Page images
PDF
EPUB

CHARLES VIII.-CHARLES IV.

Orleans was raised in May 1429; the English retired disheartened, and gradually lost their acquisitions in France. A treaty between the French king and the Duke of Burgundy greatly advanced the French cause. In 1436, C. entered Paris; and during the further progress of the war, the English lost all their strongholds except Calais. In 1452, they were finally defeated at Castillon. After he was established on his throne, C. devoted himself to the reorganisation of the government, in which everything had fallen into confusion, but shewed a strong anxiety to frame it according to a scheme of perfect despotism, and for this purpose to provide himself with a powerful and well-disciplined standing army, which caused some discontentment among the nobles of his king. dom. His government, however, was mild, and under it France recovered in some measure from the effects of the terrible calamities which it had endured. His last years were embittered by the conduct of his son, the Dauphin, afterwards Louis XI.; and his apprehension that his son would poison him was so strong, that his consequent abstinence from food is supposed to have hastened his death, which took place at Melun on 22d July 1461.

CHARLES VIII., king of France (1483-1498), was born at Amboise on 30th June 1470, and succeeded to the throne on the death of his father, Louis XI. For some time the government was carried on under the regency of his sister, Anne of Beaujeu. When C. attained his twenty-first year, he took the royal power into his own hand, and soon developed a bold and ambitious spirit. The most important incident of his career was his conquest of Naples in 1495, to the throne of which he believed he had a claim. The Italian princes and other European potentates were alarmed by his success. A league was hastily formed between the pope, the emperor of Germany, Ferdinand of Spain, the republic of Venice, and Sforza, Duke of Milan, to oppose his return to France. C., however, gallantly broke through the allied forces near Piacenza, and effected a retreat to his own country. It was with difficulty he was hindered by his councillors from resuming his warlike designs on Italy. C. is also said to have meditated the expulsion of the Turks from Europe, and making himself emperor of Constantinople; having received from Andreas Palæologus, the grandson of the last Grecian emperor, a transference of his claims to the Byzantine throne. He died 7th April 1498.

In

the events of 14th July 1789, he and the Prince of Condé took the lead in the emigration. 1796, he sailed from England with a squadron under Commodore Warren, on an expedition to the western coasts of France, whereupon twenty departments rose in insurrection; but he had not courage to land and place himself at the head of the insurgents, whom he basely left to the vengeance of the republicans. Detested now by the royalists of France, and despised by the British, he lived in obscurity until the allies entered Paris in 1814, when he appeared in France as lieutenant-general of the kingdom, and issued a proclamation announcing the end of despotism, of conscriptions, and of oppressive taxes. After the second restoration, he took little open part in politics, but lived surrounded with priests, Jesuits, and nobles of the old school; and in this circle originated the tyrannical and unconstitutional measures to which even Louis XVIII. made considerable opposition, but which at this time disgraced the government of France. The death of Louis, on 16th September 1824, brought C. to the throne. He took the oath of adherence to the charter, but soon displayed his intention of restoring as much as possible the absolutism of the old French monarchy. Popular discontent rapidly increased. A royal speech, of a threatening address of remonstrance, signed by 221 deputies, character, on 2d March 1830, was followed by an upon which the king dissolved the chambers. The deputies who signed the address were all re-elected, but the court taking fresh courage from the success of the expedition to Algiers, the celebrated ordinances of 25th July were signed by the king, putting curtailed, appointing a new mode of election, and an end to the freedom of the press, already largely dissolving the recently elected chamber. capital took up arms, the guards refused to act, and the king soon found himself compelled to flee. As a last resource, he abdicated the throne, on 2d August 1830, in favour of his grandson, Henry, this act. But it was too late; the revolution was Duke of Bordeaux; the Dauphin also consenting to accomplished, and Louis Philippe, Duke of Orleans, was chosen king of the French. C. made his escape afterwards at Prague. He took no part in the to England, resided for some time at Holyrood, and political intrigues and attempts of the Duchess November 1836. His only surviving descendant, de Berri. He died of cholera at Görz, on 6th in the male line, is his grandson, the Count of Chambord (q. v.).

