I
born Nov. 19, 1600, Dunfermline Palace, Fife, Scot.
died Jan. 30, 1649, London, Eng.
King of Great Britain and Ireland (1625–49).
Son of James I , he acquired from his father a belief in the divine right of kings, and his earliest surviving letters reveal a distrust of the House of Commons. He became king in 1625 and soon after married Henrietta Maria . He came into conflict with his first Parliament because of religious issues, his war against Spain, and the general distrust of his adviser the 1st duke of Buckingham . After dissolving several successive Parliaments, Charles ruled his kingdom for 11 years without calling a Parliament. Among the measures he took to be independent of parliamentary grants was the levying of ship money . In 1639 he went to war against Scotland, and the need to raise money prompted him to summon what came to be known as the Short Parliament and the Long Parliament . Eventually his authoritarian rule and quarrels with Parliament provoked the English Civil Wars . After his forces were defeated in the second of these wars, the army demanded that he stand trial for treason as "the grand author of our troubles." In 1649 he was convicted and executed, and
II
German Karl Franz Josef
born Aug. 17, 1887, Persenbeug Castle, Austria
died April 1, 1922, Quinta do Monte, Madeira
Emperor of Austria (1916–18) and king of Hungary (as Charles IV), last ruler of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy.
He became heir presumptive to the Habsburg throne on the assassination of his uncle, {{link=Francis Ferdinand">Francis Ferdinand . After he succeeded Francis Joseph in 1916, he made several abortive attempts to take Austria-Hungary out of World War I. He renounced participation in affairs of state in 1918 and was deposed in 1919. After two failed attempts to regain his Hungarian throne in 1921, he was sent into exile in Madeira, where he died.
III
Hungarian Karoly known as Charles Robert of Anjou
born 1288, Naples, Kingdom of Naples
died July 16, 1342, Visegárd, Hung.
King of Hungary (1301, 1308–42).
He claimed the Hungarian throne with papal approval and was crowned in 1301, but his claim was disputed, and he was not recognized as king until 1308. A courtly and pious ruler, Charles restored Hungary to the status of a great power. An alliance with Poland enabled him to defeat the Holy Roman emperor and the Austrians. He failed to unite Hungary and Naples but negotiated a pact providing that his eldest son would become king of Poland.
IV
known as Charles of Anjou
born March 1226
died Jan. 7, 1285, Foggia, Kingdom of Naples [Italy]
King of Naples and Sicily (1266–85), the first of the Angevin dynasty .
The younger brother of Louis IX of France, Charles allied with the papacy and conquered Naples and Sicily in the 1260s, defeating the last representatives of the Hohenstaufen dynasty. He created a great but short-lived Mediterranean empire, expanding into the Balkans and becoming heir to the kingdom of Jerusalem (1277). The Sicilians rebelled against French domination in 1282 (see Sicilian Vespers ) and drove out the Angevins in 1284. Charles died while preparing a counteroffensive, and his kingdom was eventually secured by the Spanish.