from a daughter of Ferdinand I.; and by the aid which France and Prussia afforded him, he succeeded in solemnizing his coronation at Frankfort in 1762, having previously occupied Bohemia, and been invested with the crown of that kingdom. But he had a resolute and spirited rival in Maria Theresa. The enthusiasm which she awakened among the Hungarians enabled her to devastate Bavaria; thence she carried her success into the Bohemian territories. By the cession of Silesia to Frederick II., she detached Prussia from the hostile alliance; Sardinia declared in her favour; and George II. of England, taking the field in person, defeated the French at Dettingen in 1743. The war, however, was still in progress and the issue uncertain, when Charles died in 1745, being succeeded in the electorate by his son, Maximilian Joseph, who dropped the claim to the imperial crown.—W. B.
CHARLES-LOUIS, Archduke of Austria, third son of the Emperor Leopold II., was born in 1771. His brother, Francis II., succeeded to the imperial throne in 1792. In the same year the French declared war against Austria and Prussia; and the archduke holding a command under Prince Cobourg, took a prominent part in the campaigns of the two following years on the Belgian frontier, distinguishing himself specially in the brilliant charge of cavalry, which he led at Landrecis. After the treaty between France and Prussia had thrown the burden of the war in that quarter on Austria, he was invested with the command on the Rhine, and in 1796 gave proof of great military talents against Moreau and Jourdan. Compelled at first to retreat, he succeeded in separating the forces of the two French generals, defeated Jourdan at Teiningen, Amberg, and Wurmser, and improved his success so vigorously, that Moreau, who had penetrated into Bavaria, was constrained to fall back, fighting his way with difficulty through the Black Forest to a position of security beyond the Rhine, and even the tete du pont at Strasburg fell into the hands of the archduke. His next campaign was against Bonaparte in Italy, where he did all that vigour and skill could effect with a few dispirited troops to retard the progress of that wonderful captain, particularly at Tarves and Glogau; nor was he without the hope of drawing together, in the rear of the French, such a force as would have made their advanced position extremely perilous, when his operations were interrupted by the temporally peace, negotiated at Leoben, and ratified at Campo Formio towards the close of 1797. Hostilities being recommenced in 1799, Charles defeated Jourdan in Suabia and Massena at Zurich; then moving down the Rhine to support the duke of York, he captured Philipsburg and Mannheim; but in the following year he was compelled by the state of his health to give up his command and return home, where he made some unsuccessful efforts to reform the military administration of the empire. In 1805 he was again at the head of an army in Italy, and defeated Massena at Caldiero; but four years later, notwithstanding the victory which he gained against Napoleon at Aspern, he was driven back into Moravia, and compelled to conclude an armistice, which issued in the treaty of Vienna. The remainder of his life was spent in comparative retirement, and he died in 1847, having published a work on military strategy, and a history of the campaign of 1799.—W. B.
III.—CHARLESES OF FRANCE.
CHARLES MARTEL, or the Hammer, a renowned warrior and monarch in the early annals of France, was the illegitimate son of Pepin d'Heristal, duke of Austrasia, and mayor of the palace under the last Merovingian kings. He was born in 689, and after Pepin's death, was raised to the dignity of duke by the Austrasians in 715. The Neustrians, and their allies the Frisians, invaded his duchy, but were signally defeated by him in a succession of fierce encounters. Chilperic II., who succeeded to the throne after the murder of Dagobert III., finding Charles too strong for him, entered into an alliance with Eudes, duke of Aquitaine, but the associates were entirely defeated near Soissons. Eudes, disheartened by this disaster, delivered up Chilperic into the hands of Charles, who, however, treated him with the greatest respect, though he allowed him no real power, but exercised supreme authority in his name. Chilperic died in 720, but Charles continued to possess the chief authority of the state, as mayor of the palace to his successor Thierry IV. Charles was soon after attacked by the Suevians, Frisians, Alemanni, and the adherents of Eudes, whom he successively defeated, and compelled to do homage to the Frankish crown. He had scarcely freed himself from these enemies, when he was called upon to contend with the Saracens, who had overrun Spain, and now threatened to subdue the whole of Europe. Charles encountered and defeated them in a great battle between Tours and Poitiers, in 732, in which three hundred and seventy-five thousand of the invaders, together with their commander Abderrahman, are said to have perished; but the number is doubtless greatly exaggerated. "This victory," says Mr. Hallam, "may justly be reckoned among those few battles of which a contrary event would have essentially varied the drama of the world in all its subsequent scenes." Charles subsequently defeated the Frisians, annexed their country to his own dominions, and compelled them to profess christianity. At length the fame of Martel became so great, that Pope Gregory III. chose him as his protector, sent him the keys of the tomb of St. Peter, and offered him the dignity of Roman consul. Charles, however, was not a favourite with the clergy, as he compelled them to contribute towards the expenses of the war against the Saracens. He died in 741; and his dominions were divided among his three sons, Carloman, Pepin, and Griffin.—J. T.