The

CHARLES IV., German emperor (1346-1378), John of Bohemia, of the House of Luxembourg, who was born at Prague in 1316, and was the son of King fell in the battle of Crecy. At the instigation of Pope Clement VI., to whom he had previously taken an oath of humiliating submission at Avignon, he was elected emperor by a portion of the electors on 11th July 1346, although Louis IV. then actually filled the imperial throne. But even after the death of Louis, it was not without difficulty that he obtained secure possession of it. He was crowned king of Italy at Milan in 1354, and emperor at Rome in 1355. In 1356, he issued the Golden Bull (q. v.), the fundamental law concerning the election of German emperors; in defiance of the very letter of which he afterwards, by large bribes, secured for his own son, Wenceslaus, the succession to the

CHARLES IX., king of France (1560-1574), the second son of Henry II. and of Catharine de' Medici (q. v.), was born at St Germain-en-Laye on 27th June 1550, and on 5th December 1560 succeeded to the throne on the death of his brother, Francis II. His character was a compound of passion, acuteness, heartlessness, and cunning. Although only 24 years of age when he died, so well had his detestable mother trained him to a love of perfidy and cruelty, that he found time, with her assistance and that of the Guises, to perpetrate an act so hideously diabolical, that all civilised Europe still shudders at the recollection. The massacre of St Bartholomew's (q. v.), 24th August 1572, was the culmination of a series of treacheries towards the Huguenots, which disgraced his reign. The result was, that civil war broke out anew, and assumed a very threatening character, as political malcontents associated themselves with the Protestants. C. empire. He died at Prague, 29th November 1378. died May 30, 1574.

CHARLES X., king of France (1824-1830), third son of the Dauphin Louis, and grandson of Louis XV., was born at Versailles, 9th October 1757. He received the title of Count d'Artois, and in 1773 married Maria Theresa of Savoy. After

C. was an artful politician, but destitute of true greatness. He sought the support of the clergy by undue concessions, sold rights and privileges in Italy and other parts of the empire for money, and cared chiefly for the prosperity of his hereditary kingdom of Bohemia.

CHARLES V.-CHARLES VL

CHARLES V., German emperor, was born at Ghent on 24th February 1500. He was the eldest son of Philip, Archduke of Austria, and of Joanna, the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. Philip's parents were the Emperor Maximilian and Maria, daughter and heiress of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy. On the death of his grandfather, Ferdinand, in 1516, C. took possession of the throne of Spain by the title of Charles L., his mother Joanna being of disordered intellect and incapable of reigning. He was not, however, very favourably received by the Spanish nobles, who were doubtful of his right, and jealous of the followers whom he brought from the Low Countries, where he had been educated. All the abilities of his famous minister Ximenes (q. v.) were requisite to prevent an open revolt. On the death of Maximilian in 1519, C. was elected German emperor from amongst a number of competitors, chiefly through the influence of the Elector Frederic of Saxony. In his earlier years he had been frivolous and dissolute, but he now became mindful of the duties and dignity of his high position. On 22d October 1520, he was crowned at Aix-laChapelle, and received from the pope the title of Roman emperor. He ascended the imperial throne at a time when Germany was in a state of unprecedented agitation concerning the doctrines proclaimed by Luther. To restore tranquillity, a great diet was held at Worms in 1521, Luther's declaration of his principles before which forms a well-known and important passage in the history of the Reformation. In 1522 he reduced to subjection the towns of Castile, which had leagued themselves together for the maintenance of their ancient liberties. He was likewise successful in his war against the Turks under Solyman the Great. C. was involved also in a struggle of long duration with France, in which, after many alternations of fortune, his armies at last drove the French from the greater part of their conquests in Italy; and Francis L. of France fell into his hands as a prisoner, after a battle by which the siege of Pavia was raised on 24th February 1525.

