Charles

(Charles Philip Arthur George), 1948–, prince of Wales, eldest son of Queen Elizabeth IIElizabeth II,
1926–, queen of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (1952–), elder daughter and successor of George VI, and Britain's longest reigning monarch. At age 18 she was made a State Counsellor, a confidante of the king.
..... Click the link for more information. of Great Britain and heir apparent to the British throne. He was created prince of Wales in 1958 and invested at Caernarvon Castle in 1969. He graduated from Cambridge in 1971 and served in the Royal Navy (1971–76).

In 1981 he married Lady Diana Frances Spencer (see DianaDiana,
princess of Wales, 1961–97, wife of Charles, prince of Wales, heir to the British throne. The daughter of the 8th Earl Spencer, Lady Diana Frances Spencer was a kindergarten teacher in London before her 1981 marriage to Charles.
..... Click the link for more information. , princess of Wales). Their children, next in line to succeed him, are Prince William (b. 1982) and Prince Henry (b. 1984). Following the separation of Charles and Diana in 1992, the deterioration of their personal relationship became the subject of intense, sometimes lurid, media coverage. By the time of their divorce (1996) and her death (Aug., 1997) in a Paris car crash, the sympathies of the British public appeared deeply divided between Charles and Diana.

Charles has been an outspoken critic of contemporary architecture and has sought to bring Britain's architectural heritage to the attention of the nation. He wrote A Vision of Britain (1989), which became a television documentary. He is also an advocate for inner-city reform and environmental issues. In 2005 he married Camilla Parker Bowles, who had long been his mistress; she became the duchess of Cornwall.

Charles,

1771–1847, archduke of Austria; brother of Holy Roman Emperor Francis II. Despite his epilepsy, he was the ablest Austrian commander in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars; however, he was handicapped by unwise decisions imposed on him from Vienna. After the disastrous campaign of 1805, Charles was appointed minister of war and chief commander of the Austrian forces. He reorganized the army and headed the patriotic faction at court. In 1809 he defeated Napoleon I at Aspern (May) but was beaten at Wagram (July). In both battles he exacted a heavy toll from the French. Shortly afterward he retired because of political differences with Francis. He was also called Charles Louis.

Bibliography

See F. L. Petre, Napoleon and the Archduke Charles (1908).

Charles,

river, c.60 mi (97 km) long, rising in E Mass. and flowing generally NE to Boston Bay; it separates Boston from Cambridge. Extensive development to the riverfront includes the Esplanade, a series of fishing sites, playgrounds, and walking paths; and the Hatch Shell, where free, open-air concerts are held by the Boston Pops Orchestra. Recreational sailing and canoeing, college rowing, and boat races are common on the river; the Charles River Regatta is held on the last Sunday in October.

Charles

In England:

Charles I. Born Nov. 19, 1600, in London; died there Jan. 30, 1649. King (1625–49) of the Stuart dynasty. Son of James I.

Charles I adhered to a reactionary policy of feudal absolutism that ran counter to the interests of the bourgeoisie and the “new gentry” and evoked protest among the masses of the people in England. The English Bourgeois Revolution of the 17th century broke out in 1640. Charles I suffered defeat in the civil wars of 1642– and 1648. He was executed by a sentence of the High Court of the Tribunal that the Long Parliament had created.

Charles II. Born May 29, 1630, in London; died there Feb. 6, 1685. King of the Stuart dynasty.

After the execution of his father, Charles I (1649), Charles II was proclaimed king of Scotland by the Scottish Presbyterian parliament. In 1660 he was proclaimed king of England, hisreturn to London marking the restoration of the Stuarts in En-gland. Despite the constitutional guarantees established in the Declaration of Breda and his promises to rule jointly with Parliament, Charles IPs reign was characterized by feudal reaction and attempts to restore absolutism.

Charles

In France. The best known were as follows.

Charles III the Simple. Born Sept. 17, 879; died Oct. 7, 929, in Péronne. King from 898 to 923. Member of the Carolingian dynasty.

Charles III was forced to cede the territory of Normandy to the Normans (the treaty of 911 with the Norman leader Rollo). Taking advantage of the feudal discord in Germany after the death of the last Carolingian reigning there, Charles seized Lorraine in 911. In 922–923, the aristocracy rose up in rebellion against Charles. The rebels, who elected Rudolf of Burgundy king (July 923), took Charles III captive by treachery. He was imprisoned in the castle in Peronne until his death.

Charles V the Wise. Born Jan. 21, 1338, in Vincennes; died Sept. 16, 1380, in Nogent-sur-Marne. King from 1364. Member of the Valois dynasty.

