renowned conqueror in the early annals of France. He deposed and restored Childeric Childeric king of France; and had the entire government of the kingdom, first with the title of mayor of the palace, and afterwards as duke of France; but he would not accept the crown. He died regretted, in 741.

Charles le Gros, emperor of the west in 881, king of Italy and Suabia, memorable for his reverse of fortune; being dethroned at a diet held near Mentz, by the French, the Italians, and the Germans, in 887: after which he was obliged to subsist on the bounty of the archbishop of Mentz. He died in 888.

Charles V. (emperor and king of Spain) was son of Philip, archduke of Austria, and of Jane queen of Castile. He was born at Ghent, February 24, 1500, and succeeded to the crown of Spain in 1517. Two years afterwards he was chosen emperor at Frankfort after the death of Maximilian his grandfather. He was a great warrior and politician: and his ambition was not satisfied with the many kingdoms and provinces he possessed; for he is supposed, with reason, to have aspired at universal empire. He is said to have fought 60 battles, in most of which he was victorious. He took the king of France (Francis I.) prisoner, and sold him his liberty on very hard terms; yet afterwards, when the people of Ghent revolted, he asked leave to pass through his dominions: and though the generous king thus had him in his power, and had an opportunity of revenging his ill treatment, yet he received and attended him with all pomp and magnificence. He sacked Rome, and took the pope prisoner; and the cruelties which his army exercised there are said to have exceeded those of the northern barbarians. Yet the pious emperor went into mourning on account of this conquest: forbade the ringing of bells; commanded processions to be made, and prayers to be offered up for the deliverance of the pope his prisoner; yet did not inflict the least punishment on those who treated the holy father and the holy see with such inhumanity. He is accused by some Romish writers of favouring the Lutheran principles, which he might easily have extirpated. But the truth is, he found his account in the divisions which that sect occasioned; and he for ever made his advantage of them, sometimes against the pope, sometimes against France, and at other times against the empire itself. He was a great traveller, and made 50 different journeys into Germany, Spain, Italy, Flanders, France, England, and Africa. Though he had been successful in many unjust enterprises, yet his last attempt on Metz, which he besieged with an army of 100,000 men, was very just, and very unsuccessful.

Vexed at the reverse of fortune which seemed to attend his latter days, and oppressed by sickness, which unfitting him any longer for holding the reins of government with steadiness, or to guide them with address, he resigned his dominions to his brother Ferdinand and his son Philip; and retreated to the monastery of St Justus near Placentia in Estremadura.

When Charles entered this retreat, he formed such a plan of life for himself as would have suited a private gentleman of moderate fortune. His table was neat, but plain; his domestics few; his intercourse with them familiar; all the cumbersome and ceremonious forms of attendance on his person were entirely abolished, as destructive of that social ease and tranquillity which he courted in order to soothe the remainder of his days. As the mildness of the climate, together with his deliverance from the burdens and cares of government, procured him at first a considerable remission from the acute pains of the gout, with which he had been long tormented, he enjoyed perhaps more complete satisfaction in this humble solitude than all his grandeur had ever yielded him. The ambitious thoughts and projects which had so long engrossed and disquieted him, were quite effaced from his mind. Far from taking any part in the political transactions of the princes of Europe, he restrained his curiosity even from an inquiry concerning them; and he seemed to view the busy scene which he had abandoned, with all the contempt and indifference arising from his thorough experience of its vanity, as well as from the pleasing reflection of having disentangled himself from its cares.

Other amusements, and other subjects, now occupied him. Sometimes he cultivated the plants in his garden with his own hand; sometimes he rode out to the neighbouring wood on a little horse, the only one that he kept, attended by a single servant on foot. When his infirmities confined him to his apartment, which often happened, and deprived him of these more active recreations, he either admitted a few gentlemen who resided near the monastery to visit him, and entertained them familiarly at his table; or he employed himself in studying mechanical principles, and in forming curious works of mechanism, of which he had always been remarkably fond, and to which his genius was peculiarly turned. With this view he had engaged Turriano, one of the most ingenious artists of that age, to accompany him in his retreat. He laboured together with him in framing models of the most useful machines, as well as in making experiments with regard to their respective powers; and it was not seldom that the ideas of the monarch assisted or perfected the inventions of the artist. He relieved his mind at intervals with slighter and more fantastic works of mechanism, in fashioning puppets, which, by the structure of internal springs, mimicked the gestures and actions of men, to the no small astonishment of the ignorant monks, who, beholding movements which they could not comprehend, sometimes distrusted their own senses, and sometimes suspected Charles and Turriano of being in compact with invisible powers. He was particularly curious with regard to the construction of clocks and watches; and having found, after repeated trials, that he could not bring any two of them to go exactly alike, he reflected, it is said, with a mixture of surprise as well as regret, on his own folly, in having bestowed so much time and labour in the more vain attempt of bringing mankind to a precise uniformity of sentiment concerning the intricate and mysterious doctrines of religion.