was

and Italy. In this expedition he was completely
successful, and set free no fewer than 22,000
Christians, who had been held as slaves. War
again broke out with France; an armistice for
ten years was concluded in 1538; and C. even
visited Paris, where he was magnificently enter-
tained. But the war broke out afresh in 1542,
and terminated in favour of the emperor; who also
triumphed in the battle of Mühlberg, 25th April
1547, over the Protestant princes of Germany, and
deprived the Elector John Frederic of Saxony of
his territories. But he shewed so plainly his
intention of converting the German empire into
a hereditary possession of his family, that new
opposition arose, and C. was compelled to flee
before the arms of Duke Maurice of Saxony and
the Protestants, and in 1552 to promise them the
peaceful exercise of their religion, which
confirmed by the Diet at Augsburg in 1555. Henry
II. of France also took from C. some parts of
Lorraine. His health failing, C. now declared, in
an assembly of the States at Louvaine, his resolu-
tion to seek repose, and devote the remainder of
his days to God. He resigned the government of
his dominions to his son, for whom, however, he
vainly sought to secure the imperial throne; and
having relinquished to him the crown of Spain on
15th January 1556, he retired to the monastery of
Yuste, in Estremadura, where he spent two years |
partly in mechanical amusements, partly in reli-
gious exercises, which are said to have assumed a
character of the most gloomy asceticism, and died
on 21st September_1558. By his wife Isabella,
daughter of King Emmanuel of Portugal, he had
one son, his successor, Philip II. of Spain, and
two daughters. His brother Ferdinand succeeded
him in the empire.

CHARLES VI., German emperor (1711–1740), the last of the proper male line of the House of Hapsburg, was the second son of the Emperor Leopold I., and born 1685. His father intended for him the crown of Spain; but Charles II. of Spain, yielding to French intrigues, assigned it by testament to Philip of Anjou, whereupon arose the great war of the Spanish succession-Britain and Holland taking part with the emperor against France, for the maintenance of the balance of power in Europe. C. was acknowledged by the allies as Charles III. of Spain, but had not succeeded in obtaining permanent possession of the kingdom, when the death of his brother, the Emperor Joseph I., recalled him to Germany in 1711; and as he now became emperor of Germany, Britain and Holland concluded the Peace of Utrecht with France in 1713. C. continued the war for some time longer; but was at last obliged to give up his claim to Spain, being confirmed, however, in possession of the Spanish Netherlands and of the Spanish possessions in Italy. Success attended his arms in a war against the Turks, and in a war with Spain, which arose out of the projects of the Spanish minister Alberoni, and in which the Quadruple Alliance was formedFrance, Britain, and Holland joining the emperor against Spain. But C., having lost his only son, and being very anxious to secure the throne to his own descendants, named his daughter, Maria Theresa

The pope, however, began to grow alarmed at his victories, and therefore allied himself with France and the principal Italian states, and released the king of France from the obligations under which he had come by his treaty with Charles. It was the pope's object to exclude C. from all dominion in Italy; but the emperor's forces under Charles of Bourbon, the former Constable of France, took Rome itself by storm, plundered it, and made the pope prisoner. C. pretended great regret for this, went into mourning with all his court, and caused prayers to be said for the pope's liberation, whilst by his own directions the pope was kept for seven months a captive. Peace was concluded in 1529, on terms most favourable for the emperor. He now thought to put an end to the religious differences in Germany, and to repel the Turks, who had overrun Hungary and laid siege to Vienna. But the Diet at Augsburg in 1530, proved how vain was the hope of restoring the former state of things in Germany; and the emperor refusing to recognise the confession of the Protestants, they refused to help him against the Turks. In 1531, the Protes-(q. v.), as his heiress, by a Pragmatic Sanction (q. v.), tant princes formed the League of Smalcald (q. v.), and allied themselves with France and England for their own protection. This, and the continued assaults of the Turks, compelled the emperor to yield in some measure to the demands of the Protestants. In 1535, C. undertook an expedition from Spain against the pirate Barbarossa, who had established himself in Tunis, and whose vessels did prodigious injury to the commerce of Spain