Charles V was regent of France from 1356 to 1360 and in early 1364 (while his father, King John II the Good, was held prisoner by the English). During his regency, while searching for funds with which to wage war and ransom his father from captivity, he resorted to debasement of coinage. When the Paris uprising of 1357–58 broke out, he fled from Paris and tried to organize a blockade to starve the capital. The smashing of the Jacquerie and the betrayal of the uprising by the ruling circles of Paris made it possible for Charles to capture the city in the summer of 1358. Upon his accession to the throne, he substantially increased royal power, regulated the system of taxation, and reorganized the army, partially replacing the feudal militia by mercenaries. In 1369 he renewed military operations against the English. By the end of the 1370’s these operations resulted in virtually the complete expulsion of the English from France.

REFERENCE

Calmette, J. Charles V. Paris [1945].
Charles VI the Mad. Born Dec. 3, 1368, in Paris; died there Oct. 21, 1422. King from 1380. Member of the Valois dynasty.
Being mentally ill, Charles VI ruled only in name. His reign was marked by a bitter struggle for power between two feudal aristocratic groups, the Armagnacs and the Burgundians. In 1420 the English forced Charles, who had been taken prisoner by the Burgundians (the allies of the English in the Hundred Years’ War [1337–1453]), to sign a treaty in Troyes, by which the English king Henry V became heir to the French throne rather than the dauphin Charles.
Charles VII. Born Feb. 22, 1403, in Paris; died July 22, 1461, in Mehun-sur-Yèvre. King from 1422.
After the death of his father (Charles VI), Charles VII proclaimed himself king of France despite the treaty of Troyes of 1420 which Charles VI had signed. However, his power extended only to the lands south of the Loire (with his residence at Bourges); the rest of France was in the hands of the English and their allies, the Burgundians. With the aid of Joan of Arc, who led the struggle for the liberation of the French people, Charles was crowned in Reims in 1429, and in 1437 he entered Paris. He carried out a number of reforms that served to strengthen royal power. A standing army was established in 1439, and a permanent direct tax, the taille, was instituted. After 1435, he ended the regular convocation of the Estates General. He issued the Pragmatic Sanction of 1438, which legally formalized the independence of the Gallican Church from the pope and subordinated it, to a certain extent, to royal authority. He put down the Praguerie, a revolt of the feudal aristocracy (1440).

REFERENCES

Beaucourt, G. du Fresne. Histoire de Charles VII, vols. 1–. Paris, 1881–91.
Erlanger, P. Charles VII et son mystère. [Paris, 1945.]
Charles IX. Born June 27, 1550, in St. Germainen-Laye; died May 30, 1574, in Vincennes. King from 1560. Member of the Valois dynasty
Until 1570, Charles’ mother Catherine de Médicis was the actual ruler. Only after the peace of St. Germain of 1570, which temporarily ended the religious wars, did Charles IX manifest a certain degree of independence in his policies. He brought in a Huguenot leader, Admiral Coligny, and, influenced by him, Charles protected the Calvinists and leaned toward war against Spain. However, Catherine de Médicis was frightened by Coli-gny’s influence and got Charles to consent to the Massacre of St. Bartholomew (1572).
Charles X. Born Oct. 9, 1757, in Versailles; died Nov. 6, 1836, in Gorizia. King from 1824 to 1830. Member of the Bourbon dynasty. Younger brother of Louis XVI
Prior to his accession to the throne, Charles X held the title Comte d’Artois. On July 17, 1789, after the revolution had broken out, he fled abroad. He was one of the organizers of intervention against revolutionary France. During the Restoration (in the reign of his second brother, Louis XVIII, in 1814 and 1815–), he was one of the leaders (along with J. B. Villèle and others) of the Ultraroyalists. Upon becoming king, Charles implemented extremely reactionary domestic and foreign policies, placing A. J. de Polignac at the head of the government in 1829 (for example, the July Ordinances of 1830 that restricted suffrage and freedom of the press and the expansion into Algeria in the summer of 1830). He was overthrown by the July Revolution of 1830. He went to Great Britain and from there, to Austria.

REFERENCE

Vivent, J. Charles X. Paris, 1958.

Charles

Kings and emperors of the Holy Roman Empire.

Charles IV. Born May 14, 1316, in Prague; died there Nov. 29, 1378. Emperor and German king from 1347. King of Bohemia (as Charles I) from 1346 (Luxemburg dynasty). Son of John of Luxemburg and Elizabeth, sister of the Bohemian king Wenceslas III.

