CHARLES I

born Nov. 19, 1600, Dunfermline Palace, Fife, Scot. died Jan. 30, 1649, London Charles I of England king of Great Britain and Ireland (162549), whose authoritarian rule and quarrels with Parliament provoked a civil war that led to his execution. Charles was the second surviving son of James VI of Scotland and Anne of Denmark. He was a sickly child, and, when his father became king of England in March 1603, he was temporarily left behind in Scotland because of the risks of the journey. Devoted to his elder brother, Henry, and to his sister, Elizabeth, he became lonely when Henry died (1612) and his sister left England in 1613 to marry Frederick V, elector of the Rhine Palatinate (see James I). All his life Charles had a Scots accent and a slight stammer. Small in stature, he was less dignified than his portraits by the Flemish painter Sir Anthony Van Dyck suggest. He was always shy and struck observers as being silent and reserved. His excellent temper, courteous manners, and lack of vices impressed all those who met him, but he lacked the common touch, travelled about little, and never mixed with ordinary people. A patron of the arts (notably of painting and tapestry; he brought both Van Dyck and another famous Flemish painter, Peter Paul Rubens, to England), he was, like all the Stuarts, also a lover of horses and hunting. He was sincerely religious, and the character of the court became less coarse as soon as he became king. From his father he acquired a stubborn belief that kings are intended by God to rule, and his earliest surviving letters reveal a distrust of the unruly House of Commons with which he proved incapable of coming to terms. Lacking flexibility or imagination, he was unable to understand that those political deceits that he always practiced in increasingly vain attempts to uphold his authority eventually impugned his honour and damaged his credit. In 1623, before succeeding to the throne, Charles, accompanied by the Duke of Buckingham, King James I's favourite, made an incognito visit to Spain in order to conclude a marriage treaty with the daughter of King Philip III. When the mission failed, largely because of Buckingham's arrogance and the Spanish court's insistence that Charles become a Roman Catholic, he joined Buckingham in pressing his father for war against Spain. In the meantime a marriage treaty was arranged on his behalf with Henrietta Maria, sister of the French king, Louis XIII. born 1288, Naples, Kingdom of Naples died July 16, 1342, Visegrd, Hung. byname Charles Robert, or Carobert, Of Anjou, Hungarian Kroly Rbert courtly, pious king of Hungary who restored his kingdom to the status of a great power and enriched and civilized it. Charles was the son of Charles Martel of Anjou-Naples and Clemencia of Habsburg, daughter of the Holy Roman emperor Rudolf I. As great-grandson of Stephen V and with papal approval, Charles claimed the Hungarian throne after the death of Andrew III, the last of the rpd line, and was crowned in 1301. When his claim was disputed, however, he was forced to surrender the crown to Wenceslas of Bohemia, who in 1305 transferred his right to Otto, duke of Lower Bavaria. After Otto was taken prisoner by the Hungarians, Charles was recognized as king in 1308 and received the Crown of St. Stephen at Szkesfehrvr on Aug. 27, 1310. Foreign policy under Charles was aimed at family aggrandizement, but it also greatly benefited Hungary. In 1335 his alliance with Poland for mutual defense against the Bohemians and the Habsburgs bore fruit in victory over the Holy Roman emperor Louis IV, the Bavarian, and his ally Albert of Austria. Fearing that Hungary might achieve predominance in the Adriatic, Venice and the pope frustrated Charles I's plans to unite the kingdoms of Hungary and Naples under his eldest son, Louis (the future Louis I the Great). Charles then turned to a pact with his brother-in-law and ally, Casimir III the Great of Poland, whereby they agreed that Louis of Hungary should succeed the childless Casimir. born March 1226 died Jan. 7, 1285, Foggia, Kingdom of Naples byname Charles Of Anjou, Italian Carlo D'angi king of Naples and Sicily (126685), the first of the Angevin dynasty, and creator of a great but short-lived Mediterranean empire. The younger brother of Louis IX of France, Charles acquired the county of Provence in 1246 and accompanied Louis on his Egyptian Crusade (124850). Allied with the papacy, he conquered Naples and Sicily in the 1260s, defeating Manfred and Conradin, the last representatives of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, at Benevento (1266) and Tagliacozzo (1268). He thereafter expanded his power into the Balkans and in 1277 became heir to the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Charles's transfer of his capital from Palermo to Naples and his introduction of French officials caused discontent in Sicily, where rebellion broke out in 1282 (see Sicilian Vespers). Aided by Peter III of Aragon, the Sicilians expelled the Angevins, defeating Charles's fleet in the Bay of Naples in June 1284. Charles was preparing a counteroffensive when he died. born 953 died May 21, 992?, Orlans, Fr. duke of Lower Lorraine, head of the only surviving legitimate line of the Carolingian dynasty by 987, and an unsuccessful claimant for the French throne. Son of Louis IV of France, Charles was banished by his brother, King Lothair, in 977. Receiving the duchy of Lower Lorraine from Otto II of Germany in the same year, he conspired unsuccessfully with Otto to dethrone Lothair but then reversed his policy, made peace with Lothair, and plotted against the new German king, Otto III. After the deaths of Lothair (986) and Lothair's son and successor Louis V (987), Charles asserted his claim to the French throne. But Adalbero, archbishop of Reims, convinced the assembly of Frankish nobles that the Frankish crown was elective rather than hereditary and that Charles was unworthy of the kingship. The assembly then proclaimed Hugh Capet king of France. Charles did not abandon his claim but, in 991, was seized and handed over to Hugh, who kept him in prison until his death. One son, Otto, succeeded him as duke of Lower Lorraine, dying about 1012; two other sons died obscurely. With them the legitimate male line of the Carolingians came to an end.