Introduction to Charles
Charles, the name of 2 kings of England, 10 kings of France, 15 kings of Sweden, 4 emperors of the Holy Roman Empire, 4 kings of Spain, and 1 Austrian emperor. The German and Swedish form of the name is Karl; the Spanish, Carlos. Among the more important historically are:
England
Charles I(1600–1649), king of England, Scotland, and Ireland. He succeeded to the throne in 1625, the second Stuart ruler. Like his father, James I, Charles was an upholder of the “divine right of kings” theory and of the Church of England, and was strongly opposed to Puritanism. Thousands fled to America during his reign. His attempts to rule as an absolute monarch and to levy taxes without parliamentary consent failed and led to violent opposition.
In 1640, because of rebellion in Scotland, Charles was obliged to summon Parliament. Parliament refused to give him money for troops for fear he would use them to again try to assert absolute rule. In the civil war that broke out in 1642, the king's followers opposed the Parliamentary forces led by Oliver Cromwell. Charles was defeated, tried for treason, and beheaded.
Charles II(1630–1685), king of England, Scotland, and Ireland. The son of Charles I, Charles was invited to take the throne in 1660 after the fall of the Protectorate. His rule began the period known as the Restoration. Though he was careful at first to conciliate Parliament, Charles' pro-Catholic and pro-French leanings soon led to trouble. As a result of his secret Treaty of Dover with-Louis XIV of France, Charles took England into an unpopular war against The Netherlands.
In opposition to the king's policy of toleration for Catholics and Nonconformists (Non-Anglican Protestants), Parliament passed new laws against these religious groups. One parliamentary faction, the Whigs, tried to bar Charles' brother and heir, James, an avowed Catholic, from the throne by proposing the Exclusion Bill. Through adroit political maneuvering, Charles and his supporters in Parliament, the Tories, defeated this effort, paving the way for James' succession.
France
Charles I,the title sometimes given to Charlemagne; other historians list Charles the Bald as Charles I of France.
Charles IICharles V(1337–1380), the Wise, king of France from 1364 until his death. His father, John II, was taken prisoner by the English in the Hundred Years' War, and died in captivity. Charles was regent during his imprisonment. As ruler, he strengthened the power of the crown in the face of invasion, peasant rebellion, and parliamentary unrest. Under the command of General Bertrand du Guesclin, the French reconquered most of their territory from the English. Charles built the Bastille as a fortress to protect Paris.
Charles VII(1403–1461), proclaimed king of France in 1422. When Charles assumed the throne, much of France was controlled by the English. He turned to the task of expelling them. Under the leadership of Joan of Arc, the French armies defeated the English at Orléans. Charles was crowned at Reims in 1429. He did much to reform the government and the army. He also encouraged commerce.
Charles X(1757–1836), king of France from 1824 to 1830. As the Count of Artois during the French Revolution, he was the leader of the emigres (persons who fled from France) and of the royalist counterrevolutionary group. Becoming king after the death of his brother Louis XVIII, Charles restored many of the practices and privileges of the Old Regime. Opposition to the king was spearheaded by the prosperous upper middle class which saw itself losing power to the old aristocracy. In the July Revolution of 1830, the upper middle class and the lower classes combined to overthrow Charles, and he went into exile. His successor was Louis Philippe.
Sweden
Charles XII(1682–1718) came to the throne when only 15 and soon amazed the world with his military exploits. In 1700, he defeated a formidable coalition of Poles, Danes, Saxons, and Russians. But when Charles invaded Russia in the Great Northern War in 1708, his forces were routed by troops under Peter the Great at Poltava (1709). (
Taking refuge in Turkey, Charles stirred that country into war against Russia. After he was expelled by the Turks in 1714, he returned to Sweden. He was killed in battle while invading Norway. By the time of his death, he had lost almost all of Sweden's foreign territories and Sweden was no longer a great power.
Holy Roman Empire
The first Holy Roman Emperor was Charles IV. Charles I, II, and III were rulers of an earlier, unrelated empire from which the Holy Roman Empire claimed descent. (For the first two of these.
Charles IV(1316–1378), Holy Roman Emperor and king of Bohemia. He was often called Charles of Luxemburg, his family name. He was elected emperor in 1347, but devoted much of his attention to Bohemia, where he had succeeded to the throne in 1346. He founded the University of Prague (Charles University), the first institution of higher learning in the empire, in 1348. Although German by ancestry, Charles treated his German and Czech subjects equally. The Golden Bull, a document establishing a system for electing the Holy Roman Emperor, was issued by Charles in 1356.
Charles V(1500–1558), Holy Roman Emperor and king of Spain, where he was known as Charles I. He inherited Austria, the Netherlands, Burgundy, and Spain and its Mediterranean, Italian, and American possessions. Charles was elected emperor in 1519, continuing the Hapsburg hold on the emperorship. As a Catholic, he was opposed to the spread of the Protestant Reformation. Many German states were adopting Lutheranism. Charles was forced to tolerate religious dissension temporarily to secure support from the German Lutheran princes for his imperial wars against France and the Ottoman Turks in the 1520's and 1530's.
In the early 1540's, there was fighting in the German states between Catholic and Lutheran princes. In 1546 Charles, free of foreign conflicts and determined to crush Lutheranism, declared war on the Schmalkaldic League, the alliance of German Lutheran princes. He defeated its army in 1547, but resistance continued in some areas. In 1552 France and several Catholic princes opposed to the growth of imperial power sided with the Protestants. Depressed and in ill health, Charles agreed to a truce that year. A solution was finally reached in 1555 in the Peace of Augsburg, which gave each prince authority to select the religion for his domain.
Charles abdicated in 1556. He divided his empire between his brother Ferdinand (Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I) and his son Philip (Philip II of Spain and ruler of the Netherlands).
Charles VI(1685–1740), son of Leopold I of Austria, was emperor 1711–40. His claim to the throne of Spain led to the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–14). By an edict known as the Pragmatic Sanction (1713), Charles named his daughter Maria Theresa heir to the Hapsburg lands, which had never been ruled by a female. Although most of the European powers had promised to respect the sanction, after Charles' death other claimants disputed her inheritance and the War of the Austrian Succession resulted.
(See Succession Wars.)
Spain
Charles I(1500–1558).
See Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.
Charles II(1661–1700), king of Spain from 1665 until his death. He had no heir and named as his successor Philip, grandson of Louis XIV of France. Leopold I of Austria claimed the throne for his son, Archduke Charles.
( See Succession Wars, subtitle War of the Spanish Succession.)
Austria
Charles I(1887–1922), last emperor of Austria and king of Hungary. He succeeded his uncle, Francis Joseph, in 1916. After the defeat of Austria and the Central Powers in World War I, revolution broke out in the Hapsburg empire and Charles was forced to abdicate in 1918. He twice tried to recover the Hungarian throne in 1921 but failed.