In Bohemia Charles IV implemented policies that strengthened the royal domain, enriched the royal treasury, restricted the rights of the Bohemian magnates, and encouraged handicraft industry, mining, and domestic and foreign trade. The growth in the importance of Prague was particularly marked under Charles IV: extensive construction was carried out and the University of Prague was founded (1348). The creation of the archbishopric of Prague (1344) helped to reinforce the independence of the Bohemian church. In carrying out his centralizing policies in Bohemia, Charles IV relied on trade and handicraft circles in the cities, the middle and petty gentry, and the clergy. The great feudal magnates, however, resisted the policy of centralization, which was made evident by the Bohemian sejms of 1348 and 1359 and by their rejection of the draft for a new Bohemian code of laws, the Majestas Carolina of 1355. Charles IV sought to create a vast hereditary monarchy in Central Europe. By buying up land, through marriage, and other methods, he acquired part of the Upper Palatinate, land in Thuringia and Saxony, Lower Lusatia, and in 1373, Brandenburg. (These lands were lost by the Luxemburgs after the death of Charles IV.) The imperial policies of Charles IV, who legitimized and expanded the privileges of the electors through the Golden Bull, helped to consolidate the political decentralization of Germany.

REFERENCES

Friedjung, H. Kaiser Karl IV. Vienna, 1876.
Susta, Y. Karel IV: Otec a syn. Prague, 1946.
Susta, Y. Karel IV za cisafskou korunou. Prague, 1948.
Ctenio Karlu IV: A jeho dobl Prague, 1958.
Kalista, Z. Karel IV: Jeho duchovni tvdf. Prague, 1971.

G. E. SANCHUK

Charles V. Born Feb. 24, 1500, in Ghent; died Sept. 21, 1558, at the St. Yuste monastery in Spain. Emperor from 1519 to 1556. Spanish king (Charles I) from 1516 to 1556. Of the Hapsburg dynasty.

In 1506, Charles V inherited Burgundy and the Netherlands from his father, Philip the Handsome (the son of Maximilian I), and in 1516 he inherited the Spanish throne from his grandfather Ferdinand the Catholic. In 1519 he was elected emperor. Charles V subordinated all his policies to the realization of a reactionary program of creating a “worldwide Christian monarchy” and made militant Catholicism his banner. His absolutist policies in Spain and the Netherlands provoked a number of uprisings (the uprising of the Comuneros of 1520– and others in Spain and the Ghent uprising of 1539– in the Netherlands). He waged numerous wars against France, the Hapsburgs’ main rival in Europe, and also against the Ottoman Empire. In the war of 1532– he halted the advance of Turkish forces into Hapsburg holdings, and in 1535 he captured Tunis from a vassal of the Ottoman Empire, but he was defeated in Algiers (1541). Spanish possessions in America also expanded considerably under Charles V. In fighting the Reformation in Germany, he issued the Edict of Worms (1521) against Luther. He defeated the German Protestant princes in the Schmalkaldic war of 1546–, but in the new war that began in 1552, he suffered a bitter defeat and was forced to sign the religious Peace of Augsburg (1555). He then renounced the Spanish crown (he transferred the Spanish throne and the Netherlands to his son Philip II) and the imperial throne (in favor of his brother Ferdinand I).

In a period that constituted a turning point in the history of Western Europe, the policies of Charles V were historically reactionary in nature; they were aimed at supporting obsolescent, reactionary feudal forces and outdated state forms hostile to the national states that were forming.

REFERENCES

Baumgarten, H. Geschichte Karls V, vols. 1–. Stuttgart, 1885–92.
Morel-Fatio, A. Historiographie de Charles-Quint. Paris, 1913.
Drion du Chapois, F. Charles-Quint et VEurope. Brussels, 1962.
Correspondenz des Kaisers Karl V, vols. 1–3. Frankfurt am Main, 1966.
Charles VI. Charles VI sought unsuccessfully to obtain the Spanish crown. He waged wars against the Ottoman Empire (1716– and 1737— 39) and also the War of the Polish Succession (1733–). The territory of the Hapsburgs expanded considerably under Charles VI. He issued the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713, which regulated succession in the Hapsburg lands.
Charles VII. (also Charles Albert). Born Aug. 6, 1697, in Brussels; died Jan. 20, 1745, in Munich. Emperor from 1742 to 1745. Elector of Bavaria from 1726 to 1745.
Charles VII was elevated to the imperial throne by the rivalsof the Hapsburgs in the course of the War of the Austrian Succession.[ 11–1284–3]

Charles

In Sweden. The most important were as follows.