CHARLES I., le Chauve (the Bald), son of Louis le Debonnaire and his second wife, Judith, was born at Frankfort-on-the-Maine in 823. By his first marriage, Louis had three sons, Lothaire, Pepin, and Louis, among whom, previous to the birth of Charles, he had partitioned his dominions, associating Lothaire to the empire, and assigning to Pepin and Louis respectively the kingdoms of Aquitaine and Bavaria. As a provision for his youngest son, Louis formed a new kingdom, which was called the kingdom of Germany. This comprising portions of the territories assigned to the three elder brothers of Charles, he incurred their united enmity, and was ultimately shut up in a monastery in the diocese of Treves in 833. In 839, however, by a new partition of the empire, and somewhat later, by the death of Pepin, he came into possession of territories which more than equalled in extent the gift of his father. On the death of his father in 840, Charles disputed with his brother Lothaire the succession to the imperial crown; and allying himself with his other brother, Louis of Bavaria, brought about, by the victory of Fontenay, the final partition of the empire of Charlemagne. Charles obtained as his portion that part of France which lies to the west of the Meuse, Saone, and Rhone, and that part of Spain which lies between the Pyrenees and the Ebro. In 858, disgusted with the imbecility of his government, and distracted by the ravages of the Northmen, the subjects of Charles offered the crown to his brother Louis le Germanique. This bold measure had the effect of driving Charles from the kingdom; but at the end of a year, having effected a reconciliation with his brother, he was allowed to return. In 869 the dominions of Lothaire, the younger, nephew of Charles, were divided between his two uncles, the king of France and Louis le Germanique. Louis II., brother of this Lothaire, died without issue in 875. Charles, on the invitation of the pope, immediately went to Rome, and was invested with the imperial crown. Louis, his brother, exasperated by the success of this movement, invaded France in 876; but on the return of Charles from Italy, hastily retreated. The following year one of the sons of Louis II. succeeded in driving Charles out of Italy. He was in retreat for France when he died suddenly at Brios, in the neighbourhood of Mount Cenis in the Alps, in 877.—J. S., G.
CHARLES II. See Charles III. of Germany.
CHARLES III., le Simple, son of Louis le Begue and Adelaide, his queen, born in 879; was called to the throne in 893, by a party of nobles discontented with the government of Eudes, count of Paris, who had succeeded Charles le Gros. The party of the malcontents, with a king only fourteen years of age for their chief, were unable to cope with Eudes; but on the death of that prince in 898, they procured the general assent of the nation to the election of Charles. One event of his reign, the cession of Normandy to the Northmen under Rollon or Rollo, renders it memorable, in spite of its uniform character for civil discord, the result of the monarch's incapacity. He was ultimately deposed by his subjects, who called to the throne a brother of the late King Eudes. This prince, treacherously surprised in his camp by Charles, fell with a great part of his troops; but the remainder, under his son Hugues, made head against Charles, who was again driven from the kingdom. Raoul, duke of Bourgogne, succeeded to the vacant throne. Charles, seeking the assistance of a friend in Heribert, count of