But in what mannersoever Charles disposed of the rest of his time, he constantly reserved a considerable portion of it for religious exercises. He regularly attended divine service in the chapel of the monastery, every morning and evening; he took great pleasure in reading books of devotion, particularly the works of St Augustine and St Bernard; and conversed much with his confessor, and the prior of the monastery, Thus did Charles pass the first year of his retreat in a manner not unbecoming a man perfectly disengaged from the affairs of this present life, and standing on the confines of a future world, either in innocent amusements which soothed his pains, and relieved a mind worn out with excessive application to business; or in devout occupations, which he deemed necessary in preparing for another state.

But, about six months before his death, the gout, after a longer intermission than usual, returned with a proportional increase of violence. His shattered constitution had not strength enough remaining to withstand such a shock. It enfeebled his mind as much as his body; and from this period we hardly discern any traces of that sound and masculine understanding which distinguished Charles among his contemporaries. An illiberal and timid superstition depressed his spirit. He had no relish for amusements of any kind. He endeavoured to conform, in his manner of living, to all the rigour of monastic austerity. He desired no other society than that of monks, and was almost continually employed in chanting with them the hymns of the missal. As an expiation for his sins, he gave himself the discipline in secret, with such severity that the whip of cords which he employed as the instrument of his punishment, was found, after his decease, tinged with his blood. Nor was he satisfied with these acts of mortification, which, however severe, were not unexampled. The timorous and distrustful solicitude which always accompanies superstition, still continued to disquiet him, and depreciating all that he had done, prompted him to aim at something extraordinary, at some new and singular act of piety that would display his zeal, and merit the favour of heaven. The act on which he fixed was as wild and uncommon as any that superstition ever suggested to a disordered fancy. He resolved to celebrate his own obsequies before his death. He ordered his tomb to be erected in the chapel of the monastery. His domestics marched thither in funeral procession, with black tapers in their hands. He himself followed in his shroud. He was laid in his coffin with much solemnity. The service for the dead was chaunted; and Charles joined in the prayers which were offered up for the rest of his soul, mingling his tears with those which his attendants shed, as if they had been celebrating a real funeral. The ceremony closed with sprinkling holy water on the coffin in the usual form, and, all the assistants retiring, the doors of the chapel were shut. Then Charles rose out of the coffin, and withdrew to his apartment, full of those awful sentiments which such a singular solemnity was calculated to inspire. But either the fatiguing length of the ceremony, or the impression which this image of death left on his mind, affected him so much, that next day he was seized with a fever. His feeble frame could not long resist its violence; and he expired on the 21st of September, after a life of 58 years 6 months and 21 days.

Charles I. Kings of Britain. See Britain, Charles II. No. 49.—254.