770

to which he had much difficulty in obtaining the consent of some of the German states and some foreign powers; and to accomplish this object he gave up Tuscany, Parma, and Piacenza, and afterwards Naples, Sicily, Lorraine, and some parts of Milan. Meanwhile, he was unsuccessful in wars with France and Spain, and with the Turks, who compelled him, in 1739, to resign his former conquests. He died 20th October 1740. He was of a

CHARLES VII.-CHARLES XIV.

mild and benevolent disposition, but full of super-defeat. But Russian agents succeeded in inspiring stition and of prejudices in favour of feudalism and the Turks with suspicions concerning the ultimate ecclesiastical domination.

CHARLES VII., German emperor (1742-1745), was born at Brussels in 1697, and was the son of Maximilian Emmanuel, Elector of Bavaria, and for some time governor of the Spanish Netherlands. After the conquest of the Bavarian territories, and the pronunciation of the ban of the empire against his father by the Emperor Joseph I., he was for some time the emperor's prisoner; but after the decease of Joseph, he married his youngest daughter; and having, in 1726, succeeded his father as Elector of Bavaria, refused his consent to the Pragmatic Sanction (see preceding article); and on the death of Charles VI. in 1740, advanced a claim to the Austrian dominions in right of his wife, and upon the further ground of a testament of Ferdinand I. Success at first attended his arms; he was acknowledged as Archduke of Austria, and then as king of Bohemia, upon which he was also, in 1742, elected emperor. But the tide of fortune now turned against him. The Hungarians rose in favour of Maria Theresa, and he was driven from Austria and from Bohemia, and for a time even from his Bavarian capital, Munich. Disease and calamities combined to cause his death, 20th January 1745, shortly before which he said, 'Misfortune will never leave me, till I leave it.'

CHARLES XII., king of Sweden (1697-1718), was the son of Charles XI., and was born at Stockholm on 27th June 1682. On the death of his father in 1697, he ascended the throne, and notwithstanding his youth, the States declared him of age to assume the reins of government. The neighbouring powers thought this a favourable time to humble Sweden, then the great power of the north; and Frederick IV. of Denmark, Augustus II. of Poland, and the Czar Peter I. concluded a league for this object. The Danes began by invading the territory of the Duke of Holstein Gottorp, who had married C.'s eldest sister, and who applied to him for assistance. The young king immediately resolved on the most active measures, and approached Copenhagen with such a force as presently compelled the Danes to make peace. C. now hastened to meet the Russians; and although they lay in an intrenched camp beneath the walls of Narva, 50,000 strong, he stormed their camp on 30th November 1700, with 8000 Swedes, and defeated them with great slaughter. next dethroned Augustus II., and procured the election of Stanislaus Leszcynski as king of Poland. Augustus supposed himself safe at least in Saxony, his hereditary dominion, but was followed thither, and humbling terms of peace were dictated at Altranstädt in 1706. C. obtained from the emperor liberty of conscience for the Protestants of Silesia. Leaving Saxony with an army of 43,000 men in September 1707, he proposed to advance direct upon Moscow; but at Smolensk he was induced, by the representations of the Cossack hetman, Mazeppa, to change his plan and proceed to the Ukraine, in hope of being joined by the Cossacks. In this hope, however, he was disappointed, and after enduring many hardships, he was defeated by the Russians at Pultowa, on the 27th June 1709, and fled to Bender in the Turkish dominions.