Charles VIII. (Karl Knutsson). Born in 1409; died in 1470. King (with interruptions) from 1448 to 1470. Came from a wealthy noble family.

In the course of a popular uprising against Danish rule (1434–36), Charles VIII was elected one of the rulers of the Swedish state, becoming its sole ruler after the nobles murdered Engel-brekt Engelbrektsson, the leader of the uprising (1436). Charles suppressed the peasant movement in 1436–37. After the death of Christopher of Bavaria, who was the king of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, he succeeded in getting himself elected to the Swedish throne. (This in effect marked the dissolution of the Union of Kalmar.) However, Charles VIII spent his entire reign struggling against the Danish king Christian I, who was attempting to reestablish the union.

Charles IX. Born Oct. 4, 1550, in Stockholm; died Oct. 30, 1611, in Nyköping. King from 1604. Youngest son of Gustavus I Vasa.

After the establishment of the Swedish-Polish union (1592), Charles IX led a popular movement against Sigismund, the king of Sweden and Poland (a nephew of Charles IX), who was attempting to reestablish Catholicism in Sweden. Charles was elected ruler of the government in 1595. In 1598 at Stängebro, he routed the troops of Sigismund, who had landed in Sweden, and had Sigismund dethroned (1599). In 1604, Charles was officially elected king of Sweden. He began an intervention against the Russian state under the guise of military aid to tsar Vasilii Ivanovich Shuiskii. (In 1611, Charles captured Novgorod.)

Charles X Gustavus. Born Nov. 8, 1622; died Feb. 13, 1660, in Göteborg. King from 1654.

Charles X came to the throne after the abdication of Christina (his first cousin). He relied on the support of the lesser nobility and prosperous peasantry. He instituted a decree on partial Reduction (which required nobles to give up crown lands) at the Riksdag of 1655. His aggressive foreign policy led to war with Poland, Denmark, and Russia and resulted in the expansion of Swedish holdings and the consolidation of Swedish rule in the Baltic (the Northern War of 1655–60 and the Russo-Swedish War of 1656–58).

Charles XI. Born Nov. 24, 1655, in Stockholm; died there Apr. 5, 1697. King from 1660 (ruled independently from 1672). Son of Charles X Gustavus.

In 1680, Charles XI established absolutism in Sweden with the support of the taxpaying estates; he began extensive Reduction at that time. Under his rule, Sweden participated in European wars (as an ally of France against Holland [1672–78] and on the side of Holland against France [1688–97]).

Charles XII. Born June 17, 1682, in Stockholm; died Nov. 30, 1718, in Fredrikshald, Norway. King from 1697. Military leader

A son of Charles XI, Charles XII continued his father’s absolutist great power policies, deriving strength from the economic and political might of Sweden and having at his disposal the best army and navy in Europe. His primary concern was in leading Swedish military operations in the Great Northern War of 1700–. At the beginning of the war, the Swedish Army under the command of Charles XII was victorious over Denmark, forcing it to leave the Northern Alliance (Russia, Saxony, Poland, and Denmark) in 1700. Charles then moved his forces to the Baltic coast and routed Russia’s forces at Narva on Nov. 19 (30), 1700. In 1701 he began military operations against Poland and Saxony. In the protracted struggle that lasted from 1701 to 1706, he smashed the Polish-Saxon forces and forced Augustus II, king of Poland (and also an elector of Saxony), to sign the Altranstädt peace treaty of 1706, renounce the Polish crown, and leave the Northern Alliance.

Charles’ troops invaded Russia in the summer of 1708. Efforts to force his way toward Moscow from the directions of Smolensk and Briansk were repelled by Russian troops. Temporarily abandoning the attack against the heartland of Russia, in October 1708, Charles turned from the Kostenichi and Starodub area toward the Ukraine, hoping to receive aid from the traitor I. Mazepa, hetman of the Ukraine. After suffering a crushing defeat in the battle of Poltava (1709), Charles fled to Turkey, where he attempted without success to organize an attack against Russia by the Turkish Army from the south and the Swedish Army from the north. Although Turkey attacked Russia in 1711, the war ended swiftly, and Charles was unable to aid the Turks by sending the Swedish Army through Poland. In 1715 he returned to Sweden to create a new army. He carried out a number of domestic reforms aimed at mobilizing forces for war. Charles XII was killed in the siege of the Norwegian fortress of Fredrikshald. As a result of his defeat in Russia, Sweden was reduced to the status of a second-rate power.