Charles XII. King of Sweden, was born in 1682. By his father's will, the administration was lodged in the hands of the queen dowager Eleonora, with five senators, till the young prince was 18; but he was declared major at 15, by the states convened at Stockholm. The beginning of his administration raised no favourable ideas of him, as he was thought both by Swedes and foreigners to be a person of mean capacity. But the difficulties that gathered round him, soon afforded him an opportunity to display his real character. Three powerful princes, Frederick king of Denmark, Augustus king of Poland and elector of Saxony, and Peter the Great, czar of Muscovy, presuming on his youth, conspired his ruin almost at the same instant. Their measures alarming the council, they were for diverting the storm by negotiations; but Charles, with a grave resolution that astonished them, said, "I am resolved never to enter upon an unjust war, nor to put an end to a just one but by the destruction of my enemies. My resolution is fixed: I will attack the first who shall declare against me; and when I have conquered him, I may hope to strike a terror into the rest." The old counsellors received his orders with admiration; and were still more surprised when they saw him on a sudden renounce all the enjoyments of a court, reduce his table to the utmost frugality, dress like a common soldier, and, full of the ideas of Alexander and Caesar, propose these two conquerors for his models in everything but their vices. The king of Denmark began by ravaging the territories of the duke of Holstein. Upon this Charles carried the war into the heart of Denmark, and made such a progress that the king of Denmark thought it best to accept of peace, which was concluded in 1700. He next resolved to advance against the king of Poland, who had blocked up Riga. He had no sooner given orders for his troops to go into winter quarters, than he received advice that Narva, where Count Horné was governor, was besieged by an army of 100,000 Muscovites. This made him alter his measures, and move towards the czar; and at Narva he gained a surprising victory, which cost him not above 2000 men killed and wounded. The Muscovites were forced to retire from the provinces they had invaded. He pursued his conquests, till he penetrated as far as where the diet of Poland was sitting; when he made them declare the throne of Poland vacant, and elect Stanislaus their king: then making himself master of Saxony, he obliged Augustus himself to renounce the crown of Poland, and acknowledge Stanislaus by a letter of congratulation on his accession. All Europe was surprised with the expeditious finishing of this great negotiation, but more at the disinterestedness of the king of Sweden, who satisfied himself with the bare reputation of this victory, without demanding an inch of ground for enlarging his dominions. After thus reducing the king of Denmark to peace, placing a new king on the throne of Poland, having humbled the emperor of Germany, and protected the Lutheran religion, Charles prepared to penetrate into Muscovy, in order to dethrone the czar. He quickly obliged the Muscovites to abandon Poland, pursued them into their own country, and won several battles over them. The czar, disposed to peace, ventured to make some proposals; Charles only answered, "I will treat with the czar at Moscow." When this haughty answer was brought to Peter, he said, "My brother Charles still affects to act the Alexander, but I flatter myself..." self he will not in me find a Darius." The event justified him: for the Muscovites, already beaten into discipline, and under a prince of such talents as Peter, entirely destroyed the Swedish army at the memorable battle of Pultowa, July 8, 1709; on which decisive day, Charles lost the fruits of nine years labour, and of almost 100 battles! The king, with a small troop, pursued by the Muscovites, passed the Boristhenes to Oczakow in the Turkish territories: and from thence, through desert countries, arrived at Bender; where the sultan, when informed of his arrival, sent orders for accommodating him in the best manner, and appointed him a guard. Near Bender Charles built a house, and intrenched himself; and had with him 1800 men, who were all clothed and fed, with their horses, at the expense of the grand signior. Here he formed a design of turning the Ottoman arms upon his enemies; and is said to have had a promise from the vizier of being sent into Muscovy with 200,000 men. While he remained here, he insensibly acquired a taste for books; he read the tragedies of Corneille and Racine, with the works of Despreaux, whose satires he relished, but did not much admire his other works. When he read that passage in which the author represents Alexander as a fool and a madman, he tore out the leaf. He would sometimes play at chess: but when he recovered of his wounds, he renewed his fatigues in exercising his men: he tired three horses a-day; and those who courted his favour were all day in their boots. To dispose the Ottoman Porte to this war, he detached about 800 Poles and Cossacks of his retinue, with orders to pass the Niester, that runs by Bender, and to observe what passed on the frontiers of Poland. The Muscovite troops, dispersed in those quarters, fell immediately upon this little company, and pursued them even to the territories of the grand signior. This was what the king expected. His ministers at the Porte excited the Turks to vengeance; but the czar's money removed all difficulties, and Charles found himself in a manner prisoner among the Tartars. He imagined the sultan was ignorant of the intrigues of his grand vizier. Poniatowsky undertook to make his complaints to the grand signior. The sultan, in answer, some days after, sent Charles five Arabian horses, one of which was covered with a saddle and housing of great richness; with an obliging letter, but conceived in such general terms, as gave reason to suspect that the minister had done nothing without the sultan's consent: Charles therefore refused them. Poniatowsky had the courage to form a design of deposing the grand vizier, who accordingly was deprived of his dignity and wealth, and banished. The seal of the empire was given to Numan Cuproughly; who persuaded his master, that the law forbade him to invade the czar, who had done him no injury; but to succour the king of Sweden as an unfortunate prince in his dominions. He sent his majesty 800 purses, every one of which amounted to 500 crowns, and advised him to return peaceably to his own dominions. Charles rejected this advice, threatening to hang up the bashaws, and shave the beards of any janizaries who brought him such messages, and sent word that he should depend upon the grand signior's promise, and hoped to re-enter Poland as a conqueror with an army of Turks.