He

Augustus II. now revoked the treaty of Altranstädt, and the czar and the king of Denmark assailed the Swedish territories. But the regency in Stockholm adopted measures of effective and successful resistance, and C. prevailed with the Porte to declare war against Russia, in which Peter seemed at first likely to have suffered a severe

designs of C., who was conveyed to Adrianople, but after some time escaped, and made his way through Hungary and Germany, pressing on by day and Stralsund, where he was received with great joy, night with extraordinary speed, till he reached on 11th (22d) November 1714. He was soon, howSaxons, Prussians, and Russians. ever, deprived of Stralsund by the allied Danes, After he had adopted measures for the security of the Swedish coasts, his passion for war led him to attack Norway. Success appeared again to attend his November 1718, he was killed by a musket-bullet. arms, when, in the siege of Friedrichshald, on 30th on his death, Sweden-exhausted by his warsceased to be numbered among the great powers. He was a man capable of comprehensive designs, and of great energy in prosecuting them. His abilities appeared not merely in military affairs, but in his schemes for the promotion of trade and manufactures. His self-willed obstinacy, however, amounted almost to insanity; in fact, he has been termed 'a brilliant madman.' His habits were exceedingly simple: in eating and drinking, he was abstemious; and in the camp, he sought no luxuries beyond the fare of the common soldier.

CHARLES XIII., king of Sweden (1809-1818), born October 7, 1748, was the second son of King the Great of Prussia. He was trained for naval Adolphus Frederic, and of the sister of Frederic command, and was long the High Admiral of Sweden, in which capacity he distinguished himself by a great victory over the Russians in the Gulf of Finland in 1788, and by bringing back his fleet safe to Carlscrona in the most perilous season of the called to an active part in political affairs-in the year. He was on several very important occasions revolution of 1772, when he was made governorgeneral of Stockholm and Duke of Södermanland; after the assassination of his brother Gustavus III. in 1792, when he was placed at the head of the regency; and after the revolution of 1809, when he

became administrator of the kingdom, and subsequently king. The Swedish monarchy now became limited instead of despotic. Having no child, C. concurred with the States of the kingdom in choosing as his successor the French general, Bernaascended the throne on the death of C., February 5, dotte, who became crown-prince of Sweden, and 1818. The prudence of the king and crown-prince secured the union of Norway with Sweden in 1814,

as a compensation for Finland.

CHARLES XIV., king of Sweden and Norway (1818-1844), originally JEAN BAPTISTE JULES BERNADOTTE, was born at Pau, in the south of France, January 26, 1764. He was the son of a lawyer. He entered the French army as a common soldier; became an ardent partisan of the revolution; greatly distinguished himself in the wars of Napoleon, and soon attained the highest military rank. But he was distrusted by Bonaparte, whose ambitious schemes he took no part in promoting; and Napoleon having taken offence at his conduct after the battle of Wagram, Bernadotte left the army in disgust, and returned to Paris. He was afterwards sent by the ministerial council to oppose the British, who had landed at Walcheren, but the breach between the emperor and him grew wider. In 1810, he was elected crown-prince, and heir to the throne of Sweden. Almost the only condition imposed on him was that of joining the Protestant church. He changed his name to Charles John; and the health of the Swedish king, Charles XIII., failing in the following year, the

CHARLES ALBERT-CHARLESTON.

reins of government came almost entirely into his hands. He refused to comply with the demands of Napoleon, which were opposed to the interests of Sweden, particularly as to trade with Britain, and was soon involved in war with him. He commanded the army of the allies in the north of Germany, and defeated Oudinot at Grossbeeren, and Ney at Dennewitz. He shewed great reluctance, however, to join in the invasion of France, and was tardy in his progress southward.-He became king of Sweden on the death of Charles XIII., February 5, 1818. He won for himself the character of a wise and good king. Education, agriculture, manufactures, commerce, and great public works, as well as the military strength of the kingdom, were promoted by his care. He died March 8, 1844, and was succeeded by his son Oscar.

