLES I.,, Duke of Savoy, born at Carignano in 1458; died at Pignerol in 1489. He was brought up at the court of Louis XI. of France. On the death of that monarch he went to Turin, and assumed the government of his duchy. It was at the court of this accomplished prince that the celebrated Bayard first donned his armour.—J. S., G. <section end="1056J" /> <section begin="1056K" />CHARLES II., or, Duke of Savoy, son and successor of the preceding, born in 1489; died in 1497. <section end="1056K" /> <section begin="1056L" />CHARLES III.,, Duke of Savoy, born in 1486; died in 1553. His reign extended over forty-nine years. Menaced on one side by the emperor Charles V., and on another by Francis I., he yielded now to the threats of one, and now to the cajoleries of the other, but still managed to retain possession of his estates. He repressed with considerable severity an insurrection of the Genevese.—J. S., G. <section end="1056L" /> <section begin="1056M" />CHARLES EMMANUEL I.,, Duke of Savoy, born in 1562; died in 1630. He succeeded his father, Phillibert Emmanuel, in 1580. Ambitious and meddling to an extraordinary degree, he attempted, on the death of Henry III., to seize the crown of France; successively laid claim to the kingdom of Cyprus, the province of Macedonia, and the duchy of Mantua; attacked in a treacherous manner the Genevese; carried on a war with Genoa; and on the death of the Emperor Matthias, he became a candidate for the imperial crown. He was ultimately despoiled of most of his estates by Louis XIII.—J. S., G. <section end="1056M" /> <section begin="1056N" />CHARLES EMMANUEL II., Duke of Savoy, son of Victor Amadeus I., born in 1634, succeeded his brother Francis in 1638, and died in 1675. He was a munificent patron of the arts, and by an enlightened system of policy foreign and domestic, improved the commerce of his estates.—J. S., G. <section end="1056N" /> <section begin="1056O" />CHARLES EMMANUEL III., King of Sardinia, was born in 1701, and died in 1773. He came to the throne on the voluntary abdication of his father, Victor Amadeus I. Charles, who was a warrior prince, joined France and Spain in the war against Austria, and, after the victory of Guastalla, succeeded in adding Novara and other valuable territories of the Milanese to his dominions. In 1742 having changed his political connections, he fought by the side of Hungary against his former allies. Charles was a mild and prudent ruler, and the return of peace afforded him opportunities, which he eagerly embraced, of fostering the prosperity of his country. A new code of laws known as the corpus carolinum, was published under his direction in 1770. The pope gave him the right of conferring ecclesiastical dignities, and of subjecting the clergy to taxation.—R. M., A. <section end="1056O" /> <section begin="1056P" />CHARLES FELIX,, King of Sardinia, was born in 1765. He was the fourth son of Victor Amadeus III., and took the title of Duke of Genoa. When the revolutionary disasters of the end of last century overtook his family, he followed it into Sicily, and became in 1799 viceroy of that island. He married in 1807 Maria Christina of Naples, sister of the queen of Louis Philippe, and obtained the crown of Sardinia on the abdication of his brother, Victor Emmanuel, in 1821. He died without issue in 1831.—R. M., A. <section end="1056P" /> <section begin="1056Zcontin" />CHARLES ALBERT, King of Piedmont and Sardinia, born prince of Savoy Carignano, a younger branch of the ducal family of Savoy, on the 2nd October, 1798. The dukedom of Savoy having been overthrown by the French revolution. Piedmont became a French department, and Charles Albert was educated in France. On the fall of Napoleon I. the prince returned to Piedmont. In 1817 he married the Austrian arch-duchess, Marià, Teresa, daughter of the grand duke of Tuscany. By this princess he had two sons; the eldest, Victor Emmanuel, succeeded him on the throne of Piedmont. On the partition of Italy by the treaties of 1815, Geneva, Piedmont, and Sardinia fell to the share of the house of Savoy. Against this partition of Italy among foreign rulers, however, the spirit of Italian nationality rebelled, and the association of the carbonari spread over the whole <section end="1056Zcontin" />