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CHARLES (SPAIN) 301 Geneva, but the enterprise failed ; many of his soldiers were killed, others hanged as robbers. Afraid of the growing influence of Spain in Italy, he entered into alliance with France and Venice ; but after the assassination of Henry IV. (1610), France concluded peace with Spain, abandoning the duke of Savoy. He then sought the alliance of the house of Hapsburg, and after the extinction of the ducal line of Mantua laid claims to Montferrat (1612). After the death of the emperor Matthias (1619), he became a candidate for the crown of Ger- many, but was beaten by Ferdinand II. Rest- less in his ambition (which also led him into schemes of conquest in Cyprus and Macedonia), he attacked Genoa (1624), and finally brought upon himself the enmity of all his former al- lies. The French occupied Pignerol, threaten- ed Turin, and finally conquered Savoy. Broken by these disasters, the old Charles Emanuel died suddenly. VII. SPAIN. CHARLES I. See CHARLES V., Germany. CHARLES II., king of Spain, son of Philip IV. and Marianna of Austria, born Nov. 6, 1661, died Nov. 1, 1700. Philip, dying when his son was but four years old, left the kingdom under the government of the queen and a council ap- pointed by her. She chose for it men attached to her interests and holding her views, making her confessor, the grand inquisitor Neidhard, one of its leaders, but excluding both from this and all other important offices the second Don John of Austria, illegitimate son of Philip IV. Don John, whose military services had been of the greatest value to the Spanish throne, re- sented this neglect ; and, assisted by the peo- ple, with whom his cause was popular, he marched with the army under his command against Madrid. The queen was compelled to dismiss Neidhard, to appoint John to the vice- royalty of Aragon, and to consent to several important concessions. In 1672 war with France added its evils to these internal disturb- ances; in 1674 Sicily was lost; and the Span- ish kingdom was now brought by misgovern- ment to the worst condition it had known for many years. This moment Charles seized to make himself independent of the restraints of the regency ; and in 1675, when barely 14 years of age, he assumed the control of affairs. Two years later he obliged his mother to retire to a convent, and made Don John his chief council- lor. So long as the latter lived a great im- provement was perceptible, and the affairs of the kingdom were skilfully conducted. In 1 678 the treaty of Nimeguen was concluded with France ; and although its terms were extremely hard, requiring the cession of Franche-Comt6 and several important towns in the Nether- lands, it was only through the ability of 'Don John that Spain secured peace even on such conditions. On the conclusion of this treaty Charles received in marriage the niece of Louis XIV., Louisa, daughter of the duke of Orleans. But Don John had barely brought the affairs of the kingdom into a tolerable condition when his death, Sept. 17, 1679, left them to fall into a worse state than before. Charles gave himself up to every kind of frivolity, paid little attention to the interests of the state, and allowed the conduct of the govern- ment to pass into the hands of unworthy fa- vorites ; his mother, returning from her retire- ment, regained much of her authority, and used it without scruple. In 1 689 Queen Louisa, the only one who had exerted a good influence over the king, died ; and the only strong op- posing element in the king's conduct being thus taken away, he was left to advisers in the in- terests of Austria, who for the next few years ruled in such a way as to make Spain little more than a dependency of that empire. In 1690 Charles married Anna, widow of the elector palatine, and sister of the emperor of Germany ; and thus became more than ever devoted to the party in European politics of which his council were already the allies. Even before the death of Louisa he had joined a coalition against Louis XIV., whose armies were threatening the Netherlands. But in- stead of his driving back the French in the north, they invaded his kingdom in 1694, and penetrated to Barcelona before the peace of Ryswick put an end to the war (1697). Charles, though twice married, was still without chil- dren ; and, obliged to abandon the hope of di- rect descendants, he began to devote himself to the question of the succession to the Span- ish throne. The complicated intrigues having their motive in the desire to gain this for one or another of the claimants (see CHARLES VI., Germany) occupied the last five years of his life, and ended, so far as he was concerned, in his making his will in favor of Philip of Anjou, who succeeded him under the title of Philip V. CHARLES III., king of Spain and of the Two Sicilies, second son of Philip V. and Elizabeth Farnese, born Jan. 20, 1716, died Dec. 13, 1788. Since his elder brother Fer- dinand would by right succeed to the Spanish throne, Charles's ambitious mother began al- most at his birth to make schemes for gaining for him a separate kingdom ; and it was through her efforts that the. emperor Charles VI. was forced to grant, among the first concessions he made to secure Spain's consent to the pragma- tic sanction, the possession of the duchies of Parma and Piacenza in Italy. To these duchies was to be added Tuscany so soon as the ex- tinction of the line of the Medici, the last of whose race now ruled over it, should leave its throne vacant. This happened before Charles was 14 years old ; and in 1731 his father sent him to the Spanish army in Italy, to occupy his new possessions. In 1734, during the war excited by the question of the Polish election (see CHARLES VI., Germany), he led the Span- ish troops into Naples and subdued that coun- try ; he conquered Sicily also, and the emperor Charles VI. was compelled to confirm him in his