CHARLES ALBERT, king of Sardinia (18311849), born 2d October 1798, was the son of the Prince Charles Emmanuel of Savoy-Carignan, and in 1800, and Piedmont. In 1817, he married Maria Theresa, daughter of the Archduke Ferdinand of Tuscany. When the revolutionary movement took place in Piedmont in 1821, he was made regent, upon the abdication of Victor Emmanuel, until Charles Felix, the brother of the late king, should arrive to assume the sovereignty. He displeased both the liberal party and their opponents, and Charles Felix disallowed all his acts, and for some time forbade his appearance at court. In 1829, he was appointed viceroy of Sardinia. On the death of Charles Felix, 27th April 1831, he ascended the throne. The liberals had great expectations from him, but were for a long time disappointed; his government much resembled the other Jesuitic and despotic Italian governments, except that he sought to promote the interests of the country, and to restrict the influence of the clergy in political affairs. It was not till after the elevation of Pius IX. to the popedom, when a new impulse was given to the cause of reform, that the Sardinian government adopted the constitutional and liberal policy to which it has since adhered. C. A. entered warmly into the project of Italian unity, and evidently expected to place himself at the head of the whole movement and of the new kingdom of Italy. When the Lombards and Venetians rose against the Austrian government, he declared war against Austria, 23d March 1848, and at first was exceedingly successful, but was insufficiently supported by the Lombards, and finally defeated by the Austrians; so that after the fatal battle of Novara, 23d March 1849, he was

succeeded to his father's title and estates in France

obliged, for the preservation of the integrity of his kingdom, to resign the crown in favour of his son, the present king, Victor Emmanuel. Retiring to Portugal, he died at Oporto on 28th July of the

same year.

CHARLES EMMA'NÜEL I., Duke of Savoy (1580-1630), called the Great, was born at the castle of Rivoli, 12th January 1562, and succeeded his father Emmanuel Philibert in 1580. He married a daughter of Philip II. of Spain, and at first allied himself politically with Spain, and made war against France for the marquisate of Saluzzo (or Saluces), which he obtained in 1601, upon the cession of some other territories to France. But he afterwards joined France and Venice to oppose the preponderant power of Spain in Italy; then allied himself with the House of Hapsburg, and set up a claim to Montferrat, but suffered, in consequence, the direst calamities, great part of his dominions being conquered by the French, and in their hands when he died, 26th July 1630. He was a prince of vast ambition, and for whom no enterprise was too bold.

CHARLES THE BOLD, Duke of Burgundy (1467-1477), son of Philip the Good, of the House of Valois, and of Isabella of Portugal, was born at Dijon on 10th November 1435, and bore, during his father's life, the title of Count of Charolais. He was of a fiery, ambitious, and violent disposition. From an early period to the end of his life he was a declared enemy of Louis XI. of France, the nominal feudal superior of Burgundy. Louis having caused Philip to deliver up some towns on the Somme, C. left his father's court, and formed an alliance with the Duke of Bretagne and some of the great nobles of France for the maintenance of feudal rights against the crown. Their forces ravaged Picardy and Isle-de-France, they threatened Paris, and defeated the king at Montlhéry. The result was a treaty by which the Count of Charolais obtained the towns on the Somme and the counties of Boulogne, Guines, and Ponthieu for himself. In 1467, he succeeded his father as Duke of Burgundy. Richer and more powerful than any prince of that time, he conceived the design of restoring the old kingdom of Burgundy, and for this and Switzerland. Whilst he was making preparapurpose of conquering Lorraine, Provence, Dauphiny, tions for war, Louis invited him to a conference; he hesitated, and Louis by his agents stirred up the citizens of Liege to revolt. Meanwhile C. consented to the conference, and the news coming of what had taken place at Liege, he seized the king, and if he had not been withheld by his councillor Comines, would have put him to death. He compelled Louis, however, to accompany him to Liege, and apparthe citizens. War raged between them afterwards ently to sanction the cruelties which he inflicted on with little intermission, till 1475. In September of that year, C. found himself at leisure to attempt the prosecution of his favourite scheme of conquest, and soon made himself master of Lorraine. stormed Grandson, and hanged and drowned the In the following year he invaded Switzerland, garrison; but was soon after terribly defeated by the Swiss near that place, and lost his baggage and much treasure. Three months after, he appeared again in Switzerland with a new army of 60,000 men, and laid siege to Morat, where he sustained, on June 22, 1476, another and more terrible defeat. After this he sank into despondency, and let his nails and beard grow. But the news that the young Duke René of Lorraine was attempting to recover his territories, roused him, and he laid auxiliaries, whom he had hired, went over to the siege to Nancy. His army was small; Italian enemy; and in the battle which he too rashly daughter and heiress, Maria, married the Emperor fought, he lost his life, January 5, 1477.