After various intrigues at the Porte, an order was sent Charles to attack this head of iron, as he was called, and to take him either alive or dead. He stood a siege in his house, with 40 domestics, against the Turkish army; killed no less than 20 janizaries with his own hand; and performed prodigies of valour on a very unnecessary and unwarrantable occasion. But the house being set on fire, and himself wounded, he was at last taken prisoner, and sent to Adrianople, where the grand signior gave him audience, and promised to make good all the damages he had sustained. At last, after a stay of above five years, he left Turkey; and, having disguised himself, traversed Wallachia, Transylvania, Hungary, and Germany, attended only by one person; and in sixteen days riding, during which time he never went to bed, came to Stralsund at midnight, November 21, 1714. His boots were cut from his swollen legs, and he was put to bed; where, when he had slept some hours, the first thing he did was to review his troops, and examine the state of the fortifications. He sent out orders that very day to renew the war with more vigour than ever. But affairs were now much changed: Augustus had recovered the throne of Poland; Sweden had lost many of its provinces, and was without money, trade, credit, or troops. The kings of Denmark and Prussia seized the island of Rugen; and besieged him in Stralsund, which surrendered; but Charles escaped to Carlskrona. When his country was threatened with invasion by so many princes, he, to the surprise of all Europe, marched into Norway with 20,000 men. A very few Danes might have stopped the Swedish army; but such a quick invasion they could not foresee. Europe was yet more at a loss to find the czar so quiet, and not making a descent upon Sweden, as he had before agreed with his allies. This inaction was the consequence of one of the greatest designs, and at the same time the most difficult of any, that were ever formed by the imagination of man. In short, a scheme was set on foot for a reconciliation with the czar; for replacing Stanislaus on the throne of Poland; and setting James II.'s son upon that of England, besides restoring the duke of Holstein to his dominions. Charles was pleased with these grand ideas, though without building much upon them, and gave his minister leave to act at large. In the mean time, Charles was going to make a second attempt upon Norway in 1718; and he flattered himself with being master of that kingdom in six months; but while he was examining the works at Frederickshall, a place of great strength and importance, which is reckoned to be the key of that kingdom, he was killed by a shot from the enemy, as has been generally believed, though it has been also reported, that he fell by the treachery of one of his own officers, who had been bribed for that purpose.

This prince experienced the extremes of prosperity and of adversity, without being softened by the one or disturbed for a moment at the other; but was a man rather extraordinary than great, and fitter to be admired than imitated. He was honoured by the Turks for his rigid abstinence from wine, and his regularity in attending public devotion.

As to his person, he was tall and of a noble mien, had a fine open forehead, large blue eyes, flaxen hair, fair Charles's fair complexion, a handsome nose, but little beard, and a laugh not agreeable. His manners were harsh and austere, not to say savage; and as to religion, he was indifferent towards all, though exteriorly a Lutheran, and a strong believer in predestination. A few anecdotes will illustrate his character. No dangers, however great, made the least impression upon him. When a horse or two were killed under him at the battle of Narva, in 1700, he leaped nimbly upon fresh ones, saying, "These people find me exercise." One day, when he was dictating letters to a secretary, a bomb fell through the roof into the next room of the house where they were sitting. The secretary, terrified lest the house should come down upon them, let his pen drop out of his hand: "What is the matter?" says the king calmly. The secretary could only reply, "Ah, Sir, the bomb." "The bomb! (says the king) what has the bomb to do with what I am dictating to you! Go on."

He preserved more humanity than is usually found among conquerors. Once, in the middle of an action, finding a young Swedish officer wounded and unable to march, he obliged the officer to take his horse, and continued to command his infantry on foot. The Princess Lubomirski, who was very much in the interest and good graces of Augustus, falling by accident into the hands of one of his officers, he ordered her to be set at liberty: saying, "That he did not make war with women." One day, near Leipsic, a peasant threw himself at his feet, with a complaint against a grenadier, that he had robbed him of certain eatables, provided for himself and his family. "Is it true (said Charles sternly), that you have robbed this man?" The soldier replied, "Sir, I have not done near so much harm to this man as your majesty has done to his master; for you have taken from Augustus a kingdom, whereas I have only taken from this poor scoundrel a dinner." Charles made the peasant amends, and pardoned the soldier for his firmness: "However, my friend (says he to him), you will do well to recollect, that if I took a kingdom from Augustus, I did not take it for myself."

Though Charles lived hardly himself, a soldier did not fear to remonstrate to him against some bread, which was very black and mouldy, and which yet was the only provision the troops had. Charles called for a piece of it, and calmly ate it up, saying, "that it was indeed not good, but that it might be eaten."

From the danger he was in in Poland, when he beat the Saxon troops in 1702, a comedy was exhibited at Marienburg, where the combat was represented to the disadvantage of the Swedes. "Oh, (says Charles, hearing of it) I am far from envying them this pleasure. Let them beat me in the theatres as long as they will; provided I do but beat them in the field." He wrote some observations on war, and on his own campaigns from 1700 to 1709; but the MS. was lost at the unfortunate battle of Pultowa.