Historical literature contains extremely contradictory evaluations of Charles XIFs skill as a military leader. Nationalist Swedish and German historiography greatly exaggerates his role as a commander; it calls attention to his extraordinary bravery, the surprise and speed of his operations, and his achievement of victory with forces smaller than those of his enemy. The majority of military historians, however, believe that Charles XII introduced nothing new into military art, that he merely skillfully used the forms of troop organization and the tactics of his talented predecessor Gustavus II Adolphus; they characterize him as an exponent of adventurist strategies and policies. The victories of Charles XII were fruitless. His absence of more than 15 years from Sweden disorganized the administration of the state and complicated to an extreme degree direction of military operations in the vast area from Lake Ladoga to Pomerania. Long victorious over the weak and untrained forces of his enemies, Charles XII began to disregard the fundamental requirements of military art. This resulted in attacks by inadequate forces with insecure lines of communication (for example, in Russia in 1708–), underestimation of the enemy, poor reconnaissance, the lack of a battle plan, and unrealistic expectations of aid from his allies.

REFERENCES

Engels, F. “Vneshniaia politika russkogo tsarizma.” In K. Marx and F. Engels, Sock, 2nd ed., vol. 22.
Tarle, E. V. Severnaia voina i shvedskoe nashestvie na Rossiiu. Moscow, 1958.
Munthe, A. Karl XII och den ryska sjömakten, [vols.] 1–3. Stockholm, 1924–.
Karl XII pä slagfdltet, parts 1–. Stockholm, 1918–19.
Hatton, R. M. Charles XII of Sweden. London, 1968.
Charles XIV John. King of Sweden and Norway from 1818 to 1844. His original name was Jean Baptiste Bernadotte.

Charles

(Karl). Archduke of Austria. Born Sept. 5, 1771, in Florence; died Apr. 30, 1847, in Vienna. Austrian general and military theoretician; duke of Teschen; field marshal. Third son of Emperor Leopold II.

From 1792 through 1809, Archduke Charles fought in the wars against France. Between 1796 and 1799, while commanding the Austrian Army on the Rhine, he defeated the French generals J. Moreau and J. Jourdan several times. In 1805, after Austria’s forces were routed at Ulm and Austerlitz, he was appointed minister of war, reorganizing the Austrian Army from 1806 to 1808. He worked out new regulations and war manuals reflecting the lessons learned from the wars of revolutionary France, and he organized supply and retraining for the war against France. As a result of these measures, the fighting capacity of the Austrian troops increased substantially. In the Austro-French War of 1809, Charles, who was appointed commander in chief, was defeated at the battle of Regensburg on April 19–. He was subsequently victorious at Aspern and Essling on May 21–, but in the decisive battle at Wagram the Austrian Army was defeated. Charles was able, however, to withdraw the main force to Bohemia, thus avoiding a complete rout. He retired after the signing of the Treaty of Vienna in 1809.

In his theoretical works, Charles noted the advantage of swift actions and all-out attacks against the enemy in order to bring a war to a speedy and successful conclusion. However, in directing his forces, he was indecisive, striving to achieve victory without risk. He exaggerated the importance of the geographical factor.

WORKS

Ausgewählte Schriften, vols. 1–6. Vienna, 1893–94.

REFERENCE

Strategiia v trudakh voennykh klassikov, vol. 2. Moscow, 1926.
[11–-1]

Charles

1. Prince of Wales. born 1948, son of Elizabeth II; heir apparent to the throne of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. He married (1981) Lady Diana Spencer; they separated in 1992 and were divorced in 1996; their son, Prince William of Wales, was born in 1982 and their second son, Prince Henry, in 1984. He (2005) married Camilla Parker Bowles 2. Ray real name Ray Charles Robinson. 1930--2004, US singer, pianist, and songwriter, whose work spans jazz, blues, gospel, pop, and country music

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Synonyms for Charles

noun King of France from 1560 to 1574 whose reign was dominated by his mother Catherine de Medicis (1550-1574)

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noun King of France who began his reign with most of northern France under English control

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noun as Charles II he was Holy Roman Emperor and as Charles I he was king of France (823-877)

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noun King of England and Scotland and Ireland during the Restoration (1630-1685)

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noun son of James I who was King of England and Scotland and Ireland

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noun the eldest son of Elizabeth II and heir to the English throne (born in 1948)

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noun French physicist and author of Charles's law which anticipated Gay-Lussac's law (1746-1823)

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noun king of the Franks and Holy Roman Emperor

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noun a river in eastern Massachusetts that empties into Boston Harbor and that separates Cambridge from Boston

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