His

Maximilian I. With his life ended the long success

ful resistance of the great French vassals to the central power of the monarchy.

constellation of Ursa Major (q. v.).

CHARLES'S WAIN, a common name for the

CHARLESTON, the chief city of a district of its own name in South Carolina, and the commercial capital of the state, is situated in lat. 32° 46′ N., and long. 79° 57′ W. With straight and regular streets, it occupies the fork of the Cooper and the Ashley, which, as deep tideways of the respective widths of 1400 and 2100 yards, here unite with their common estuary of 7 miles in length to form Charleston harbour. This haven is beset to seaward by a sand-bar, which has its uses, however, as a breakwater and a bulwark. The more practicable of its two passages -shewing 16 feet at ebb and 22 at flood-is commanded by Fort Moultrie and Fort Sumter. The city is built upon ground raised but a few feet

CHARLESTOWN-CHARON.

blockaded in 1861, and several dismantled hulks of

contains 10,100 inhabitants, nearly three-fourths of the entire population of the colony. It has a visited by European ships in general, is a principal spacious harbour, which, besides being largely station for the mail-packets between Southampton

and the West Indies.

above the water. In 1850, the population of C. was department of Ardennes, about a mile from Mezières, 42,985; in 1860, 40,522; in 1870, 48,956. The with which it communicates by a suspension-bridge exports, which are always of much greater value over the Meuse. It is a thriving place, well built, than the imports, amounted in 1858 to $16,924,436; with clean spacious streets. It has manufactures of in 1868, to $9,913,776. The total imports in these hardware, leather, and beer, and the Meuse affords years were respectively $2,071,519 and $499,300. facilities for considerable trade in coal, iron, slate, In 1857, 229,185 bales of cotton were exported to wine, and nails. Pop. (1872) 11,410. foreign ports; in 1866, 53,824 bales; in 1868, CHA'RLOCK. See MUSTARD. 105,813; in 1872, 88,103 bales. C. was founded in CHARLOIS, a village of the Netherlands, 1672, receiving from France, about 1685, a consider- situated on the Maas, about two miles southable influx of Protestant refugees. It was prom-south-west of Rotterdam. It is memorable on inent for zeal and gallantry in the revolutionary account of a terrible accident which occurred here war. Up to the time of the civil war, the city in 1512, when a religious procession crossing the ice was remarkable for its suburban character and in defiance of magisterial prohibition, 8000 of them verdant surroundings, and its inhabitants were were precipitated into the Maas. Pop. 2000. mainly opulent planters, distinguished for their CHARLOTTE AMALIE, chief, or rather only, hospitality and refinement. It was in C., however, that the first open movement was made in favour town of St Thomas, one of the Virgin group of of secession; and the city and its inhabitants have the Antilles, in lat. 18° 20' N., long. 64° 55 W. It changed since then. In 1860 and 1861, the harbour was the scene of several conflicts; and in 1863 Fort Sumter was reduced to ruins. The harbour was vessels were filled with stones and sunk, in order to prevent passage. In spite of these precautions, however, more British blockade-runners entered CHARLOTTE TOWN, the capital of Prince this than any other southern port. In August Edward Island, in the Gulf of St Lawrence, in 1863, the city was bombarded, and in February lat. 46° 15' N., and long. 63° 7′ W. The census of 1865 was occupied by the United States troops. May 1871 states the population at 8800. CHARLESTOWN, a seaport of Massachusetts, in lat. 42° 2′ N., and long. 71° 3′ W. It occupies a peninsula about 2 miles long, immediately to the north of Boston, the capital of the state; of which, connected as the two are by bridges, it is virtually a suburb. Pop. in 1850, 17,126; in 1860, 25,063; in 1870, 28,323. In common with the rest of the neighbourhood, the peninsula displays an unevenness of surface which renders the streets, otherwise handsome, somewhat irregular. Its most prominent height is Bunker's Hill, celebrated as the first battle-field in the revolutionary war, and surmounted, in 1825-1843, by a granite monument of 220 feet in height. Besides a state-prison on a large scale, the city possesses one of the principal navyyards of the general government. This establishment, covering 70 or 80 acres, contains a magnificent rope-walk 1300 feet long, and a dry-dock of chiseled granite measuring 80 feet in breadth by 30 in depth, which cost fully 670,000 dollars.

CHARLET, NICOLAS TOUSSAINT, a French painter and engraver, born in Paris 1792, was for some years employed as a clerk in a government office, but lost his place at the restoration, 1815, on account of his Bonapartism, and in consequence betook himself to art. After studying awhile under Gros, he gradually formed for himself a style in which he had no rival. C. is the Béranger of caricature, but without the political bitterness and sarcasm sometimes found in the poet. His genial sketches of French life and manners were studied with equal admiration in the salons of the aristocracy and in the ateliers, barracks, taverns, &c., of the lower classes. C. was especially successful in his sketches of soldiers and children. His designs are free from exaggeration, while full of spirit, interest, and naïveté; and his titles or mottoes were often so witty and suggestive, that dramatic writers have founded pieces upon them. His sketches and lithographs are very numerous, and are widely distributed. Among his paintings, the most remarkable are-'An Episode in the Russian Campaign' (in the Museum at Versailles); 'Moreau's Crossing of the Rhine' (at Lyon); and a Procession of the Wounded' (at Bordeaux). C. died in 1845.

The

port is the best in a colony which, in proportion to The town stands on the south-east coast at the its size, is remarkable for its navigable facilities. bottom of Hillsborough Bay, and at the confluence of three rivers, which each admit the largest vessels for several miles, so as to secure them from all weather. The harbour is rendered still more commodious through the strength of the tides, which enable ships to work out and in against the wind. C. T. has an iron foundry and a woollen factory, and is largely engaged in ship-building.

CHARLOTTENBURG, a town of Prussia, in the province of Brandenburg, is situated on the Spree, 3 miles west of Berlin, with which it is connected by a road leading through the Thiergarten, and affording a favourite promenade to the Berliners. C. contains a royal palace, with a fine garden and splendid orangery, and an interesting collection of antiquities and works of art. In a beautiful part of the park a mausoleum, designed by Schinkel, contains the remains of Frederick William III. and his wife, the Queen Luise, with their statues by Rauch. C. has manufactures of cotton and hosiery, and a population, in 1871, of 19,518.

CHARM (Lat. carmen, a song), properly, a form of words, generally in verse, supposed to possess some occult power of a hurtful, a healing, or a protective kind. Charms exert their influence either by being recited, or by being written and worn on the person; and, in this latter case, they may be classed with Amulets (q. v.). The nature of this superstition will be more fully considered under INCANTATION; see also MAGIC.

CHA'RNEL-HOUSE (Fr. charnier; Lat. caro, flesh), a chamber situated in a churchyard or other burying-place, in which the bones of the dead which were thrown up by the grave-diggers were reverently deposited. The C. was generally vaulted in the roof, and was often a building complete in itself, having a chapel or chantry attached to it. In such cases, the charnel-vault was commonly a crypt under the chapel; and even in churches, it was not uncommon for the vault or crypt to be employed as a charnel-house.

CHA'RON, in classical mythology, the son of CHARLEVILLE, a town of France, in the Erebus and Nox, is first mentioned by the later

« PreviousContinue »